Kevin Bacon Number

[jack]

I googled to find the website that calculates kevin bacon numbers from IMBD. I googled for "kevin bacon number". Above the top hits, Google gave the answer "Kevin Smith's Bacon Number is 2". Yes, full marks for initiative, but, you know, minus several million for context awareness.

But what I wanted to know was, what counts as film for kevin bacon counting? A feature film? Anything released at a cinema? Anything released at a film festival? Anything on IMDB?

Several years ago, a friend of the family, an aspiring film-maker, made a short documentary film about my brother-in-law. I think it showed at some festival and mostly disappeared after that. But we all featured in it, as did the director in a voice-over (I think?) And at some point since, it appeared on IMDB.

If that counts, she has a bacon number of 3, giving my BiL and I a bacon number of 4, fulfilling a minor life ambition. My competitive brain latches onto anything quantifiable as something to achieve :)

But I really, really want to contribute to a scientific paper at some point in my life :)

Comments

[mathcathy]

What's a "Bacon number"?

[naath]

Like an Erdos number, but for films.

Kevin Bacon is the start point, if you were ever 'in a film with' Kevin Bacon, you get a Bacon number of 1. If you are in a film with someone with a Bacon number of 1 you get a Bacon number of 2. And so on.

I have seen some... tenuous claims to Bacon numbers (most from people with Erdos numbers), but most involve "was an extra in" or "was the scientific advisor for" rather than the obscurity of the film itself. I don't believe there is an "official" criteria, wikipedia includes TV shows as well as films. I think you totally have a Bacon number. Now you need to co-author at least one paper!

[jack]

A quick memory refresh on wikipedia tells me the lowest attested Erdos-Bacon number is 3. There are a few 4s. 2 is still fairly plausible, if one of the living Erdos co-authors extras in a film with Bacon.

1 is only achievable if Kevin Bacon posthumously co-authors or co-starts a film with Erdos.

0 would be a bit of a mind-fuck :)

[naath]

If I had writ a paper with Erdos I would be trying the hardest I could try to get into a film with Bacon I'm sure... but maybe none of them are interested.

But wiki only tells me people with 4 not 3.

[jack]

Yeah, I'm getting mixed information about E-B=3. Google turned up one (or more?) examples which sounded convincing -- I didn't double, check but it had specifics which sounded not-made-up. But it's not on the main wiki page any more.

I had the impression at least one might have been an E-1 contriving to be an extra, but I wasn't sure if that was deliberate.

[ptc24]

I think things go as far as YouTube adverts. Maybe only as a joke, but there was this very silly advert featuring Jamie Oliver and Kevin Bacon, and while they were making bacon sandwiches, Jamie said "I hear you're connected to everyone. Do me!", and Kevin said, "well, we're in this together, so 1".

If it's good enough for Kevin Bacon it's good enough for me.

I've got no Bacon number, I do have an Erdos number, except I've forgotten it. There was a thing on the web that tracked you down and it turned out to be surprisingly low.

Apparently there's such a thing as the Erdős–Bacon–Sabbath number: http://erdosbaconsabbath.com/