Friends taught us so many things. We learned that lobsters mate for life (they don’t), unagi is freshwater eel sushi, not a type of karate (it really is) and that y-o-u’-r-e means YOU ARE. But of all the things we’ve held as gospel and held close to our hearts over all of these years, we really didn’t expect this little factoid to be wrong.
You remember 'The One with the Jellyfish'? It’s the episode that Ross and Rachel get back together when Ross pretends to have read all eleven pages of Rachel’s letter (front and back), and Joey, Monica and Chandler can barely look at each other because of what went down at the beach… aka when Chandler peed on Monica when she was stung by a jellyfish.
But it turns out that, even though both Joey and Ross are sure that the Discovery Channel said it was the right thing to do in the event of a jellyfish sting, urinating on your friend’s body is in fact not what you should do. It could actually make it worse. Funny that.
A recent study investigated just how well different remedies worked on stings specifically by the man o’war (a Portuguese jellyfish type thing with a fantastically terrifying name), reports The Guardian, and apparently treatments like the famous Friends one and the previously recommended method of seawater and ice actually irritate the stings further and spread the venom. Imagine going through the trauma of getting one of your mates to pee on you only to make the whole thing worse. How distressingly awkward.
‘For me it was certainly surprising as we have been recommending seawater and ice for the last 10 years’, said Dr Tom Doyle, co-author of the research paper and biologist at NUI Galway. ‘But that’s the nature of science; we have to hold up our hands and say we were wrong’.
If you do ever find yourself at the beach in Monica’s predicament though, make your way over to your nearest Chippy as vinegar is the answer to all your sting needs. It will prevent further venom release and let you safely remove the tentacles from your skin without having to ask your mate to whip out their private parts.
‘We went back to basics and tested different methods’, added Dr Doyle. ‘There’s no doubt about our findings. We are absolutely 100% certain that vinegar does the trick.’
Here’s hoping that jellyfish episode on _Discovery Channe_l isn’t still in circulation.
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.