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It happens all the time, someone says something stupid and it all goes silent.
Well fill in these awkward gaps with the tumbleweed dispenser!
A small container with a button on the top, which when pressed rolls a miniature tumbleweed replica across whatever surface it sits on.
Tumbleweed Dispenser ~bz
[bristolz,
Feb 21 2005, last modified Jun 28 2005]
maybe this time he'll take the hint
[hob,
May 16 2009]
schematic
[hob,
May 16 2009]
Tumbleweed Connection
http://www.sa-cd.net/showtitle/2532
[normzone, Jan 25 2005]
Tumbling Tumbleweeds by Bob Nolan
http://www.cowboyly...mbleweeds-1899.html
[Mustardface, Jan 28 2005]
(??) Never Eat Soggy Waffles
http://www.geocitie...ssault/tumblew.html
Sorry about the poor quality, it scanned all fucked up. [AfroAssault, Feb 27 2005]
Oops, it wasn't tumbleweed that went out of fashion in the 70's
http://www.thegrumbleweeds.co.uk/
Never anno after you've just got back from the pub. [AbsintheWithoutLeave, Apr 24 2009]
Hey, look what I just found !
http://www.superpoo...likes-your-band.jpg
[normzone, May 15 2009]
Hooray!
http://www.youtube....watch?v=FwZjlg-vExE
Someone made a real-life dispenser [fridge duck, May 15 2009]
Showdown...
http://xkcd.com/789/
[normzone, Sep 06 2010]
Lyrics "Attack of the Giant Hogweed"
http://windywillow....-giant-hogweed.html
[normzone, Jul 05 2011]
Phobia for awkward gaps of silence
http://www.youtube....watch?v=PW5wy7VqmZA
A phobia workshop (1. of yells, 2. Shmulik: of apologies, 3. Rickey: of recurrences, 4. Keren: of awkward gaps of silence. (How long does that silence have to be? That one was on the border. 6. Shmulik - I'm late, sorry. Hears other people's phobias and barks. [pashute, Jul 24 2013]
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It doesn't even have to be a miniature, it can be stored compressed and pop out of its container and expand. |
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Interesting story: I was recently in the western prairies, although in the northern territories, and I saw a tumbleweed for the first time. I tell you no lie when I say I was nearly doubled over laughing when I saw the first one. And when a passer-by asked what was so funny, they didn't understand. |
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This is better than the sound of crickets chirping for those awkward, you're-such-an-idiot silences. Tumbleweed. Heh. |
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Thanks for a good laugh! (WTAGIPBAN) |
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That's good, you should post it on the halfbakery................. |
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........................ tumble.... tumble.... tumble..... |
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This made me remember a time when I lived in Wyoming; during recess, a friend told a joke that no one laughed at. Out of nowhere, a tumbleweed smacked him in the face. Irony was a foreign concept to us then, but I'll be damned if it wasn't hilarious.
Also, I suggest watching an episode of the "Clerks" cartoon series that features a Tumbleweed store going out of business due to the Quicker Mart across the street. Excellent idea. |
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shredded cellophane, the cats would go crazy for this. |
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Could it also play a sound effect of wind rustling over the desolate plain? |
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[wags] Better yet, place some of [mach]'s crickets inside, and you'll get both the tumbleweed and cricket chirp, telling the offending party they are an idiot with as many senses as possible.
Hmm... what smells idiotic.... |
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(... put them in glass cases on walls... "In case of awkward silence, break glass.") |
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Once upon a time, I was going to post the "Bad Joke Cricket" - a device for making the noisy cricket chirp in a room silenced by a bad joke. The aural equivalent, if you like, of a tumbleweed. But such things exist, and this is far better. I should have thought more ambitiously. :) |
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Japanese gardeners have special techniques for growing perfect miniature tumbleweeds, so finding a source is no problem. But what of the drifts of miniature tumbleweeds that will soon blow down our city streets, supplanting the native plastic bags from their ecological niche? |
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Oops, there goes another tumbleweed... |
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(sung:) "Drifting along with the tumbling tumbleweeds." (see link) |
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//Japanese gardeners have special techniques for growing perfect miniature tumbleweeds// |
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Bonsai tumbleweed? Fantastic! |
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Now I'm no [bristolz] or [FarmerJohn], but damn it [UnaBubba], I made one just for you in comic strip form. As soon as I get my hands on a scanner, it's on, bitch.
</chappelle>
Oh, that's why.
*UPDATE*
The pic has been scanned, see link. |
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bristolz, I love the illustration! |
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Could it play the theme music from 'The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly?' |
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Illustrate away! I think playing the sound of chirping crickets will be a useful addition, the theme of the good, the bad, and the ugly is an idea, I shall ponder this... |
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Thank you, thank you. I give full credit to the open container of gasoline in this closet I'm typing in. Why is my hair made of scorpions? |
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A well timed *sniff* has the same effect. Pastry for creativity. |
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What a truly funny comic strip, Afro. Makes me laugh and especially at the timing which is conveyed so clearly. |
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Wonderful work, [AfroAssault]. I had to save it to my halfbaked folder. |
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Once again, many thanks. Unfortunately, it cut off the bottom half which features Bob Hope beating the guy in the hat to death with a hammer.
(cue tumbleweed) |
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I think your tumbleweed dispenser is a good idea.... but... is there only one tumbleweed provided... If this is the case then problems arise... I for one would not like to chase after this single tumbleweed... and i dont think i would be willing to lose this after paying. There should be a pack of 3 or 5 that come on purchase... maybe refill packs that can be sold seperatly. |
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Though it is not mentioned in the text or shown in the illustration, most everyone on this site site is aware of the fact that at the back of the tumbleweed dispenser is a cartridge of 24 compressed tumbleweeds that installs through the bottom of the dispenser. |
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Within the cartridge, each flattened tumbleweed is layered with a thin tabbed plastic sheet that both separates the tumbleweeds and allows the dispenser to pluck just one (by grabbing a tab) from the cartridge and ready it for rolling. |
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Each tumbleweed is laced with a very fine denier monofilament webbing that allows the dispenser to pull the flattened tumbleweed out into its natural round shape just before release. In a clever bit of engineering, the webbing has just enough elastic twang to propel the tumbleweed a short distance across a flat surface before the wind catches and carries it away in classic tumbleweed fashion. |
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Selling for about $27USD, the OEM tumbleweed cartridges are a bit expensive but third party tumbleweed refill vendors are starting to sell knock-off cartridges at greatly reduced prices. |
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I Can't Believe It's Not Tumbleweed. |
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Perfect invention, brilliant drawing and strip, fabbo annos....I can't take any more. I'll have to only allow myself small rations of this idea or I'll implode. |
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uhh...tumbleweed and plains are associated with idiocy? |
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Sure, if that's what you want. |
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Wow, that was an old [bristolz] anno tailing on this. I remember those days. |
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I had always associated this idea with Bristolz. |
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Maybe because I saw her illustration first before reading this idea. Brings back memories of those days. |
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Wow, this idea has not a single bone. Even Tails for All (my personal favourite) has some. This must be by far the most voted on idea to have such an achievement. |
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A laser instead of a gun. |
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I think a digital version of this idea could be used for email. If you sent an email to someone and she did not reply, you could forward the original message to the recipient again, with the addition of a tumbleweed that slowly rolls across the screen. |
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I used to be incredibly excited by the thought of tumbleweed as a child. |
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//I used to be incredibly excited by the thought of tumbleweed as a child//
Has it got a less exciting adult phase too then? |
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Do they even have tumbleweeds in the UK? |
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//Do they even have tumbleweeds in the UK?//
We did in the 1970s, but they quickly went out of fashion. |
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//We did in the 1970s, but they quickly went out of fashion.// |
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Of course, a lot of people had trouble letting go, which resulted in a lot of awkward moments and a brief resurgence in tumbleweed sales.
In the end the recursive annoyance started playing havok with the weather, and we couldn't be having with that - they were outlawed shortly thereafter. |
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There was that failed attempt at 'new tumbleweed' in the mid-80s, but I think everyone agreed that it just wasn't the same. |
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No, no tumbleweed over here, which is why i was excited. The thing is, it's effectively a biological wheel and you don't get many of them to the pound.
I can't think of a metaphorical equivalent to the tumbleweed in British parlance. |
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I think someone had one of those while I as on road trip! We weren't talking until all the tumbleweeds (there were, like, thousands) came bouncing across the road! |
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And then you set your paw upon it? |
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// think by releasing dome chemical or something//
Do other brassicas communicate with other architectural constructs, I wonder? |
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Plants generally signal to each other quite a lot. For instance, apples coordinate their ripening by releasing ethylene.
I've been reading about this, and there is a species of hedge mustard which does the tumbleweed thing, though British hedge mustard doesn't. I can see how it could happen. |
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I can't believe this is on the front page on the same day I happened to stop by. Still awesome. |
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up_on_cloud_nine, I am now curious what constitutes danger to a cabbage, and what the other cabbages are going to do with that information. Useful knowledge for those planning a sneak attack, having the ability to knock out their defenses. |
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***Afro***...okay everyone gather round for a
group grope...I mean hug!!! |
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All this idea needs is the sound of a gentle breeze, and a distant bell tolling. |
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Hi Afro! I've been away too, nice to see familiar names. |
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Starts talking rubbish, (something I do quite often anyway) just to get a tumbleweed to come out. |
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Uh oh I think we may have a hob-fro. (Is afro and
hob one in the same? How else could you explain
the uncanny coincidence of them both coming
back within moments of each other?) |
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[bliss] - "Hobo Salt"
[Dub] - I thought there was no way to make this idea any better until now. |
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Amazing - great idea [+], but I feel an innate desire to bone this :D |
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I havn't bunned this yet... granted, anybody who boned this idea would probably get run down on the street by half a car anyway [+] |
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You know, this doesn't only work for stupid statements. It also works for faux pas, bizarre statements and statements of such towering genius or wit that no-one can follow them. Unless that would require a different kind of weed. |
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// a different kind of weed. // |
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Probably the sort you smoke. |
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//// a different kind of weed. // |
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Probably the sort you smoke.// |
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[spidermother], nice tumbleweed illustration. |
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I keep thinking of Genesis "Attack of the Giant Hogweed". (link) to lyrics, but it's worth Groovesharking the tune for a listen. |
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Added link 'Workshop for silence gap phobia' 8 years
later. Still miss bris. |
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This has always been my favourite tumbleweed
dispenser post. |
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