# These Are HAI’s Worst Mistakes of the Year

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LX52DmpRO2M
Recap page: https://rapidrecap.app/video/LX52DmpRO2M
Generated: 2026-08-31T23:33:21.716+00:00

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## The Gist

Half as Interesting highlights its own worst factual errors, bad maps, math mistakes, and cartography blunders from the past year. The annual Whoopsie Awards honor the most embarrassing mistakes made by writers Amy, Christine, Sam, Kate, and Mikaila.

## Quick Overview

Half as Interesting reviews its most embarrassing errors of the year through a satirical awards show format called the Whoopsie Awards. The video breaks down the worst footage, literacy failures, math errors, cartography blunders, bad instincts, and double whoopsies committed by the writing team over the past year.

**Key Points:**
- The worst footage award went to a Swiss banknote video for showing the 50-franc note with a mountain instead of the correct 100-franc holographic Zurich waterways note.
- The worst literacy award went to the 911 dispatch video for incorrectly referring to time difference of arrival method as triangulation instead of trilateration.
- The worst math award went to a military fast food video for stating that 4,000 people live at Camp Humphreys instead of the correct 40,000.
- The worst cartography award went to a Seawise Giant ship video for mapping a crude oil route directly across North Africa and the Atlantic Ocean through impossible terrain.
- The 89-degree award went to an ancient coding language video because writer Amy made a functional COBOL script with incorrect indentation and extra spaces.
- The worst instinct award went to a conveyor belt video for stating that the UK is hanging onto the Pitcairn Islands split off Argentina.
- The double whoopsie award went to a recap of last year's mistakes because the channel repeated previous text errors and mislabeled video sources.

![Screenshot at 06:16: The final segment reviews the double whoopsie awards for recurring mistakes across previous videos.](https://ss.rapidrecap.app/screens/LX52DmpRO2M/00-06-16.jpg)

**Context:** Half as Interesting is a YouTube channel known for fast-paced mini-documentaries on geography, aviation, history, and miscellaneous trivia. Despite rigorous research, the team occasionally makes factual errors, spelling blunders, and map mistakes, which they humorously acknowledge and celebrate in an annual recap video.

## Detailed Analysis

The Half as Interesting Whoopsie Awards present a categorized look back at the channel's most egregious factual lapses, bad graphics, and script errors over the previous year. Host Sam guides viewers through awards like worst footage, worst literacy, worst math, worst cartography, worst instinct, and double whoopsies. Each category features multiple nominations where writer Amy Muller and the rest of the team made embarrassing mistakes on screen. The video concludes with a humorous acknowledgment that while human writers make plenty of mistakes, they are still superior to AI chat tools because human creators can identify, apologize for, and laugh at their errors.

### #1, Worst Footage Award

This award highlights the least helpful or downright incorrect video footage displayed on screen.

- The banknote security features video claimed a holographic Zurich waterway appeared on the 50-franc note when that feature only exists on the 100-franc note.
- A video about North Korea accidentally showed South Korean footage instead.
- A video about Boeing 777 airplanes kept displaying 737 and 747 aircraft instead.

![Screenshot at 00:39: A comparison showing the 50-franc and 100-franc notes during the worst footage award.](https://ss.rapidrecap.app/screens/LX52DmpRO2M/00-00-39.jpg)

### #2, Worst Literacy Award

This category celebrates words misspelled, mispronounced, or misused in videos.

- The 911 dispatch video incorrectly referred to time difference of arrival as triangulation instead of trilateration.
- A geography video misspelled Georgia as Georiga while showing a location nearly 1,700 miles away from Riga.
- An airport terminal map key invented a new airline called Air Canda.

![Screenshot at 01:38: The correction graphic explaining the difference between triangulation and trilateration.](https://ss.rapidrecap.app/screens/LX52DmpRO2M/00-01-38.jpg)

### #3, Worst Math Award

Numbers are hard, and this category honors the most severe mathematical mix-ups.

- A video about the Gotthard Base Tunnel displayed 36,000 on screen while the narrator said 3,600.
- The military fast food video stated that 4,000 people live at Camp Humphreys when the actual population is 40,000.
- The Seawise Giant ship video wrote 2.719 squared miles instead of 2.719 square miles.

![Screenshot at 02:37: The corrected Camp Humphreys population graphic during the math awards.](https://ss.rapidrecap.app/screens/LX52DmpRO2M/00-02-37.jpg)

### #4, Worst Cartography Award

Maps are central to the channel, making these visual geography failures especially painful.

- A US map video forgot to highlight Alaska and Hawaii.
- A rail tunnel video placed Bodo one valley east and south of where it actually belongs.
- The Seawise Giant ship video mapped an oil transport route directly across the Sahara Desert and North Africa.

![Screenshot at 03:28: The impossible shipping route drawn straight across North Africa for the Seawise Giant.](https://ss.rapidrecap.app/screens/LX52DmpRO2M/00-03-28.jpg)

### #5-89-Degree Award

This award recognizes facts that were almost right but missed the mark due to flawed execution.

- An ancient coding language video featured a COBOL script written by writer Amy with incorrect spacing, wrong indentation, and multiple procedure divisions.
- A video about Russian social media apps displayed the logo for an unrelated Panamanian app named Yappy.
- A car video displayed the logo for Indian airline IndiGo instead of the intended Boston-based tech company.

![Screenshot at 04:16: The flawed COBOL code written by writer Amy during the 89-degree award segment.](https://ss.rapidrecap.app/screens/LX52DmpRO2M/00-04-16.jpg)

### #6, Worst Instinct Award

This category highlights claims presented as facts where the only source was pure writer intuition.

- A banknote video stated that the 100 Swiss franc note was the highest denomination available, ignoring the 200 and 1,000 franc notes.
- A conveyor belt video claimed the UK is hanging onto the Pitcairn Islands split off Argentina.
- An escalator etiquette video incorrectly stated that toilets in the southern hemisphere swirl the other way due to the Coriolis effect.

![Screenshot at 04:59: The Wikipedia table graphic used during the Pitcairn Islands instinct award nomination.](https://ss.rapidrecap.app/screens/LX52DmpRO2M/00-04-59.jpg)

### #7, Double Whoopsie Awards

The final major category revisits major mistakes from previous error recap videos.

- Nominations included repeated spelling errors such as writing form instead of from.
- Mislabeled video sources and incorrect oxygen concentration stats for deep sea divers made the list.
- The category winner went back to NASCAR and Formula One car mix-ups that angered motorsport fans.

![Screenshot at 06:01: The mislabeled Formula One driver graphic featured in the double whoopsie awards.](https://ss.rapidrecap.app/screens/LX52DmpRO2M/00-06-01.jpg)

