Rube Goldberg Machine

mechanical contraptions · chain reactions · creative engineering · comedy

Named after a cartoonist. Rube Goldberg was an American cartoonist who drew funny cartoons showing wild machines doing simple tasks in crazy ways. His name became so famous that people call any super complicated contraption a 'Rube Goldberg machine.'

Chain reaction magic. The machine works by setting off a chain reaction where each simple device triggers the next one. A ball might roll down a track, knock over a domino, which flips a lever, which pulls a string, which opens a trap door, and so on until the final simple task gets done.

Intentionally overcomplicated. The whole point is to make something easy way harder and funnier than it needs to be. You could just flip a light switch, but a Rube Goldberg machine might use fifty steps involving marbles, pulleys, and spinning wheels to flip that same switch.

Started in cartoons. Rube Goldberg's first cartoon machines appeared in the New York Evening Mail newspaper, and they became so popular that people loved drawing and building real versions of these silly contraptions.

Unrelated pieces together. Each part of the machine is simple and ordinary on its own, like a ramp or a mousetrap, but when you connect them all together in the right order, they create something unexpectedly awesome.