Hey, watch what I can do!!!

March 13, 2010 5:24 AM

Variations on The Tablecloth Trick

The tablecloth trick(basic) - The tablecloth trick(involved) - The tablecloth trick(wow!) - The tablecloth trick (what were you thinking?) - The tablecloth trick(can not be described in words) warning, do NOT watch the last one to the end.

posted by HuronBob (28 comments total)

OK, wow.
(and to all, read and heed the warning in fine print)
posted by caddis at 6:03 AM on March 13, 2010

I gotta ask... WHY do we have to heed the fine print? It's no good telling us that we should without a brief summary, even an euphemistic one, to give us more pause. Cuz... it just makes me want to watch it more is all I'm sayin'.
posted by Severian at 6:05 AM on March 13, 2010

I hate mystery meat links. I will watch to the end and let you know what I saw....
posted by pracowity at 6:12 AM on March 13, 2010

The flowers are still standing.
posted by brevator at 6:15 AM on March 13, 2010 [3 favorites]

"it just makes me want to watch it more is all I'm sayin'."

see, you DO get it! :)
posted by HuronBob at 6:19 AM on March 13, 2010 [1 favorite]

Yeah ok... if you had said crazy singing japanese man (admittedly very well cut mostly naked singing japanese man) was dancing at the end I would have watched it anyway.

Very funny!
posted by Severian at 6:24 AM on March 13, 2010

Impossibly exaggeratedly camp singing Japanese man. Some of the actual tablecloth tricking was pretty good, though.
posted by Dysk at 6:28 AM on March 13, 2010

Japanese TV is so ADD. Can't the announcer wait until the tablecloth-pull is finished before he starts screaming? That was more offensive to me than the crazy dancing guy! And the "what were you thinking" link was the most difficult to watch out of all of them. Good post.
posted by The Winsome Parker Lewis at 6:29 AM on March 13, 2010

True... but when I loaded the video and saw that it was a Japanese Game Show class of video I said to myself "Gee, this can't be all THAT bad."
posted by Severian at 6:30 AM on March 13, 2010

OK, you could have warned us.

Brace yourself, everybody. It was... a Japanese television show.

I think I've disliked every Japanese television clip I've ever seen posted anywhere, but I suppose that's because crap makes a good 30-second clip. What does good Japanese television look like?
posted by pracowity at 6:30 AM on March 13, 2010

pracowity,

I don't see why you're so down on Japanese Game Show. The Japanese seem to want to make a game show out of everything. I say let em. It's a 3 minute clip of tablecloth pullers on Japanese TV. If you were, for the sake of argument, to grab a 3 minute clip of an American Game Show, or Gray's Anatomy what would you get? I'd hazard a guess and say: crap.

Conveniently some of the most popular American TV media condenses nicely into 30 second clips. Our comedy and our news reports (sometimes indistinguishable) fit that 30 second ADD bloc very well.
posted by Severian at 6:39 AM on March 13, 2010

When the tablecloth is free of the objects, the objects slide on the tabletop. The objects accelerate in a direction opposite to the pull, coming to rest in a short distance.

Now that would be a good trick.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 7:03 AM on March 13, 2010

When the tablecloth is free of the objects' adhesion, the objects slide on the
tabletopcloth. The objects accelerate in a direction opposite to the pull, coming to rest in a short distance.
posted by Mblue at 7:31 AM on March 13, 2010

You know have me hunting for a tablecloth with no hem, I just may have to break into my cloth stash... I really want to try this.
posted by julie_of_the_jungle at 7:37 AM on March 13, 2010

Ugh. now*
posted by julie_of_the_jungle at 7:38 AM on March 13, 2010

Now that's what I call a clean & jerk.
posted by seanmpuckett at 7:46 AM on March 13, 2010

Now, put it back!
posted by Marky at 8:09 AM on March 13, 2010 [4 favorites]

Please tell me that motorcycle thing fake.

wow.
posted by SLC Mom at 8:55 AM on March 13, 2010

I call shenanigans on BMW.
posted by DU at 9:36 AM on March 13, 2010

Cool...
posted by Alexandra Kitty at 10:27 AM on March 13, 2010

I call shenanigans on BMW.

Why. It looks pretty simple, the bike can certainly pull enough force, and really, the trick to the tablecloth trick is simple and two fold.

1) Do not hesitate.

2) Make sure the tablecloth doesn't have a hem!
posted by eriko at 10:29 AM on March 13, 2010

lets look at it like this... If there was ONE plate on the middle of the tablecloth, and nothing else, we all would have believed it to be real...

Is there really any difference? The number of items doesn't change the physics given the power of the BMW.

Plus, you KNOW that they are using heavy items and that the tablecloth is some sort of very light and slick silk like fabric...

I'm tending to think its for real...
posted by HuronBob at 11:38 AM on March 13, 2010

Fun post! The BMW one was great, and the Japanese dancing man was inexplicable but made me laugh.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 12:32 PM on March 13, 2010

I love this scene.
posted by the duck by the oboe at 2:13 PM on March 13, 2010 [1 favorite]

If there was ONE plate on the middle of the tablecloth, and nothing else, we all would have believed it to be real...

We would?

But yeah, I would totally believe they are using highly nonstandard dishes and tablecloths. In fact, I said as much: shenanigans.
posted by DU at 5:41 PM on March 13, 2010

Yeah eriko is right - if you can pull the cloth fast and even enough, without the slightest hesitation, this is easy. But also, they are clearly using very smooth, satiny fabric and selected items (heavy, smooth-edged, fairly low centre of gravity) on it. Also also, the very definition of a tablecloth is a piece of cloth with a hem - if it has no hem, it's just a piece of material ;-)
posted by dg at 4:43 AM on March 14, 2010

Neat trick.
posted by tellurian at 5:09 AM on March 14, 2010

What does good Japanese television look like?

Hotaru no haka
posted by PeterMcDermott at 7:24 AM on March 14, 2010