History Main / RubeGoldbergDEvice

* An episode of the Hulu original series ''Series/{{Deadbeat}}'', [[http://www.hulu.com/watch/617543#i0,p5,d0 "Ghost in the Machine"]], features the ghost of Rube Goldberg himself trying to set up one of these on a metaphysical level. Once set into motion, it triggered a series of events that resulted in Goldberg's long-lost descendants finally meeting each other.

* In one episode of ''Series/{{Columbo}}'', the murderer uses a Rube Goldberg Device to create a loud bang - not to [[CacophonyCoverUp cover the sound of the fatal gunshot]], but to make it sound like there were two gunshots instead of one. When Colombo demonstrates an incorrect replica of the device, the murderer corrects it at the last second, [[NiceJobFixingItVillain incriminating himself]] and leading to his arrest.

* ''Series/TheTwilightZone1985'': In "The Curious Case of Edgar Witherspoon", the title character has been maintaining a contraption built from odds and ends such as dolls' heads, bicycle spokes, baseball cards, paper clips and broken instruments for eleven years. He regularly rummages through trash cans and dumps to find things that he desperately needs for it. Both his niece Cynthia and his landlady Mrs. Milligan are concerned by his behavior and ask the psychiatrist Dr. Jeremy Sinclair to look in on him. Edgar explains to Dr. Sinclair that a [[HearingVoices strange voice]] told him that the contraption was necessary in order to keep the world from going puff. Sinclair [[CassandraTruth initially does not believe]] Edgar, thinking that he is suffering from a psychosis, but eventually realizes that it is all true when Tatoa, a tiny island in the South Pacific, is destroyed exactly as Edgar said it would be. After Edgar is relieved of his duty, it falls to Sinclair to [[PassingTheTorch keep the world in balance]].

* ''Manga/DoctorSlump'': In an special two-part chapter, Sembei builds an specially ridiculous one (to the point that it involves [[TheFaceOfTheSun the Sun sweating]]) to get a PantyShot of Ms. Yamabuki just because Arale told him that she was wearing strawberry panties. The machine works perfectly, but the plan fails, of course.
* ''Anime/TamagotchiTheMovie'' shows that Mametchi has one in his bedroom. It activates a platform next to the house, acting as an elevator to his bedroom from the outside.

* In an issue of ''Comicbook/{{Exiles}}'', the titular team's mission was to buy a danish. Buying said danish led to a sequence of events that thwarted an alien invasion.

* In the Italian comic book ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cattivik Cattivik]]'' once was published a story that consisted of just the workings of a gargantuan Robinson Goldberg Contraption.

* Jason in ''ComicStrip/FoxTrot'' sometimes designs these. See [[http://imgsrv.gocomics.com/dim/?fh=c76d461442679c53312453481aced46c here]] for an example.
* The TropeNamer: Creator/RubeGoldberg's cartoons about Professor Lucifer Gorgonzola Butts.
* It was the basis for a ''ComicStrip/SpyVsSpy'' episode in issue 506 of Mad (published in 2010).
* A ''ComicStrip/{{Zits}}'' Sunday strip has device for getting teens out of beds that starts with the sun focusing through a pair of spectacles on the windowsill and ends with Jeremy getting hit in the face by his phone. One of the intermediate steps involves a squirrel nibbling stale pizza.

* ''Animation/PatAndMat'' seem to have a variant of ComplexityAddiction, as they never just transport things normally - they build the most complex Rube Goldberg device they can instead, and it always fails. Hilariously. Then again, to put a jack under a car, [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} these two]] dig a hole in the road, so...

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheGreatMouseDetective'', a contraption designed for [[DeathTrap one]] [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill purpose]] has its operation deliberately interrupted at the climactic point, resulting in a ''new'' Goldberg/Robinson sequence which [[ReversePolarity does the exact opposite using the same parts]]. Two for the price of one ([[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Mouse_Detective spoiler]] here if you want the details).
* The various inventions that Maurice constructs in ''WesternAnimation/BeautyAndTheBeast''. They actually ''do'' what he wants them to do, but some of them (e.g. the wood-chopping contraption) are rather overly convoluted. The log chopper borders on Administrivia/NotAnExample, since from a technical standpoint it ''does'' work like a traditional invention: chopping wood into logs by hand is a very labor-intensive and time-consuming job. And since the movie is apparently [[AnachronismStew set in an unspecified time]] where saw mills don't exist, any machine capable of speeding the process up considerably is a technological improvement.
* In ''[[WesternAnimation/TheMindsEye The Gate to the Mind's Eye]]'', one such device exists in the confines of a simple-looking box. A folded piece of paper placed in a slot triggers a number of devices that eventually produces an "IOU" card through the second slot.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Brave}}'': The witch uses such a contraption to activate her Magic Cauldron the second time Merida visits her hut. She's not present to do it herself after all.
* The Symphonophone From ''WesternAnimation/HortonHearsAWho2008'' is a rather musical example.

%* The even less effective breakfast machine in ''Film/{{Brazil}}''.
* Many of Caractacus Potts' inventions in ''Film/ChittyChittyBangBang''. Built by [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Roland_Emett Frederick Roland Emett]], whose mobile sculptures were obviously influenced by Heath Robinson.

* ''Film/TheCityOfLostChildren'': Jeunet even says so on the DVD's commentary track. It happens most notably in an elaborate sequence in which a single tear drop causes a chain reaction of events happening all around the city, ultimately leading to [[spoiler: a barge crashing into a dock]].
* At the start of ''Film/DocSavageTheManOfBronze'', the title character is shown in his arctic Fortress of Solitude laboring on inventions that (TheNarrator declares) may one day be useful to Mankind! After gazing at the stars through a telescope, Doc appears to be building a RetroRocket to take him there, but it turns out to be a tiny rocket he uses for ice fishing that launches into the air when a fish takes the bait, pulling the fish out of the water while simultaneously ringing a bell to let Doc know dinner's ready.
* In ''Film/EdwardScissorhands'' there is a highly-stylized contraption used to prepare and bake cookies by the Inventor early in the film.

* Professor Brainard's breakfast machine in ''Film/{{Flubber}}''.
* A device in ''Film/{{Hatari}}!'' is identified as a "Rube Goldberg."
* In ''Film/HoneyIShrunkTheKids'' and its sequels, the Szalinski household housed a few of these. In fact, it seems standard for inventors to riddle their houses with them in fiction.

* Creator/CharlieChaplin's film ''Film/ModernTimes'': In the eating machine scene, a device that makes people eat without using their hands is tested on the factory worker played by Chaplin. Due to a malfunction it ends up rubbing a corn in Chaplin's face and pouring soup on his shirt, among other things.

* Pee-Wee Herman used one of these in ''Film/PeeWeesBigAdventure'' to prepare his breakfast. Ironically, the only part he actually eats is cereal, which he pours himself.
* ''Film/ShootEmUp''. In order to get into the AbandonedWarehouse he's using as a home, Smith takes a rat out of a cage, removes a brick from the wall and pushes the rat inside. The rat runs down a tunnel into a wire basket on a pulley which drops from the rat's weight, pushing down a latch to open the door.

* The automatic gate opener at Mikey's house in ''Film/TheGoonies'' was one of these.
* In ''Film/TheHobbitTheDesolationOfSmaug'', the Dwarves use one where the end result is [[spoiler:dipping Smaug in molten gold. Unfortunately, this doesn't faze the dragon and only pisses him off even more]].
* In ''Film/TheLastLeprechaun'', Finn uses one to wake him up and make breakfast.
* One such contraption is seen at work at the beginning of ''Film/TheRock''. The characters don't pretend it's anything but a way to fight boredom.
* ''The Way Things Go'' (''Der Lauf der Dinge''), by Swiss artists Peter Fischli & David Weiss records a giant, 100 foot long Robinson Goldberg Contraption as it slowly destroys itself with fire, gas, gravity and chemistry. The entire process takes 29 minutes, 45 seconds. Unlike most examples, this machine does not actually accomplish anything outside of a chain reaction of moving, melting, popping and exploding.
* At the very end of ''Film/{{Waiting}}'', it turns out the seemingly random items adorning a wall of the restaurant comprise one of these. The director merely wanted it to look like it might work, going for the "random crap" look the restaurant was based on. It was the set designers who went out of their way to make sure the thing actually worked.

* Many of the machines created by Literature/ProfessorBranestawm (the first book, ''The Incredible Adventures of Professor Branestawm'', was illustrated by Heath Robinson).
* One of the pages of ''Literature/ISpy: School Days'' had an elaborate Rube Goldberg puzzle to pop a balloon, which the photographer had built from scratch. The best part? [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-00r54HAazA It actually works.]]
* Not set up or planned by any of the characters (unless you take the viewpoint that {{God}} counts, the text is ambiguous on this point), but the sequence of events which lead up to the final resolution of AdamFelber's comic novel ''Schroedinger's Ball'' fits the trope perfectly. The book even comes with a helpful diagram. One could argue this results in a NecroNonSequitur [[spoiler:however, the only one who actually died was [[IJustShotMarvinInTheFace dead anyway]], only nobody had ''observed'' that he was dead, so the possibility of him being alive existed until somebody actually looked in the basement ... which just happened to be the exact same time the truck hit him. ItMakesSenseInContext, really. At least as much as anything does.]]
* ''Andrew Henry's Meadow'' by Doris Burn is a children's book about a young boy whose contraptions drive his family crazy. Feeling unappreciated, Andrew Henry runs away and builds himself a house in the titular meadow. Other local children who also feel unappreciated by their families (for various reasons) soon follow and Andrew Henry builds specialized houses for each of them. http://www.amazon.com/Andrew-Henrys-Meadow-Doris-Burn/dp/0970739923/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_1

* [[http://freshpaint.tv/portfolio/tcm-now-showing-2/ This "Now Showing" bumper]] for the Turner Classic Movies channel.
* The opening credits of the Irish show, ''Series/BadSisters''.
* On the ''Series/{{Bunkd}}'' episode "Inn Trouble", while in quarantine Ava and Destiny created one of these, however, while in the bathroom finding one more object to use, Gwen comes in to tell them they are free unintentionally triggering it. While Gwen was entertained watching it, Ava and Destiny were aghast at not being able to watch their work come to fruition

* An episode of the Hulu original series ''Series/{{Deadbeat}}'' has the ghost of Rube Goldberg himself trying to set up one of these on a metaphysical level. Once set into motion, it triggered a series of events that resulted in Goldberg's long-lost descendants finally meeting each other.
* The deaths in ''Series/DeadLikeMe'' were frequently caused by things like this. TheMovie started with a textbook example. Naturally, it was a suicide machine. The man was an engineer, and was more pleased that it worked than anything else.

** In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E8HumanNature "Human Nature"]], John Smith (the Doctor in human form) saves [[ItMakesSenseInContext a baby from a falling piano]] by [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0kDw-WUmyg improvising]] such a contraption in a few seconds. It's a pretty good sign the Time Lord is still in there somewhere.
* ''Series/{{Elementary}}'s'' title sequence follows one whose end result is to drop a cage on a figurine. It's probably meant as a metaphor for how Franchise/SherlockHolmes ties together seemingly meaningless scraps of information to catch criminals. [[ShoutOut Also, it's modeled on the device from]] ''WesternAnimation/TheGreatMouseDetective''.

* ''Pob's Programme'' had a segment set in the garden where a series of rotating umbrellas, swinging poles, winding windlasses and so on would result in a display of colors or similar. The creator would then ask "again?" before the whole thing [[ResetButton magically reset itself]] for another go.
* The Japanese educational TV show ''Series/PythagoraSwitch'' featured quite a lot of these.
%%* The punchline in ''Series/RedDwarf'' series 8 episode "Cassandra".
* ''Series/{{Scorpion}}'': In "Dominoes", the Scorpion team sets up an elaborate Rube Goldberg - initially triggered by falling dominoes - to dump artificial snow inside the garage to help Ralph celebrate Christmas.

* ''Series/TheXFiles'' had an episode called "The Goldberg Variation" involving [[BornLucky an extremely lucky man]]. Any attempt on his life is foiled by absolutely ridiculous coincidences, usually caused by Goldberg/Robinson sequences. He also constructs Goldberg-type devices just for fun.
* The kids on the second and third seasons of the 1999 revival of ''Series/{{Zoom}}'' tried to build their own Rube Goldberg machines; in the second season, they built a device which would squeeze toothpaste onto a toothbrush, and in the third season, they built a device which would pour a glass of milk. The kids who built the milk-pouring device later reported that it took them all summer (i.e. the entire taping season!) to do so. Both seasons also feature home video submissions of kids who made Rube Goldberg devices of their own.

* The music video for "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8vzbezVru4 An Honest Mistake]]" by The Bravery uses one of these.

* The music video for X-Press 2 and Music/DavidByrne's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qB_I1YBAozE "Lazy"]][[note]]specifically the original 2002 version, not the ''Music/GrownBackwards'' re-recording[[/note]] features a man who stays on the couch all day, doing things like combing hair, getting food, and doing chores via many of these (ironically, it's implied that he built all of it himself). Eventually, the machine designed to give him his breakfast short-circuits after spilling coffee on itself, forcing the man to settle for a dirty, half-eaten Snickers bar that he finds on the floor.
* In the video for "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGl508qjiSM We Live In a Dump]]" by Music/TheyMightBeGiants, the puppet characters make one designed to put spray cheese on crackers.
* The video for Semisonic's "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgCVR2pjXc0 Chemistry]]" uses several simple Rube Goldberg machines.

* The [[BizarreInstrument bizarre CGI instruments]] in Music/{{Animusic}}'s videos often fall into this category. For example, the xylophone used in the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HR8Oz8Pp8hI "Pipe Dream"]] video is played by shooting a ball at a wooden bar being transported by rail at exactly the right time.

[[folder:Puppet Shows]]
* ''Series/SesameStreet'':
** An skit has Oscar the Grouch creating such a device for opening his trash can lid. An animated short also displays the alphabet using one of these.
** Kermit the Frog [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cog2a3YeDMM demonstrated one]] in the early days, but none of the components of the machine worked.
[[/folder]]

** A spiritual successor, ''VideoGame/CrazyMachines'', was released, which seems to use roughly the same concept with more of an emphasis on not only physics, but also element-based reactions.
* ''VideoGame/MonkeyIsland2LeChucksRevenge'' had [=LeChuck=] capturing Guybrush and putting him in one of these, whose ultimate goal was to [[DeathTrap lower him into a pit of acid]]. There's no actual reason for it, as opposed to just dropping him into the pit, other than [[spoiler:to give Guybrush a chance to escape.]]
* In the Interactive Fiction game ''{{VideoGame/Rematch}}'' the protagonist is stuck in a GroundhogDayLoop where he and his two friends are killed when an SUV crashes through the front window of the pool hall. Each cycle allows you one move before disaster strikes: undoing resets the world to just before the accident, but with some things slightly rearranged. So while the given solution will not work on every cycle, eventually you learn that [[spoiler: Ines will do anything Nick dares her to do, that she can hit the loudmouth with a page from her Far Side calendar if it's wrapped around the cueball, that the loudmouth will yell out anything that has a number in it, that the distracted girl behind the counter will repeat the number the loudmouth yells when she calls time on one of the tables, that one particular table has an irate player who nearly strikes the ceiling fan control switch with his cuestick before someone tells him that it's not their table being called. Accomplishing this will in turn cause a ceiling fan to fall, meaning everyone's attention is on the front window when the SUV crashes through and react in time to avoid it.]]
* In order to get a Babel fish in ''VideoGame/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy1984'' computer game, you have to set up a completely absurd series of events that will ultimately cause the fish to land right in your ear.
* Lucasfilm Games' ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_Shift_(computer_game) Night Shift]]'' essentially is about keeping a Rube Goldberg machine running smoothly.
* Part of the fun of ''VideoGame/DwarfFortress'' is building these. The community calls them [[http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2012:Stupid_dwarf_trick Stupid Dwarf Tricks]] and has devoted a page of their Wiki to them.

* ''VideoGame/EvilGenius'': The game allows you to create chains of traps that trigger one another. The more traps an enemy agent triggers in rapid succession, the more bonus cash you are awarded. A single trap triggering does not offer any reward (other than dealing with that pesky, pesky agent).

* ''VideoGame/MystIIIExile'''s Age of Amateria is one giant relay puzzle.
* In the ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'' series's Forge Mode, it is a common pastime to build an elaborate suicide deathtrap that can be triggered by tossing a grenade into a mancannon or just pushing a box sideways, just for fun.
* ''VideoGame/GarrysMod'' users are fond of constructing these, usually relying on little more than Source's physics engine, spawned props, and some ropes. [[BreadEggsMilkSquick And]] [[StuffBlowingUp high explosives]].
* While ''VideoGame/{{Minecraft}}'''s physics do not seem to allow the construction of many mechanical devices, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ooTS9Z6PFh0 this video]] will show you how it's done.
* ''VideoGame/GhostTrick'':
** Puzzles are often solved by tweaking seemingly unrelated objects until they react to each other and set each other off in just the right way.
** A more traditional application is the [[spoiler: murder machine in the junkyard basement,]] which was based on [[spoiler: the one Kamila built for her mother that 'accidentally' killed her. It was only supposed to light the candles on her birthday cake. However the BigBad used his powers to make it so it killed her out of revenge. One of the side characters spent years finding out how the 'murder' happened and concluded that it shouldn't have.]]
* There's the Gold Ribbon Grocers in ''VideoGame/Fallout3'', where an entire Rube Goldberg Device has been set up as an EasterEgg. Upon entering, painted arrows on the floor lead you to a pressure plate to deliberately set off so you can watch it go off (it includes a domino effect using a row of boxes of detergent and several small explosions) and get several goodies when it's finished.
* A few levels in ''VideoGame/AngryBirds'' have Goldbergian layouts, especially the Golden Egg levels - fling a bird at a pebble or TNT pack and watch as it sets off a chain reaction of flying stones and TNT explosions.
* There used to be a game for early models of Apple PC, called "Those Amazing Reading Machines", that was all about this.
* ''VideoGame/LittleBigPlanet,'' to the extent that they can make music with their devices.
* The bizarre door puzzles in ''VideoGame/MysteryCaseFiles: Ravenhearst'' and most of the other [=MCF=] are very much like this, to the point where Website/TheOtherWiki makes the direct comparison between the two. The biggest difference is the player has to trigger each step: i.e., solving a puzzle placing NESW in correct order on a dial will open up a puzzle that requires the sides to be balanced, which lights a flame that opens another puzzle that requires sliding around blocks to make a picture, which opens ''another''..
* This is basically what [[VideoGame/RoboticOperatingBuddy R.O.B. the robot]] is. To move a column in ''Gyromite'', you have to get it to pick up a gyro, place it in the spinner, and then lower the spinning gyro onto a lever to push a button on the second controller. This could be much more quickly and easily accomplished by simply pressing the button yourself.
* ''VideoGame/TheSurprisingAdventuresOfMunchausen'' includes several sequences where you have to manipulate objects to perform a chain of events resulting in such feats as shooting a duck and then having it land on your plate fully cooked or filling all of the glasses in a tavern with beer within a minute.
* ''VideoGame/BadRatsTheRatsRevenge'' is about a gang of rats who build elaborate {{death trap}}s to exact gruesome revenge on their cat oppressors.
* ''Rube Works'', the official game of Rube Golderg's cartoons, combines the concept of ''VideoGame/TheIncredibleMachine'' with faithful conversions of the cartoons. Rather than rewarding elegant solutions, the game rewards ''in''elegant solutions, awarding the player more points the more parts are used, all the way up to the original design. Since the engine includes pre-programmed interactions between certain pairs of objects, there's even some cases of DevelopersForesight.
* The DOS game ''Creative Contraptions'' revolves entirely around building these.
* ''VideoGame/Fallout4'': The Contraptions Workshop DLC allows you to build your own Rube Goldberg devices.

* ''VideoGame/SuperMarioMaker'' and before that, several [[GameMod ROM hacks]] of Mario games, feature "[[AutomaticLevel auto Mario]]" levels. The player has to release the controls and let the level move Mario forward through the use of bouncing blocks, conveyor belts and other contraptions. These levels are usually used to play music.
* The PC adaptation of ''VideoGame/ISpy School Days'' features a mini-game involving the balloon popper from the book the game is based on. There are three different tracks the ball can go down, but you need to find the correct pieces and put them in the correct places in order for the balloon to pop. Track One simply has you find the train or grocery cart hidden in the same screen, while Tracks Two and Three require you to find pieces from the riddle sections of the game.
* ''Videogame/Pirate101'' has a quest involving one of these. You get an anchor and a cannon both hanging from opposite ends of a rope stretched between two pullies in a shipwreck's rigging. You then go to the top of a nearby cliff and orient a telescope in just the right way so that the sunlight burns the rope near the anchor's end of the rigging, causing them both to fall. The burning end of the rope snakes out of the pully and swings down to light the fuse of the cannon, blasting open a gate in the side of the cliff you're standing on. It doesn't have quite as many steps as most other examples, but it's impressive because the whole thing was designed years before you performed the final steps.
* ''VideoGame/WishboneAndTheAmazingOdyssey'': The gadget Odysseus set up to keep his bow away from intruders is ''very'' complicated. Working out how to deactivate it serves as the penultimate puzzle of the game.

* ''WebAnimation/Supermarioglitchy4sSuperMario64Bloopers'' had one of these featured in "Cooking with Bowser and Mario 2!", all just to get a Yoshi egg from a pack of Yoshis sitting at a table for use in an omelet (here called "Yoshi Omelette").
* For Pencilmation, Pencilmate and Pencilmiss create a little something called the ''Trap-your-average-number-two-pencil-kiss-your-butt-goodbye-murder mystery-dumbest idea ever machine!''

* Some of the animation entries for [[http://www.irtc.org/ The Internet Raytracing Competition]]. Of note is the round with the theme Unnecessarily Complicated Devices.
* On July 4, 2010, Website/{{Google}} commemorated both Independence Day and Rube Goldberg's birthday by displaying a special logo on its homepage, in which a Goldberg-style contraption hoisted a U.S. flag and shot off a skyrocket. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkXSZX080_o Watch it in action on YouTube.]]

* Diego from ''Webcomic/BecauseImDepressed'' [[http://bcdecomic.com/comics/211/ designs one]] [[SuicideAsComedy in order to elaborately end his life.]]
* In ''Webcomic/DumbingOfAge'' Carla constructs one that spells her name out in lasers, as well as a box that [[PieInTheFace slams a pie]] into [[TheFundamentalist Mary's]] face. Why did she do that? Because there's nothing that pisses Mary off more than the fact that [[spoiler:a transwoman like]] Carla exists.

* The [[http://www.hulu.com/watch/617543#i0,p5,d0 Ghost in the Machine]] episode of "Deadbeat" features the ghost of Rube Goldberg setting up a metaphysical Rube Goldberg Device.

* ''Franchise/ScoobyDoo''. It doesn't matter what version it is, it is a GUARANTEE a Robinson Goldberg Contraption is going to show up at LEAST once an episode, and quite a few times in each movie. Unfortunately, they seldom work as planned. For example, in [[WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooMysteryIncorporated one incarnation]], Fred's overly complicated plan successfully traps himself and the gang, leaving the monster standing there.
* One later episode of ''WesternAnimation/DextersLaboratory'' began with Dexter trying to create "free energy" with his highest-of-high-tech new invention. It fails. The plot quickly shifts to an unwanted visit to his grandfather's house... where the old man ''[[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome succeeded]]'' in creating free energy with one of these.
* Several ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' shorts make use of this trope, usually accompanied by a version of Raymond Scott's "Powerhouse" music.
** In "WesternAnimation/TweetiePie", Sylvester builds an elaborate device to lure Tweety out of his cage so a bowling ball will fall on him. Everything works perfectly, until the bowling ball somehow falls on Sylvester instead.
** And all Road Runner cartoons. All of them. Of course, they (nearly) all backfire. Acme must have outsourced all their manufacturing to the lowest bidder.
** In a cartoon with Ralph Wolf and Sam Sheep Dog, Ralph has one wired to his alarm clock which grooms him and makes him breakfast.
* ''WesternAnimation/TomAndJerry'': In "Designs on Jerry", there's an entire blueprint worth of this - and the blueprint Jerry asking for the real Jerry's help [[spoiler:to rewrite the trap so it gets Tom instead.]]
* On the ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' episode "8 Simple Rules for Buying My Teenage Daughter", Peter orders a breakfast-making machine that [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GN_juATOQc works just like this]]. After going through the sequence, all it does it shoot him, causing Peter to wonder what the point of it all was. That was a parody of the breakfast machine from ''Film/PeeWeesBigAdventure'', complete with a SuspiciouslySimilarSong.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Fillmore}}'' had a criminal use one of these as a full-size version of the Start the Symphony game (a parody of the aforementioned ''Mouse Trap'' game).
* ''WesternAnimation/FilmationsGhostbusters'' includes one of these as part of the TransformationSequence.
%%* ''WesternAnimation/RockyAndBullwinkle'' does this occasionally.

** A short, "Wakko's Gizmo", centered entirely around perhaps the most complex example of this kind of device. Its purpose? To set off a WhoopeeCushion.
-->'''Yakko:''' (to Dot) You should see how he brushes his teeth.
** Another short included a Rube Goldberg machine [[spoiler:which was powered by a man in a shed named Rube Goldberg.]].
%%% If memory serves, it was "Of Course You Know, {{This Means War}}ners".
* ''WesternAnimation/ReBoot'': While in a game cube in "Life's a Glitch," a RubeGoldbergDevice is constructed out of objects within the kitchen, designed to defeat Rocky the Rodent. The contraption's final move ends up opening a cupboard door hard enough to send Rocky flying through the doggy door and back outside, taking a life in the process.
* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'':
** In "Rosebud", Homer is in a dungeon at the plant, [[WheelOfPain manually turning a massive gear around]] while a masked man whips him. Pan up past a complicated series of gears, and we find Lenny and Carl in the cafeteria... wondering what makes the dessert sampler rotate.
** In "The Cartridge Family", an out-of-control soccer riot leads Homer to build a Goldberg-like device involving a flashlight, a magnifying glass, an alarm clock, and a fish, for the apparent purpose of alerting them when someone tries to open their front door. Since he and Marge were watching the door to see if the device would work, it's kind of pointless. Then someone steals the fish.
* Wallace's devices in ''WesternAnimation/WallaceAndGromit'' (especially the whole system for arranging breakfast). Justified, sorta, in that Wallace is an inventor by trade.
** ''WesternAnimation/TheWrongTrousers'': There is a device that drops a person out of bed, dresses them, shoots a bit of jam that collides with a toast and then lands the toast on the plate. Later, Gromit drops from the bed, but he faces the wrong way, the clothes are put on backwards, and when the drop of jam shoots out, there's no toast to intercept it, so it lands on his face.
** ''WesternAnimation/ACloseShave'': Applies to when Wallace gets ready to wash someone's windows. Wallace goes through a Series/{{Thunderbirds}}-esque sequence of going down slides and having machines put his helmet on and sitting him on his bike, and then has Gromit just walking through a door next to the bike and climbing into the sidecar. Wallace then uses a mechanical foot to start his bike for him, which involves moving his OWN foot out of the way.
** ''WesternAnimation/TheCurseOfTheWereRabbit'': There's a sequelce that involves a mechanical hand cranking the van for them. He probably had to modify the van to use a hand-crank instead of an ignition key to begin with.
* In the first episode of ''WesternAnimation/DarkwingDuck'', Darkwing has an invention to make breakfast while training. Dodging knives, catching cereal shot from a gun, karate chopping oranges to make juice, dodging flames while using them to heat his eggs, etc. He also times himself while doing this. But he always forgets to grab the milk from the fridge, the punishment for which is the entire fridge launching into the air and landing on top of him. In the second episode, Gosalyn tries her hand at it and scores an impressive time, but she ''also'' forgets the milk, and Darkwing just so happens to be standing in the same spot he was before... This is used in the comic, too, where it becomes a hybrid of ChekhovsGun and RunningGag. Goslyn actually uses this to combat the bad-guys coming after her. (This doesn't stop them that much, until the [[SugarWiki/FunnyMoments fridge flies on them]].)

** Leonardo Da Vinci's spaceship launcher in the episode "The Duh-Vinci Code".
** Parodied in "The Tip of the Zoidberg" with the Murdolator. About halfway through it gets damaged and the whole thing falls apart catastrophically. Bender calls for a reset.
* Two of Disney's ''WesternAnimation/TheThreeLittlePigs'' shorts have Practical Pig build elaborate machines to punish TheBigBadWolf.
** "Three Little Wolves" has a "wolf pacifier" that hits the Wolf with every item imaginable before [[TarAndFeathers tar and feathering]] him and launching him out of a cannon.
** In "The Practical Pig" it's a lie detector that when it detects a lie restrains and either spanks the liar or [[SoapPunishment washes his mouth out with soap]]. Or both. Or at one point whacks them in the head while washing their butt. The lie detector [[HoistByHisOwnPetard bites Practical Pig in the ass]] at the end of the short -- [[{{Irony}} when the machine catches his brothers in a lie and starts spanking them, he tells them "This hurts me more than it hurts you"]]. Cue the machine reaching for him as well.
* In ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'', Finn and Princess Bubblegum use one to wake up Earl Lemongrab and display a note to him which reads, [[BigStupidDooDooHead "You really smell like dog buns."]]
** The James clones build a rather large one in "James II" as a trap for the Banana Guards. It topples under its own weight.
* The climax of ''WesternAnimation/TheThiefAndTheCobbler'' includes an impossible Rube Goldberg device-like sequence [[spoiler:resulting in the destruction of a highly advanced war machine. The sequence was started by the Cobbler of the story shooting a tack at the main villain and missing.]]
** [[spoiler:What really killed the machine, however, was the giant vats of ''molten lava'' that were tipped over by the Rube Goldberg sequence, setting the machine on fire.]]
* In ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'', Roger is planning a steak dinner for Francine and Stan, and wants to get an expensive bottle of wine, which isn't made anymore. They show a montage of one, then the power goes out. Roger's intent is to wait for Greg and Terry (who have the last bottle) to notice and steal the bottle. Francine is annoyed and simply takes it from the two. [[spoiler:Roger's plan wasn't finished; Francine grabs a cord and gets cannonballed out. Roger wanted both of the steaks.]]
* Subverted in the ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'' episode, "I, Brobot". After Phineas explains his plans to build [[RobotMe robot versions of himself and Ferb]], you see a ridculous contraption, which includes a tuba, a plunger, and a banana peel. When Phineas and Ferb activate the robot building device, they turn ''away'' from the ridiculous contraption towards a simple box which the robots walk out of.
-->'''Phineas:''' I'm so glad we used our new android building device instead of ''that'' old dinosaur.
* ''WesternAnimation/NedsNewt'': Ned and Newton do a short one at the start of "Jurassic Joyride".
** Basically, it involves a vehicle on a racetrack, which takes a pair of scissors with it. The vehicle then reaches a rope that the scissors cut, causing a toy dog tied to a balloon to start floating. The balloon then gets popped by a drawing pin, making the dog fall and trigger its parachute, but not before finally landing on a bucket of water.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/WildKratts'' episode "Platypus Cafe", Chris rigs a Rube Goldberg booby trap in Gourmand's kitchen.
* Todd from ''WesternAnimation/BoJackHorseman'' attempts to make one to catch the zombie clown dentists (MakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext), but this being Todd, it fails miserably.
* How Fig travels from the upper decks to the lower in his wrecked ship house in ''WesternAnimation/TumbleLeaf''. It involves a shower, a slide, and a bag of bananas.
* In ''WesternAnimation/YogiBear'', as originally seen on Season 2 of ''WesternAnimation/HuckleberryHound'', in the 1959 episode "Lullaby-Bye Bear", the final scene uses a Rube Goldeberg, at Yogi's hands, to wake him up. It's to keep him from hibernating as he wishes.

* The title sequence for ''WesternAnimation/ISpy'' features Spyler operating the balloon popper from ''School Days'' as he sings the theme song. The show's title appears when the balloon pops.
* ''WesternAnimation/WorkItOutWombats'': The theme song demonstrates the characters creating a Rube Goldberg machine to unveil the show's logo.

->'''Carly:''' But wait, don't you still need to remember to put that ball back at the top every day?\\
''({{beat}})''\\

[[caption-width-right:350:[[BlatantLies A really ]][[SarcasmMode simple plan.]][[note]]As you raise spoonful of soup (A) to your mouth it pulls string (B), thereby jerking ladle (C) which throws cracker (D) past parrot (E). Parrot jumps after cracker and perch (F) tilts, upsetting seeds (G) into pail (H). Extra weight in pail pulls cord (I), which opens and lights automatic cigar lighter (J), setting off sky-rocket (K) which causes sickle (L) to cut string (M) and allow pendulum with attached napkin to swing back and forth thereby wiping off your chin. After the meal, substitute a harmonica for the napkin and you'll be able to entertain the guests with a little music.[[/note]]]]

* Franchise/ScoobyDoo. It doesn't matter what version it is, it is a GUARANTEE a Robinson Goldberg Contraption is going to show up at LEAST once an episode, and quite a few times in each movie. Unfortunately, they seldom work as planned. For example, in [[WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooMysteryIncorporated one incarnation]], Fred's overly complicated plan successfully traps himself and the gang, leaving the monster standing there.

* Part of the fun of ''VideoGame/DwarfFortress'' is building these. The community calls them [[http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2012:Stupid_dwarf_trick Stupid Dwarf Tricks]] and has devoted a page of [[TheWikiRule their Wiki]] to them.

** The opening sequence to the [[Film/BackToTheFuture original movie]] had such a device to prepare Doc's coffee and open a can of dog food for Einstein, Doc Brown's dog.

* In ''[[Animation/TheMindsEye The Gate to the Mind's Eye]]'', one such device exists in the confines of a simple-looking box. A folded piece of paper placed in a slot triggers a number of devices that eventually produces an "IOU" card through the second slot.

* In ''WesternAnimation/YogiBear'',as originally seen on Season 2 of ''WesternAnimation/HuckleberryHound'', in the 1959 episode "Lullaby-Bye Bear", the final scene uses a Rube Goldeberg, at Yogi's hands, to wake him up. It's to keep him from hibernating as he wishes.

* ''Animation/PatAndMat'' seem to have a variant of ComplexityAddiction, as they never just transport things normally. Then again, to put a jack under a car, [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} these two]] dig a hole in the road, so...

* VideoGame/MystIIIExile's Age of Amateria is one giant relay puzzle.

* VideoGame/GarrysMod users are fond of constructing these, usually relying on little more than Source's physics engine, spawned props, and some ropes. [[BreadEggsMilkSquick And]] [[StuffBlowingUp high explosives]].

* There's the Gold Ribbon Grocers in ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'', where an entire Rube Goldberg Device has been set up as an EasterEgg. Upon entering, painted arrows on the floor lead you to a pressure plate to deliberately set off so you can watch it go off (it includes a domino effect using a row of boxes of detergent and several small explosions) and get several goodies when it's finished.

* ''VideoGame/FreddiFish2TheCaseOfTheHauntedSchoolhouse'': Freddi plans to build an elaborate contraption in order to capture the ghost stealing all the toys. The purpose of the trap is to drop a chandelier on the ghost, which involves a bunch of unnecessary moving parts (such as a bowling ball dropping on a seesaw) for what is effectively a snare. Most of the game involves Freddi and Luther needing to collect all of the missing components needed to finish the contraption.

* 'VideoGame/FreddiFish2TheCaseOfTheHauntedSchoolhouse'': Freddi plans to build an elaborate contraption in order to capture the ghost stealing all the toys. The purpose of the trap is to drop a chandelier on the ghost, which involves a bunch of unnecessary moving parts (such as a bowling ball dropping on a seesaw) for what is effectively a snare. Most of the game involves Freddi and Luther needing to collect all of the missing components needed to finish the contraption.

* The bomb on Tommy Lee Jones' boat near the end of ''Film/BlownAway''.
* The even less effective breakfast machine in ''Film/{{Brazil}}''.
* Many of Caractacus Potts' inventions in ''Film/ChittyChittyBangBang''.
** Built by [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Roland_Emett Frederick Roland Emett]], whose mobile sculptures were obviously influenced by Heath Robinson.
* Aurore's suicide machines in ''Film/{{Delicatessen}}''.
** The same filmmakers (Marc Caro and Jean-Pierre Jeunet) go even more heavily into Rube Goldberg situations in their later film, ''Film/TheCityOfLostChildren'' (Jeunet even says so on the DVD's commentary track), most notably in an elaborate sequence in which a single tear drop causes a chain reaction of events happening all around the city, ultimately leading to [[spoiler: a barge crashing into a dock]].

** Not to mention all the "booty traps" they encounter...

* At the very end of ''Film/{{Waiting}}'', it turns out the seemingly random items adorning a wall of the restaurant comprise one of these.
** The director merely wanted it to look like it might work, going for the "random crap" look the restaurant was based on. It was the set designers who went out of their way to make sure the thing actually worked.

* The deaths in ''Series/DeadLikeMe'' were frequently caused by things like this.
** TheMovie started with a textbook example. Naturally, it was a suicide machine. The man was an engineer, and was more pleased that it worked than anything else.

* An skit on ''Series/SesameStreet'' had Oscar the Grouch creating such a device for opening his trash can lid. An animated short also displayed the alphabet using one of these.

* The computer game series ''VideoGame/TheIncredibleMachine'' has its gameplay based on this trope, as what you need to do in each level is ''complete'' one of these.

* In the Interactive Fiction game ''{{VideoGame/Rematch}}'' the protagonist is stuck in a GroundhogDayLoop where he and his two friends are killed when an SUV crashes through the front window of the pool hall. Each cycle allows you one move before disaster strikes: undoing resets the world to just before the accident, but with some things slightly rearranged. So while the given solution will not work on every cycle, eventually you learn that [[spoiler: Ines will do anything Nick dares her to do, that she can hit the loudmouth with a page from her Far Side calendar if it's wrapped around the cueball, that the loudmouth will yell out pretty much anything that has a number in it, that the distracted girl behind the counter will repeat the number the loudmouth yells when she calls time on one of the tables, that one particular table has an irate player who nearly strikes the ceiling fan control switch with his cuestick before someone tells him that it's not their table being called. Accomplishing this will in turn cause a ceiling fan to fall, meaning everyone's attention is on the front window when the SUV crashes through and react in time to avoid it.]]

* ''VideoGame/EvilGenius'' allowed you to create chains of traps that trigger one another. The more traps an enemy agent triggers in rapid succession, the more bonus cash you are awarded. A single trap triggering does not offer any reward (other than dealing with that pesky, pesky agent).
** Similarly, ''VideoGame/{{Trapt}}'' gives you large bonuses for setting up traps in such a way that a victim will fall into several in quick succession before getting flung into one of the mansion's in-built hazards.
** No love for Trap Gunner? There's very little that's more satisfying than watching your opponent flying around the room through 6 different push traps, before landing in a pitfall right next to 3 bombs and a remote detonator.

* ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 4}}'''s Contraptions Workshop DLC allows you to build your own Rube Goldberg devices.

** [[GaveUpTooSoon It's only discovered after Dexter leaves]].

* ''WesternAnimation/FilmationsGhostbusters'' included one of these as part of the TransformationSequence.
* ''WesternAnimation/RockyAndBullwinkle'' does this occasionally.
* One ''WesternAnimation/{{Animaniacs}}'' short, "Wakko's Gizmo", centered entirely around perhaps the most complex example of this kind of device. Its purpose? To set off a WhoopeeCushion.

* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' ("Rosebud"), Homer is in a dungeon at the plant, [[WheelOfPain manually turning a massive gear around]] while a masked man whips him. Pan up past a complicated series of gears, and we find Lenny and Carl in the cafeteria... wondering what makes the dessert sampler rotate.
** In another episode ("The Cartridge Family"), an out-of-control soccer riot leads Homer to build a Goldberg-like device involving a flashlight, a magnifying glass, an alarm clock, and a fish, for the apparent purpose of alerting them when someone tries to open their front door. Since he and Marge were watching the door to see if the device would work, it's kind of pointless. Then someone steals the fish.

** In ''WesternAnimation/TheWrongTrousers'', there is a device that drops a person out of bed, dresses them, shoots a bit of jam that collides with a toast and then lands the toast on the plate. Later, Gromit drops from the bed, but he faces the wrong way, the clothes are put on backwards, and when the drop of jam shoots out, there's no toast to intercept it, so it lands on his face.
** Also sort of applies to when Wallace gets ready to wash someone's windows in ''WesternAnimation/ACloseShave''. Wallace goes through a Series/{{Thunderbirds}}-esque sequence of going down slides and having machines put his helmet on and sitting him on his bike, and then has Gromit just walking through a door next to the bike and climbing into the sidecar. Wallace then uses a mechanical foot to start his bike for him, which involves moving his OWN foot out of the way.
*** Likewise, the similar sequence in ''WesternAnimation/TheCurseOfTheWereRabbit'' that involves a mechanical hand cranking the van for them. He probably had to modify the van to use a hand-crank instead of an ignition key to begin with.
* In the first episode of ''WesternAnimation/DarkwingDuck'', Darkwing has an invention to make breakfast while training. Dodging knives, catching cereal shot from a gun, karate chopping oranges to make juice, dodging flames while using them to heat his eggs, etc. He also times himself while doing this. But he always forgets to grab the milk from the fridge, the punishment for which is the entire fridge launching into the air and landing on top of him. In the second episode, Gosalyn tries her hand at it and scores an impressive time, but she ''also'' forgets the milk, and Darkwing just so happens to be standing in the same spot he was before...
** This is used in the comic, too, where it becomes a hybrid of ChekhovsGun and RunningGag. Goslyn actually uses this to combat the bad-guys coming after her. (This doesn't stop them that much, until the [[SugarWiki/FunnyMoments fridge flies on them]].)
* Leonardo Da Vinci's spaceship launcher in the ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' episode "The Duh-Vinci Code".

* Obviously, the drawings of Rube Goldberg and Heath Robinson were the inspiration for this trope.
** The Danish cartoonist [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Storm_Petersen Storm P]] did similar drawings.
** As did several successive cartoonists working for the Spanish comic magazine TBO (the inventions were credited to "Professor Franz from Copenhaguen")

* Toronto-based [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKpxd8hzOcQ 2D Photography]] brings you a photography device.
** Bonus point for a couple [[ShoutOut Shout Outs]] to other Rube Goldberg Machines like OK Go and the Honda Accord commercial both at 2:35.

* On an episode of ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'', Peter orders a breakfast-making machine that [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GN_juATOQc works just like this]]. After going through the sequence, all it does it shoot him, causing Peter to wonder what the point of it all was. That was a parody of the breakfast machine from ''Film/PeeWeesBigAdventure'', complete with a SuspiciouslySimilarSong.