Some Silly Inventions That Became Wildly Popular

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A production of "I Heart Radio." Hey and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh and there's Chuck and Jerry's here too. And it's time to buckle down and get serious about some silly inventions that turned out to be pretty popular.

I'm in. This takes me right back. It does, because this is a super kind of 80s,

“but I really associate most of this with the 90s, don't you?”

Oh, I just mean this episode takes me back to like 2012. Oh, gotcha. But yeah, sure. Yeah. Well, this article was clearly written around 2009 or 2010,

by our esteemed colleague Jonathan Strickland. Esteemed. Oh, yeah. There's loads of esteemed going his way from us. We're talking today about some silly inventions.

Typically, they were what you would call direct response TV marketed types of inventions or products, right? Which are what those, like the little, they, at least in the United States, that little red icon that says as seen on TV,

those are basically across the board direct response TV

marketed products. That's right. And by direct response, that basically means we want to make more money. And we'll do that by making like an infomercial.

And instead of the infomercial saying like, and now go to your store and buy this thing, even though a lot of the stuff you could find in drug stores and like maybe a bedbath and beyond or something like that. Sure.

But generally what they were trying to do was sell direct to you, get a direct response by putting like an 800 number up. You could call in order so that just means they get more juice for themselves since they're not having to sell it through a store. Yeah, and often like, yes, of course they want a more profit,

but they also wanted to be able to pay off the third mortgage. They took out on their house to get this invention of theirs out. Yeah, maybe public. You know, there's a lot of these that were just invented by some person. You know, as a good idea and luckily for them,

they took off and became super popular. So there's one that it wouldn't qualify in any really way shape or form is a silly invention, so we didn't include it on this list. But it is the most the greatest selling direct response TV marketed product of all time, far and away,

and it's the George Foreman Grill.

“What I saw in the last like 20 plus years, more like 30 years, I think.”

It sold about a billion dollars worth of product. That is pretty significant. I don't know if you're counting, but a billion dollars still means a lot these days. It does.

I never had a Foreman Grill.

I never owned one, but I live with one for a year. Oh, yeah, did it pay a share of the rent? Yeah, I think one of my roommates had one year. I feel like in college, and you know, if you don't know what those were,

panini press or something, except they raised up one side of it. So grease could trickle out of it. That was about the only difference I think, right? Yeah, but the thing is it really works. You mean I have one, and we use it.

Basically anytime we cook burgers, we use it. And I mean, like there's no loss of taste, but there's a ton of like fat that's just just relute, just strips right out. So we use ours pretty frequently. That's funny. Yeah, I don't think I knew that you guys had a Foreman. We do.

And one other thing about this too, this is another thing too with direct response products. Most people think George Foreman invented that grill. And because he refers to it and adds us his grill, he did not. It was already an existing product. And he was approached to basically be the pitchman for it.

“And very wisely, he said, sure I'll do it, but you have to give me 45% of the profits.”

Yeah, he made a lot of money on this thing. Just crazy gobs of money. Good for him. And there's a similar, so moving into our list now Chuck. And this is in very much stuff you should know tradition, not a top 10.

Not a full 10 top 10 list, I guess is what we call this kind of thing. Yeah, I don't know that we've ever done 10.

And we're never going to.

We better not. If we did, at some point we need to find that episode and go edit out one of them. Yeah, or maybe that's like a very last episode will be a true 10. Oh, yeah, that'll be the tell. We could do a top 10 of our top 10 episodes.

Yeah, that sounds like a great way to finish actually. So the segue I guess from George Foreman to the first on our list is the idea that people tended to think Suzanne Summers may have invented the thigh master. She did not. Just like George Foreman, she was approached to become the pitch person for an existing invention.

And she thanked her lucky stars all the way to the bank later on that she agreed to it. That's right.

“If you ever certain age, you may not even know who's Suzanne Summers is, or you may know her as the thigh master lady.”

If you're a little bit older, if you're in our generation and above, you know her as Chrissy from the great. She's the sheriff. Sit calm. Three's company. Oh, three's company.

Yeah. Yeah, great show. She was also on. She's the sheriff though. That was a good one.

I didn't.

I've never even heard of that show.

It was the kind of show that would come on at 3 30 p.m. Saturday. Right after reruns of Mama's family. Yeah. I really never heard of she's a sheriff. I take it.

She's a sheriff. She was a sheriff. Okay. It was a good show. But yes, of course, three's company.

Chrissy is who she is, is vastly far and away better known for. But by the, I mean, that was like the late 70s, early 80s when she left three's company. Apparently she was making 120 grand less than episode than Jack John Ritter. So she's like, I'm out of here. And there was kind of a low in her career between then.

And I guess 1991, when she came back with a vengeance on TV, pitching this thigh master. Yeah, pitching the V bar.

“That's what it was originally called when a Swedish physical therapist named Dr.”

Ann Marie Benstrom invented this thing in the 60s. But they tweaked it a little bit. They made it look cooler. They made it a little more colorful and brought it into the 80s slash early 90s. And approached her to, like you said, like, hey, you know, you're a very recognizable face and you're into fitness.

And you're smart lady. She played a ding bat on three's company. But Suzanne Summers, very smart woman. Yeah.

As evidence by the, perhaps $300 million she made on, on Hawk and the thigh master.

And eventually, like buying out the partners to where she outright owned it. That's awesome. So you said that this is an existing device, right? The V bar? Yes.

So what it was, we should just say real quick. The thigh master or the V bar was this kind of device. What would you like in it to? You know those like paper chip clips? Yeah, I'm just ready for you to confuse everybody.

Go ahead. Okay. It's like a giant paper chip clip. But it doesn't open up so you couldn't clip it to anything. It's just the squeezing part.

So go to your, go to your kitchen right now. Get a paper chip clip, break off the part that opens up. And then put the little remaining part that's like a V, the V bar between your legs and squeeze. And what you're doing is using a mini thigh master right now. That's right.

You do the same thing with your fingers if you wanted to. Right.

And this was now the thigh master that Susan Summers was now demonstrating on some very famous TV ads.

Again, starting in 1991. That's right. And I guess the only other thing we should mention is that there was a physician on a lot of these commercials. It was a guy wearing a lab coat. Richard Herbert L. Gould, who was there to, you know, recommend the thing and saying that he uses it.

And the, the cherry on top is that Dr. Gould was an ophthalmologist. That's great. Not, not that that doesn't, you know, I mean, still a doctor still used the thing, I guess. For sure. Yeah, it's not illegitimate. It's just funny.

Clearly new Suzanne Summers somehow probably. I, I, or they just started picking doctors at random.

“I think he was probably her ophthalmologist in my guess.”

Yeah, you're probably right. I feel like there is one more thing we should mention about the ad. And that is the fact that Suzanne Summers appeared in it wearing a leotard, like you would think for working out. But also pantyhose and high heels. Which is a specific kind of look.

Yeah. Oh, actually, there is one more thing because this is, we buried the lead. The probably most interesting thing about all of this is that there is a direct response hall of fame. And she's in it. Yep. She was inducted in 2014 and rightly so. Amazing.

Take an early break or move on? No, we got to move on. Okay. So I say we move on to the pocket fisherman. And a little bit of a bio on rompopeal. One of the great salesmen of all time.

Oh, yeah. Ron Pepeal, if you had a TV in the 1980s and '90s, then you have seen this dude. He was the guy that, you know, but wait, there's more that came from him. He originated that term.

“He was popular in the, I guess, even the like the '50s.”

And early '60s when he made the first information for the vegematic. Yeah. It slices. It dices. Like that was Ron Pepeal. That's sort of tropes of information.

A lot of them come from the great Ron Pepeal. Yeah. That vegematic info martial. That was like the world's first one. So yes, he was the info martial god. And he got his start.

He was always good at selling things.

Apparently by the time he was 16, he was selling his dad's inventions at flea markets and grossing about 500 bucks a day. And that's in 1951 dollars. So that's like $10 million a day today.

Within just a few years, he was a household name thanks to television. And it was largely built on that vegematic that apparently is dad invented. Yeah, it was, you know, it's a veggie chopper. Yeah, manual food processing. And that's it.

“But because he could get so excited about any wacky, weird invention”

and try to make you excited about it, there was just no ignoring this guy. Yeah, he had the inshell egg scrambleer. And that was a device where if you didn't want to crack your egg. Put it in a bowl and scramble it.

You could use this little device at a little bent pin that went inside the egg shell and spun around. Very interesting invention. And the GLH, which did for great looking hair, the GLH formula number nine hair system,

which is basically spray paint for ball spots.

Yeah, it was like aerosol spray hair like product or something like that. Remember when Rudy Giuliani swed it, his, uh, swed it that stuff down the side of his face?

Yeah, I do. It was amazing. It was. Like what, what a time when he was on TV sort of, like sweating, uh,

what look like shoe polish and then standing in front of that. Four seagull landscape. Oh my god, what a time to be alive. Amazing. It was like S, S and L come to life.

Really? What? Moment after moment to something new. Yeah. That things inside the egg shell scramble are two by the way.

So one of the other things about all these products are their ads or magnificent. Sometimes they're magnificently terrible or just so absurd or just unintentionally salacious. But this, this inside the egg shell scramble,

uh, ad had a little kid sitting at a table, and he had been served like running eggs. And it's the, the TV announcers says no more runny eggs and the kid looks at his plate and kind of gags a little bit. Good Lord.

I love runny eggs. Well, this kid didn't independently, neither did Ron Pope deal because he used it as a selling point. Well, his company, uh, because he was Ron was called Ron Co.

and part of that chunk, uh,

is owed to the pocket fisherman, uh, which is the one on the list here.

“And that's, you can still get a pocket fisherman.”

It is a, exactly what it sounds like. It's a compact fishing rod that folds up. Very small. Um, has a little, uh, compartment in the handle, the holds some stuff.

And it's, you know, the, the problem with the pocket fisherman, like it works. If you go on YouTube, there are plenty of examples of people using this thing

like a decent-sized fish, even. Mm-hmm. Uh, it's just not, I think you had it here, maybe it was stricken and it said

it solves a problem that we didn't know existed. Uh, and that's kind of true because, you know, if you're going camping, let's say, or backpacking, and you pack up a break down

a regular-sized fishing rod, it straps on the outside of your backpack, no problem. And it's not really that big or in the way. So the pocket fisherman just took it a little further, I guess.

Yeah, and made it chunkier. Yeah, they're cool-looking. Yeah, they look vaguely like a, um, staple gun. Uh, okay.

That you, you break off the handle from and put between your legs and squeeze staples into your, the insides of your thighs. That's what I like.

“I think we should definitely take that break now.”

Okay. All right. We'll be right back with a few more right after this. There's two golden rules that any man should live by.

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Woo, woo, woo. My dad gave me the best advice ever. I went and had a lunch with him one day.

“And I was like, and dad, I think I want to really give this a shot.”

I don't know what that means. But I just know the groundlings. I'm working my way up through. And I know it's a place they come. Look for up and coming talent.

He said, if it was based solely on talent, I wouldn't worry about you. Which is really sweet. Yeah. He goes by.

There's so much lock and ball. Mm. And he's like, just give it a shot. He goes by. But if you ever reach a point where you're banging your head against the wall,

and it doesn't feel funny anymore, it's okay to quit. If you saw it written down, it would not be an inspiration. It would not be on a calendar of, you know, the cat just hanging there. Yeah.

It would not be. Right. It wouldn't be that. There's a lot of luck. Yeah.

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All right, we're back everybody.

a semi legitimate piece of work out equipment. It's kind of like a dumbbell. If you picture a dumbbell, but instead of just lifting the dumbbell, you put both hands on it and move it. And there's a spring in the middle and the two ends of the dumbbell,

like move, like when you shake it, a shake weight. That's what it is. But it became popular not because of its, how well it worked or how good of a piece of gear it was. It became popular because of the clearly obvious sexual

and you window that that comes about while operating. Yeah, we don't really need to explain it. Just go look at a Shake Weight Add and you'll immediately understand what we're talking about. Yeah.

“The thing is, though, Chuck, is it does seem to have worked, right?”

Like you're basically, instead of you moving,

the weight is moving and what you're trying to do is stabilize it. And what the Shake Weight Makers we're saying is like, hey, man, this requires way more muscle exertion than traditional dumbbell lifting. And they commissioned some studies that basically said,

yeah, this actually is correct. Use something more like 300% more muscle activity. Yeah. Then you do with traditional dumbbells. And into like one's sixth of the time too.

And plus, I think they had a two-and-a-half pound version that was for women, apparently. And then one that was double the weight for men. And the two-and-a-half pound version burned as many calories as a 12 pound dumbbell.

So all of this checked out. Yeah. But again, that's not really what people were buying the Shake Weight for. No.

It was parody sort of all over the place. Obviously on stuff like SNL, Ellen DeGeneres. And you know, there's just one of those funny things that hit like virally early on because of how it looked when you used it.

You know, I imagine it was a pretty decent cardio workout. I don't think I've ever seen one in person or touched one. I don't believe I have either. But I live with one for a while. Did you?

No. It was a mean drunk. Yeah.

“I wonder if these things had, if they were like in actual gyms?”

I don't know. This is one of the things. When it comes to exercise equipment, like the thigh master too, the Shake Weight was like there was article after article.

It doesn't really work. It actually works. And from what I saw, the consensus seemed to be that it definitely did give you a workout. Like you could feel it.

But as far as strength training, which is what most people used dumbbells for, it wasn't going to help you very much for that. Yeah. Probably pretty good cardio though.

Like I said, I imagine it was a pretty decent forearm workout. You know? Right. Exactly. But yes, I'm sure most people wouldn't have been caught dead

at the gym using one of those things. All right. Well, that was the Shake Weight. Oh, one other thing. I saw that in one year.

I think this was 2010.

They made something like 40 million dollars off of it.

These things. It's crazy. Yeah. It is pretty impressive. So what's up next, Charles?

Well, we got to go with big mouth. I could even say it, right? Almost said Billy Bigmouth. But that's just what I called mine. Bigmouth Billy Bass.

Took the world by storm in the early 2000s. And if you don't know what I'm talking about, it is if you've ever seen a taxidermied fish mounted on a plaque on the wall, like a big largemouth bass. Imagine if that thing came to life in saying don't worry.

Be happy to you. Yeah. This thing had a real evil dead vibe to it. Yeah. I think so.

Take me to the river was the other one of the two original or not original songs. But you know what I mean?

The first songs that the Billy Bass played.

Right. And this is in 2000 when Billy Bass spent its year in the limelight. But the story goes back a couple of years earlier. And the inventor Joe Pellity Erie and his wife Barbara were out on a road trip. Joe was looking for the next big idea.

He was a VP at a novelty company. And he was trying to figure out, you know, what to do.

“I think he had kind of hit a dry patch and was a little concerned.”

And they ended up at a best pro shop on the road trip. And his wife Barbara knowing that he was trying to come up with a new idea said, why not amounted fish that sings? And Joe said, Barbara, I could kiss you. And she says, well, what are you waiting for? And they kissed. I wonder how that went down.

Was she literally walking around a bass pro shop and saw a taxidermy fish? And said, wouldn't it be great if that thing sang? Don't worry, be happy. That's how I envision it. Just what a while.

I mean, was she on P.O.D?

Yeah, maybe she didn't even think of it. She saw it, you know? Yes, such a weird thing to conjure up, but I love it. And it was a very, very fun product. Like out of all these, to me, this is the most kind of fun thing that you might want to have on your wall.

“Yeah, and I think it's great they went with, don't worry, be happy to take me to the river.”

You understand that's pretty funny. But don't worry, be happy. That was like the smash hit of 1988. Like it had been dead and gone for over a decade. And they brought that thing back with Bigmouth Billy Bass.

Yes, hard to get that out in it. Yeah, it is. So the thing was actually for what it was. It was a fairly sophisticated piece of gear. They had a sensor inside of it.

So when you walk by it, it would pick up on that and just automatically start singing. And he had some designs that he did over the years that he didn't love. But he really hit on it when, I guess his wife Barbara probably said, "Well, why don't you have the thing, turn it's head out and sort of look at the person they're serenading?" And he was like, "By God, Barbara, we've got to kiss again."

Right, and that was a big deal. Like that, like you did not see things that did that, that turned away from the plaque and looked at you to sing. That put the novel and novelty for Bigmouth Billy Bass, if you ask me. Yeah, so like I was saying though, it was pretty sophisticated thing. The way it all worked and for 29.95.

You know, they took a long time to build. It wasn't cheap. It was a well-made piece of gear. It was 40 days to build one.

“So I think Jimmy, GEMNY was the company that he, which still owns the Bigmouth Billy Bass that he was working for.”

But they didn't know it was going to be such a big deal. So, and like I said, because it took so long to make. They ended up short-handed and these things were going on eBay for like three times the amount. Yeah, and I mean, 29.95 in 2000 was about $57 today for a latex singing fish, essentially. But it just hit just right.

And it became like basically the big thing in 2000 in the United States in a very short order.

Competitors came out and knockoffs came out, and then they showed up with different songs too. I will survive, stay in the live, YMCA. Of course, this was during a disco revival, if you'll remember correctly. And I found, I didn't send this to you. I don't think, but the Royal Palm Shuffle Board Club, the Chicago location, along one wall.

They have more than 70 Bigmouth Billy Bass. Wow, nightmare fuel. That they have choreographed. Uh-huh. Not even to do to sing in unison.

Like one will sing the main part, and the others will turn and sing the chorus and stuff like that. Wow. But they sing stay in the live. They sing talking heads once in a lifetime. And then they sing choices by E40.

So, it's really something to see if you go look up the video. Wow, I got to check that out. That took some pretty brilliant wiring, I imagine. I can't, I think it's just timing. I don't know how they did it, but it's really impressive.

But yeah, it's a little haunting for sure, because they have dead eyes.

I never really thought about it before, but that's the thing.

One of the things that makes it so absurd is the fish looks dead still. You know what I mean? They didn't try to make it look alive. It looks like a dead-mounted fish come to life or come to reanimation singing to you. I never really thought about that.

I did neither until just the second chuck. Well, we sold about a hundred million dollars worth of these things. It was popular for about a year, which is all you need really. Yeah. And they don't even advertise their products.

So this was all a word of mouth. Like somebody would see it in someone's house. And in the bathroom, they would go to use a bathroom. And this bass would start singing to him. And before you know it, they're buying four of them to give to their friends.

And so on and so on. And they don't realize when they buy it, though, that motion sensor work pretty well.

“And so you got sick of it pretty quickly, I think.”

Yeah, for sure. And America is the whole got sick of it pretty quickly. So like you said, a year's pretty much all you need and we moved on. But not before they get a period in all sorts of different TV shows. And like it was parody too.

And I think it played a role in an episode of murder sheets. You know, it was on surprise though. There was a, like at least one episode where it showed up. And it was kind of like a, my girlfriend, maybe. Oh, God.

Can we move on to the bedassler? Yes. This was a big deal. This was a, it came from a guy named Herman Brickman who was a protege of Rhonda Peel. And he invented it in the late 70s.

It was called the stud-setter, the Rhonco rhinestone at first.

And you know, it was like kids used it some in the 80s. It became a really big deal because people like Paris Hilton and Brittany Spears.

Like, there was a lot of denim like denim jackets and jeans and stuff like that.

Just to kind of get across what you're doing here is pretty involved. But you take say pair of jeans, maybe around the pocket. And you slide that bit of fabric in between the backstop, the bottom of the thing, the base of the thing. And the plunger.

And under the plunger, you put a setter and the rhinestone. Blunge it down. And all of a sudden, you've just bedazzled your jeans. Well, you, yeah, you've put one bedazzle on to your jeans. And you have a lot of work ahead of you.

“Yeah, I think you need to put at least five things for it to truly bedazzle.”

That seems like the minimum, yeah. Yeah, but yeah, it looks kind of like a stapler. And you mental floss, you got some stuff from mental floss on this one. And apparently, Ron, put peel at one point as a selling point. Said it can make an eight dollar pair of jeans worth up to fifty dollars.

The thing that kills me from that is it was up to fifty dollars. Like, are you going to get a seller or something? Yeah, I guess so. I think that's what he was suggesting. I think people did that actually.

Yeah. Well, it's identified as a Y2K fashion trend that came from Millennium optimism. I don't remember optimism, most of them, Millennium to you. I remember like fear in dread. Hmm.

I don't remember.

“I remember the fear and dread about the Y2K bug.”

But maybe after that, there was optimism, because we were now like living in the future or something. I don't remember. Maybe. That's pretty out of it at the time. I'm not sure.

But I'm talking more about like the whole X files zeitgeist. You know, it was a lot really paranoid and just kind of dark. I don't know.

I always think of it as like a people were just kind of worried on a really unconscious level about what was going to happen.

That's just you, buddy. Yeah, maybe what? So it's made a comeback, Chuck. If you go on to TikTok or Instagram and you say, "Badazzle in the little search bar," you know, bring up like little videos of people bedazzling stuff.

They don't use the bedazzler machine anymore. Because you can, I think people still bedazzle close here there. But this is more like the current trend is more about like bedazzling objects instead. Yeah, I've definitely seen bedazzle cell phone cases and stuff like that. And I know that, I guess you've seen Vaseline jars.

But that's where you see these. I saw it on, man, I can't remember where I saw it. But somebody took a little mini Vaseline brand Vaseline petroleum jelly jar and did just redid the whole thing in different colored rhinestones. And it looks like a, it's a bedazzle Vaseline jar. It's pretty impressive.

“Yeah, I mean, I guess if you need to grease yourself up, you might as well have fun doing it.”

And so the thing is though is like since you can't use the bedazzling machine, you're just kind of like kind of tediously like applying one after the other within adhesive. Right. It's not the whole satisfying plunge of applying them. So it's a little more of a craft these days, like a kind of a meditative tedious craft as opposed to like the whole rock and roll ethos of the original bedazzler that was in the 90s. Yeah, it's like the origami of, you know, blingy crafts.

All right, Chuck, we're down to our last two. If you can believe it or not, I think we're going to end up doing eight total. Because remember, we're not including the form and grill that's not silly and it was the intro everybody. Don't get confused here. Yeah, well, I guess we need to take the breaks in.

Oh, boy, thank you for thinking of that because Jerry would have killed us. All right, we'll be back right after this with our boy. I'm laying in a safe. You just got to wait and see. There's two golden rules that any man should live by.

Rule one never mess with a country girl.

He plays stupid games, you get stupid prizes. And rule two never mess with her friends either. We always say that trust your girlfriends. I'm Anna Sinfield, and in this new season of The Girl Friends. Oh, my God, this is the same man.

A group of women discovered they've all dated the same prolific con artist. I felt like I got hit by a truck. I thought how could this happen to me. The cops didn't seem to care, so they take matters into their own hands. I said, "Oh, hell, no. I vowed. I will be his last target. He's going to get what each serves." Listen to The Girl Friends. Trust me, babe.

What's up, everyone? I'm Aegobot, and my next guest.

You know from stepbrothers, anchor man, Saturday night live, and the big money players network. It's Will Ferrell. My dad gave me the best advice ever.

“I went and had a lunch with him one day, and I was like, "Dad, I think I want to really give this a shot."”

I don't know what that means, but I just know the groundlings. I'm working my way up through, and I know it's a place to come. Look for an up-and-coming talent. He said, "If it was based solely on talent, I wouldn't worry about you." Which is really sweet. He goes, "But there's so much luck involved." And he's like, "Just give it a shot." He goes, "But if you ever reach a point where you're banging your head against the wall, and it doesn't feel funny more, it's okay to quit."

If you saw it written down, it would not be an inspiration. It would not be on a calendar of, you know, the cat just hanging in there. It would not be right. It wouldn't be that. There's a lot in line. Listen to "Thanks Dad" on the I-Hart Radio App, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. In 2023, former Bachelor Star Clayton Eckard found himself at the center of a paternity scandal.

The family court hearings that followed revealed glaring inconsistencies in her story. This began a years-long court battle to prove the truth.

“You doctored this particular task twice in selling, correct? I doctored the test once.”

It took an army of internet detectives to crack the case. I wanted people to be able to see what their tax dollars were being used for. Some like the greatest disinfectant. They would uncover a disturbing pattern. Two more men who'd been through the same thing.

Greg Olesby and Michael Marancini. My mind was blown. I'm Stephanie Young. This is Love Trap.

Laura Scottsdale, Police. As the season continues, Laura Owens finally faces consequences.

Ladies and gentlemen, breaking news at America, for County as Laura Owens has been indicted on fraud charges. This isn't over until Justice has served in Arizona. Listen to Love Trap podcast on the I-Hart Radio App, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Okay, Chuck, we're back.

You wouldn't say what was coming up next. You left it to me, so I'll just tell everybody we're about to go dive into the flow B. Yeah, what episode did we talk about the flow B on? It doesn't ring a bell. We've talked about it at some point because I remember mentioning that we almost bought one

in our college house. You know, kind of late night one night, like you do, you're up late. Doing God knows what, and you see the information will come on. You know, like we should get one of those and cut each other's hair. But then in true college fashion, no one ever follows up on that and does it?

Yep, that's because no one had a credit card that they were willing to bust out. Yeah, that's true. I had that college amics.

“Yeah, I had college capital one. That's how it works though, like those late night commercials.”

Essentially, I would guess probably 50, 60% of sales of all these products come from people ordering them while they're drunk. Yeah, probably so. It's got to be, like that explains quite a bit of it. So the flow B, this is like a humble, legitimate adventure. Oh, by the way, we must have talked about it in our how vacuum attachments work episode. Yeah, that's it.

But this guy, this was invented by a guy named Rick Hunt, who I saw the original info commercial for this. And he said that he was dissatisfied with the haircuts he was getting and that they grew out too fast. And wouldn't it be great if he could keep up with it himself? And he wasn't in the salon hair styling industry. He wasn't in the vacuum industry. He was a carpenter who owned a cabinetry company out in California.

So he was a California cabinet. The carpenter. That would have been better if all of it had rolled off the tongue. And his name was Rick Hunt. So I don't know if I said that or not. Yeah, just a humble carpenter, much like Jesus and Harrison Ford.

So he gives up, he believes in this thing so much. He gives up his carpentry business. He sells it. In fact, to help fund it, went around to county fairs, demonstrating this thing.

He called it the vacuum cut at first, but eventually renamed it the flow B because it makes like a buzzing sound like a bee.

And he colored it thusly. It was like yellow and black. And it's, you know, if you don't know what this thing is, it attaches to a vacuum cleaner.

And it engages the vacuum and pulls your hair into a, you know, they have these like recessed hair trimmer blades in there. And they had different attachments to cut it at different lengths. So it just suck in your hair. So, you know, I saw a guy went on YouTube today to see it demonstrated in modern times. And I guess this is during COVID because the guy was like, hey, these are great things to have around right now during COVID. And yeah, you just sort of suck some up and then push it back down and pull it out and push it down all over your hair evenly.

And it supposedly does a decent job of cutting your hair. Yeah, so you know, when you go to, you know, great clips or van Michael or something like that. The hair stylist will put their hair, their fingers through your hair and pull up and put tension on your hair to make it easier to cut.

“That's what the vacuum suction does to your hair.”

So that means that you don't need to have somebody with extra hands to cut your hair. So typically, you can do yourself.

This thing you just run over your head and that was always essentially the big selling point for the flowbee is, well, two of them.

One, you can cut your own hair anytime you want. Well, three, two, you're going to save a ton of money. The flowbee's going to pay for itself in a couple of months, depending on size of your family. And then three, no clippings to pick up because they all get sucked right into your shop back. No, must, no fuss. The problem for me is I love getting a haircut.

Oh, me, too. I get to go hang out with my buddy, Michael, who does my hair. I get to hang out with my friend Robin and it's always good. It's fun. It's sort of like, I don't do spa treatments much, so this sort of like a spa treatment for me. Get my hair washed by somebody.

It's the best. Yeah. It is nice.

“Did you get a hot towel and like a little lavender essential oil?”

Uh, no. She didn't do like, uh, it's not like one of those men's barber shops where they offer you a whiskey and. No, no. And the hot towel treatment, but she does a great job. Yeah, no, neither's mine.

It's a salon for sure. Uh, so, uh, let's see. Oh, so I wanted to say also one of the reasons the phobia gets to me is. Um, Rick Contz, like, he was kind of the person I was referencing at the beginning where like he really. Um, I think you might have said he sold his cabinetry business to fund this.

And he started pounding the pavement. He's like, I've got a great idea here and I've got to just get it out there. He went to Narelko, we went to Conair, he went to Remington, I saw. Um, there was a great article on mental floss that really kind of covered the phobia. But he was getting nowhere.

He went to Salons and Salons are like, no, we don't want to sell this. It's going to cut into our business. Yeah. So he did what most great silly inventors have done. He took it directly to the consumer.

He created a direct response infomercial. He pone it up 30,000 dollars of his own money to produce a 30 minute infomercial. And it first aired in 1988. And the premise of it is it's a fake show. The show is new products and ideas, which doesn't exist.

It was just for the show. And it was hosted by Lenin McGill, no one knows who that is, had a synth soundtrack. And the guest just happened to be Rick Hunt's. And like, he just demonstrates the phobia and you could get it directly through that infomercial. And it just started to take off from there.

Yeah, 30 minute infomercial for something that takes 90 seconds to describe is and demonstrate to probably. We haven't seen padding like that since probably this episode of ours. That was, that was a low blow, but pretty hilarious. They sold between $70 dollars and a hundred and fifty dollars a piece.

He sold about two million of them.

So that they sold a ton of these. And if you go on YouTube to, you know, type in phobia.

“If you want to see a demonstration, one of the top things that will come up is George Clooney.”

Because he's been on that song on Kim All I Know. He's been on CBS Sunday morning. Apparently has been non-ironically using the phobia for decades on himself. Is what he says at least. Yeah, he said, listen, man, it works. Yeah, he was, yeah, non-ironically is a great way to put it.

So that's it for the phobia. It's off for a cunts for sticking to your dreams, your vision. I think we're cunts demonstrate the lesson for all of us. Agreed. And then last up Chuck, we have one that's a little deer to my heart.

This no needy.

Yeah, I never had a snuggie.

The snuggie is a blanket with sleeves full stop. Yeah, you can wear it essentially. It's a blanket you can wear. It's open in the back like a hospital gown, basically. I don't remember what, like I think the current snuggies are made of fleece.

They were like the most chemically chemical fabric you can possibly imagine. Oh, man. And you would get them at like, like, a drugstores that kind of thing. But they originally started as a direct response TV campaign. And they made a splash, like almost out of the gate.

They were just, this talked about item in 2008, 2009, 2010. I saw, there was a blogger who I could not find the name of. If this was you right in and let us know because it was great. They said that the people in the snuggie commercial, who are just doing like everyday stuff, but wearing this blanket,

he said they all looked like members of a laid-back satanic cult. That's amazing. It's pretty good. That's a cult I wouldn't mind being in, actually. The only cult that appeals to me.

This is snuggie cult. Yeah, they sold a ton of them though, like all of these that seems to be a recurring theme. They sold 25 million snuggies. So not 25 million dollars. That's about 500 million bucks.

And they did that generally between 2008 and topped out at that number by 2013. So it wasn't a one-year wonder. It was a, you know, had a little bit of staying power. It did. And snuggie wasn't the first one.

Apparently the very first blanket was sleeves was called The Slanket, which was invented by a freshman at University of Maine. And I think 1998's name was Gary Blake. And that made its splash, I guess, on QVC.

“And I think it enjoyed like a resurgence during the snuggie era.”

But even before the snuggie, and after the slanket, there was the freedom blanket, the book blanket, the cuddle wrap, the toasty wrap. The difference was snuggie went all in on their direct response TV campaign. And I think the cute name really helped too.

Yeah, for sure. And you never know when you're, you know, something is just going to hit the zeitgeist.

It just in just the right way, you know. Yeah. And I said it had a place in my heart, the snuggie did. It's because for Halloween 2009, which is the best Halloween I've had is an adult in my life. You me went as a snuggie.

And it was a lot of fun. We walked around New York and then went to a friend's party, our friend Adams party. And it's just had a great night. That's awesome. So I think that's a Chuck 40 minutes of high quality stuff. You should know podcasting has just been completed.

Yeah, 42 and a half minutes if you want to get technical. Oh God, I guess I started after you. Oh, now it says 41 15 now. Oh my God. I hope this is a big, a edit job for Jerry. Well, since Chuck worried about the edit job for Jerry,

“I think that means it's listed in a mail time, don't you?”

That's right. Instead of listening to mail though, we're going to do an Instagram comment. Okay. Because I couldn't find a good listener mail, but I went to our Instagram page, which is I think.

That's why it's a podcast. Correct. Is the name of it. And you know, we're going to start doing some more fun stuff over there. By the way, if you want to give it a follow.

But this is from AJ, Gree, six, AJ, REE, six. And this was following up on the Kentucky Meat Shower short stuff episode. Oh, good, good. I haven't listened yet because I'm on vacation, but I'm sure you mentioned.

It's coming up on the Meat Shower's anniversary, guys. And Bath Co was supposedly reenacting this event. Crying laughing emoji. This could be a fun way to do listener mail moving for sure.

I always geek out when you two talk about Kentucky.

I've gone to your past four Seattle shows. My one question if I had the chance was always going to be, Do you love Kentucky? Or are we just really weird and we're talking about a bit of both. I'm sure.

And AJ, Gree, six. Now, remembering we've done a few Kentucky-based episodes. No, and I think about it.

“Yeah, remember that Beverly Hills supper club fire in Northern Kentucky?”

Yeah. And the blue people, right? Where they on a Kentucky, you're right. I think it was Kentucky, wasn't it? Great memory.

Sure. And how Jack Hammer's worked? That was Kentucky Heavy. Yeah, we probably had to mention Kentucky in our thoroughbreds episode. Definitely.

Man, we really have to, and a lot of Kentucky. Sorry, Iowa. We need to do a show in Kentucky.

I've always on to just Lexington or Louisville.

There's a big question. Let us now. Okay. There you go. Well, who was that again?

RJ, Gree, six? Yeah, something like that. Thanks a lot. RJ, Gree, six. Is there something like that?

We appreciate you hanging out on our Instagram page. We have that Instagram page. I think we have a Facebook page too. We're on X, Blue Sky.

We're even on TikTok, chucking that nuts? I did not even know that. I'm pretty sure we are.

“Shout out by the way to Spencer or social media friend who helps us big time with that stuff.”

Yeah. I mean, we'll shout those guys out. If you're looking to hire someone to do your paid professional social media, you can do a lot worse than hot dog sandwich. Those guys are great.

They are great. And they're fun to work with, and they just know what they're doing. Yeah, super cool dudes. So, yeah, keep an eye out on our social media stuff. Or I guess some more things from us than you're probably used to, and then you can also

as always contact us via email at [email protected].

“Stuff you should know is a production of "I Heart Radio."”

For more podcasts, my heart radio visit the I Heart Radio app. Apple podcasts are wherever you listen to your favorite shows. When a group of women discover they've all dated the same prolific con artist. They take matters into their own hands. I vowed I will be his last target.

He is not going to get away with this. He's going to get what he deserves.

We always say that trust your girlfriends.

Listen to the girlfriends. Trust me, babe.

“On the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.”

In 2023, Bachelor Star Clayton Eckard was accused of fathering twins, but the pregnancy appeared to be a hoax. You doctor this particular test twice in selling stretch. I doctor the test once. It took an army of internet detectives to uncover a disturbing pattern.

Two more men who'd been through the same thing. Greg Olespie and I command you any. My mind was blown. I'm Stephanie Young. This is LoveTrap.

As the season continues, Laura Owens finally faces consequences.

Listen to LoveTrap podcast on the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What's up, everyone? I'm echo vote in my next guest. It's Will Ferrell.

My dad gave me the best advice ever. He goes, "Just give it a shot." You ever reach a point where you're banging your head against the wall, and it doesn't feel funny more, it's okay to quit. If you saw it written down, it would not be an inspiration.

It would not be on a calendar of, you know, the cat just hanging in there. Yeah, it would not be. Right, it wouldn't be that. There's a lot in life. Listen to thanks dad on the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcasts,

or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an eye-heart podcast. Guaranteed human.