From the movie demolitian man. I can’t even get my imagination working to think how they would work.
I think it was just some futuristic inside joke.
Alfred Hitchcock (IIRC) called this sort of thing a ‘MacGuffin’. There’s no need for the scriptwriters to have had an answer in mind when they wrote the story-they just needed to come up with something curiosity-provoking. The ‘thing in the briefcase’ in Pulp Fiction is another good example …
So the answer to your question is, ‘Something that embarrases Stallone’s character to ask about.’ That’s it!
Xref thread: Demolition Man - three seashells.
Apparently it doesn’t even qualify as a MacGuffin because it wasn’t a significant part of the plot (unlike, for example the contents of the suitcase in Pulp Fiction).
Fixed link:
Demolition Man - three seashells.
Off to Cafe Society.
DrMatrix - General Questions Moderator
The contents in the briefcase in Pulp Fiction supposedly were Marcellus Wallis’s soul from what I gathered. Or at the very least “A” soul.
Erek
The three seashells: They each emit a quantum vibratory frequency that manipulates a graviton distortion field in the direction of your butt crack. The first seashell removes any excess feces that may be there. The second one generates water from surrounding moisture and enhances them using subspace multiplication relays, washing out your ass. The third one soaks up moisture and shunts it back into subspace.
That answer your question?
NO! It’s three Hungry Hermit Crabs!!!
Am I the only person who wondered how you could use three shells to wipe your ass?
I won’t bore you with the scenarios that I thought up. One thing I want to mention-- the way you use the bathroom is not the only way to eliminate. Some people spend a lot of time thinking about these things.
My guess at the time that I saw it was you use one to scoop, another to scoop out what you scooped into the first and then the third to scoop out what you scooped out of the shell that you scooped your ass with. Then you put them back and they clean themselves or something…
I’ve heard that some pre-industrial societies used corncobs. How the heck did THAT work.
Romans used a sponge and a bucket of briney water. The men would go so far as to dap their wang on walls to remove moisture, resulting in what may be the first preactical joke when locals would powder walls near public toilets waist high with ground pepper. ow.
I always assumed the shells emitted some sort of ultrasound/water/scent combination. Seems I wasn’t entirely off base.