The 'drunk neuroscientist' in the viral YouTube video is from New Jersey

A neuroscientist walks into a bar ... gets drunk and talks about the brain on alcohol.

Not funny?

Well, you haven't seen the video then.

"A Drunk Neuroscientist Explains What Alcohol Does to Your Brain" features a Ph.D. candidate who gets a little blurry as she drinks and talks science. The video has been viewed almost 20 million times. Its success has led to more "Your Brain on Blank" videos.

Your Brain on Puppies ... on Heartbreak ... on Caffeine ... on the Flu, are other videos in the series starring neuroscientist Shannon Odell, a 28-year-old native of Byram Township, New Jersey.

The next in the series of videos? "Your Brain on Sleep Deprivation."

The viral videos have been viewed more than 43 million times as Odell blends her love of science and comedy.

Budding fame, the Vassar College graduate said, has not quite altered her busy life as a neuroscientist studying the epigenetic underpinnings of hippocampal development at Weill Cornell Medicine.

MORRISTOWN MARCH: West Morris Mendham student team spearheads March for Our Lives rally

RADIUM GIRLS: Play about Orange, NJ factory, opens at Pax Amicus

DREW U: Former Vice President Joe Biden's to speak at Florham Park campus

Odell is now on a career path she jokingly warns may claim a few victims.

"Bill Nye has gotta go," she said, tongue planted firmly in cheek about the "science guy."

The YouTube video series also found on Facebook has pulled in about 300,000 subscribers.

Now living in Brooklyn, New York, Odell, who performed at the professional Growing Stage children's theater in Netcong as a child, also co-hosts a regular comedy show called "Drunk Science," in New York clubs.

Odell recently took a break from her dissertation research to answer questions about her busy life and future plans.

What were you drinking and how drunk did you get in the alcohol video?

I was mostly drinking that Miller High Life. The shots were chased with a lot of water, let's just say that. There was a little magic of the movies going on there.

So you weren't really drunk?

We shot it first thing in the morning, so on an empty stomach, even half a beer, I get a little tipsy.

How long did it take to shoot?

I think we did it in about 2 hours. We shot it at a bar called Baby's All Right, in Brooklyn.

Where did you get the puppies?

We went to New York Bully Crew, an animal rescue and adoption center on Long Island. Those puppies were all up for adoption. They were really wild, but adorable, too.

How about the flu video. Were you really sick?

I was sick. It was quite the strange timing. They didn't say I had to be sick for the shoot, but my body just tends to be sick in the winter time, so I didn't have to act too much for that one.

How about the breakup video? Was that based on real experience?

I do have a boyfriend. I did not get broken up for that shoot, thankfully. Or the next one would have been "Your Brain on Trying to Find a New Apartment." But yes, I've definitely been broken up with, countless amount of times in the past. It was very easy to find that emotion.

We can see how your video career is going. How about your studies?

What being a Ph.D candidate means is that I've passed all my qualifying exams and am no longer a Ph.D student. I'm at the point where I have a master's. I'm at the end of my fourth year of my program. I probably have another year-and-a-half left.

That alone is full-time work.

Part of the program is that you are full-time working on your dissertation research, so I go into lab every day.

Epigenetic underpinnings of hippocampal development?

Our question is what is needed in development of the hippocampus, which is the part of the brain that is responsible for learning and memory.

Tell us about your acting and comedy

I started acting when I was in middle school and did it all through high school and college. I still do improv, but mainly do stand-up and sketch comedy.

That would include "Drunk Science?"

That's a live show that I write and produce. I started that in 2014 with a couple of friends, one who is a science journalist and the other one is just a science enthusiast. What we do is invite a scientist on, and three comedians who drink during the show and present a dissertation on a topic the scientist is an expert on. It's really fun.

When and how did you start the "Your Brain on Blank" videos.

I had worked with Inverse.com. That's the media company that hosts and produces the series. They were doing this Facebook original series called "Big Ideas with Little Kids." We vibed well, so we decided to try this other series out, which started as just the one video of a neuroscientist explaining what alcohol does to your body while she drinks.

Who's idea was it?

I don't know if any one person came up with it. We were surprised when we got the response we did for the first video. We had a ton of fun, but we had no idea people would gravitate to it like they did. We got 5 million views in the first couple of weeks.

And now you have done five wildly popular videos.

We had a lot of success, so we developed it into a whole series of me explaining what happens to your brain when you do various things, while I'm doing them.

What was your reaction to the videos going viral?

A lot of people have reached out to me. A lot of strangers. It kind of just ballooned.

So are you famous now?

Very much hardly! I'm still in lab working. I still do standup shows in basements. So absolutely not. You're the first media person I have spoken to. But a lot of people have reached out to me. I've gotten some great reactions like "I love your videos" and "I want to be a neuroscientist."

Are you making money from the videos?

I am employed by Inverse to make the videos. They do all the production and editing. I write the show and host it. They pay me for it, but I'm not making crazy money. That's not the reason I am doing it at all. My goal when I graduate is to become a science communicator.

So you don't feel like this has really changed your life?

I always knew I wanted to do this, to be a science communicator and a comedian all in one. What it has done is help me clarify where I'm going with my life, and what I want to do for a living.

What's next for the Internet's favorite neuroscientist?

We have a couple of videos in the works that we will release in the next couple of weeks. Probably the first one will be sleep-deprivation, which honestly, I am not totally looking forward to shooting. But there's a lot of interesting science behind it. We also are doing one on social media, which I think is relevant to anyone who is watching the videos.

You obviously work hard to make the videos funny, but the science is important, too, right?

What I really love about the series is that a lot of this information is inaccessible to people for a lot of reasons. For one thing, it is written in a way that is really complicated. I think the idea of breaking down complicated things into a more digestible way is something that is extremely in vogue right now. You have shows like "Adam Ruins Everything" and "Bill Nye Saves the World." People want to be entertained while they are learning.

Staff Writer William Westhoven: 973-917-9242; wwesthoven@GannettNJ.com.