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January 08, 2009
Electric Bath Duck — 'One use only'
"Please make sure
you have made the right decision."
[via koroded galleries and Milena]
January 8, 2009 at 01:01 PM | Permalink
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Comments
At first, I thought it was a new version of the rubber duckie that I let my baby play with while bathing. What's worse is, I thought of buying one! Stupid me.. hehehe.
Posted by: baby gifts | Jul 15, 2009 9:19:01 PM
Hi,
This somewhat morbid bath duck is tethered to an electric cord, with a packaging that says “Electric Bath Duck, Suicidal Tendency, One Use Only” and “Please Make Sure You’ve Made The Right Decision” on the other side. Cute.
Posted by: Utah electrician | Mar 17, 2009 7:20:33 AM
just think no more dr. kavorkian!
Posted by: gerard pawling | Jan 10, 2009 11:39:54 AM
OMG! Joey, you haven't had this much fun since that first blog you had...........hee, hee
Posted by: lt | Jan 9, 2009 5:54:43 PM
a creative way to go ... reminds me of a Darvin Prize winner who decided to commit a suicide ... but he wanted to make sure he will die and will no be saved by chance ...
he took poison, hanged a rope from a cliff overlooking ocean shoreline with sharp rocks and took a gun intending to pull the trigger when the rope will tighten around his neck ... well it didn't work that way ...
when he stepped of the edge of a cliff the rope tightened around his neck but the jerk of the rope offset his aim making him hit nothing else but the rope sending him toward the ocean with the sharp rock ... which he missed (the rocks, not the ocean) ... the ocean waves carry him unharmed ashore where he throws up the poison because he drank too mach salt water ... the funny thing this person died 2 weeks later due to lung inflammation which he got while being in the cold ocean waters ...
Posted by: Roader | Jan 9, 2009 4:18:08 PM
~
Look, it practically says on the package to think twice.
So, like, what's the problem?
And remember kids, depression hits losers the hardest anyway, so, like relax!
Posted by: Bobby the K | Jan 9, 2009 2:40:21 PM
I wonder if there are guerilla pranksters connecting up the wires inside the plug to get this thing refanged. Killing with humor, what could be edgier.
Posted by: HaHa | Jan 9, 2009 1:23:03 PM
To Everyone Who May Still Be Following This Thread, Including, Quite Possibly, Joe Himself:
Wow. I wasn't going to respond to any of this, but I cannot help myself.
In reviewing my initial post, please note that none of the following sentiments were included:
-I am angry.
-I am offended.
-My feelings are hurt.
-I was brought to tears by this post.
-I will never read this blog again.
Here's what I meant to say, as apparently some of you are having trouble with English:
Dear Doc: I love your blog and read it every day. This is a sensitive topic for some people and it caught my attention this morning, causing me to feel mild incredulity. Perhaps you would consider an addendum, including a link to a place where people who are seriously contemplating suicide could seek help. Because unlike car crashes and other statistically signifcant causes of death, suicide is preventable.
Then I signed my name sincerely because I was sincere, and I identified myself in order to demonstrate that.
So, anyway, thanks for all the mean posts. That is, in fact, sarcasm, by the way, for all of you who are tempted to think this post is whiny or whatever else you care to hurl at it.
Frankly, I am glad that my post generated a dialogue abuot suicide and 65 comments. I have all of you to thank for that.
Have a nice day.
SH
Posted by: S-Dogg | Jan 9, 2009 9:48:47 AM
So, is there a package gift option? and may it be in a european voltage style?
Posted by: Roman Ramirez | Jan 9, 2009 3:49:46 AM
This thing is freaking useless, I even held it underwater for a full minute...
It's insulated!!! sealed up tighter that a duck's... Mmmmm.. Damn it!
What a waste of my hard-earned money. :(
Posted by: Daniel | Jan 9, 2009 3:49:33 AM
is there a 120 volt model and can it be bought by the boatload?
Posted by: kevin | Jan 8, 2009 9:45:29 PM
I hear they will be selling this on QVC soon bundled with a ShamWow. What better parting gift to leave the person that discovers you with than something to clean that mess up?
Posted by: not hamdog | Jan 8, 2009 9:18:40 PM
Is this where I please get Khushwant Singh email?
Also Tide No-Stain-Stick, please.
Posted by: Flatel | Jan 8, 2009 9:04:57 PM
of course suicide is funny, look at Michael Hutchence. Those that find it not funny are the ones that are failures. And by 'failures' I mean those that couldn't effectively pull the trigger (so to speak). A cry for help, my ass. We're talking straight up failure without the guts to succeed at the one thing you might be good at. Also I would like the duck more if it was smoking a cigar.
Posted by: hamdog | Jan 8, 2009 8:54:26 PM
"This is absolutely awful!! The power chord isn't even long enough!"
Best comment. Some of you are incapable of humor and should sue WalMart and most retailers for facilitating extension cords. Suicide is sad when it happens to individuals however they were never meant to take life head on, instead decided to end their suffering. Be glad you are alive and active and capable of making decisions, don't bring down everybody else with you.
Life is hard who ever told it was easy is a lier. Learn from your mistakes and give hell to your enemies.
Posted by: luis | Jan 8, 2009 8:06:39 PM
I bet mostly everyone who has commented against this post has laughed at the racist/sexist jokes that appear all over the internet. It is only when something hits close to us that we tend to get angry...therefore you are all hypocrites and should really examine your individual morality. Take this for what it is.
I laughed...hard.
Posted by: Adam | Jan 8, 2009 8:04:33 PM
As a medical professional, I've never been an animal lover. But all that changed the day I discovered the Electric Bath Duck. Gone are the days stockpiling pills, mixing toxic concoctions and harboring noxious gasses, all thanks to the easy-to-use Electric Bath Duck. It's changed my life and ended the lives of many more. Take it from me, Dr. Jack Kevorkian, the Electric Bath Duck is the real deal. Don't settle for those other imitation one-time-use electric bath ducks. Your life depends on it.
Dr. Jack Kevorkian, paid-spokesperson
Posted by: Jack Kevorkian | Jan 8, 2009 8:00:30 PM
Duck suicide is no laughing matter. This post, however, is.
Posted by: Nebby | Jan 8, 2009 7:55:07 PM
Oh spare us the mock outrage.
There are only two types of humour:
#1 The juxtaposition of dissimilar elements, i.e. chicken + road
#2 Bad things happening to other people, i.e. pie in the face
This is a clear example of both types and is therefore very funny. Just because something bad happened to you doesn't mean you get to ruin the fun for everyone else. On yer bike nancy.
Posted by: Bloodyserb | Jan 8, 2009 7:52:02 PM
Where can I find these ducks? Do they offer bulk discounts?
Thanks in advance,
Dr. Jack
Posted by: Jack Kevorkian | Jan 8, 2009 7:45:29 PM
ALRIGHT YOU GUYS STOP IT!
Or Joe is going to keep it up. Don't encourage him, it's bad for the children.
Posted by: Ray | Jan 8, 2009 7:45:19 PM
Perhaps we could all stop over-reacting and agree that giving this as a joke to someone who has lost someone to suicide is quite bad taste? But apart from that, I don't see what is so bad about it. It's hard to be sensitive to everyone's misfortunes.
Posted by: Justin | Jan 8, 2009 7:42:11 PM
all existence is suffering, and humor is ALL about suffering, when something is funny to YOU it's because you identified with the intent....
Posted by: greenman | Jan 8, 2009 7:39:58 PM
"Hi, this is the first time I've commented. Although you've posted questionable material before, I've always laughed at it because I wasn't the butt of the joke. But this hits close to home therefore I'm mad, mad, mad. Harumpf."
Posted by: B | Jan 8, 2009 7:37:12 PM
horrible,
doesn't necessarily imply suicide but also murder,
perhaps of a child that might choose to play with such a tub duckie,
horrible,
and i'm not a "sensitive, depressed" person,
the idea is just sick,
irony and sarcasm can be used to used to emphasize that which deserves ridicule,
there's nothing about electrocution in the tub that deserves ridicule,
chosen or not,
shame on you who think it's funny,
Posted by: mac | Jan 8, 2009 7:33:08 PM
This is absolutely aweful!! The power chord isn't even long enough!
Posted by: mem | Jan 8, 2009 7:17:44 PM
This isn't funny. A duck killed my mother.
Posted by: Tim | Jan 8, 2009 6:56:15 PM
Ok, so... I had a friend kill himself and I tried once (ended up spending quite a bit of time in the hospital, but, whatever)....
and... seriously.... I think this is freakin' hilarious.
Yes, suicide isn't funny... but... seriously, it's a novelty item and it's not supposed to be taken seriously.
Posted by: | Jan 8, 2009 6:55:05 PM
PUblic uses a big word like extrapolate but somehow misspells "quite." This seriously makes me quazy. As in, you guys are quazy man! Ducks are people too ... how do you think the ducks feel, using their image as a ploy for killing oneself?
Posted by: Quackers | Jan 8, 2009 6:51:14 PM
ka-bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz*kracklfizt*
*~blubglug
Posted by: dinner tiem | Jan 8, 2009 6:49:54 PM
Suicide has always been funny.
Most things arent funny when they are happening to you. Like when your baby dies, you get hit in the nuts, you get aids, etc...
But google dark humour and get a clue. It amazes how uninformed the nay sayers are as they sit on their pulpit screaming about how X isnt funny.
I recall one of the victims of isreali attacks (I believe it was a Jordanian when isreal was attacking hezbollah) was on NPR explaining that it was dark humor about their plight that got them through those very trying times. We laugh was what makes us feel uncomfortable. Its a defense mechanism. And as we explore, or revisit, things that disturb us a good defense mechanism is a good thing to have. The world is a dark and scary place and if you cant laugh you are doomed to be very very sad your entire life.
Posted by: unknown | Jan 8, 2009 6:45:04 PM
That's about as funny as packaging a pair of soiled child's underpants and labeling it "pedophilic tendencies"
I guess it separates the men from the animals...
Posted by: ciaohowdy | Jan 8, 2009 6:41:53 PM
This exquisitely morbid duck--like any good art--provides an opportunity for a shared outlet to deal with the bleaker aspects of being human--grief and pain and self-destruction--with HUMOR.
And yeah, my life's been affected by suicide, too, and no, I don't think suicide or anyone else's tragedy is funny. The duck is still hilarious.
Posted by: Lauren Sheppard | Jan 8, 2009 6:40:21 PM
That's about as funny as packaging a pair of soiled child's underpants and labeling it "pedophilic tendencies"
I guess it separates the men from the animals...
Posted by: ciaohowdy | Jan 8, 2009 6:39:58 PM
Puerile is a word. It means boyish but is frequently misused by supercilious assholes to mean juvenile or sophomoric. But the joke might have been misspelling it.
Suicide is wasteful. As psychotic as they were, I believe the vikings were onto something with the concept of Valhalla.
Posted by: chris | Jan 8, 2009 6:31:42 PM
Screw 'em if they can't take a joke, it's funny.
You do not have the right to not be offended.
Posted by: Nick | Jan 8, 2009 6:27:26 PM
haha disregard that I [am filtered by typepad's anti-spam filter]
Posted by: people who don't think this is funny | Jan 8, 2009 6:10:28 PM
I'd need an adapter to use that cord.
Posted by: se7en | Jan 8, 2009 5:59:14 PM
that's not funny, my brother george died that way
Posted by: anonymouse | Jan 8, 2009 5:35:54 PM
I think the real question that nobody has asked is...
Does it actually work?
Posted by: DM | Jan 8, 2009 5:29:45 PM
Brad... you rule!
Posted by: spikespiegel | Jan 8, 2009 5:23:34 PM
I find this entire blog unfunny, my cousin died by blogging non-stop about art gag toys and other odd gadgets -- also his name was Joe too.
Posted by: Colin | Jan 8, 2009 5:22:50 PM
i find it funny. has anybody else's loved one committed suicide using this besides harriet? please let us know and join in our sympathies. geez, lighten up everybody.
Posted by: spikespiegel | Jan 8, 2009 5:17:39 PM
The duck is DAMNED FUNYY!! I'm with six and the others here. If you can't deal with the world the way it is. Hole yourself up. I would like to add the suggestion of a sound proof space. So the rest of don't have to hear you whine. Keep Laughing Kids
Posted by: hippykidz | Jan 8, 2009 5:11:09 PM
LOL.... the comment Rapture has occurred. All of the good comments have gone to heaven.
Posted by: six | Jan 8, 2009 4:51:24 PM
I could use one of those right now. Or maybe a Suicide Booth would be better. That would be painless, I guess.
Posted by: meh | Jan 8, 2009 4:48:17 PM
@wombat: http://www.snopes.com/rumors/cool.asp
This was your fault, wasn't it?
Posted by: burned | Jan 8, 2009 4:48:12 PM
Oops... That's:
@wombat
Posted by: six | Jan 8, 2009 4:46:27 PM
harriet.............that would be quack-up.....wouldn't it?
Posted by: Udi | Jan 8, 2009 4:45:45 PM
This is silly. What kind of inherent mental weakness does it take for people to whine that jokes shouldn't be made by people who have nothing to do with them because they're somehow related to past tragedy in their lives? Perhaps spend more time getting over your problems, instead of just trying to make others feel sorry for you.
Saja and wombat maybe if hearing people talk about things you don't want talked about is too cruel for you you could instead spend more time in a closet in the dark rocking back and forth on your haunches, wearing a blindfold and holding your hands over your ears? This would enable the rest of us to talk freely and would assist you in not having to hear jokes.
Posted by: Brad | Jan 8, 2009 4:41:59 PM
i hate the word purile... because it's not a word.
Posted by: six | Jan 8, 2009 4:41:04 PM
My sister committed suicide with this very product, and I still think it is hilarious. Sis was always a crack-up.
Posted by: harriet | Jan 8, 2009 4:37:47 PM
@PUblic
OMG! I can use big words and links to Australian porn sites to prove my point too!!! What a coincidence. Let's get together sometime and talk about all the fun times we've had as internet comment trolls!
Posted by: six | Jan 8, 2009 4:36:35 PM
i hate purile americans
Posted by: wombat | Jan 8, 2009 4:33:14 PM
That's not funny, My brother died that way.
Posted by: | Jan 8, 2009 4:29:42 PM
I'm really glad some people turned down the sensitivity later in the posts. Seriously, my dad died of a heart attack which was compounded by being fat. I still laugh at/with fat people and still think cartoons where their heart explodes is still amusing. I also find this duck quite amusing. I'd even let my pregnant wife play with it in the tub and kill our fetal twins...I blame all of this over sensitivity on the gays.
Posted by: Rhett | Jan 8, 2009 4:29:19 PM
Wow, you people are quiet ugly.
I know the perfect gift for my birthday too...flowers.
Regarding your comment ´six´ - your car-crash logic is useful for car crashes but you can´t extrapolate the metaphor to suicide. Here is some help on how to build a logical argument:
http://www.actdu.org.au/archives/actein_site/logarg__.html
Posted by: wombat | Jan 8, 2009 4:28:29 PM
Suicide isn't always a bad thing you know. My sympathies to anyone who's lost someone this way, but if you've loved someone who chose a graceful end to his/her life over days/weeks/months of suffering at the hands of a terminal illness, stuff like this is funny.
Posted by: PUblic Target | Jan 8, 2009 4:28:08 PM
@Lulz: Oh U!
Posted by: burned | Jan 8, 2009 4:25:35 PM
I think it's clever
Posted by: | Jan 8, 2009 4:23:35 PM
Man, sounds like there's a lot of depressed suicide victims in this thread. We should send them one of these ducks to bring the spark back in their lives.
(Seriously though, I've lost loved ones to suicide, including my childhood best friend. And y'know what? The duck is still funny. Go BAWWWWW somewhere else, you big babies.)
Posted by: Lulz | Jan 8, 2009 4:19:27 PM
That is hilarious. If some one is going to off themselves, they might as well add a little pinch of comic relief for the person that finds them. I am totally getting one for all the wastes-of-space that I know for next x-mas.
Posted by: Blake | Jan 8, 2009 4:18:59 PM
This made my stomach turn with disgust, suicide is not funny. My roomates mother actually did commit suicide by electrocuting herself in the bathtub, this image would be a devastating reminder of the brutal action of death.
Posted by: edge | Jan 8, 2009 4:17:14 PM
Dear people unclear on the concept:
The concept of an electric duck, to be used once only, is funny. Suicide is not funny, and no one suggested it is.
People who insist that a product like this is trying to make suicide funny, or that it is trying to make fun of suicide, are not funny, but neither are they worthy of sympathy.
Similarly, people who insist that other people need to take responsibility for their own insistence on missing the point, and misattribute meaning, are both not funny, and part of what kills culture.
Please peddle your missed-the-point elsewhere.
Posted by: boyhowdy | Jan 8, 2009 4:15:57 PM
Humor is an interrupted defence mechanism...
EVERYTHING in humor is hurtfull to someone.
An yes, before you say "You don't KNOW", my dad commited suicide 4 years ago.
While I was going through chemo for leukemia, which probably contributed to his depression.
The duck is still funny.
Posted by: wygit | Jan 8, 2009 4:13:51 PM
"Well I think it's HILARIOUS. Eighty-seven of my friends died in car crashes an hour ago but I still love driving my car."
Best response ever.
For the record, I know/knew a couple people who commited/or tried to commit suicide and I think it's funny.
Posted by: bg | Jan 8, 2009 4:13:29 PM
@Saja and wombat: I know the perfect gift for your birthdays!
Posted by: burned | Jan 8, 2009 4:12:15 PM
The suicides of my friends aren't funny. But that duck is funny.
Posted by: girl | Jan 8, 2009 4:08:32 PM
so funny anyone that commits suicide should be laughed at how bad can it really get when you give up living
Posted by: | Jan 8, 2009 4:07:37 PM
Well I think it's HILARIOUS. Eighty-seven of my friends died in car crashes an hour ago but I still love driving my car.
Posted by: six | Jan 8, 2009 4:04:46 PM
really not funny... my best friend killed himself 3 weeks ago and this was the last thing I wanted to see on boingboing today.
t
Posted by: common | Jan 8, 2009 3:51:48 PM
I´m with you Saja.
My brother committed suicide at 24 years old and I don´t find the duck funny.
If it were a cartoon of an electric duck then it would be more or less harmless, but that it is an object packaged for an explicit purpose, brings a visceral disgust to the joke.
Maybe it is an art object that makes sense in a gallery but out of context, in a blog where it is followed by a cheese gripper, the intention is lost or confused.
This gag will remind anyone who has lost someone to suicide of the method chosen by their loved one to do it.
I would rather be entertained by the mesmerising, benign, world of cheese grippers, magnetic torch holders and ceramic pie baking beads.
Penance are due. How about a weeks abstinence from novelty kitchen objects (this will hurt me more than it hurts you).
Posted by: wombat | Jan 8, 2009 3:45:59 PM
Hey, Joe: Long-time reader, first-time commenter.
Oh, no. Come on. Really? A suicide gag?
I'm not sure when suicide became funny. Did I miss something? My father died by suicide four years ago at the age of 56. He suffered from severe depression. He chose to end his life with a .30-30 rifle.
Suicide is devastating. It is never, ever funny. No matter how it is packaged. Frankly, I think you need to do a little pennance for this post and follow up with one about, oh, I don't know, maybe the Kristen Brooks Hope Center, the national Hopeline network, and 1-800-SUICIDE. http://www.hopeline.com/
Sincerely, Saja Hoffpauir, strangely devoted bookofjoe fan
Posted by: S-Dogg | Jan 8, 2009 1:32:51 PM
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