Categories
Humor

WTF? That’s all I have to say.

A few weeks ago, having fallen asleep on the couch watching TV, I awoke to an ad for a most wondrous product. Well, not exactly. In fact the product, known as a Snuggie, left my scratching my head. Three questions came to mind:

  1. Who on earth is too stupid to use a blanket?
  2. Who on earth would buy a product that makes them look either like a complete dork, or a monk with a fuzzie robe?
  3. Would anyone actually go out in public with such a thing?

That’s why, on a Sunday when my brain’s too fried to write anything about science (or even that coherent), I was happy to see the cheap and quick blog fodder of the WTF Blanket:

For comparison, here’s the original Snuggie commercial:

Is the WTF Blanket the best Snuggie parody out there?

By Orac

Orac is the nom de blog of a humble surgeon/scientist who has an ego just big enough to delude himself that someone, somewhere might actually give a rodent's posterior about his copious verbal meanderings, but just barely small enough to admit to himself that few probably will. That surgeon is otherwise known as David Gorski.

That this particular surgeon has chosen his nom de blog based on a rather cranky and arrogant computer shaped like a clear box of blinking lights that he originally encountered when he became a fan of a 35 year old British SF television show whose special effects were renowned for their BBC/Doctor Who-style low budget look, but whose stories nonetheless resulted in some of the best, most innovative science fiction ever televised, should tell you nearly all that you need to know about Orac. (That, and the length of the preceding sentence.)

DISCLAIMER:: The various written meanderings here are the opinions of Orac and Orac alone, written on his own time. They should never be construed as representing the opinions of any other person or entity, especially Orac's cancer center, department of surgery, medical school, or university. Also note that Orac is nonpartisan; he is more than willing to criticize the statements of anyone, regardless of of political leanings, if that anyone advocates pseudoscience or quackery. Finally, medical commentary is not to be construed in any way as medical advice.

To contact Orac: [email protected]

45 replies on “WTF? That’s all I have to say.”

The original commercial is set to autoplay. I don’t know if you can change that in the embed code.

@Rescue Angel

Pr0n flick using snuggies as props in 3…2…1…

Yea, but wouldn’t the Snuggie get in the way of what you might want to do under the blanket while watching pr0n? 😛

The original commercial is set to autoplay. I don’t know if you can change that in the embed code.

That’s why I moved it to below the fold, so that it at least wouldn’t play when the main blog page loads.

*sticks neck on line looks @ wierd wooden platform – wonders if this is so smart* My flat mate got given one of these for christmas – its pretty nice actually, very warm – basically an over sized dressing gown though and the uber wide sleeves are wonderful way of getting caught on things.

good parody though 🙂

I think it’s just another gimmick to try to get rid of some of the oversupply of those weird pop-up book lights, which even Walgreen’s can’t seem to get rid of at half price.

Real time with Bill Maher had a parody on Fridays show. It combined the snuggie with the shamwow.

My Slanket is a wonderful invention, I’ll have you know. And it predates this pretender “Snuggie” thing by at least two years. My husband got it for me for Christmas a couple of years ago. It’s a beautiful hunter green.

And yes, I do know perfectly well how to use a blanket, but not in such a way that my arms and shoulders will not get cold while I’m using my laptop. 😛

That said, I don’t know as I’d go out in public in it, except perhaps to go meteor watching…

The slanket should be in porn. It already sounds filthy.
“Dude, I totally paid a hooker 50 bucks to tongue my slanket.”

Don’t know why everyone is sneering at this garment – it’s wonderfully practical. But then, I’m the wrong side of fifty with health problems that often keep me on the sofa, plus I can’t always afford to keep my house really warm.
So I want one, and all you young, healthy dudes can carry on snickering – I don’t care so long as I’m cosy.

Snuggies have been recalled, according to persistant rumors. We do not yet know why, but we are busily investigating.

My theory is that people are accidentally confusing them with robes and putting them on backwards, which leads to additional, possibly injurious or even fatal, confusion.

The original commercial is set to autoplay. I don’t know if you can change that in the embed code.

That, children, is why there is flashblock.

“My theory is that people are accidentally confusing them with robes and putting them on backwards, which leads to additional, possibly injurious or even fatal, confusion.”

Considering these are the same people who can’t figure out how to use a blanket, that’s a distinct possibility.

Grandpa really looks like a chief priest of the Secret Order of The Flaming Skull or something in that thing.

That doesn’t solve the real problem in cold climes- “frigid back.” That’s when one rolls over and hikes the blanket off one’s back. That’s not so bad, over the decades I have learned how to use blankets.

What we really need is a solution to hot-pillow. That’s when, in the summer your pillow becomes uncomfortably hot, and you turn it over to the cool side. Then, it gets hot again; yet, when you turn it over, the first side is still hot. There is a Nobel Prize waiting, and the solution may be as simple as a four-sided pillow.

I suspect any recall might have to do with the robe being made of ply fleece that wasn’t properly treated with fire retardant. I winced when they showed the people wearing them around a camp fire. The long droopy sleeves don’t help on that count.

Actually it sounds like a decent idea. Toss a large pin in the upper corners so they rest at the shoulders and you have a robe. I think it needs a hood for lounging after a shower and the sleeves either need less material or some way of controlling the excess. Buttons, snaps or Velcro would work.

The basic design reminds me of the patient gowns some medical centers have shifted to when people tire of the thin peek-a-boo gowns. Opening in back allows easy coverage and removal if the patient is laying down or in a wheelchair. For home use and as a robe I would go with the opening in front with provision for holding the corners up at the shoulders.

As for the complaint that: “Who on earth is too stupid to use a blanket?”.

Well, with all due respect, who is too stupid not to use a toga. Shirts, pants, those are for morons who can’t wind a toga properly. Fitted underwear? Who can’t handle putting on a loincloth?

What idiot has to have their pants sewn together so they know how to put them on. Pants are supposed to be individual sleeves, like western chaps, so they can be rotated right to left to even out the wear on the knees. They also keep the crotch and rump open so doing your business is a matter of just shifting the loincloth.

Point here is that people adapt their textiles to suit their needs. Would I go into public wearing one? Probably not. But then again I can’t imagine wearing a codpiece and most ladies would blanch at wearing a 12th century gown that left the breasts exposed. How about elephant bells, leisure suits and platform shoes? There is no accounting for taste, or style.

Function is a different matter entirely. A poncho is a very useful and flexible adaptation of a simple blanket. Add sleeved and you have a Snuggie. There is a company that produces a sleeping bag with a foot that opens and sleeves so you need not get out of it to water the petunias or pout the first cup of coffee. Essentially a extra-thick front-opening Snuggie. I can’t say that any of these products is setting the world on fire but they get made and sold. Some people like them.

Washable and warm poly fleece with a back opening might make a good gown for people waiting in the exam room. Far more comfortable than sitting there in a meat-locker cold examination room freezing my nuts off because they tell to wear only a see-through thin examination gown.

It would also save time when the MD, comfortable at 50F because he is wearing five layers of clothes and is acclimated to 24/7 AC, comes in and assumes my blue fingers and toes are symptoms. Save me having to tell him through chattering teeth that I work outside and am acclimated to a room temperature of 80F and seldom turn on the AC.

A thick and warm fleece examination room gown sounds good to me.

The last time I went to visit my parents my dad answered the door in one of those things. It was dark orange. My first thought was that he had some kind of flame0e-retardant suit on, so I was alarmed. Then I wondered if he might be watching Star Wars again and trying to get in character. Finally, I mused whether he might have joined an over-60 boxing league and was trying out his warmup attire.

I think a whole ton of Snuggies with a bonfire, beer and some chants is an excellent way to have fun and scare the neighbors at the same time. Why JUST have fun when you can have fun and creep out everyone on your block?

Nurse K. In that case, they need a hood, a nice pointed hood. What says “community spirit” more than robed hooded people all gathered around a big fire in the middle of the woods somewhere or better yet right in suburbia. Can ritual sacrifices be far behind?

Art: *applause* Especially the parts about the historical garments and the examination gowns. No, doctor, my lips aren’t blue from hypoxia; it’s just that I’m chilly at 68F in a sweater and long pants. (Whether that is a symptom of something else, I leave as an exercise for the medically-educated.)

There’s a lot to be said for a blanket with sleeves, actually, like that those of us with rotator cuff injuries can read in bed and still keep our shoulders warm. Sheesh.

There is a garment used in our house, perhaps you have heard of it, it is called a “sweater.” There is also this thing called a “sweatshirt.”

Basically they are heavier duty shirts you wear on your upper body when the temperature goes down. That means you only have to put the blanket on the lower part of your body.

Also we have these things called “heavy socks” and “slippers.” They are what you have on your feet if you must sit at a desktop computer in the basement (which is really a good idea in the summer when one lives in an area without air conditioning — like near the coast in the Pacific Northwest! Hey, we find anything over 80 degrees F uncomfortable!).

Then I remember the past… my late step-mother used to send us weird but actually very useful gifts! In the early 1980s when we were in our first house, and knowing that we kept our furnace temperature very low, she sent us these weird blankets for Christmas. They were the size and look of regular blankets, but covered with snaps. If you connected the male snaps to the appropriate female snap you ended up cocooned in nice snuggly blankey, which even included your back! Those things were awesome! I think they wore out and disappeared in our last move in the mid-1990s, but by then we had a programmable thermostat and not freezing all the time (plus there was the whole “put on a sweater” bit, and lap blankets).

🙂 hehe. My boyfriend and I laugh at this commercial all of the time. It’s always on one channel or the other. It’s not that it isn’t a useful product, it’s just that you could easily use a blanket. One of the selling points is the you can’t take your arms out of a blanket to grab something without them getting cold. That’s just laziness. Grab the remote and then put your hands back under the blanket! Easy.

Am I the only person who thinks the _idea_ is sound, but the the name is ridiculous? “Snuggie” sounds like something a toddler would call their favourite blanket.

“I think it’s just another gimmick to try to get rid of some of the oversupply of those weird pop-up book lights, which even Walgreen’s can’t seem to get rid of at half price.”

Oh, my mom LOVES those. She literally reads herself to sleep at night and needs to get new ones because the bulbs burn out as a result.

Ooh – you have to check Jay Leno’s parody of this – it’s called “The Sluggie!”

D. C. Sessions wrote, “That, children, is why there is flashblock.”

THANK YOU D. C. Sessions! I just installed it and I thank you for helping me save my limited bandwidth. And also stopping some of my frustration at sites with too many ‘bells and whistles’.

Additionally, if you want to block simply everything at first, try No Script for Firefox at http://noscript.net/. A bit annoying in the beginning, until you got your white list going, but it gave an old laptop, that got killed as a “net book” by all the flash and script stuff due to insufficient memory, a new lease on life (2 years and counting).

Silliness reigns. I don’t see a need for the WTF blankie but there’s a user for anything.

When my children were under 10 (older and they don’t think it’s cool), I would take two identical, colorful, large beach towels, sew them together at the sides and along the top, leaving sideholes for arms and a large neckhole. For poolside and beaches, and after baths they were worn a LOT. Most of the other kids wanted their moms to make them. Later, when the kids outgrew them, I removed the stitches and they were back to being beach towels.

My wife actually loves her snuggie. She bought it at a Walgreens when we were out of town visiting a sick relative. She wore it most of the time we were in the hospital waiting room (notoriously cold places) with all the relatives. She uses it today when shes at the computer at home. With the wingback chair as a computer chair, she’s nice and warm while surfing the net.

Granted, for most things you could just put on more clothes…but she loves it. Of course, she’s really sensitive to the cold temperature I keep the house at. We used to fight over the thermostat until we got our first $300+ light bill. Now she’s fine with alternative heating methods.

The Snuggie isn’t such a bad idea, but you can save yourself $60 by simply putting your bathrobe on backward. At least a backward bathrobe would keep your back warm, and you can tie it in place.

You’re just jealous because you didn’t think of it. Given the number of commercials for this thing, they must be selling boatloads of ’em.

she sent us these weird blankets for Christmas. They were the size and look of regular blankets, but covered with snaps. If you connected the male snaps to the appropriate female snap you ended up cocooned in nice snuggly blankey, which even included your back!

I’ve one of those. Very useful for sitting at the computer when outside is below zero and windy, and cold starts ‘seeping in’.

One of my former students got one of these from her mom, and uploaded a photo of her modeling the Snuggie on her Facebook page. It was burgundy colored. My first thought was of a scene from some Buffy episode or from some cheesy movie with satanists or demon worshippers in a dark room lit only with candles.

Or maybe it’s just me.

Comments are closed.

Discover more from RESPECTFUL INSOLENCE

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading