# "It doesn't do anything, that's the beauty of it."
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-doesnt-do-anything-thats-the-beauty-of-it/451837
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [June 5, 2008, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-doesnt-do-anything-thats-the-beauty-of-it/451837 "2008-06-05T03:52:22Z")
**Posts on this page:** 5
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@The\_Hamster\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Hamster_King)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2008, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-doesnt-do-anything-thats-the-beauty-of-it/451837/1 "2008-06-05T03:52:22Z")
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.
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### Author:  [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2008, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-doesnt-do-anything-thats-the-beauty-of-it/451837/2 "2008-06-05T14:04:32Z")
And so it begins… again.
:: shudder ::
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### Author:  [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2008, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-doesnt-do-anything-thats-the-beauty-of-it/451837/3 "2008-06-05T15:10:19Z")
Nah, there aren’t any treadmills involved with this one.
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### Author:  [@Cat\_Fight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Fight)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2008, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-doesnt-do-anything-thats-the-beauty-of-it/451837/4 "2008-06-05T15:15:48Z")
Nooooooo!
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### Author:  [@Shawn1767](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shawn1767)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2008, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-doesnt-do-anything-thats-the-beauty-of-it/451837/5 "2008-06-05T15:51:58Z")
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.