Here, the use of the stethoscope allows playfulness in slowing down the act of trying to mentalize another person's position - "listening" to their thoughts by placing the stethoscope the head, or their feelings by placing it to their heart. This is particularly popular with younger children, but introduced with the right degree of humour and self-deprecation it can appeal to teenagers and parents, too. In many such cases the actual stethoscope needn't be produced, but it can be raised as an "as if" scenario:

"Imagine I had some kind of truly fancy stethoscope, that instead of just listening to boring things like the lungs or the heartbeat could hear what a person was really feeling inside, or what they were really thinking... What would you have heard if you'd clapped it on your Dad's head just at that moment when you told him you were planning to leave school?"