Why on earth would anyone buy this utterly boneheaded device?

Does anyone remember the old Saturday Morning TV commercials of the late 70’s and early 80’s voiced over by the same guy who voiced over the “Sessions Presents!� LP boxed sets of Boxcar Willy? You know, the guy who make the totally worthless crap sound like worthless crap presented articulately by a loudmouth?

Don’t get me wrong. This isn’t a nostalgia piece. Yes, the Ronco company STILL makes Pocket Fishermen. And if they’re still makin’ ‘em, people are still buyin’

For the thoroughly confused who have no idea what I’m taking about, the Pocket Fisherman ™ is a fishing pole reduced to the size of a vibrator. Novel idea. So why did Daiwa, Shakespeare, Penn and tons of other fishing companies make fishing poles 5 feet or so long because they are dumb-dumbs? Or could Ronco have released a fishing device that couldn’t possibly work?

And why oh why did this sell the volumes it sold over the years?

Was it necessity? Do you really need a ‘pocket fisherman?’ Do you need to carry one around in your pocket in case you end up lost in the woods and can only survive if you need to fish for food?

And the things like, 15 inches long. It won’t fit in anyone’s pocket. (Insert John C. Holmes joke here: ________)

People who bought Pocket Fishermans were not fishermen. They were people who liked to collect gimmicks that create the ILLUSION of an easier way of doing things. People who buy them have no intention of really using them.

As an actual fishing pole/rod it gets a zero. As a stunning look into the demented mentality of American civilization it gets an eight.

Archeologists seem to dig up lots of cool junk that was made 800 years ago. Can you imagine if 800 years from now, after the World War V and civilization has gone the way of The Atari 2600, Charlton Heston discovers he’s on earth by finding a Pocket Fisherman?

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