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33 Supposedly Brilliant Ideas That Just Didn’t Have Legs

These top heavy ideas totally skipped leg day.

33 Supposedly Brilliant Ideas That Just Didn’t Have Legs

March 31, 2024

Not that we know, but it seems like confidence is a great feeling. We put a touch of emphasis on “seems like” because we found some instances where it got people in hot water. As you’ll see here, a whole bunch of incredibly confident people went full steam ahead with their “amazing” ideas without stopping to ask some important questions. Like, will cramming a ton of impressive tech into a baby monitor cause it to burn parents and explode? You’ll see…

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33

CRACKED Humans trained AI to be racist. In 2016, Microsoft told users that the more they tweet to Tay, the more she'd learn. Within 24 hours, she was tweeting racial slurs, Hitler quotes, incestuous sexual acts, and was immediately canceled. TWEETS FOLL 96.1K 48 Tweets Tw TayTweets — Source

32

CRACKED Amazon's life-threatening home security. Homeowners can check in on their homes from anywhere, and with Amazon Ring, so can everyone else! Hackers have spied on people, spoken racial slurs through the mic, and even told an old lady Tonight you die. Dozens of terrified users sued Amazon. — Source

31

Facebook

CRACKED Facebook's 24/7 spy machine. After a 50 million user data breach, Facebook released Portal, a video-calling device with a camera and mic that were always on. Labeled the worst tech device of the year, people distrusted Facebook's camera/microphone combo in their home, and it flopped. — Source

30

CRACKED Google's steampunk-ass internet balloons. Going literally above and beyond cell towers, Alphabet (Google's parent company) tried to give affordable internet to planet Earth with internet-emitting balloons. Many countries denied them for airspace security reasons. They lost $1 billion and popped them all. — Source

29

CRACKED Incendiary baby monitors. Lorex's baby monitor had motion tracking, night vision, and an ability to snap pics. All that tech cramming caused 488 reports of burn-temperature overheating, and cases of the battery pack expanding enough for the outer casing to shoot right off. — Source

28

CRACKED Hackable pacemakers that tug on your heartstrings. This revolutionary radio-controlled pacemaker was built without security against other frequencies. The possibility of hacking caused a recall of 500,000 after patients feared anyone with a wireless transmitter kit could play with their hearts. — Source

27

Terrible Predictions

CRACKED.COM Terrible ideas about the future of movies Thomas Edison thought talkies would fail. No, I don't think the talking motion picture will ever be successful in the United States. Americans prefer silent drama... The American people do not want it, and will not welcome it. - Thomas Edison, March 4, 1927 — Source

26

The Movie That Introduces HYPNOMAGIC SPELLBOUND...YOU GAZE INTO THE DEPTHS OF EVIL as beauty is hypnotized THE THRILL YOU SEE AND FEEL into a thing of torture and terror... the fate of those who dare to stare... at the EYE! Terrible ideas about the future of movies HypnoMagic HypnoMagic was an attempt to literally hypnotize audiences, introduced in 1960's The Hypnotic Eye. Since you haven't gone to a hypnosis movie ever, you already know that it failed. GRACKED.COM — Source

25

Terrible ideas about the future of movies The invention of smell-o-vision. In 1960, Mike Todd Jr. figured that releasing scents in sync to the action on the screen would improve scenes set in restaurants, perfume shops, and such. Needless to say, the gimmick stunk. CRACKED.COM — Source

24

GRACKED.COM Terrible ideas about the future of movies 20th century FOX'S co-founder didn't see TV as competition. Television won't be able to hold on to any market it captures after the first six months. People will soon get tired of staring at a plywood box every night, said Darryl F. Zanuck in 1946. — Source

23

The Navy

Navy pilots damaged helicopters taking a Facebook photo LAKE ТАНОЕ CRACKED.COM Two pilots caused half a million dollars in damage trying to take a cool photo in 2010. — Source

22

A variety show told an audience of 1000 children that they had free toys. SUNDERLANND, UK CRACKED.COM 183 children died in the stampede that followed, resulting in the invention of the emergency push door. — Source

21

NASA

NASA forgot to convert units from English to metric. HOUSTON, TEXAS CRACKED.COM The avoidable mistake meant Mars Climate Orbiter burned up in space, costing NASA $125 million in 1999.

20

Groupon rejected Google's $6 billion takeover offer CHICAGO GROUPON CRACKED.COM I'm all in support of not selling out to a tech monopoly, but they turned down 6 billion for a discount website? — Source

19

Pepsi once owned 17 submarines and 3 warships SOVIET UNION .pe SUS.O KBD n will adidas is YORK WT VII V WT VII VEU IT 785 - - hhep ПЕПСИ-КОЛ ПЕПСИ ПЕПСИ-КОЛА اسم ПЕПСИ-КОЛА - Schweppes Natural مصر RANBER ТОВАРНЫЙ JHAR ПРЯНО - - / in g 11 ЖУРАВЛИНИ - - 31.18 LA LE НАПИ БЕЗАЛКОГОЛЬНОЙ Ireal - ИРР 13 17 If 21 16 CRACKED.COM In a trade deal with the Soviet Union, Pepsi briefly owned a notable navy, which they sold for scrap. — Source

18

Disastrous Comedy 2002 Baby Bob Folded Turning an ad into a sitcom, this talking baby got his own CBS primetime show after a string of Freelnternet.com commercials. It's 14 episodes of Wait, that baby can talk? moments that got old right away. CRACKED — Source

17

Animal Planet

Disastrous Comedy 2002 Comedians Unleashed Not to be confused with Comics Unleashed, this was Animal Planet's attempt at a stand-up comedy show. Here's the kicker: It was only animal-themed jokes. They only aired one episode. CRACKED — Source

16

Disastrous Comedy 2006 Emily's Reasons Why Not The ABC sitcom starring Heather Graham was canceled after one episode. Programming chief Steve McPherson said, It's not going to get better. Apparently ABC committed to the show without even seeing its pilot. CRACKED — Source

15

Failed Sitcoms

Disastrous Comedy 1993 George Thinking he was a draw, ABC gave former heavyweight champion George Foreman a TV comedy about a retired boxer running a youth center, forgetting that he's not an actor or comedian. The show bombed and was canceled in two months (leaving one episode unaired). CRACKED — Source

14

Disastrous Comedy 1983 Rubik, the Amazing Cube He-Man was a highly successful show based on a toy, because look at the characters they had to work with. Giving a Rubik's Cube an alien-like face and random powers only lasted 13 strange episodes, and did nothing to help hawk the product. CRACKED — Source

13

Heil Honey I’m Home

Disastrous Comedy 1990 Heil Honey I'm Home! A British sitcom involving Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun not being able to get along with their Jewish neighbors aired one episode, but everyone wondered how the highly offensive show ever aired at all. This shock value was out of touch. CRACKED — Source

12

Cavemen

Disastrous Comedy 2007 Cavemen Geico's original so easy a caveman could do it ads were pretty funny, but did not warrant their own show. The ABC sitcom only lasted six episodes, and was dubbed one of the worst ever. CRACKED — Source

11

The Australian Army started the Emu War AUSTRALIA CRACKED.COM In 1932, the Australian Army, armed with machine guns, unsuccessfully attempted an operation to rid a district of Western Australian of emus. — Source

10

Two rival gangs decided to have a friendly soccer match MEXICO 100 ESTATAL - PRECIA ESTATION POL POLICIA CRACKED.COM On New Years Day, 2020, the prison game resulted in 16 deaths and 5 injuries. — Source

9

Radioactive toothpaste GERMANY Doramad Radioorative Zohncreme Sackers CRACKED.COM Produced in 1940 to 1945, Doramad toothpaste contained small amounts of thorium. — Source

8

Nuke the Moon

The U.S. once considered nuking the moon UNITED STATES CRACKED.COM During the Cold War, the U.S. considered detonating a nuclear bomb in a crater to show off its nuclear power and study its effects. — Source

7

Harvard Frat Boys

Goldfish-gulping challenges HARVARD GRAGKED. COM In 1920s, Ivy League frat boys would swallow live golfish for attention. This was a whole trend, started by one guy's $10 dare. — Source

6

Curing rheumatism by climbing into a whale carcass AUSTRALIA CRACKED.COM In 1896, health experts suggested patients climb into beached whales for up to 30 hours, despite no scientific evidence. — Source

5

A mental health facility added a tall tower BRATTLEBORO, VERMONT CRACKED.COM Brattleboro Retreat in 1887 added a tall tower to aid patients' health with a nice view. Several patients fell to their death. — Source

4

GRACKED.COM TOO COOL TO DO DRUGS COOL TO DO DRUGS DO DRUGS DRUGS A NYC company had the noble idea to introduce new pencils to schools in the city with the message Too cool to do drugs printed on them. They all had to be recalled when a 10 year old student pointed out that the message became quite different with every sharpening. — Source

3

In November 2014, amid multiple allegations of sexual misconduct, Bill Cosby tweeted the invitation Go ahead. Meme me! with a link to a graphic generator on his website. The unforgiving public obliged. REMEMBER WHEN I ATE CAKE? MORE THAN @ DOZEN WOMEN M LET'S REMEMBER THE CAKETIMES MY TWO FAVORITE INSTEAD OF THE RAPE - STUFF Bill Cosby @BillCosby JELLO PUDDING & RAPE BY 13 DIFFERENT WOMEN #COSAYMERI Go ahead. Meme me! http://t.co/uM3KSji8or #CosbyMeme GRACKED.COM — Source

2

Before the iPhone, Apple had tried its hand in the game business by teaming up with Bandai to create the Pippin, a disc-based console with a trackball in the controller. aTMORK STRAKK. PewerPC The combination of a $600 price tag, barely any software support, and terrible management during Apple's years without Steve Jobs caused the Pippin to die within two years. GRACKED.COM — Source

1

The iPhone

CRACKED.COM The iPhone you almost had Two years before the launch of the iPhone, Apple launched an abortive iTunes phone produced by Motorola and called the ROKR (after the glitchy RAZR, get it?) cingular 2 6 5 WINNS It had a 100-song limit, it couldn't buy music over the internet, it was hated by carriers, and its candybar shape looked like yo momma's phone. It almost killed any future phone plans for Apple — Source

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