Thursday, January 17, 2008

Scrabulous and the Supertoilet!!!

So how many of you saw yesterday's post and thought it actually said "I have a Weiner!" and thought "Shoot, I always knew she was a he!"

In the meantime, a breaking news bulletin. It has come to my attention that Facebook is being sued by Mattel and Hasbro to have the Scrabulous game removed from Facebook. Oh the horror! Currently Travis Erwin and Precie are beating my ass in four different Scrabulous games. If they remove it, however will I seek my revenge? Yes, I am losing because I can't cheat. There is no way to sneak new tiles. But it is damn addictive fun. So boo to Hasbro and Mattel, you materialistic corporate bandits, for ruining our fun! I'm gonna keep playing until they finally force it off, but here's to hoping the money grubbers will realize that they have a money making opportunity here. License the sucker to Facebook, don't take it off! Save Scrabulous! And if anyone wants to win at Scrabulous, just challenge me to a game. I'm on an amazing losing streak!

And one other piece of awesome breaking business news:

TwoDaLoo - A Supertoilet That Saves Rocky Marriages and The Planet

Product




Suggested Retail Price: $1,400.00
Minimum Order: 12
Model Number: TDL-1000A
Country of Origin: China



Product Description - The TwoDaLoo is billed as the world's first toilet two people can use ... at the exact same time. It brings couples closer together and conserves our water supply all with one flush. The TwoDaLoo features two side-by-side toilet seats with a modest privacy wall in between. An upgraded version includes a seven inch LCD television and iPod docking station.

Listen, there was once an old Saturday Night Live skit about the Niagara Love toilet, but it was a joke, people, A JOKE! But manufacturing a real share your poo toilet is beyond unreal. Oh my God!!!! I love my husband. I really do. But I would rather strangle myself with my own tongue rather then sit next to anyone while they are taking a dump. But the best part of this ad, the absolute best part, is that it is touted as saving rocky marriages. Honey, if I had to smell my partner's stank as he was doing it, that would seal the deal on our happily ever after. But maybe I am in the minority. If anyone out there believes this is a good idea. Please let me know. I promise I will laugh at you.

36 comments:

Anonymous said...

That must be the new Virgin Atlantic Upper Class arrangement.

Stephen Parrish said...

A modesty wall? Why? So they can't see each other crapping?

Lana Gramlich said...

I suspect, considering the corpocracy our gov't truly is, that pretty soon these will be the norm in corporate offices across the country. Bathroom breaks are bad for the economy, after all! *snort*
That last paragraph made me laugh so hard I just about fell out of my chair. Thanks "loads!" ;)

Angie said...

Playing Devil's advocate for a moment, I have to point out that Hasbro et al do legally own the rights to Scrabble and can do this if they want. And I'm wondering whether any licensing offer was made to FaceBook, and if so how they replied, or would reply if one were made? And knowing that Scrabble was someone else's property, did FaceBook ever consider asking to license it before they just grabbed it and used it?

It's easy to sneer at an Evil Corporation for something like this, but it's no different from us as writers wanting to be paid for our stories. It wouldn't be any different, in principle, if Facebook had a library of our books that they posted for their members to read for free, with no way for us to get royalties. I don't know about you, but I'd be annoyed. Even if I decide to make some of my stuff available for free in the name of marketing, that's my decision to make, not someone else's, and I don't consider myself terribly money-grubbing to feel that way.

If anything, it's Facebook that's grubbing for money. They want more eyeballs for their ads to increase their revenue, so they're grabbing content from anywhere they can get it -- whether they own that content or not -- to try to attract more members and more hits and more ad views. So who's being greedy here? :/

Angie

moonrat said...

"TwoDaLoo"

I'm so glad I can always count on you to teach me things I never realized I wanted to know.

Also, why hasn't Matel etc sued the tuchis off Facebook months and months ago?

moonrat said...

also, isn't it a little belated for OTHER reasons? i mean, "scrabulicious" has become such a mainstream adjective that i think it was included in the 2007 Webster New World. that's damage that won't be undone at this point.

Angie said...

Moonrat -- my guess is Mattel doesn't care about that. :) They just don't want people playing their game without buying a copy of it, or licensing an electronic version. [wry smile]

Angie

The Quoibler said...

Maybe they could have the "ChattyGynoChair", too.

It would be set up so two women could have their annual pap smears at the same time -- they could talk and gossip while their nether regions were being probed.

A female bonding moment would definitely ensue.

Larramie said...

Oh no, Ello, Scrabulous might be going down the Supertoilet!

Sarah Hina said...

*runs screaming from the conjugal toilet*

If you need a toilet to save your marriage, it's already too late.

Anonymous said...

This is one of the worst ideas ever.

On top of that, according to the information you posted, consumers can't just order 1, they have to order 12 of these things! That means twenty four of you and your closest friends can take a crap together, because I doubt you would be able to find 11 buyers for this thing.

Precie said...

I don't know how much Facebook profits from Scrabulous---I think profits mainly go to the Scrabulous developers. And, yes, apparently their ad revenue gotten high enough to grab the attention of Hasbro.

But really...Scrabulous has revived Scrabble for me and a lot of other Facebookers...so...it would seem that a reasonable commercial resolution would be for the developers to pay Hasbro a percentage of their profits.

JUST DON'T TAKE AWAY MY SCRABULOUS!!!

I can't comment on that toilet. I don't think I could ever use one.

robkroese said...

Do they sell the dummies separately? I kind of like the idea of a poo dummy that hangs out with me while I do my business.

robkroese said...

By the way, I checked out that pitch site, and OMG there are some deluded people out there. It's like watching American Idol. Your pitch is WAY better than all the ones I read over there. Wow.

Lisa said...

OMG. I am a very private bathroom person. I don't want anybody in there with me no matter what I'm doing (that includes putting makeup on anything that requires tweezers) and I sure don't want to be in there when anybody else is using it. Blech.

Precie said...

Since we're discussing privacy and bathrooms, I can't help but bring up the news tidbit I found highly amusing yesterday...

In defense of Senator Larry Craig, the ACLU is arguing that "people who have sex in a public bathroom have an expectation of privacy."

BHAHAHAHAHAHA! I don't even feel completely comfortable doing things you're supposed to do in a public bathroom because of the lack of privacy...much less that.

ello--what's your professional legal opinion?

Ello - Ellen Oh said...

Precie - My immediate reaction was sheer and utter incredulity. But then I realized, this is definitely one of those funny areas of law that the ACLU loves to reinvent. This case touches upon a bigger issue and we may see that the expectation of privacy is going to be rechartered once again. Because it is true that when you are in your stall, most peope feel that they should have an expectation of privacy while you are doing your business, unless you are using the Twodaloo! But to extend that to a function beyond the original intent of the toilet stall, like sex, is where I think the courts have to draw a line to say what is reasonable expectation and what is not. HOwever, the problem with a conservative court is that they would like to claim that there is no true right to privacy - if a drug seller and user are in adjoining public stalls and I am a cop who happens to be in the bathroom and I see what looks like drugs and money passing under the stall, I can bust in on them and it would be hard for them to claim expectation of privacy since they were in a public bathroom - a conservative court would side with the law while a liberal court would cast a much larger net and broaden it. This is actually a very interesting case. I shall have to see what happens with it. Thanks for letting me know!

Sandra Cormier said...

Okay, this one puts a whole new spin on 'Ewwwww.'

No wall in the world will mask the plopping sound.

Ello - Ellen Oh said...

Hey Angie - I totally agree with you, actually, and I was surprised to find out that Scrabble had not been first licensed by the makers of Scrabulous. That was a big mistake in the first place as these companies include internet rights in what licensing rights they own. I was just griping about the fact that they wanted to take it off Facebook and put it on their own website instead of suing the Scrabulous guys for licensing fees and royalties and keeping it on Facebook. It was a personal grip - but I understand the business and legal reasons behind it. ;o)


Diesel - Thanks for the compliment! Although I have a feeling the other pitches you saw just weren't your cup of tea as they were mostly women's fiction or romance genre. I think mine was the only one with war and violence in it. ;o)

Lisa said...

OMG. I don't even want the door open when I (or anyone else) pees.

March2theSea said...

SNL skit YEARS ago...with Kevin Neelon (sp) and Victoria JAckson..it was about a couple that did "EVERYTHING" together..it was a fake commercial.

David L. McAfee said...

OOOOH, if we have the TwoDaLoo and the ChattyGynoChair, can we aldo get a tandem Prostate Exam?

Melissa Amateis said...

NOT a good idea! I don't walk into the bathroom after my husband's been in there for at least a half an hour!!! No way I'd want to be on the frontlines! ;-)

Sherry said...

I kind of like the two-da-loo...BUT...I wouldn't want to use it at the same time...I think if one side is a toilet with a lid and the other is a urinal..then I don't have the "problem" of "seat left up in the middle of the night" syndrome. I could definitely go for that!

The Quoibler said...

David:

hahahahahaha! That left me laughing out loud! How about it the "Bro"State Exam?

Angelique

Carleen Brice said...

Who thinks of something like this...and who the hell manufactures it??

The Anti-Wife said...

Ewwwww. Just Ewwwwwwww!

Charles Gramlich said...

Uh oh, I see Lana has now already been exposed to the Scarbulous idea. I wonder if I'll see her again.

as for the toilet built for two. I use the bathroom to get away from people. I'm agin it.

SzélsőFa said...

Strugglingwriter has made some good points here, folks.

Anonymous said...

That toilet looks like a torture device.

Patti said...

pushing out a doot with someone to witness it?! oh hell to the no!

Stuart Neville said...

Hey Ello,

Knowing your penchant for farting, and bottom humour in general, I thought you might enjoy this particularly childish clip from 90s sketch show Absolutely:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3IYnWTmxkBM

Ahm humour at its purest. :)

Anonymous said...

Oh, my God. That toilet is hilarious. Sure, there's a privacy wall, but the part you want to keep most private is actually the smell, and I don't see that wall protecting people from that. The one benefit I can see is that it may result in fewer arguments about who left the lid up and who forgot to change the toilet paper, since I'm assuming each would be assigned an individual crapper.

Sustenance Scout said...

Yikes the world we live in...! K.

Chris Eldin said...

Hahaaahaaha!
First the double toilet, then the gynochair!
This is one of the funniest posts I've read!
;-)

Therese Fowler said...

SAVES a marriage?!?

SAVES?!?

Wrong five-letter word. Let me revise: RUINS

Little kids might like it, though...