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What Is It? game 196



Once again, it's time for our collaboration with the always amusing What Is It? Blog. Can you tell us what this thing is? Or make a wild guess?

Place your guess in the comment section below. One guess per comment, please, though you can enter as many as you'd like. Post no URLs or weblinks, as doing so will forfeit your entry. Two winners: the first correct guess and the funniest (albeit ultimately wrong) guess will win T-shirt from the NeatoShop.

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?

For more clues, check out the What Is It? Blog.

Update: the pictured object is, indeed, an early TV remote control. This one is really neat in that it doesn't need batteries! Read more about it and see a video at the What It It? Blog. Yes, it was an easy one this week, and our first commenter, Benjamin Abbitt, had the right answer (but did not select a t-shirt). Most people guessed TV remote, but a few went for the funny answer. A t-shirt goes to Ceri for this one: "It's Captain Kirk's first phaser, an early version, before the design was more refined. The buttons are for tickle, shake, stun and kill"

Comments (113)

It is a TV remote from the 60's. It functioned by producing mechanical tones that the TV would recognize to preform channel changing etc.
"Best in Show" Med. Black
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TV remote. I had one. One button operates power on/off; one button operates the volume (soft, louder, LOUD, LOUDEST!, repeat); one button channel up; one button channel down.

Protected by Ninja Kitty, Small.
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It is one of the earliest TV remotes. Inside were four metal bars which would produce four different ultrasonic frequencies. When you pressed the button, it would actually trigger a mechanical striker. Since it was ultrasonic, you didn't need to be line-of-sight. And, since it was ultrasonic, you could often get "false positives" by ordinary household noises, like running a vacuum cleaner.
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TV Remote. The Zenith Space Command 400. Here is an article talking about the props of Mad Men featuring one.
http://www.ew.com/ew/gallery/0,,20395708_20309881_20683285,00.html
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OMG! That's the TV remote from our first TV when I was a kid! A ginormous Zenith console with a built in "hi-fi." Ha! I loved that thing. Saved it for years after the TV died. It made a clicking noise that ended with a little "ping" (kind of like the noise a dogdeball makes). That's why I still call the remote the "clicker." Wow, what memories. Building a fort out of sofa cushions and watching Speed Racer with a bowl of Franken Berry cereal. Thanks for helping me out of my Steve Jobs funk, Neatorama.

Oh, and if I still have a shot at a shirt: NeatoTurtle, Large, natural
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It's Captain Kirk's first phaser, an early version, before the design was more refined.
The buttons are for tickle, shake, stun and kill

Makers Do It With Tools T-shirt size Small
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It's a handheld xylophone from the mid 20th century. Inspired by (and much more portable) the keyboard on an accordion, they nevertheless flopped when it was discovered that only dogs (and really, really small children) could hear the music.
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This is a phaserphone. It has four settings - Stun, Kill, Sing-Along, and FABULOUS. For those times when you are performing onstage and being invaded at the same time. Kill or stun an alien invader before hitting Fabulous and blowing the aliens away with your voice AND a blast that will melt the room. No worries, Mom & Dad! Phaserphone comes complete with Blastshield technology which protects your little ones or anyone else you deem worthy. Buy yours today!

If I Only Had Some....Braaains in 2XL. Kthxbye! :D
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It's a TV remote, the kind they had in the 60's. It uses mini tuning forks inside that ring at high pitched frequencies. The TV would pick up whatever frequency for whatever button you hit, and then change the channel or volume for you. While handy, a lot of people had issues with this type of remote, as if they accidentally dropped a dish, or moved something so it squeaked, the TV would hear these high frequencies and change channel/volume on you, so that as you open the squeaky back door suddenly the TV goes from silent to as loud as possible.

And if I win, I'll take the Bloody Heart shirt in a medium.
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It's a Zenith Space Command tv remote. It's got four little chimes inside that get hit with a spring loaded striker when you press the button. The TV has a device that listens for the ultrasonic tones, and responds accordingly.
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First generation Phaser. the four buttons were for the intesity settings:
1. Stun
2. Stun Harder
3. Stun, Dammit, Stun will you!
4. Well die then.

It was taken out of service because it resembles a cordless shaving device too well.

Power tools make the man, XL Grey
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It's the Glade "Select-o-Smell" air freshener. Featuring scents such as "Grandma's House", "Old Spice Knock-off", "Nag-Champa" and "Is This Thing On?"

Bloody heart
Dark Grey
XL
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That is a TV remote. I know that remote well because I used it at my grandparents house growing up. It did indeed work with sound because I found that running a vacuum would cause the tv to change channels and if I dropped a number of quarters in my hand I could use it to change the TV channels also.
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This was my dog's nemesis. He fought many a valiant battle trying to wrest control of the TV from this evil device. Sadly the dog never won and wound up with a severe TV remote inferiority complex.

Yup, it is an early TV remote. We had a Zenith TV which used one. We would leave the house and it was almost always turned on when we came home. We were suspecting ghosts until one day we noticed the dog walk by and the "jingle" of the tags on his collar turned the TV of. We found out that you could shake the collar and get all kinds of random actions. Changing channels, volume, on/off. You could also do it by dropping keys. Almost any clanking together of metal had the potential to reproduce the pitch. We finally had to unplug the damn thing every time we left so the dog did not watch TV all day.

Master of my domain
Dark Gray
XL
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It's Friar William of Ockham's electronic razor - you know, of Occam's Razor fame ;). Not only was it functional for removing facial hair (the first two buttons - high & low speed), it also had the capability of distinguishing between two theories either by "shaving away" unnecessary assumptions or cutting apart two similar theories (the other two buttons). A very hand tool, indeed.

MMM..Pi, Ladies L, Serene Green
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It's one of James Bond's early weapons. It look like an ordinary TV remote, but when you press the first button, a laser appears. The second sets off a bomb in the television set. The third activates a smoke screen, and the fourth shoots one bullet to prevent capture.

What happens at grandma's blue XL
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Of course it's a TV remote! Too easy. And although people say it's "ultrasonic", from what I remember it made four clearly audible tones when the buttons were pressed. We called it the "Dinger". Never worked too well, except in a very quiet room. Channel change was always a crapshoot, and volume change usually only worked going louder, not softer, and man, that thing would go LOUD! Then you had to get up to turn the sound down below ear-splitting.

But actually, no, it's a prototype of the Monolith from 2001: A Space Odyssey. It's ten feet tall. Hard to tell with no scale involved. The first button made the monkey evolve. The second made him kill a tapir. The third made him kill another monkey. The fourth made him throw a bone in the air. Personally, I'm glad they went with the black slab instead.
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It's a remote controlled doorbell ringer. It had the 4 most popular ringtones on it. It was especially popular with the kiddies on Devil's Night when they wanted to light a bag of doggy poop on someone's doorstep and didn't want to get caught. Light the bag, run and hide and cue the doorbell. Take that, Mrs CrabbyAppleton!! Never got caught, 3 years in a row. hahaha!!!

Maybe next time you'll gimme my ball back, lady!

Pink Freud Men's Large
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This is the first prototype of Occam's Razor. Later models were simplified and had only one button. Less successful was Occam's Vajazzler, but after the court case nobody talks about it. Ever.

Support Cloning (large, black)
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It's a device to push other people's buttons.
1. Gets them irritated with you.
2. Gets them perterbed with you.
3. Gets them steamed with you.
4. Oops! Now they are boiling mad. X(

MMM...Pi, Ladies L, Serene Green
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It's the Zenith 'Space Commander' television remote. Works by striking metal bars that emit a clicking sound. It's why remotes are called clickers.
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Clicker-type remote, introduced in the late 50's/very early 60's. Worked by sound, rather than light. I took years before many people switched from "Clicker" to "Remote". Same problem with "taping" and "recording".
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It's a combo shaver/air freshener/deoderant/personal fan. You push a button to pick what operation you want. The end opposite the grill has a slot for you to insert the proper ingrediant (shaving cream, scent, deoderant gel, or ionizer). It's great for backpacking, you have one device for most of your personal needs. The deluxe model (not shown) comes with a toilet paper despenser and optional coffee spout.

Flying monkeys, large.
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It is your mother's bikini line trimmer with four settings going from 'trimmed yesterday' to 'oh my god its a jungle down there.'

Shroedingers cat 2xl black
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A disbosable defuzzer for Wookies. One grooming session and it's worn out. How else do you think Chewbacca got to looking so good?

MMM....Pi, Serene Green, Ladies L
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this is an invention made by a vindictive, lonely man set on destroying all forms of civil relationships. the one person in the house who holds this simple device holds all the power, and all others wish to destroy that person if only to steal there power. with no concern if that person is sibling mother father husband wife or child...it is a destroyer of homes.

heres looking at euclid mens med.
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Early model of a Federation communicator (circa 2209). Worn on wrist. Proved too bulky and often interfered w/ phasers and other hand-held devices (e.g. tri-corders, etc)
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OMG! My grandpa had one of these! I remember playing with it as a kid! It was the 1st TV remote I had ever seen.

There's a Fine Line Between Genius and Insanity
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this is most definately a tv remote, or more accuratley the clicker, or TV clicker as it made a clicking sound when you pressed the buttons. my grandparents had a tv with a remote like this well into the 80's
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It's a battery free remote control that works with chimes. The four buttons make the channel go up/down and the volume go up/down.

The TV picks up the sound and responds with a mechanical turning of the knobs.
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I know FOR SURE what it is since we had one when I was growin gup (I was born in 1971). A "Clicker" TV remote. Still have some friends that call their TV remote a "clicker"!
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It is an ultrasonic remote (probably from Zenith) c. 1970. The buttons ring little chimes inside the unit each one tuned to a different frequency (but too high to hear). The screen on the top is so that the sound can get out. It does not need batteries because the chime is rung by the pressure you apply. It is an early example of energy harvesting! After this model Zenith used an electronic version and then switched to IR.
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This is one of the first false teeth dispensers. Only Dental offices had access to these. The teeth look like they're the same size, but if you pull one out, they are different lengths, and root systems.
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That is a 64k RAM upgrade for the Atari 400 computer. The switches each control an individual 16k block of memory, and would be toggled on/off depending on the needs of the particular program. Having all four on would let you play Star Raiders at 120 FPS! Unfortunately, they used a cheap fan and it was prone to overheating. I burned mine out trying to do a speed run on Sammy the Sea Serpent. Good times...
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As most everyone else said it's an old mid 1950's TV remote. Guess I'm showing my age but I remember using one. Back in the day of B&W TV! The good old days way before we realized it.

Winter: What's wrong with the dog watching TV all day? GGG RCA even had a logo with a dog, Nipper, listening to a Victrola phonograph.

Sizzlin' Chicken XL please.
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It's the remote control for the programming director at SyFy. Each button corresponds to the four most popular shows currently on SyFy and when he gets tired of that show he presses that button and it is instantly replaced with wrestling.

A Day Without Nuclear Fusion - Size XL - Colour Royal Blue
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It's the new iTrollphone 4. It features a very large microphone to capture every insult, has no speaker (because trolls don't need to listen to anybody else's opinions) and four easy-to-use panic buttons in case mommy comes into the room!

Heart Deco S
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It's a TV remote that uses sound waves to change the channels and volume. My grandma had one when I was a kid. It makes a weird ping sound when you press the buttons.
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It's an early [pre-]viagra accessory. Lay it across the 'valley' and just press the button for the level of, ummmm.... achievement you are wanting. :o)

I Found My Social Skills at the Bottom of a Cosmopolitan (2XL)
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This specific model of TV Dinner insta-warme was one of my favorites. Produced by Desilu Studios in 1964 startrek inspired many household gadgets. This marketing blits included this TV Dinner insta-warme in the Raytheon Company marketing strategy. This product never made headway over the oven type microwave. Its tendency to cause blindness was its largest flaw. As people looked into the grilled end their vision turned brilliant white as eyes cooked into the equivalent of egg whites. This product inspired a minor cult of "trekkies" whom at the end of its three season run, decided to "go white" as nothing else on TV was determined to be "Watchable"
1947 microwave
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Shaking a set of keys in front of your Zenith TV would
change channels and raise and lower volume levels, as this remote control would emit an audible "click" when a button was pressed . . . I still remember the sound it made. I watched the first moon landing on this set with my Dad, when I was a kid.

Pink Freud size xl
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