The Null Device

Kartoffelkanone

The latest craze in Germany is kartoffelkanone, or "potato bazookas" made from drainage pipes which launch potatoes using ignited hairspray. There have already been several injuries.
A spokesman for the police in Brandenburg said: Woodland on Sundays echoes to the thump-thump of these guns. It is a growing social problem that needs to be tackled.

Could this be the European equivalent of backyard wrestling? (via Slashdot)

There are 3 comments on "Kartoffelkanone":

Posted by: Reen http://www.reenhead.com/home.php Wed Jan 29 17:03:49 2003

Wow. The Germans are behind. The manufacture of Potato Guns has long been a pastime for bored American teenagers, especially in rural areas, where you can be sure your potato won't crash through a window or dent a car.

When I worked at a hardware store, I had a man come in once with a potato gun, the parts of which had become sealed together by the hairspray. He demanded that I fix his potato gun (people walked into the store quite frequently and demanded that I repair or assemble various items). I put the thing in a vise, grabbed it and pulled with no change. Eventually we had a chain of people pulling...I was pulling the potato gun, while the guy pulled me, and my boss pulled him, but that potato gun was stuck.

I have many other equally dull potato gun anecdotes under my belt, a testament to their banal popularity Stateside.

Posted by: Billy http:// Wed Jan 29 17:46:45 2003

I got shot in the thigh with a potato gun once. whole lotta pain.

Posted by: Graham http://grudnuk.com Thu Jan 30 00:47:50 2003

The Germans have the coolest word for potato in any language, though. "Potato gun" doesn't have the same ring as "kartoffelkanone".