Well, it’s *literally* true. As a way of filling Brogues with guacamole it *is* clearly in a class of its own.
See? WEIRD would’ve been useful!
It reminds me of this from Alice (slightly edited):
‘There’s nothing like eating hay when you’re faint.’ ‘I didn’t say there was nothing better. I said there was nothing like it.’
Unlike Heath Robinson machines, this device does not seem fully connected or thought through. So it is in a class of its own, but not the same class as Heath Robinson’s (or Rube Goldberg’s) devices.
The mention of Rube Goldberg immediately made me think of this . . .
Every Glen Baxter cartoon is a clearly delineated piece of absurdist nonsense like this. I like them. I have seven or so volumes of them: Trundling Grunts, The Impending Gleam, Welcome to the Weird World of Glen Baxter, etc. Rational analysis is useless. I suspect they’re funnier to the English but they clearly have an audience over here.
Andrea, you rock! One of the best videos I have ever seen. Thanks for sharing.
My fave is still their first, on the treadmills. Have you watched their other videos? They’ve certainly found their calling.
These remind me of the clepsydra at the Claridge’s in Paris around 1980; unfortunately, it’s been replaced by a smaller blue one; the original was huge (2 stories) and yellow and it used to fascinate me so much , my parents had to literally tear me from the handrail every time.
There’s another one in Berlin: it’s still fascinating.
Does “brogue” have some other meaning or is the nonsensibility of putting avocado dip into a speech pattern part of the joke?
In Powers’ defense, the word “brogue” is fairly British, the American equivalent is “wingtip“, which Wikipedia redirects to “brogue”.
P.S. @ Olivier – That water clock is (or used to be) in a small mall called the Europa Center, located right next to the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church in downtown Berlin. The best time to watch it was between 12:55 and 1:05, because you get to see all the water roll back into the main container, as the hour column empties from 12 back to 1.
It’s like he’s trying to do Rube Goldberg, but he doesn’t know that Goldberg’s humor comes from the fact that the insane device is being used to accomplish something common and simple.
Maybe in England, filling brogues with guacamole is common and simple…
Like Treesong, I love the absurdity of Baxter and have many of his collections. I never much cared for Rube Goldberg, simply because his devices would (in theory) work, so that after seeing two or three of time, my attitude was “Yeah, another weird setup which supposedly would work; big deal; I got the idea the first time.”
@ Olivier – I think the last time I was there (several years ago) it was mothballed for renovation. The mechanism is fairly complex: there’s a pendulum that delivers a dollop of liquid to a series of siphon tubes, each of which cascades into the next siphon tube (after enough additions). After a certain number of minutes, the collected fluid siphons into the minute counter, and the process begins again. When the minute column is full, it siphons out, filling the next hour globe in the process.
“It’s like he’s trying to do Rube Goldberg, but he doesn’t know that Goldberg’s humor comes from the fact that the insane device is being used to accomplish something common and simple.”
I disagree. He is not trying to do anything complicated or difficult. He is simply trying to make an absurd sentence that syntactically is and parsiblely meaningful but logistically has no justifictation. Building a machine to put guacomole in shoes and classifying such machines is a parsible and interpretable concept. But is a completely absurd and not justifiable.
Re: “Heath Robinson” I confess I hadn’t heard of him but one of my irritations is the use of “Rube Goldberg” to describe machines that are intricate and precise for the sole aesthetic sense of being intricate and precise. Which is not at all what Rube Goldbergs cartoons, which involved embarrased octopuses and parrots being pricked by pins and housewives reacting to embarrassing moments, were not in the least.
I wish people would refer to these as Heath Robinson more (although that’s probably inaccurate too). I frequently hear them a “Mousetrap” devices (after the game Mousetrap) that seems so … tawdry, cheap and crass (and derivative as the game Mousetrap did not originate the idea– and pales in comparison to what *can* be done well).
” I never much cared for Rube Goldberg, simply because his devices would (in theory) work”
NO THEY WOULDN’T!!!! That’s part of the humor! That they include bizarre parts that will never work.
…. although I confess they could seem the same concept after awhile. But the same is true if logical non sequitor were all there was to Baxter… yeah, gaucomole in shoes, people in a bog watching flying kale, yeah, yeah… If that were all there was to Baxter (I think his better cartoons– this is not one– have more) I’d be bored with him quickly (and to be fair to Rube Golberg, I also think there is more; the bizarre organic components of his inventions and the environment housing all these have impact as well.)
“My fave is still their first, on the treadmills. Have you watched their other videos? They’ve certainly found their calling.”
I just wish their *music* wasn’t so annoyingly insipid. Frankly, I find the disconnect exceedingly jarring.
@woozy, quoting me: ” I never much cared for Rube Goldberg, simply because his devices would (in theory) work”
NO THEY WOULDN’T!!!! That’s part of the humor! That they include bizarre parts that will never work.
**************
Er, that’s why I said “in theory” (and “supposedly”). Goldberg’s characters’ ‘theories,’ of course, not my own (or yours).
Oh, I agree, but I still like the videos.
Heath Robinson is to England what Rube Goldberg is to America. Kind of like how Billy Mayerl is to England what Zez Confrey is to America. Heath Robinson (1872-1944) was a cartoonist who drew ridiculously complex machines. It appears that Robinson and Goldberg developed their respective styles without being aware of each other, like the creators of the American Dennis the Menace and the British Dennis the Menace.
Billy Maryerl and Zez Confrey???
I like Heath Robinson’s illustrations but then I always had a soft sport for Edwardian Children’s Illustration.
Heath Robinson seems more mechanical whereas Rube Goldberg was truly wierd using tea kettles scalding parrots, and octopuses turning pink with embarrassment etc.
Then there are Caractacus Pott’s fanciful machines in the movie “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang”, as conceived by British whimsical cartoonist/kinetic sculptor Rowland Emett.
One of my favorite absurdist artists is Philip Garner (now known as Pippa after a gender change), who I first came across in the 1976 book “Automerica” by the artist collective Ant Farm. Philip’s cartoons graced auto magazines such as Road & Track, and he’s done a series of weird satirical “inventions” seen in his books “Philip Garner’s Better Living Catalog” and “Utopia…Or Bust!”
Wallace & Gromit had a few of these Rube Goldbergesque machines, too – one for getting out of bed and down to breakfast, fully dressed, if I remember correctly . . . and by the serendipitous nature of the comments herein, I found this . . . https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6g8WGpMstI
Pee-Wee Herman has the best breakfast machine and the best music to go with it.
I think I just lost my appetite . . . nice dog, tho.
I think the picture looks like it should be in a how to book for boys.
@ Andréa – I recently picked up an extra copy of Aardmann’s “Wallace & Gromit” shorts at a flea market, precisely because it also had all ten “Cracking Contraptions” as a DVD extra. Unfortunately, the German edition replaced the animated introduction to each contraption with a translated title card, but at least it’s still possible to switch back to the original English audio.
The entire time I spent watching that Peewee clip in MiB’s link, I kept wondering when the “best” music was ever going to start. Frankly, I prefer the “insipid” music in “This Too Shall Pass”.
Comics I Don't Understand 
Well, it’s *literally* true. As a way of filling Brogues with guacamole it *is* clearly in a class of its own.
See? WEIRD would’ve been useful!
It reminds me of this from Alice (slightly edited):
‘There’s nothing like eating hay when you’re faint.’ ‘I didn’t say there was nothing better. I said there was nothing like it.’
Unlike Heath Robinson machines, this device does not seem fully connected or thought through. So it is in a class of its own, but not the same class as Heath Robinson’s (or Rube Goldberg’s) devices.
The mention of Rube Goldberg immediately made me think of this . . .
Every Glen Baxter cartoon is a clearly delineated piece of absurdist nonsense like this. I like them. I have seven or so volumes of them: Trundling Grunts, The Impending Gleam, Welcome to the Weird World of Glen Baxter, etc. Rational analysis is useless. I suspect they’re funnier to the English but they clearly have an audience over here.
Andrea, you rock! One of the best videos I have ever seen. Thanks for sharing.
My fave is still their first, on the treadmills. Have you watched their other videos? They’ve certainly found their calling.
These remind me of the clepsydra at the Claridge’s in Paris around 1980; unfortunately, it’s been replaced by a smaller blue one; the original was huge (2 stories) and yellow and it used to fascinate me so much , my parents had to literally tear me from the handrail every time.
There’s another one in Berlin: it’s still fascinating.
Does “brogue” have some other meaning or is the nonsensibility of putting avocado dip into a speech pattern part of the joke?
SHOES –
https://www.google.com/search?q=brogue+shoes&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-b
A NEW WORD – and a new bit of knowledge – Thanks!
In Powers’ defense, the word “brogue” is fairly British, the American equivalent is “wingtip“, which Wikipedia redirects to “brogue”.
P.S. @ Olivier – That water clock is (or used to be) in a small mall called the Europa Center, located right next to the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church in downtown Berlin. The best time to watch it was between 12:55 and 1:05, because you get to see all the water roll back into the main container, as the hour column empties from 12 back to 1.
It’s like he’s trying to do Rube Goldberg, but he doesn’t know that Goldberg’s humor comes from the fact that the insane device is being used to accomplish something common and simple.
Maybe in England, filling brogues with guacamole is common and simple…
Kilby: the mall’s website still mentions it http://www.europa-center-berlin.de/en/the-sights/the-clock-of-flowing-time.html
The tourists’ comments on “Trip advisor” mention it as recently as this summer.
Like Treesong, I love the absurdity of Baxter and have many of his collections. I never much cared for Rube Goldberg, simply because his devices would (in theory) work, so that after seeing two or three of time, my attitude was “Yeah, another weird setup which supposedly would work; big deal; I got the idea the first time.”
@ Olivier – I think the last time I was there (several years ago) it was mothballed for renovation. The mechanism is fairly complex: there’s a pendulum that delivers a dollop of liquid to a series of siphon tubes, each of which cascades into the next siphon tube (after enough additions). After a certain number of minutes, the collected fluid siphons into the minute counter, and the process begins again. When the minute column is full, it siphons out, filling the next hour globe in the process.
“It’s like he’s trying to do Rube Goldberg, but he doesn’t know that Goldberg’s humor comes from the fact that the insane device is being used to accomplish something common and simple.”
I disagree. He is not trying to do anything complicated or difficult. He is simply trying to make an absurd sentence that syntactically is and parsiblely meaningful but logistically has no justifictation. Building a machine to put guacomole in shoes and classifying such machines is a parsible and interpretable concept. But is a completely absurd and not justifiable.
Re: “Heath Robinson” I confess I hadn’t heard of him but one of my irritations is the use of “Rube Goldberg” to describe machines that are intricate and precise for the sole aesthetic sense of being intricate and precise. Which is not at all what Rube Goldbergs cartoons, which involved embarrased octopuses and parrots being pricked by pins and housewives reacting to embarrassing moments, were not in the least.
I wish people would refer to these as Heath Robinson more (although that’s probably inaccurate too). I frequently hear them a “Mousetrap” devices (after the game Mousetrap) that seems so … tawdry, cheap and crass (and derivative as the game Mousetrap did not originate the idea– and pales in comparison to what *can* be done well).
” I never much cared for Rube Goldberg, simply because his devices would (in theory) work”
NO THEY WOULDN’T!!!! That’s part of the humor! That they include bizarre parts that will never work.
…. although I confess they could seem the same concept after awhile. But the same is true if logical non sequitor were all there was to Baxter… yeah, gaucomole in shoes, people in a bog watching flying kale, yeah, yeah… If that were all there was to Baxter (I think his better cartoons– this is not one– have more) I’d be bored with him quickly (and to be fair to Rube Golberg, I also think there is more; the bizarre organic components of his inventions and the environment housing all these have impact as well.)
“My fave is still their first, on the treadmills. Have you watched their other videos? They’ve certainly found their calling.”
I just wish their *music* wasn’t so annoyingly insipid. Frankly, I find the disconnect exceedingly jarring.
@woozy, quoting me: ” I never much cared for Rube Goldberg, simply because his devices would (in theory) work”
NO THEY WOULDN’T!!!! That’s part of the humor! That they include bizarre parts that will never work.
**************
Er, that’s why I said “in theory” (and “supposedly”). Goldberg’s characters’ ‘theories,’ of course, not my own (or yours).
Oh, I agree, but I still like the videos.
Heath Robinson is to England what Rube Goldberg is to America. Kind of like how Billy Mayerl is to England what Zez Confrey is to America. Heath Robinson (1872-1944) was a cartoonist who drew ridiculously complex machines. It appears that Robinson and Goldberg developed their respective styles without being aware of each other, like the creators of the American Dennis the Menace and the British Dennis the Menace.
Billy Maryerl and Zez Confrey???
I like Heath Robinson’s illustrations but then I always had a soft sport for Edwardian Children’s Illustration.
Heath Robinson seems more mechanical whereas Rube Goldberg was truly wierd using tea kettles scalding parrots, and octopuses turning pink with embarrassment etc.
Then there are Caractacus Pott’s fanciful machines in the movie “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang”, as conceived by British whimsical cartoonist/kinetic sculptor Rowland Emett.
( Emett’s drawings can be seen here: https://punch.photoshelter.com/gallery/Rowland-Emett-Cartoons/G0000e481CExtSaE/ )
One of my favorite absurdist artists is Philip Garner (now known as Pippa after a gender change), who I first came across in the 1976 book “Automerica” by the artist collective Ant Farm. Philip’s cartoons graced auto magazines such as Road & Track, and he’s done a series of weird satirical “inventions” seen in his books “Philip Garner’s Better Living Catalog” and “Utopia…Or Bust!”
https://www.domusweb.it/en/from-the-archive/2013/03/09/the-ironic-object.html
Wallace & Gromit had a few of these Rube Goldbergesque machines, too – one for getting out of bed and down to breakfast, fully dressed, if I remember correctly . . . and by the serendipitous nature of the comments herein, I found this . . .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6g8WGpMstI
Pee-Wee Herman has the best breakfast machine and the best music to go with it.
I think I just lost my appetite . . . nice dog, tho.
I think the picture looks like it should be in a how to book for boys.
@ Andréa – I recently picked up an extra copy of Aardmann’s “Wallace & Gromit” shorts at a flea market, precisely because it also had all ten “Cracking Contraptions” as a DVD extra. Unfortunately, the German edition replaced the animated introduction to each contraption with a translated title card, but at least it’s still possible to switch back to the original English audio.
The entire time I spent watching that Peewee clip in MiB’s link, I kept wondering when the “best” music was ever going to start. Frankly, I prefer the “insipid” music in “This Too Shall Pass”.