Quite possibly the greatest segment in the history of Antiques Roadshow

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"You seldom find them so cute and so animated... a real charmer."

Garth Johnson of Extreme Craft has extensive coverage about this wheeled and squeaking toy pig being appraised on Antiques Roadshow.

I agree with Jesse Thorn that this segment is quite possibly the greatest segment in the history of Antiques Roadshow. A rather smug gentleman shows off his rare "animated" pull pig toy. The fellow doesn't get his comeuppance, though. His confidence in the awesomeness of his pig toy is rewarded by a $2000-$2500 appraisal for his $200 investment.

Animated Pig Pull Toy

Mark Frauenfelder is the founder of Boing Boing and the editor-in-chief of MAKE and Cool Tools. Twitter: @frauenfelder. Come and hear Mark speak at the ALA conference in Chicago on July 1.

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Anonymous

Didn’t the little boy from the Addams Family yank one of these piggies around? I must go back and browse my copy of Our Family… Oh boy!!!
alowishus

What a terrific pig!
alowishus

“So for curiosity’s sake, I ran the numbers. If the man had invested the $200 instead of buying the pig, he would have needed to get an annual interest rate of 10.15% (compounded monthly) to match the ROI of the pig.
And then he wouldn’t have had the pig.”

Sometimes a blog post and comment create beautiful poetry, like a sunset or a baby’s smile. This is one such occasion. *slow clap*
- invictus
  
  Why, thank you.
  Does a slow clap require a slow bow?
Antinous / Moderator

This seems like a challenge to the road kill (or shark-fishing) community to come up with ever-creepier pull toys.
Gloria

Huh, I didn’t think the guy was smug. He just came off as kind of proud and nerdily excited about his toy.
Keneke

Dude wasn’t smug at all. Now Maker Faire, THAT place is smug.
m in athens

I agree totally with Gloria– I was expecting some gloating jerk. He just seemed like a normal guy who really liked his pig toy. As he should, because it’s awesome.
Anonymous

This reminded me of my favorite episode, which upon looking up, I discovered was a complete fake.

http://collectibles.about.com/od/valuableresources/a/antiqroadfake2.htm

I am shattered.
Mina

The guy seemed nice. The pig, though. Aren’t those human teeth?????
Jesse Thorn

I AM SO EXCITED TO SEE CHOMPERS ON BOING-BOING!

After Chompers came on TV the other day, I was almost in tears with delight. My wife was saying to me, “Jesse, are you seeing this?!”, but I was too paralyzed by awesomeness to reply.

I talked about Chompers on my show Jordan, Jesse, Go! for about 10 minutes straight last week, and while Jordan was not on board (at all), I got many emails of support for Chompers and his agenda (to make the world a better place by being amazing).

Seriously: I love this pig.
- Mark Frauenfelder
  
  I think we should take up a collection and buy this pig for Jesse!
Riu

The guy’s reaction at the end looked like a “gotcha!” at all the people that, over the years, have been telling him what an idiots he is for having spent 200$ on that ‘piece of trash’ pig.
ppad

It’s not a pull toy, but have you seen this?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMxGaay11pw
murray

I feel like I’m missing the joke. This felt like just about any average Roadshow segment. Person shows interesting article, experts talks about article, gives appraisal, the end. And the guy was not at all smug.

I can’t listen to a 90 minute podcast to see if the other half of this joke is in there somewhere, so will someone please clue me in?
Extreme Craft

Sorry…I didn’t mean to say that the guy in the segment was a jerk…he was just confident in what he had…which is usually met with tragedy on the appraisal end. It’s not about the Antiques Roadshow quality… “chompers” is the payoff. If that’s not good enough for you, I don’t know what is!
ackpht

The best segment I ever saw on Antiques Roadshow was a soft-spoken older man who brought in an Indian blanket that had been handed down from his parents. The appraisers were grinning. Turns out it was a type of blanket that was made only for chiefs, fiendishly rare, and this one was was in excellent condition.

Estimated value at auction? $500,000. The guy was stunned.
- dculberson
  
  Okay, I just watched that segment and I must say that was amazing.
  
  Everyone that hasn’t seen it should:
  
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlkYn39i4Fw
- Waterlilygirl
  
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlkYn39i4Fw
  
  I loved that segment. It brings me to tears every time I watch it.
massspecgeek

Wow. If that’s the greatest segment in the history of Antiques Roadshow, I feel fully justified in having never watched it. Me <— totally not getting it.
- palindrome
  
  I think you meant to say:
  
  “Meh.”
  
  You’re welcome.
Anonymous

No the best one was the guy who was headed for the show with his whatever when he saw a chair sitting on the side of the road. He decided to grab it and bring it with him. It turned out the chair was antique and worth big $$$. Or maybe this was staged too?
Anonymous

I love the Antiques Roadshow and though the segment is interesting, I think it is far from the best…also I thought the guyt was nice enough.
Nores

Honestly, is there some hipster irony thing going on here that I’m just too uncool to get?

I Googled Chompers the pig to see if there was something else out there that people were making some kind of connection to, but all I found were more references to this same segment.

As others have noted, there’s nothing smug about the guy at all. The pig is a little unusual, but no more so than most things on the show, and it doesn’t have any interesting story behind it as so many of their segments do. It’s a pig pull toy, it’s kind of big, it’s got weird teeth, and it squeaks. Okay.

I mean, I hate to be that guy, but what is the joke here? This seems to me pretty much like any middle of the pack Antiques Roadshow segment.
- dculberson
  
  No irony, just delight. I was in awe at how cool the pig is. I felt like a kid again!
invictus

So for curiosity’s sake, I ran the numbers. If the man had invested the $200 instead of buying the pig, he would have needed to get an annual interest rate of 10.15% (compounded monthly) to match the ROI of the pig.

And then he wouldn’t have had the pig.
stpal

Nores – For me, the joy didn’t come irony – it was more of a giddy delight in the idea that someone designed, made, and marketed such a wonderfully odd device. Couple that with the craft that went into it, the elegance of the movement and sound (which probably have a very few moving parts), and the idea that the child who would have originally played with it has long since died but the pig abides, and it’s a pretty nifty package.
surreality

That is ADORABLE. want!!
Robert

“I love shows on PBS like Antiques Roadshow and others, where kindness and respect replace the typical “cruel is cool” attitude and knowledge is valued above willful ignorance.”

Only in the segments you see, Hanglyman… only in the segments you see.
Anonymous

Some Pig!
Jesse Thorn

Murray: it’s not a joke. It’s just an AMAZING pig.
JoshP

as if my nightmares needed the addition of a mechanical chomping pig… thus we see a mutant meme cropping up in the over all media/phoneme… gads.
Logan

It occurs to me that if “Antiques Roadshow” was on a commercial TV network it would be more like “American Idol”. Anyone whose proffered antique wasn’t valuable enough would be subjected to abuse and mockery. “Well, it’s a pig alright. But an antique? No.” “Let me get this straight, you saw this pig in a shop and thought ‘Well, it’s a lot of money but it’s an investment in my future. I may have to eat Top Ramen all next month but I HAVE to have that pig!”
- Hanglyman
  
  Sounds about right. I’ve never understood why people want to watch horribly abusive, egotistical assholes yelling at innocent people on TV. If these jerks were their coworkers, they’d probably wish they were dead and avoid them whenever possible. I love shows on PBS like Antiques Roadshow and others, where kindness and respect replace the typical “cruel is cool” attitude and knowledge is valued above willful ignorance.
mvarick1

That’s great. I liked the guy who bought the pig. Simply, he just liked it!
joelbenroth

Just a guy with a furry pig on wheels worth a lot of money. And we are entertained why?
- Hanglyman
  
  The entertainment from Antiques Roadshow, for me anyway, is the historical factor- seeing old things, learning when and where they were made (or for weird ones, what the heck they even are), and maybe imagining from that what life was like back then. The money part doesn’t do all that much for me… I don’t have some dusty attic filled with potential treasures anywhere, so the idea of striking it rich with a surprisingly valuable relic doesn’t apply to me.
  
  As for the pig, I think it actually is sort of charming… from a distance.
  - Jamie Sue
    
    Same here. Today I learned all about muostache cups. I never knew such things existed. I had seen those cups before in antique stores and had no idea what they were for. Antique Roadshow increased my Nerd IQ and makes me happy.
Anonymous

Guy didn’t seem smug to me.
Anonymous

Quite possibly the CREEPIEST segment in the history of Antiques Roadshow

Fixed.
HearsMusic

That’ll do, pig.