What Is It? game 338

Hey look! It's time to play a game, from Neatorama and the wonderful What Is It? Blog, back for a limited time. Do you know what the object in this picture is? It doesn't really matter if you do, because we are looking for the funniest guesses. You can win a t-shirt from the NeatoShop! But first, read the rules:

Place your guess in the comment section below. One guess per comment, please, though you can enter as many as you'd like. Two winners who submit funny and/or clever (albeit ultimately wrong) answers will each win a T-shirt from the NeatoShop.

If you guess the correct answer, you'll get a big pat on the back.

Please write your T-shirt selection alongside your guess. If you don't include a selection, you forfeit the prize, okay? May we suggest the Science T-Shirt, Funny T-Shirt and Artist-Designed T-Shirts?

Check out more pictures of this thing, and other mystery items, too, at the What Is It? Blog. Good luck!

Update: This is a true mystery item, and we still don't know what it is. But that doesn't stop us from giving t-shirts away! One goes to David Gunn, for this strange guess:

This is a second generation mediaeval leg shaving device, known as a Limb-Defluffer Duo created by Benedict Tinklebottom, the Fifth Earl of Giblet. Despite being the improved second generation device, it was found to be completely unusable for its original purpose (unless the user had particularly slender legs, a loving staff of at least 4). However Tinklebottom found fame when the Limb-Defluffer Duo was adopted for use as an “inquisitorial encouragement” device by the Spanish Catholic church, and ultimately learned how effective it was in its revised role when he was Defluffer Duo’ed to death for sins against personal grooming.

And another goes to Lucas Gentry, for a guess that made a little sense (not much):

This is actually the precursor to movable scissors. You place the object that you want to slice into the V's of this tool. The closer you got to the center of the V, the more were cut. It worked fantastically for carrots, cigars, and fingers, but it was terrible at cutting paper.

Thansk to everyone who played along! We'll do it again, as long as we have more mystery items at the What Is It? blog!

Love games and puzzles? Visit NeatoPuzzles for more!

Comments (11)

Newest 5
Newest 5 Comments

This is actually the precursor to movable scissors. You place the object that you want to slice into the V's of this tool. The closer you got to the center of the V, the more were cut. It worked fantastically for carrots, cigars, and fingers, but it was terrible at cutting paper.

I Heart Math Large, Black
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Similar to the emperor's new clothes, each generation has at least one fad where people follow it without knowing why. This is that fad for 1843. Rich people would order a wooden wall hanging & if anyone dared to ask what it was, they were ridiculed for their lack of knowledge.

http://www.neatoshop.com/product/Its-Dangerous-to-go-Alone-Take-this-Batleth Medium. Royal Blue
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It is news to me that the Romans used forks for eating. As far as I know (along with a small bit of Internet research) forks were only used by the Romans for carving and had two blades.

Since this is what it is, perhaps it has the wrong date and/or cultural attribution.
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I'm fairly certain the fork wasn't introduced until around the 1600's. And it took a long time to be accepted as a tool for eating. The church was vehemently opposed to its use claiming that God already provided us with the best tools for eating (our hands) and to imply that a fork was an improvement was akin to blasphemy.
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Hmm, ok, according to Wiki, forks are referenced in the old Testament, were used by the ancient Greeks AND that the Romans used them. Furthermore that there were many examples of Roman forks to be found. A casual search yielded a Roman fork that was awfully small if it was just for serving. So unless there is a rather widespread conspiracy sponsored by the Pro-Forks-For-Romans-League, I think a travel fork might be something a Roman might actually have.
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'The photos give enough detail for a skilled craftsman/smith to make one. Apply at your nearest Reenactor cutlery supplier'

They're ahead of us:

http://www.armillum.com/product.php?id_product=289
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@Johnny Cat

Might be difficult considering they didn't have corn. I suppose it could be made a flatbread, and allow you to get a nice mouthful of delicious garum. Mmm, fermented fish pasty goodness!
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