The Most Extreme was a docuseries that aired on Animal Planet in the early 2000’s. The premise across its five seasons was simple: A countdown of some of the most iconic animals under a given theme, from those that bite to those that suck blood. The Most Extreme would also take some time to imagine what humans would look like with some unusual animal characteristics, like dog snouts for example, using a computer generated human in a green, Matrix-like void. It’s certainly a bold choice — at best it’s informative, and at worst it’s just plain unsettling.
Blood Vending Machine
The blood vending machine is not the weirdest thing The Most Extreme will show you, but it is incredibly macabre. The series uses the blood vending machine analogy in season 3 episode 12 “Bloodsuckers”, which aired on February 8, 2005, to illustrate that humans would be able to drink our body weight in blood if humans had a craving for it the way vampire bats do.
Green Glowing Goo
In season 4 episode 11 “Slime Balls,” airing on April 25, 2006, The Most Extreme explains how some aquatic snails use glowing slime to distract predators that are hunting them.
Slamming Your Head Against the Wall
The Most Extreme reimagines humans as woodpeckers in season 4 episode 14 “Diggers.” The episode aired on June 13, 2006 and explains why slamming your head repeatedly into a wall is generally a bad idea, unless you have the head of a woodpecker.
Pregnancy (Naked Mole Human – Part 1)
Naked mole rat queens can carry several pups in a single litter, as explained in season 4 episode 7 “Transformers,” which aired on March 7, 2006. To accommodate this massive amount of offspring, a mother mole rat’s spine will stretch out to prevent its pregnant belly from protruding.
Dog Snouts
Dogs are expert smellers, and if we had snouts like they do — no matter how uncanny that might look — we would be too. The Most Extreme shows what humans would look like with dog-like snouts in the aptly titled “Super Dogs,” the fifteenth episode of the show’s third season, which aired on March 1, 2005.
Teeth (Naked Mole Human – Part 2)
The Most Extreme paints yet another horrifying image of a human as a naked mole rat — this time with huge teeth and massive lower jaw muscles. The human/mole rat hybrid is revisited on October 11, 2002 in season 1 episode 11, titled “Biters.”
Tongue Biter
The tongue biter is a parasite that latches onto a fish’s tongue, draining the organ’s blood until it shrivels into nothing. The Most Extreme shows us just how gruesome a fate this would be for a human victim in season 3 episode 19 “Odd Couples,” which aired on May 4, 2005.
Sonar
Dolphins are able to navigate through murky water with sonar and some advanced anatomy. In order to use sonar, humans would need a much larger head to house an organ called the melon, which focused the sound waves emitted. To receive the sound waves that bounce off objects, humans would also need a large, fat-filled lower jaw to transmit the sounds to the lower ear. This unrecognizable dolphin-inspired human was seen in the first episode of the show’s fifth season titled “Inventors,” which aired on April 24, 2007.
Nudibranch
The nudibranch (pronounced “new-dih-brank”) is a molluscs that is immune to the poisonous tendrils of the sea anemone, which is its favourite dinner. The Most Extreme shows us on a human analogue the nudibranch’s ability to eat, digest, and build its own appendages using the anemone as food in season 4 episode 6 titled “Appendages,” which aired on February 2, 2006.
Eyes on a Stalk
In the most egregious example of taking it too far, The Most Extreme poses their own version of “Would you still love me if I was a worm?” in the episode “Oddities” by asking the viewer “Would you still date your partner if they had one metre long eye stalks?” The episode aired on December 21, 2003, and is the thirteenth episode of the second season.