# Do you own a clapper?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-own-a-clapper/336816
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [December 22, 2005, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-own-a-clapper/336816 "2005-12-22T17:04:38Z")
**Posts on this page:** 10
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Omega\_Glory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omega_Glory)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2005, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-own-a-clapper/336816/1 "2005-12-22T17:04:38Z")
Or know someone who does? I’ve seen clappers advertised every Christmas season since I was a small child. So someone must be buying them, but I’ve never once seen anyone clap a light, televison or anything else on or off.
This was actually on my wish list once when I was about five or six. It just seemed kind of cool.
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### Author:  [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2005, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-own-a-clapper/336816/2 "2005-12-22T19:46:41Z")
Is this some kind of hint? 😉
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### Author:  [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2005, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-own-a-clapper/336816/3 "2005-12-22T19:58:51Z")
My silly husband got one but it doesn’t work very well. You have to clap really loud, and that scares the dog.
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### Author:  [@Motorgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Motorgirl)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2005, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-own-a-clapper/336816/4 "2005-12-22T20:21:01Z")
We had one a few months ago. It seemed like the perfect solution for our bedroom TV because the TV was so old it didn’t have a remote.
Any loud noise in the apartment would turn the TV on/off, even when we set The Clapper to the lowest sensitivity, yet we seemingly had to clap at a specific frequency to get the TV to turn on & off. If my husband laughed during a program the TV would turn off.
We finally unplugged it one day when our cat meowed and turned on the TV.
Good idea, poor implementation.
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### Author:  [@gonzoron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzoron)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2005, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-own-a-clapper/336816/5 "2005-12-22T20:44:44Z")
My wife got me one as a gift, since my old apartment had an unfortunate electrical setup that otherwise required stumbling from the lamp to bed in pitch darkness. Took some getting used to the rhythm, and it does occaisionally turn on/off from a loud noise/laugh, but overall I’m glad to have it, even now that we live in a house with a better lamp/bed configuration.
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### Author:  [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2005, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-own-a-clapper/336816/6 "2005-12-22T21:02:58Z")
> [@a Kierkegaardian leap](#):
>
> I got something like that that responds to talking. You shout “Lights” and it comes on.
> Very handy when entering a dark house carrying groceries. They have them at Home Depot.
Cool, I will have to get one of these. I was thinking about getting a clapper until I read this thread; this thing sounds better.
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### Author:  [@Omega\_Glory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omega_Glory)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2005, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-own-a-clapper/336816/7 "2005-12-22T21:10:19Z")
> [@twickster](#):
>
> Is this some kind of hint? 😉
Heh. If only you were around in 1988.🙂
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### Author:  [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2005, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-own-a-clapper/336816/8 "2005-12-22T21:11:29Z")
I saw the title and thought it was a reference to the wooden thing we use at the church to replace the sound of bells during the Easter Triduum when bells are forbidden. I thought “gosh, that’s obscure”.
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### Author:  [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2005, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-own-a-clapper/336816/9 "2005-12-22T21:21:53Z")
> [@Cunctator](#):
>
> I saw the title and thought it was a reference to the wooden thing we use at the church to replace the sound of bells during the Easter Triduum when bells are forbidden. I thought “gosh, that’s obscure”.
I think it’s the general term for the thing in the bell that strikes the side to make noise, too.
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### Author:  [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freddy_the_Pig)
#### Post date: [December 23, 2005, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-own-a-clapper/336816/10 "2005-12-23T01:30:15Z")
The first thing I thought of was the old Johnny Carson routine where Claude Clay of Cleveland copped his clean copper clappers.