Rube Goldberg's zany "invention" sketches have always appealed to me. When I was younger, I was exposed to these contraptions in cartoons like Tom & Jerry and the Loony Toons. I didn't understand any of the deeper satirical meaning behind the work, but I loved this idea of cause/effect. That an end result could be achieved through small reactions along the way; a door swings open, a ball rolls down, it tips a glass, which fills a scale, which tightens a string, which raises a candle which burns a piece of paper, and so on... until finally we end up with a record player turning on. much to the chagrin of my mom, I used to make my own little contraptions in my kitchen, and again at Ithaca College I built a full-scale tribute to Goldberg. It wasn't until I was older that I realized that his work was social satire, criticizing the industrialization of daily life and the absurd laziness of the modern man. I think if he were still alive he'd have to laugh at some of the time-saving (and time-wasting) inventions we use on a daily basis.
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