Most of the time when an article begins, "I've never seen the show X, but…," you ought to run for the hills. This delightful lexical indexing of the word 'bones' in the TV show Bones, however, might be the exception. For The Verge's Hack Week, writer Sean O'Kane, who claims to have never seen an episode of the 10-season long crime drama, discovered that in the past decade of the show's history, the word "bones" only referred to actual bones 820 times in the 2,668 times it was uttered in the script. (The other 1,848 references were to the show's protagonist, Temperance "Bones" Brennan, who herself says "bones" 346 times).
O'Kane used fan written scripts to crunch his numbers, so he warns they might be a little off. That said, he guesses a supercut of all the times the word "bones" is said on Bones would last an entire 22 minutes.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Ukraine goes all out to woo young people into the armyUnder The Radar New recruitment drive offers perks as morale and numbers fall
-
6 spa-like homes with fabulous bathroomsFeature Featuring a freestanding soaking tub in California and a digital shower system in Illinois
-
Tessa Bailey's 6 favorite books for hopeless romanticsFeature The best-selling author recommends works by Lyla Sage, Sally Thorne, and more
-
Giant schnauzer wins top prize at Westminster showSpeed Read Monty won best in show at the 149th Westminster Kennel Club dog show
-
Beyoncé, Kendrick Lamar take top GrammysSpeed Read Beyoncé took home album of the year for 'Cowboy Carter' and Kendrick Lamar's diss track 'Not Like Us' won five awards
-
The Louvre is giving 'Mona Lisa' her own roomSpeed Read The world's most-visited art museum is getting a major renovation
-
Honda and Nissan in merger talksSpeed Read The companies are currently Japan's second and third-biggest automakers, respectively
-
Taylor Swift wraps up record-shattering Eras tourSpeed Read The pop star finally ended her long-running tour in Vancouver, Canada
-
Drake claims illegal boosting, defamationSpeed Read The rapper accused Universal Music of boosting Kendrick Lamar's diss track and said UMG allowed him to be falsely accused of pedophilia
-
'Wicked' and 'Gladiator II' ignite holiday box officeSpeed Read The combination of the two movies revitalized a struggling box office
-
Jussie Smollet conviction overturned on appealSpeed Read The Illinois Supreme Court overturned the actor's conviction on charges of staging a racist and homophobic attack against himself in 2019
