Question: do you like blowing up jelly babys

Stephen Moss answered on 15 Mar 2011:

Hi Kitkat

it was fun to talk to you earlier today, and good now that I have time to give your question some serious thought. ‘Blowing up’ of course has two meanings, so let me address both. If you mean, like a balloon, I have to admit I have never blown up a jelly baby. However, their slightly rubbery little bodies would suggest they are made of a balloon-like substance and that they would tolerate a little bit of blowing up. It would be necessary to create a small hole and excavate some of the interior, but then it should be possible to use a small pump and blow up the jelly baby. I’ve never done it, but I think it could be a fun experiment.

The second option would be to attach a small quantity of explosives to a jelly baby, retreat a safe distance and then press the detonator. Even with my limited knowledge of exploding confectionary, I can fairly confidently predict that the jelly baby would break up into numerous tiny fragments. This could be fun too, but the resulting mess would make the jelly baby virtually impossible to eat. For these reasons I would favour the first option, and having now thought about it, yes, maybe I would like blowing up jelly babies.