It’s a joke, people. That was on a comedy show.
Front loaders are hardly rare in the US now, at least in appliance stores. But they tend to be top of the line models, so they probably represent 10-15% of purchases nationwide. Given that washers last 10-15 years, it’ll be a long time before they’re a significant fraction of the installed base.
Yes, which is why I said “front-loader”. 
How come ultrasonic wave washing machines never made it? they do great cleaing jewelry-why not clothes?
I saw a laundry variant of the ultrasonic cleaner (bubble/cavitation?) in Japan in the 1980s (I specifically recall it because it was the first home appliance I ever saw with a fuzzy logic controller). It reportedly didn’t require detergent. <insert conspiracy theory here>
To continue the hijack, because I’m mystified, you said top-loader the first time (see below, bolding added), which is why the idea of making a mess makes no sense to us Americans.
Front loaders aren’t rare in LA. We are on our second. They save water and are kind to your clothes. And if the seal failed it would hardly be a CATASTROPHIC leak since there is hardly any water in the machine; it barely comes up to the rim of the door. The clothes are sort of swept through the water. Also our new one (Samsung) locks the door for a second, does something (I think it checks to see how full the load is or something) then unlocks it for about five seconds so you can jerk it open if you forgot something. You can also just hit pause and if it’s not totally full of water the door will open, you put in the clothes, then just hit pause again to turn it back on and it picks right up where it left off.
It was more expensive than some top loaders but we got $150 rebate from the electric company and $40 from the gas company for being energy efficient. I think we save enough this way and on water and gas (not having to run the dryer nearly as long as the clothes are almost dry when the washer is done with them) to pay for any extra cost in about a year.
Plus it looks cool, and when it’s done running it plays a little tune.
We have now bought 3 front loaders. Not because they break down, but because 3 times we’ve moved into places that didn’t have a washer.
Upsides
Front-load - Much less water used. Less soap used. Because there is no aggitator in the middle, you can wash fit more in a smaller drum, and you can wash larger items. Easier on the clothing. Cloths come out with less water in them, so less drying needed. Because no lid on the top, can be stacked or built under a countertop. No unbalanced loads.
Downsides -
Louder - all of mine have made quite a bit of noise while on the spin cycle. More expensive to buy. Once the cycle is started, you can’t add anything, including soap on my current model. Durability is still unknown. I’ve seen lots of top loaders that last 15 years. I’ve not owned a front load past 7 years.
“Durability still unknown” - Ours lasted 20 years
“Louder” - Newer machines got that downside licked.
Nobody’s mentioned the Top Loading Front Loaders. OK, that not what they really are, but it’s a cross between the two types.
Load/unload from the top, but the action is similar to a front loader. There’s no big agitator sticking up. Instead there’s either a set of disks set into the side of the tub which lift and drop the clothes into the water, or small agitator in the bottom that kind of moves things around. We have the Maytag version with the disks and it works well. The tub is never more than 1/3 full of water and we use little soap.
It does however spin on a vertical axis to remove the water between stages.
My wife never wanted to bend down to load or unload the machine, so this is fine. I have noticed that many of the front loaders advertised are available with a raised platform to reduce bending and stooping. Cost extra I’m sure.
Just checked the Maytag website and it appears that the model we have is no longer available. They do have a similar model though, as well as five front loaders. And GE also makes some under their Profile Harmony line.
As far as I can tell (based on seeing in on TV shows), the Maytag Neptune front-loader (which is, I think, the model that revived interest in front-loaders in the US) doesn’t spin on a horizontal axis. Instead, it seems to spin at about 30 degrees or so, so that the water sits a little below the bottom of the door, so that it won’t come rushing out when you open the door.
Aha! This solves a minor mystery. I won’t share our entire tale of woe, so long story short, we ended up getting a front-loading washer last week. After our initial laundrygasm (it was SO awesome not having to go the laundromat any longer!), I noticed that our dryer was working a million times better and we didn’t end up with nearly as much lint as before.
We went from an ancient top-loader to a brand-new front-loader, and we love it so far. It’s super-duper-ULTRA quiet and does a much better job of getting the clothes clean.
Huh. Our frontloader (Sears Kenmore, made by Frigidaire) is spooky quiet, and it wasn’t even the midline model. When it’s tumbling, about the only noise over a low whir or hum is the occasional clink of a button against the glass window. In the spin, it does spool up to a bit of a whine, but nowhere close to the wowwwrrrrrrrrrr wowwwrrr wowwrrrr wowrrr wow wow wow wow wow tunkka tunkka tunkka WHOMK WHOMK WHOMK WHOMK that our toploader put out if we did something foolish like wash an odd number of socks that would be impossible to be in balance.
We just bought a front-loader after many years with a top-loader (we had some extra money so we went with the LG set in a nice racy red), and, to borrow a word from a previous poster, laundrygasm ensued!
This thing works so much better than our old top-loader that it isn’t even a comparison! It washes the clothes faster, more gently, more thoroughly, and with less water. And the dryer–ooh, doggy, the dryer! Our old one literally took more than 2 hours to dry a load of jeans–and these were timed cycles because we were afraid to use the sensor-dry feature for fear of burning the house down. This one dries a load of towels or jeans in about 50 minutes–actually dries them, not just “mostly dry, a little damp.” And there’s way less lint than before.
I’m not much on housework, but at this point I’m still looking forward to having laundry to do just so I can play with these nifty new machines!
There was a recent (last 2-3 months) Consumer Reports article comparing washing machings and all the front loaders came out on top as far as cleaning, water conservation, and all-around econmics, even though they are more expensive than top loaders.
StG
Our monthly water bill here in Bangkok is about US$10 a month. Does that mean if we switch to a front-loader, the utility company will pay us $20 a month? 
So what do you call the common-around-here toploading washer where the clothes are totally enclosed in a perforated steel cylinder (with a spring-loaded access hatch); i.e. it washes exactly like front-loader but is opened from the top?
Are they used outside northern Europe at all?
(I’ve never even seen those agitator-style toploaders outside some TV-series…)
I have one of those, but it’s probably more than thirty years old. My parents used to have one just like it when I was a kid (20-30 years ago).
I can’t remember ever seeing one in an appliance store, but here’s a used one for sale in the Netherlands Zanker Intimat deluxe
That’s the exact same one I’m familiar with.