A Hobbit Hole means comfort.

November 11, 2012 5:31 AM

Balloon Bag End. Guy creates Hobbit hole with air and rubber.
posted by kinnakeet (53 comments total)

I am such a slacker.
posted by anotherpanacea at 5:41 AM on November 11, 2012 [2 favorites]

I bet those 2600 air-sausages taste better than the ones at Denny's.
posted by hanoixan at 5:50 AM on November 11, 2012

I hope there is a balloon Sting.
posted by Mezentian at 5:51 AM on November 11, 2012

If he was a cool dad, he'd let the kid pop every one of those.
posted by Forktine at 5:56 AM on November 11, 2012

Good to see him ignore his kids for 40 hours over three days in order to fill his office (or living room) with enough baloons to make it look like a hobbit hole.

Lets say the baloons cost $0.50 a piece, that's $1300 worth of baloons... God bless the internet for giving fools a place to show off wasting their money and time in the pursuit of fame.
posted by Nanukthedog at 5:57 AM on November 11, 2012

I think fifty cents is a big overestimation. This site has modeling balloons priced at about 7.6 cents each when bought in bulk, which puts the total cost of this 2600-balloon project at $198.61 American. If that gets this guy attention for his balloon business, it seems like a relatively small investment.
posted by HeroZero at 6:05 AM on November 11, 2012 [10 favorites]

Balloon don't cost 50¢ a piece, you can see his kids throughout the video, and yes, the kids get to pop them at the end.
posted by designbot at 6:05 AM on November 11, 2012 [13 favorites]

Lets say the baloons cost $0.50 a piece, that's $1300 worth of baloons... God bless the internet for giving fools a place to show off wasting their money and time in the pursuit of fame.

Bad balloon/clown experience as a kid, huh?

I'm not sure where you get your 50c per figure, but I'll bet he got a discount, hired a pump and had it done in short order... to show it can be done.

And the memories his kids have will be priceless. Especially when they see The Hobbit, or read the book.
posted by Mezentian at 6:06 AM on November 11, 2012 [8 favorites]

"Good to see him ignore his kids for 40 hours over three days in order to fill his office (or living room) with enough baloons to make it look like a hobbit hole."

YEAH, IN ORDER TO CREATE A BOUNCY HOBBIT HOLE FOR HIS KIDS!

I WOULD SO TOTALLY PROCREATE WITH THAT MAN
posted by Blasdelb at 6:06 AM on November 11, 2012 [6 favorites]

Yeah, that dude should totally get a hobby.
posted by sourwookie at 6:22 AM on November 11, 2012 [1 favorite]

Good to see him ignore his kids for 40 hours over three days in order to fill his office (or living room) with enough baloons to make it look like a hobbit hole.

This guy is working from home with his kids in the room with him. Sounds pretty great to me.
posted by monkeymadness at 6:23 AM on November 11, 2012

If he was a cool dad, he'd let the kid pop every one of those.

Isn't that what the clip running over the closing credits is showing, is his kids romping around on the MASSIVE BALLOON PILE THAT WE GET TO ROMP IN WHOA YAY?
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:26 AM on November 11, 2012

Some folks have a great deal of time on their hands.
posted by sfts2 at 6:29 AM on November 11, 2012

So was this for the shooting of a balloon/hobbit themed porno? Because that sort of thing should exist.
posted by Napierzaza at 6:35 AM on November 11, 2012

You guys remember balloon boy?
posted by Sailormom at 6:37 AM on November 11, 2012

that sort of thing should exist.

No. No, it should not.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:37 AM on November 11, 2012

He could team up with Homer Simpson in a child proofing venture.
posted by arcticseal at 6:38 AM on November 11, 2012 [1 favorite]

Yes, yes it should.
posted by Mizu at 6:39 AM on November 11, 2012

Balloon pron does exist.

Balloon Hobbit-themed parody porn? Probably will exist soonish. Give it time.
posted by Mezentian at 6:42 AM on November 11, 2012

I love it. Do what you're good at, they say. And those are the luckiest kids ever.
posted by tzikeh at 6:46 AM on November 11, 2012

After about 10 seconds of looking, I see you can get 100 balloons for $6.50 which means 26*$6.50 = $170 for 2600 balloons.
posted by DU at 7:00 AM on November 11, 2012

And since working with balloons is apparently his job, he was probably able to get a wholesaler's discount on them and write them off on his taxes. (After all, this is definitely word-of-mouth publicity, is it not?)
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 7:06 AM on November 11, 2012

Hm. Airbag End?


I'll show myself out....
posted by Kronos_to_Earth at 7:19 AM on November 11, 2012 [21 favorites]

I had just noticed the picture of Gandalf as a young whatchamacallit on the wall, when "Divx Web Player has crashed", never to be rehabilitated.
posted by sneebler at 7:19 AM on November 11, 2012

That was awesome! Anyone know how he keep the balloons on day one from deflating by the third day? Is that a balloon professional trade secret or something?
posted by HappyHippo at 7:20 AM on November 11, 2012 [1 favorite]

"Balloon Guy, you can't solve all the world's problems with balloons."
"It's all I know."
posted by Flashman at 7:25 AM on November 11, 2012 [5 favorites]

Nanuthedog: God bless the internet for giving fools a place to show off wasting their money and time in the pursuit of fame.

Oh, don't knock Jeremy Telford. One of these days a skill like his might save the world. I imagine it'll go something like this...

INT. WHITE HOUSE SITUATION ROOM

     CHAIRMAN OF THE JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF
Mr. President, the alien mothership is unstoppable. We have shot all of our nukes at it in a coordinated attack, but all we accomplished was to mutate all the giant pandas in the world into a super-intelligent hive-mind with lasers for eyes.

     VICE PRESIDENT
Madam Chairman, so if I understand you correctly we have no nukes left?

     CHAIRMAN OF THE JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF
Except for the old World War Two bomb we have in the basement of the Smithsonian, but we can never get there because DC is overrun by zombies. We can just about barely keep a perimeter.

     NATIONAL SECURITY DIRECTOR
You are wrong! We moved everything from the Smithsonian basement to the White House attic because we needed the basement for secret alien autopsies.

     CHAIRMAN OF THE JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF
If we could only somehow get the panda hivemind to laser the old nuclear bomb with all its eyes, while the bomb is surrounded by a zombies, and the alien mothership hovers directly above it. Only that way can we get an energy pulse straight into the heart of the mothership.

     SECRETARY OF DEFENSE
According to my best scientists, the panda hivemind and the alien mothership are converging on the White House and will reach it at the exact same time.

     PRESIDENT
I can see that you are all thinking the same thing, but let me make clear that when I swore my oath to uphold the constitution I also swore a second, secret oath that says that only Canadians are allowed to burn down the White House, and I am a man of my word.

     VICE PRESIDENT
Mr. President, with all due consideration, and I also swore the secret oath to Canada, we have no other option. The enemy is heading for the White House. Unless somehow we can build a decoy White House.

     NATIONAL SECURITY DIRECTOR
But we have nothing to build with! All we have in the attic is an old nuke and hundreds of crates full of white balloons we were going to use to decorate DC for the inauguration.

     CHAIRMAN OF THE JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF
There is no way we can make a decoy White House out of balloons. No one can do that!

     PRESIDENT
I would not be so sure of that, let me show you all a video I was watching on the internet while you were talking...

posted by Kattullus at 7:28 AM on November 11, 2012 [26 favorites]

PRESIDENT
Today, we celebrate our Balloondependence Day!
posted by Rock Steady at 7:36 AM on November 11, 2012 [12 favorites]

That was awesome! Anyone know how he keep the balloons on day one from deflating by the third day? Is that a balloon professional trade secret or something?

Balloons with helium in them deflate quickly, but balloons with air last quite a while.
posted by Chuckles at 7:39 AM on November 11, 2012 [2 favorites]

Yeah, the balloons I blew up for my sn's birthday in May? He was still playing with a few of them in July, before I popped the last few stragglers. They don't deflate that fast, really.
posted by caution live frogs at 7:46 AM on November 11, 2012

Good to see him ignore his kids for 40 hours over three days in order to fill his office (or living room) with enough baloons to make it look like a hobbit hole.

Wow, what a fuckin' grumpypants. The "meh" in your profile pretty much sums up your take on life, huh?
posted by dobbs at 8:01 AM on November 11, 2012 [7 favorites]

Seriously. Perhaps you should step away from the computer and walk around outside for a bit.
posted by nevercalm at 8:04 AM on November 11, 2012

Nanukthedog:Lets say the ballons cost $0.50 a piece, that's $1300 worth of baloons... God bless the internet for giving fools a place to show off wasting their money and time in the pursuit of fame.

He's promoting his business, so these are arguably advertising costs, rather than a 'waste of money' in the 'pursuit of fame'.
posted by James Scott-Brown at 8:06 AM on November 11, 2012

My guess is that this is the kind of guy who spends plenty of quality time lovingly engaging with his children. I wouldn't be interested in creating a balloon project like this, but I think the world is a better place with him in it. His kids will grow up to be better than average.
posted by Daddy-O at 8:12 AM on November 11, 2012 [2 favorites]

Let's say the balloons cost $38.50 a piece, that's more than $100,000 worth of balloons. Too bad he couldn't give all that money to his local school system, or to orphans. :(
posted by Wolfdog at 8:13 AM on November 11, 2012 [30 favorites]

Good to see him ignore his kids for 40 hours over three days in order to fill his office (or living room) with enough balloons to make it look like a hobbit hole.


As the once-young child of a father who occasionally spent long stretches of time making goofy things, I can assure you that this IS good to see because WHOA DAD IS MAKING A HUMUNGOUS BALLOON FORT IN THE LIVING ROOM instead of going to his office job, coming home and farting into a chair while he watches duh game.


Be four with me for a second, here, and tell me that isn't the most wondrous thing.
posted by louche mustachio at 8:15 AM on November 11, 2012 [1 favorite]

The only time it's going to suck is when they are teenagers.


"So what does yer Dad do?"


"SHUT UP."
posted by louche mustachio at 8:17 AM on November 11, 2012 [7 favorites]

That was awesome! Anyone know how he keep the balloons on day one from deflating by the third day? Is that a balloon professional trade secret or something?

Balloons with helium in them deflate quickly, but balloons with air last quite a while.

Because helium atoms are so small/light they pass right through the balloon wall.

Then the helium actually escapes the atmosphere.
posted by curious nu at 8:27 AM on November 11, 2012

Wasn't it all a little too big, being a hobbit hole and all?
posted by Samizdata at 8:53 AM on November 11, 2012

Misread as "Baboon Bag End", which would be much cooler.
posted by thelonius at 9:18 AM on November 11, 2012 [2 favorites]

This post reminded me of monolithic domes, which oddly enough, have a sort of hobbit-hole shape, and are fabricated as one gigantic balloon that gets covered in concrete.
posted by adamrice at 9:25 AM on November 11, 2012 [2 favorites]

Yeah, that dude should totally get a hobbyit.
posted by yoink at 9:42 AM on November 11, 2012 [2 favorites]

"That was awesome! Anyone know how he keep the balloons on day one from deflating by the third day? Is that a balloon professional trade secret or something?"

Yeah, the best known is
Hi-Float. Helium balloons will last a couple days in the air and 3-4 days before they start looking really sad, but for arches and other static figures, why would you want to use helium (which is getting expensive and more difficult to get)?
posted by cookie-k at 10:37 AM on November 11, 2012

Not just helium – safe, nonflammable helium (NSFW-ish language)
posted by zippy at 11:23 AM on November 11, 2012

Am I the only one concerned that he did not change his clothes for 3 days?
posted by hollyanderbody at 12:33 PM on November 11, 2012 [1 favorite]

Am I the only one concerned that he did not change his clothes for 3 days?

Welcome to middle age and marriage.
posted by maxwelton at 1:18 PM on November 11, 2012 [2 favorites]

In my mind, I had a picture of someone burying a giant rubber balloon, inflating it, and ending up with a real hobbit hole. I thought it seemed impractical, so I was wondering how it would work. s cool as this was, it ended up being a huge disappointment.
posted by JMOZ at 2:07 PM on November 11, 2012 [1 favorite]

In case anyone else had trouble getting the video to play, here's a link to the original non-rehosted clip.
posted by Pfardentrott at 5:15 PM on November 11, 2012

Oodles and oodles of behind-the-scenes and concept images from The Hobbit
posted by homunculus at 5:25 PM on November 11, 2012

I so wanted his name to be William.

Billblow in the Hobbit hole.
posted by BlueHorse at 7:00 PM on November 11, 2012

On the one hand, it's cool to see him set an example for his kids showing that dogged, single-minded persistence is how stuff gets done. On the other hand, he's also shown them that when you're an adult, it's perfectly normal to spend a couple hundred bucks and three days time on something completely frivolous.
posted by gregor-e at 8:37 PM on November 11, 2012

I enjoyed the hat that suddenly made an appearance on day 2.
posted by Chrysostom at 6:31 AM on November 12, 2012

gregor-e: it's perfectly normal to spend a couple hundred bucks and three days time on something completely frivolous.

It's a promotion for his business, as has been mentioned multiple times in the thread.
posted by Rock Steady at 6:36 AM on November 12, 2012 [1 favorite]