History Main / RubeGoldbergDEvice

* [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GsH8YczEkU This]] PSA for U.S. Savings Bonds.

-->-- ''{{Mythbusters}}'' [[hottip:*:testing whether toast always lands butter-side up or down]]

* ''[[{{ptitle1094ykag}} Filmation's GhostBusters]]'' included one of these as part of the TransformationSequence.

* One ''{{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.

* Lucasfilm Games' ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_Shift_(computer_game) Night Shift]]'' essentially is about keeping a Robinson-Goldberg machine running smoothly.

* NancyDrew's friend Bess has to build one in ''Legend of the Crystal Skull'' (Mystery #17). This is justified because the ''beyond-''improbable setup keeps its victim enthralled long enough to catch him off-guard.

* The punchline in ''RedDwarf'' series 8 episode ''Cassandra''. Of course, [[DisContinuity some people think the episode never happened]], making the joke a bit less funny.

* Toronto-based [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKpxd8hzOcQ 2D Photography]] brings you a photography device.

* In ''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."]]

* In ''Adventure Time'', 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."]]

[[caption-width-right:350:Pure Simplicity.[[hottip:*:As you raise spoon 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.]] ]]

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* A one-shot gag in ''AHDotComTheSeries'' had the ship's reactor's control rods triggered by a complex system of events including falling dominoes, fans powering sailboats and candles burning threads. At the end, chief engineer Dave Howery remarks on how he's glad they've managed to simplify the process so much compared to what they had before.
* 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.
* [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDhYmpX9DLM This video]] is an interesting case as it combines this trope with a variant of BrickJoke. A Super Mario World romhack that plays itself and its own special music that starts off from a special stage called "you!!!". The next stage plays entirely by itself, and at the end [[spoiler: the world after that is called "Thank".]]
* On July 4, 2010, {{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. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkXSZX080_o Watch it in action on YouTube.]]
* Toronto-based [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKpxd8hzOcQ 2D Photography]] brings you a photography device.
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* In first episode of ''DarkwingDuck'', Darkwing has a invention to make breakfast while training. Dodging knives, catching cereal shot from a gun, karate chopping juice, dodging flames to heat his eggs. He always misses the milk, which is from the refridgator being launched on top of him.

* One later episode of [[DextersLab Dexter's Laboratory]] 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 ''[[CrowningMomentOfAwesome succeeded]]'' in creating free energy with one of these.

* In ''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.

* In an issue of ''{{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.

** Kermit the Frog demonstrated one in the early days, but none of the components of the machine worked.

* In an episode of ''TheSimpsons'' ("Rosebud"), Homer is in a dungeon at the plant, 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.

* On an episode of ''FamilyGuy'', Peter orders a breakfast-making machine from Japan that 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.

The name is taken from the drawings by American cartoonist Rube Goldberg, which had a ridiculously complicated sequence of events to do something as trivial as giving someone a back scrub. Obviously, this is different from a traditional invention in that it gives a complicated solution to a simple problem, not the other way around. This device is also known as a Heath Robinson contraption AcrossThePond (after (William) Heath Robinson), or a Pythagoras switch (ピタゴラスイッチ) in Japan, among other terms used around the world.

The name is taken from the drawings by Rube Goldberg and (William) Heath Robinson, which had a ridiculously complicated sequence of events to do something as trivial as giving someone a back scrub. Obviously, this is different from a traditional invention in that it gives a complicated solution to a simple problem, not the other way around.

* There's the Gold Ribbon Grocers in {{Fallout 3}}, where an entire RobinsonGoldbergContraption 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.

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