Awesome Stupid

There’s a reason most car wheels are made from metal and wrapped in rubber tires. That didn’t stop the guys from the Waterjet Channel from trying to drive on alternative materials. They took a break from cutting stuff with to build and test wheels and tires made using ballistic gel, springs, trash, and cheese to see which performed worst.

Ice-drifting in a Miata is a fun way to spend a day. The guys at Garage 54 had a different idea for driving a Mazda in the winter. Their plan? Take the front half of a junkyard Mazda, attach an underbody sled, and slide it around on the snow. Since the donor car was front-wheel drive, no rear wheels were needed.

Because maker Allen Pan knows no bounds when it comes to engineering stupid things, he thought it might be fun to mow his lawn with lasers. After experimenting with a spinning blue laser rig, he moved on to a grid-style design with multiple lasers. We imagine that it fries some bugs while it’s cutting the grass.

Driving an old Ford Pinto is risky enough, but driving one with its tires replaced with stone is downright stupid. The guys from the Waterjet Channel downgraded the ride quality of this vintage deathtrap with prehistoric wheels that would be better suited to Fred Flintstone’s car. They also tested out some wheels made from asphalt and concrete.

Garage 54 proves yet again that just because something can be done doesn’t mean it should be done. This time, the Russian auto channel fabricated a set of tires made from thousands of individual nails, then fitted their Mercedes G-Wagen with them to see how it would handle. They provide good grip on snow and ice, but they gather more trash than a Katamari.

Long before seatbelts, airbags, and anti-lock brakes, there were plenty of well-intentioned but ill-conceived automotive safety devices. With big trucks and SUVs causing greater concerns about pedestrian safety, I Did a Thing dusted off one such invention – the Pedestrian Catcher – and tested it to see how effective it could be.

Launching cars quickly on a drag strip depends on horsepower, grip, and driver reaction time. That’s not quite the case in this video from WhistlinDiesel. For his latest bit of automotive jackassery, the car-destroying YouTuber purchased 7000 feet of industrial-strength rubber tubing and used it to see how much boost the slingshot could add.

Just because something can be done doesn’t mean it should be done. But that didn’t stop Cullen and the crew from Up North Outdoors from building the dumbest 3-wheel ATV ever. They started with a Honda 200M all-terrain cycle, chopped it up, and added a tall metal frame to get its rider over 12 feet off the ground. Naw, this thing doesn’t look sketchy at all.

YouTuber I Did a Thing has made more than his share of dumb and dangerous things. For this video, he took on a couple of his viewers’ bad ideas and attempted to build them. First up is a bidet powered by a pressure washer, followed by a ceiling fan with machete blades, a jackhammer pogo stick, and solar panel sunglasses.

Frustrated by a failed project, I did a thing decided to turn to his viewers for some suggestions. Among the stupid and dangerous ideas he tested was a treadmill with a sandpaper belt, a self-heating hot dog, an idiotic way to cut grass, and a food-processor helmet.

We didn’t have the patience to wait for the English translation of this Garage 54 video, because it’s too ridiculous to pass up. Stick around and you’ll see them replace the chassis of their see-through Lada with a wonky homemade platform and tall springs that lift the car’s body about 3 feet off the ground. Body roll, anyone?

Snapping selfies in a mirror lets you take advantage of the higher quality cameras on the back of your phone. The downside is that you get the phone in the shot. Unnecessary Inventions pokes fun at this silly pastime with a combination smartphone case and mirror so you can shoot mirror selfies anywhere you go.

(PG-13: Language) Simone Giertz’s latest ridiculous design is for a contraption that you set on your shoulders to deliver items to your face as they rotate in orbit around your head. Yes, it’s as stupidly hilarious as it sounds.

YouTuber Hot Dad pokes fun at some of the oblivious folks out there who for some reason think that posting on the Google Search App Facebook page is how you search the web, and decided to turn some of their absurd queries into a little song.

Attaching a couple of canisters of pressurized nitrous oxide to a desk chair probably isn’t the best idea, but that didn’t stop these guys from Street Outlaws from doing it anyhow. We sure hope the dude in the chair didn’t eat lunch before he did this idiotic, yet hilarious stunt.

A kid plays a hilarious gizmo cobbled together from the butt of a rifle, a garden sprayer, and a brass horn. We certainly wouldn’t want to be on the business end of this half-vuvuzela, half-fart sound machine.