"It doesn't do anything, that's the beauty of it."

[The Hamster King]

Last year our own Earl Snake-Hips Tucker identified the source of this quote as an episode of the TV series "Burke's Law" from 1964. Here's the thread (http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=413962&highlight=burke).

Here's an article (http://blog.modernmechanix.com/2007/04/23/elaborate-mechanism-works-and-works-to-do-nothing-well/) I just came across on the Modern Mechanix website. It's a reprint from a 1954 issue of Popular Mechanics about a California man who has been building a useless machine as a hobby.

Obviously there's no way to prove that the writers for "Burke's Law" ever read that particular issue of Popular Mechanics. But it's interesting that the idea of a building a useless machine as a hobby was already floating around ten years before the episode aired.

[Elendil's Heir]

And so it begins... again.

:: shudder ::

[Terminus Est]

Nah, there aren't any treadmills involved with this one.

[Cat Fight]

Nooooooo!

[Shawn1767]

While I was on the computer in my bedroom and my 6-year-old was watching the Disney Channel about three days ago, I overheard one of the characters saying "That's the beauty of it, it doesn't do anything." I ran into the front room and asked my daughter what show that was because I knew it would probably come up again on The Straight Dope. So, anyway... a relatively modern cartoon series is still using the phrase. It was "Phineas and Ferb" that she was watching. I don't know the plot of the episode though. It did kind of freak me out when I heard it though.