Not Inventive Inventions, or The Blunder Of Technology

Pondering how our society and infrastructure were built using products by the Acme Corporation . . .



Failed inventions, crazy inventions and the worst inventions shall be today's topic du jour.



After all, we don't have a soup du jour - and not even James Bond looked good wearing a jet pack.

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Ambitious but conceptually flawed aviation experiments, starting at 2:15, dominate the following compendium of "better luck next time" efforts.



For every ingenious invention that won WW2, there were weapons and countless inventions that failed, including the Mickey Mouse Children's Gas Mask. Still don't know what the following Nazis wearing Mickey Mouse ears were trying to accomplish. Were they incurable Mickey Mouse fans?



In animated cartoons, at least in the 1920's and early 1930's, the viewpoint towards the latest and greatest technological innovations is frequently rosy.



After all, the Fleischer Studio built their animation empire, which preceded the rise of Walt Disney, on cool and innovative inventions.



In other Fleischer cartoons, well-intentioned inventions could go spectacularly awry.



And, speaking of Acme Corporation Products, auteur of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies Chuck Jones, often in collaboration with storyman Michael Maltese, made the revolt of recalcitrant machines - and the difficulties in figuring out how to use any modern contraptions - a key and overriding theme driving the comedy, while vexing Wile E. Coyote no end.



Wrote about The Wonder Of Technology In Animated Cartoons back in 2018, and for some reason thoughts since then have gravitated repeatedly to the phenomenon of "the baby conveyor belt." This is a concept that turns up in WB cartoons as early as 1933.



The baby conveyor belt would be the cornerstone of one of the funniest animated cartoons ever made, Baby Bottleneck, directed by the one, the only Bob Clampett. That said, there's a baby conveyor belt Merrie Melodie made in 1935.



Have a sneaking suspicion that Bob was a storyman on this and could well have contributed gags to Shuffle Off To Buffalo as well. One imagines Bob suggesting to Friz Freleng that The Woman In The Shoe resemble Jean Harlow - and immediately getting exiled to Termite Terrace, along with Tex Avery and Chuck Jones.



Back to ridiculous inventions. . .










We finish today's post with a great invention for treatment of harrowing post-overindulgence headbangers, 10% more effective than three slugs of tomato juice + Worcestershire sauce and 27% more effective than two viewings of Bridesmaids and The Hangover - The Hangover Mask! No doubt it is enshrined in The Museum Of Failure.