History Main / BambooTechnology

Bamboo Technology, named for the unlikely devices that the Professor came up with on ''Series/GilligansIsland,'' is the use of mechanisms with a level of technology closer to that of the Stone Age to achieve feats usually achieved with Industrial or even Modern Age technology. In general they are not necessarily made of bamboo -- the ones on ''WesternAnimation/TheFlintstones'' were often made out of things like wood or stone or powered by creatures like dinosaurs. What characterizes all of them is the self-evident impossibility that they'd actually work... and yet they work anyway. Most likely to be seen in the more farcical [[SitCom sitcoms]].

* There is a [[AluminiumChristmasTrees long history]] of wooden cannon being used in American, European, and Asian wars, by peoples who didn't have the time or resources to cast entire cannon barrels and had to do with wood reinforced by iron rings or just wrapped leather. A chief example would be the 'Tacuara Cannon' used by the Jesuit missions in Paraguay against Portuguese slave raiders in the mid-1600s, which was made of actual bamboo, was very inaccurate, and often broke after five shots. But needless to say, having these was better than having no artillery at all. Mythbusters actually tested a myth about a town that built a faulty one and blew themselves up with it, and found it plausible except for the timeframe in which the people involved allegedly managed to build it using 17th-century muscle-powered technology.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'': [[RobotBuddy Bender]] gets a downgrade so that he is made out of wood. Naturally, it turns out that it was AllJustADream. Along with that, he and the other inhabitants of the Island of Obsolete Robots build a submarine entirely out of wood. In a nod to realism, it isn't terribly water-tight.
** Not to mention the Amish from the Amish Planet have interstellar wood chariots...

* Website/FourChan had a field day when it discovered that since zombies in ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons''are capable of following simple commands, a necromancer can take three zombies, tell one of them to look at the other two and raise its right hand unless both of them raise theirs. Why is this important? Because with those instructions, the necromancer has just made a [=NAND=] gate, which means that with enough zombies he could build a '''programmable computer'''.

* In a ChristmasEpisode of ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'', a couple who are [[DesertedIsland stranded on a desert island]] are exchanging holiday gifts. He gives her a potholder of woven palm fronds and two conch shells; she gives him a spectacular, fully functional telescope, wristwatch, and motorcycle that she made from some stuff she found around the island. You know, if you're bored, you might just pan some gold, smelt some iron ore, kill a rhino for its whiskers.

* Handy Smurf in ''WesternAnimation/TheSmurfs'' using the technology available in the Middle Ages and with no magic involved is capable of doing tractors, crawlers, cranes, harvest machinery and a robot with artificial intelligence, just to mention the more impressive.

* ''Series/GoodEats'': Bamboo Technology was applied for humorous effect in an episode in which host Alton Brown is "stranded on a deserted island" but has managed to put together a suspiciously well-equipped kitchen out of found objects, wherein he demonstrates the techniques and science behind several forms of tropical cooking. (The show abounds with similar [[ExcusePlot framing devices]], ranging from Alton playing his own EvilTwin in an episode about kimchi to a {{Courtroom Antic}}s trial of butter.)

* The Bamboozler series of weapons in ''VideoGame/{{Splatoon}}'' is a literal case, being a Charger fashioned out of a bamboo cane. According to its description, it's a reissue of a weapon used during the Great Turf War, and the signature weapon of veteran Cap'n Cuttlefish.

* ''WesternAnimation/JimmyNeutronBoyGenius'': Jimmy manages to build rocket ships out of rides in an amusement park. He builds two treehouses with functioning plumbing systems out of bamboo at one point. Once when stranded in the past he built a ''time machine'' out of nuts, berries, rocks and wood.

* In a desperate attempt to directly attack the United States during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, the Japanese created crude bombs attached to balloons which were launched into the jet-stream thirty or forty thousand feet up; the high-speed winds would carry them to North America within three or four days, at which point a timer would automatically release the payload. The balloons and carrying frames were assembled by schoolchildren from rice paper, plant glue (which was sometimes stolen and eaten by desperate civilians) and bamboo, and thousands were launched, carrying small bombs or clusters of incendiaries. For all the effort involved, the USA and Canada hardly noticed. Most balloons landed in Washington State, British Columbia, Alaska and Oregon (although some made it as far south as Mexico, and as far east as Michigan). Generally, damage was limited to small forest fires, but [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_balloon#Single_lethal_attack in one incident]] a pregnant woman and her five children were killed while investigating a downed balloon, and in March 1945 one of the last balloons [[MillionToOneChance managed to briefly short out the cooling system to the Manhattan Project reactors in Hanford]] (but the backup power system kicked in almost immediately). Once the US government realized the balloon bombs were part of a coordinated effort, they instructed the press to cease reporting about them, and when the hoped-for reports of mass devastation failed to appear, the Japanese assumed the balloons were not reaching their intended targets and cancelled the program.

* ''Literature/{{Kadingir}}'''s ''The Fourth Power'' features a village in the middle of [[TheAmazon a maze-like jungle]] full of lost scientists, who built their huts, survival machinery and diverse escape contraptions with this. Their most outstanding feats are a [[DeathTrap fully functional automated hunting-and-cooking machine]] and a [[CoolAirship zeppelin]] [[CrazyEnoughToWork filled with explosive potato gas]].

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Madagascar}}'' and ''Madagascar 2'' both make use of Bamboo Technology. In the first one Marty manages to use it to build a small house with plumbing. In the second one it's upgraded and used to repair and launch a crashed plane with a giant slingshot (although landing is a little more difficult), then used again to turn it into a helicopter which actually ''works.''

** Taken to the extreme in the RecycledINSPACE animated spin-off ''Gilligan's Planet'', where The Professor builds a functioning ''faster-than-light spacecraft'' out of ''wood and coconut shells''. [[ComicBook/IronMan Tony Stark]] ain't got ''nothing'' on him.

* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/CampLazlo'' when Chip and Skip temporarily become smart they make a computer out of a rock which only they are smart enough to use.

* ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries''. "Arena" has the Metrons forcing Kirk to fight his [[LizardFolk Reptiloid]] ''Gorn'' counterpart on a desert planet for which they will use their god-like powers to allow control over that region of the galaxy to the winner's species. Having discovered that dropping an almighty rock from a great height onto the Gorn has no effect, Kirk makes a hand-cannon out of coal, sulphur, saltpetre and bamboo to shoot him/her/it with the local fist-sized diamonds. They bounce off but not without knocking the Gorn captain down, whom Kirk honourably allows to retire in defeat, for which the Metrons (our demi-gods) award the human race extra Brownie points. [[note]]''Series/{{Mythbusters}}'' tested this one. Based on their results, Kirk might have been better off using it as a bomb rather than a cannon in the real world. Still, it's an AcceptableBreakFromReality nonetheless. An ExpandedUniverse novel stated that Starfleet Academy made that episode into a holodeck training scenario. Nine out of ten cadets who tried Kirk's solutions blew themselves up. The tenth generally missed.[[/note]]

* The anime adaptation of ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'' depicts Kukaku Shiba as having a [[ArtificalLimbs prosthetic right arm]] made of bamboo. It's not discussed in-universe, however, and for the most part Kukaku is seen only using her left arm for things.

* ''Literature/{{Kadingir}}'s The Fourth Power'' features a village in the middle of [[TheAmazon a maze-like jungle]] full of lost scientifics, who built their huts, survival machinery and diverse escape contraptions with this. Their most outstanding feats are a [[DeathTrap fully functional automated hunting-and-cooking machine]] and a [[CoolAirship zeppelin]] [[CrazyEnoughToWork filled with explosive potato gas]].

** ''WesternAnimation/SuperMarioWorld'' takes this trope further; many of the episodes revolve around some form of modern technology being introduced into the [[{{Prehistoria}} Dinosaur World]], which is usually constructed out of rock, wood and/or some other form of plant biomass. These include television sets, cars and a telephone network made of vines and coconuts. [[AWizardDidIt A Magikoopa in each set]]. The cars have enslaved Goombas running on the front wheel connector. The telephones are tin cans with a string principle.

* Parodied in ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' episode "Das Bus" (which was essentially ''Literature/LordOfTheFlies'' meets ''Series/GilligansIsland'') where Bart instructs Martin to work on building "a coconut radio. And, if possible, a coconut Nintendo system". He also envisions the children building a society based on Bamboo Technology and [[EverythingsBetterWithMonkeys monkey butlers]]. Needless to say, it doesn't ''quite'' work out (not least because the island lacks any bamboo).