Ever since I was a little kid, I've loved Rube Goldberg-esque devices. Goldberg was a guy who dreamed up these fanciful, overly-complicated systems to do simple activities, such as how to tee up a golf ball or something. The Goldberg machines interested me in the same way that domino tumbling does: the thrill of a chain of events happening from a single action that you initiate. When I was a kid, I had one of those wooden building block sets that had a series of tracks that let you make complicated systems that a marble would roll through; I loved that thing.This video is a twelve minute compilation of various Golbergian machines made for a Japanese tv show. They're absolutely brilliant, using a plethora of mechinations and devices that connect together artistically to ultimately do one simple thing: reveal the tv show's catchphrase. Twelve minutes sounds like a long time to sit around looking at an internet video, but I loved every second of it.
3 comments:
Jeff; any idea what they're saying at the end of each segment? I'm assuming they're saying whatever is written in katakana on the little signs, but I don't read or hear Japanese that well. Any idea what they're saying and what it means?
Excellent, Jeff! Just what I needed. And armed with the term "pythagoras switch", I managed to find these pages that have commentary that talk about the show, as well as provide a few more videos. Some of them have running insane commentary that is always fun on Japanese programs of this sort.
Oh, god, my absolute favorite is the one where the train cars move together to make the track for the ball...and that only barely beat out the one with the amazing magnet ball.
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