What Weird Tricks Can Your Body Do?

weirdly accurate.

What Weird Tricks Can Your Body Do?

What weird tricks can your body do?

This weird body tricks test checks nine small, harmless things a human body can do — six you try right now, such as rolling your tongue into a tube, and three you may have noticed, such as sneezing when you step into bright sunlight — and tells you how many you have and how common each one is. Many people find out here, for the first time, that their quirk has a name.

A frosted glass disc on a sunlit ledge shows each move as a soft animated diagram, like an airline safety card: you copy it, then answer can, can’t or skip. The three reflexes are answered from memory; nothing is tested on the spot. Every yes sets one more smooth pebble on a little cairn. Each answer is set against a published study, and the page always says who was asked: 948 students in the US (Fry, 1988), 26 studies pooled from around the world (Yammine, 2013), an online survey of 1,853 people (Hoyle and colleagues, 2024), 3,417 people in China (Wang and colleagues, 2019), 618 adults in Germany (Kraya and colleagues, 2020) and others. The result gives a playful name for your stack, your count of tricks next to a typical count, and your rarest answer with its proper name and the reason bodies do it.

It is not a medical test and it diagnoses nothing. The figures come from different countries and different kinds of samples, some of them students or online volunteers, and for some tricks the published rates differ several-fold from one country to another — no group is “weird”; bodies simply vary. Nobody has asked the same people about all nine, so the typical count is the published figures added up, and there is no percentile. A few answers touch on things worth mentioning to a doctor; the result page notes them gently, only when they apply.

What the test checks

One thing: which of nine harmless body quirks you have, and how common each one is.

The tricks

  • Six try-it-now moves, each shown on a frosted disc as a looping line diagram, from tongue rolling to a quick check of your wrist; answer can, can’t or skip
  • Three reflexes answered from memory, such as the sunlight sneeze; you are never asked to test them on the spot
  • After each answer: how common it was, and which study asked whom

Your result

  • How many of the nine tricks you have, next to a typical count added up from the published figures, and a playful name for your stack
  • Your rarest answer — yes or no — with its proper name, why bodies do it, and how many people in a room of 30 would share it
  • Every answer beside its published figure and the study’s sample, and a short note wherever an answer is worth mentioning to a doctor
  • A share card and a challenge link that carry only your count of tricks, never which ones

Before you start

  • About two minutes; works on a phone or a computer, and sound is optional
  • A mirror or your phone’s front camera helps for a couple of the moves
  • Skip anything that hurts: no move strains a joint, and nothing goes inside your ears

Questions about weird body tricks

Is this test free? Do I need to sign up to see my result?

Yes, it’s free, and there’s nothing to sign up for: no account, no email, no payment. Your result appears on this page the moment you finish, and you can share it or play again straight away.

What weird things can the human body do?

Plenty of small, harmless things: rolling the tongue into a tube, wiggling the ears, or sneezing on stepping into bright sunlight. Some come from muscles our ancestors used more, some from nerve pathways that run close together, and some are just ordinary variation between people. This test gathers nine of them, shows each one, and compares your answers with published studies.

How does the weird body tricks test work out how rare my tricks are?

Each answer is compared with one published study, named on the page with its year, country and sample — for example 948 US students in Fry (1988) or 3,417 people in China in Wang and colleagues (2019). Your typical-count comparison adds up those figures. Because no study asked the same people about all nine tricks, the test gives no percentile and says so.

Is rolling your tongue genetic?

Not in the simple way textbooks claim. In 1940 the geneticist Alfred Sturtevant described tongue rolling as controlled by a single gene, but in 1952 Philip Matlock found 7 pairs of identical twins, out of 33, in which one twin could roll and the other could not. Tongue rolling runs in families, so genes play a part, but so do other influences, and Sturtevant later said he was embarrassed to see it still taught as a one-gene trait.

Why do the figures for body quirks differ between countries?

Because the studies asked different people in different ways. For some quirks in this test, published rates differ several-fold between countries, and samples range from random adults to students and online volunteers. That is why every answer on the page says who was asked. A rate that is rare in one place can be common in another, so no group is unusual for having or lacking a trick.

Can you learn to wiggle your ears or roll your tongue?

Some people can. In a 2019 study at the University of Southern California, 10 adults trained the small muscles around their ears with electrical stimulation and feedback, and 6 learned to control them well enough to play simple computer games. Studies of tongue rolling also found children who could not do it at first and learned later. The test asks only what you can do today.

Are the moves in the body tricks test safe to try?

Yes. None of the six try-it-now moves strains a joint or needs any force, and the instructions say to let things bend on their own and to skip anything that hurts. The three reflex questions are answered from memory only; the test never asks you to put anything in your ears or to trigger a reflex on purpose.

Is the weird body tricks test a medical test?

No. It cannot diagnose anything; it only shows how common each quirk is. A few answers touch on things worth mentioning to a doctor, such as a cough that will not go away, noises in your ears you are not making yourself, or joints that often hurt or slip out of place. The result page notes these only when they apply, with links to the NHS.

Where the numbers come from

Each answer is compared with the study listed for it. The studies come from different countries and kinds of samples (several are students or online volunteers), and rates for some quirks differ several-fold between countries. The typical count is the published figures added up, not one survey of the same people, so there is no percentile. The hitchhiker’s thumb figures from Glass and Kistler (1953) are taken from secondary summaries. Answers stay on your device; the site does not publish its own players’ data.