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Submitted by Erica B
Silly String is a ridiculous concept — an aerosol can . It’s purpose: nonexistent. It’s fun factor: through the roof. I like this ad too. I always imagined the old money upper crust of society had a soft spot for Silly String.
But what I like even more are YouTube videos of people being lit on fire by Silly String which is, apparently, very flammable. See them after the jump.
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I use silly string to scare the foxes out of my yard xD My yard is currently covered in blue and pink mess xD
I rather have a fox in my yard then silly string all over. You should probably clean it up because A)That’s littering and B)Someone could drop a lit cig or something and catch it on fire.
um, those people catching on fire are not funny. they’re horrifying.
It’s funny because they deserve it for not reading the instructions/warnings that are posted all over the can. Most people only learn when it’s too late.
Did you not see that the guy who gets hurt was NOT using the Silly String? It was the kids behind him. He really was innocent and ended up burned. How about a little compassion, Devylan?
And maybe the poster could put up a video of people goofing with it instead of getting hurt?
BioSux – He sat there like an idiot and let them continue spraying. I would have gotten up and moved away from the flames asap.
Ah, you apparently are an omniscient 12 year old! You would never be surprised by someone’s actions. Well, congratulations to you!
His brother put the video up on youtube. I somehow doubt he was hurt if his brother put a video up for everyone to laugh at. It flamed up for probably less than a second. I’m sure he was more scared than anything. He’ll get over it.
I’m surprised at how many idiots cannot read that silly string is flammable.
Same number as people who can’t read “don’t aim at faces’, including those add makers.
The latest use for Silly String is in Iraq; the soldiers spray it in a room before entering to look for trip wires for bombs.
Thats awesome. I’d put some all over Osama’s stupid hat thing and light it up.
I call it his diaper hat.
The word you are thinking of is “Turban.”
Wait, what, “turd in”? Sounds about right for a diaper hat.
LOL +2,000 points for you.
Yeah, for a couple years, soldiers were actually having people mail them over CASES of the stuff, before the DoD got a clue, and actually ordered a military equivalent of the stuff for the EOD people to use.
Other items commonly used by the military, off the record, in ways not intended by their manufacturer:
1. Condoms: Used to keep dirt/sand/water out of the barrel of weapons in nasty conditions deep in the field (no, you won’t see this in urban combat, usually, or in situations where transportation is by vehicle rather than walking or swimming), so the gun won’t jam.
Only lasts until the gun “goes off”, but it was keeping it clean to allow firing that was the intent, anyway, and they’ll probably clean the gun after the combat’s over, anyway. Lots of sexual innuendo can be made of this useful, though odd, retasking of a prophylactic. Believed to have originated with the Navy SEAL teams, to keep seawater from getting into the gun barrels while coming ashore.
2. Tampons & Pads: They absorb blood quite well, as per their intended use. Male soldiers in the field will often carry these as field-expedient dressings. Pads are used on heavy bleeding, as pressure bandages held down with (as often as not) duct tape, and tampons are used for penetration wounds to plug holes, especially sucking chest wounds. Plus, like bandages, they come on sealed, sterile, individual packs.
Typically, these are replaced with real medical gear as soon as they can be gotten to the real medic, or to a doctor.
3. Duct/Duck Tape: No matter which you call it, or which name origin story you believe, this stuff has 1000s of uses – and it’s certain that 90% of those uses probably originated with a soldier in the field sometime between 1942 and 2005. Of course, most soldiers and marines, while they’ll carry any form of it, have the most creative uses center on getting at least one roll of the aircraft repair version of the tape (MPH tape, aerodynamic tape) for their squad, as that stuff is designed to remain sticking on aircraft in flight.
Interesting post!
you forgot 40mm grenades!
Great for blowing up cars, houses and people who don’t like you.
*Nods* They would use it to detect trip wires. The silly string would drape over the wires, but was light enough that it wouldn’t set them off.
http://tinyurl.com/yker46 Talks about the use of silly string in Iraq. Canadian troops have also used it in Afghanistan.
Hah, this stuff is still fantastic, though I still hate the weird smell it leaves behind.
Also it is really f’n hard to get it out of people’s hair once it starts to dry.
Er, just for the record, I submitted the old advert, but not the burning people… That’s not happy stuff…
I STILL have silly string stuck to the ceiling fan in my mother’s living room.. it has been there for almost 5 years. Totally removeable but none of us has ever bothered. It’s purple. We love it.
The fan in my sister’s room still has purple silly string on it. Don’t bother trying to take it off – most of it can be removed, but not all.
haha, i would imagine by this point even if we did try to scrape it away we’d have purple stains in it’s place.. not worth the effort, plus good memories
I was in a play once when we shot people with silly string multiple times throughout the show. It was amazing. The smell of silly string brings back so many memories of that…
I think the big thing that I remember about silly string was hearing about a recall of the original formula because it was almost identical to napalm. Yes, modern silly string is still VERY flammable, but it is more of a flash burn that either burns itself out quickly or is easily put out with simple things like water. Whereas the original formula, when it caught on fire the only way to keep yourself from having your flesh burned off was to get the silly string goo of of you, either by scraping it off or by dropping to the ground and rubbing it off. Whether or not that is true is unknown to me, since I have never seen the original and the modern silly string formulas lit on fire first hand.
silly string is fun because you can make a mini flamethrower if you wire a birthday candle to the front of the can. Also, if it’s not on fire, you can stain people’s white t-shirts.
During my 8th grade graduation a few months ago, I didn’t get hit by any Silly String.
Until one of my “friends” aimed it at me.
My best friend and I had a silly string fight in her back yard one day. It was a huge mess. Her mom made us clean every bit of it up, we had to pick up the tiniest pieces by hand. D:
I was caught in the crossfire of a silly string war last summer, and got a mouthful. Lemme tell ya, that stuff tastes like gasoline, so it’s no wonder that it’s flammable. Took four beers to get that taste out of my mouth. Nasty, nasty stuff. But oh, so much fun to play with.
Epic fml for the two vids following the commercial. I think someone at wham-o must have known that there was a correlation between silly string and birthday candles. Oh well.
Silly String was a Blast (literally)! Love it! My daughter asked for it everytime she saw it~though we bought the cheaper brand at Walmart.
Silly String has no purpose;there’s nothing you can do w/it-EXCEPT HAVE FUN & MAKE PEOPLE LAUGH!!
Those who didn’t laugh, well, they were just jealous because they didn’t have some.
So i’m from a small town in California. When i was young, they actually BANNED silly string. Don’t believe me? Look it up online. Steve Carell actually did a piece on it for John Stewart.
One thing I learned about silly string, it doesn’t wash off walls easially.