Who would have guessed that watching a washed-up comedian do his thang would encourage more creativity and cleverness than a few minutes of watching something intelligent? That's the findings from Northwestern University, which studied how people react to a puzzle in different moods.
If the participants were loosened up after watching a bit of comedy, the researchers found that they performed better than after watching a scary movie or something intelligent. It's all to do with the moods the video puts them in, with the area of the brain that works on problem-solving being linked to the level of activity detected in the anterior cingulate cortex.
So there you have it—a valid reason why you should watch Flubber. Because you've spent the last 14 years searching for one, I'm sure. [Scientific American]