Wednesday, April 26, 2017

Absurd Products

I've just heard of The Grommet, a catalog that aggregates inventions to sell to consumers. Some of the items are mildly interesting, but more are ridiculous. I laughed out loud at a few.

First was the Trtl:


It's not so much the product in this case (though that's funny enough). No, it was the photo of this guy in his plaid shirt with his dark facial hair blending into the dark fabric of the neck restraint. Really a bad shot. It's almost as if his jaw has gone into another dimension.

Then there was the Couch Coaster:


Which is such a quintessentially modern American product. How much of a couch potato would you have to be for it to be worth it to have such a thing? How often would you use it? But that's just it; The Grommet doesn't exist so much for you to buy things you need and will use; it's so other people can buy gifts they think their friends or family will use.

And finally, the Critter Catcher:


That is so, so lame. Why not buy a three-foot piece of plastic when improvising with something like a broom and dustpan you already own would do just as well. Oh, I see, it makes it possible to capture the creature without harming it.

Don't care. It's still a lame waste of plastic.

1 comment:

Michael Leddy said...

One good find from The Grommet (but now available elsewhere too): the Lettermate, for straight lines when addressing an envelope. My dad used to do it with pencil, ruler, and eraser.