Finding Nemo's Plot Mistake - Smarter Every Day 115

[ music ] Hey, it's me Destin, welcome back to Smarter Every Day. Tonight is... what? Family movie night! Very good, what are we going to watch tonight? What is this? Nemo! OK, let's go. What happened to the mommy? He didn't... he got ate, maybe. She did. [ Destin laughs ] She really did.

(Destin) Did you enjoy Finding Nemo? Yeah. I have something to tell you. What? The movie is wrong. Why? The movie is wrong, did you know that? No. Mommy and daddy actually found Nemo in real life, didn't we? We did. Do you wanna see? Yep. OK, lemme show you.

[ scuba breathing ] Oh! It's Nemo! A clown fish. Doesn't he live in the anemone? Doesn't he live inside the anemone? Tell me about him. These are your anemone fish. They're not the same species as the one in Finding Nemo, but again they live within the anemone and they basically use the anemone for protection.

There's a couple of really cool things about them. Is the biggest one will be the female, and the little one's the male. Now if the big one dies, like it does in Finding Nemo, the little one which is the male will turn into a female, so what should have happened in Finding Nemo is Marlin at the end should have become Mrs. Marlin, but he didn't because that would just muck around with kids' brains way too much.

But the neat thing is they live in these anemones but they don't get stung. Now the anemone is related to corals, they have these stinging organelles with venom, and what happens is we think the anemone fish pick up mucous. The mucous covers the outside of them and the anemone thinks the anemone fish is part of the anemone, so they don't sting it.

So it's a symbiotic relationship. The anemone protects the fish, the fish come out and protect things that try and eat the anemone. Now these guys lay eggs, so they'll lay eggs every 2 or 3 weeks. The male, which is the little one, will come out and protect them, they'll hatch and away they'll go again. Really really cool animals, but remember the big one is always the female, the little one's the male, and if the big one dies, the male turns into a female. Seriously cool animals.

(Destin) Sweet, that's awesome. Did you guys hear what he said? No, I can't understand. They're in scuba gear. What? They're in scuba... There's so much [ fsssssh ]. That's me breathing underwater. So here's how it works. All anemone fish are boys when they're born, but one of these fish is more aggressive than the other ones.

In fact, he's so mean that he becomes a mommy fish. [ laughs ] Yeah, yeah... that mean Mommy. That's right, OK, so this mommy fish pesters the daddy fish so much that she stresses him out, that he starts shaking, he gets scared, and he stays in the anemone and he watches the baby eggs. Did you know that? Yep.

But, did you know what happens in real life? Something strange. If the mommy fish dies, then she doesn't stress out the daddy fish anymore, and the daddy fish has this unique thing that'll happen to his body and he'll turn into a mommy fish. [ laughs ] Did you know that? [ laughing ] No no no bite... mommy fish... no bite.

That's right, so a mommy fish is actually a daddy fish that turned into a mommy fish, did you know that? Woooah! Isn't that crazy? Nom! [ How he says yes ]. So if the movie was correct, Marlin the daddy would turn into a mommy fish. [ laughs ] Now you know. It would be pretty funny if that happened in the movie. It'd be strange wouldn't it? Awkward.

OK, to sum it up, Nemo is what's called a sequential hermaphrodite, meaning he can change his gender halfway through his life, which is pretty impressive. But not as impressive as the book that the character Nemo came from, the original one. You know what that's called buddy? The one we listened to? 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. That's right, where did we listen to that together? In the car. That's right.

We listened to 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. It's something we downloaded from Audible, which is a sponsor for Smarter Every Day. So if you're interested in helping Smarter Every Day, go download 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by going to audible.com/smarter. You will not regret it. It's a fantastic book, science fiction written in the 1860s, it's impressive. I recommend the one read by James Frain, it's fantastic.

So thank you for the opportunity to earn your subscription here on Smarter Every Day, I really appreciate that. Also if you'd like to check out the rest of the Australia series, click any of these links and I hope you enjoy. I'm Destin, you're getting Smarter Every Day. Have a good one. Bye. You want to say bye? There you go, bye. Take it easy.