YouTube videos can be a great resource for survival tips. But, as is often true on the internet, finding these helpful tidbits often requires navigating an enormous minefield of bad advice and absurd misconceptions. From drinking your own urine through a LifeStraw to starting fires with a lemon, we’ve pointed out a number of these ridiculous survival videos in the past.
It would appear that Ashwin Ramdas, the host of YouTube channel Ashwin Enjoys Nature, has also noticed these absurd “pro tips”. His channel uses satire to poke fun at the vast array of bad survival advice on the internet, finding humor by providing the worst possible survival tips. It’s certainly not advice you’d want to follow, but it’s pretty funny to watch.
We’ll say it again: The following video intentionally presents bad survival advice for the purposes of satire and humor. Don’t try any of this at home.
In case you’re wondering, we’ll put on our Captain Obvious uniform and recap why these techniques are not advisable:
- Rubbing snow on your face can give you frostbite.
- Packing snow inside your jacket can lead to hypothermia.
- Boosting your metabolism will cause you to burn calories and starve faster.
- Eating a habañero will make you feel warm, as it draws warm blood away from your core to flush/redden the surface of your skin. This is the opposite of what you want, and may lead to your core temperature falling drastically into hypothermia. The profuse sweating caused by spicy food just compounds this effect. See also: slathering yourself in capsaicin and drinking habañero water.
- Consult anatomy and zoology textbooks if you need an explanation why you can’t walk anywhere an animal can.
- Sadly, CGI fire won’t keep you warm. Lighting a fire in your sealed tent will put you to sleep… and also kill you due to carbon monoxide poisoning.
For some real winter survival tips, check out our series on Cold Weather Survival — Part 1: Icy Excursions, and Part 2: Weapons, Gear, and Nutrition.
