Just look at this awesome steampunk bananagun.

Just look at it.

It Shoots Monkeys (Thanks, Jessemoya!)

Previously:

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

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Rich Keller

The link says that it’s up to us to decide whether it uses monkeys as ammo or is used against monkeys. Why can’t it be both? Hollow-Pointed Tamarins exist in the wild, and I bet they have enough knock-down power to take out a marmoset.
ill lich

Dangerous. Could slip out of your hand too easily.
alowishus

Wheellock bananas are so much more elegant.
Bryson

If it somehow took creative commons photographs in public places, it would be the quintessential BoingBoing object.
bitslayer

Who comes up with this stuff and why?

To get posted to Boing-Boing, duh.

The more interesting question is why would Cory post something so obviously pandering to his niches. Self parody?
- Reverend Loki
  
  I think the only way this could be even more up Cory’s alley is if it were Open Sourced, and held by a man cosplaying him by wearing aviator goggles and a red cape.
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  The more interesting question is why would Cory post something so obviously pandering to his niches
  
  You expect him to call you up and grill you about your interests so he can blog about them?
underground_slacker

Man, the amount of things ive seen like this labeled “steampunk”, really? a banana musket? Not trying to be an obvious troll being obvious but this one is less steampunk than the article about the “steampunk” sink that was just a rusty pair of copper taps from a while back.

I use to think steampunk was some clockwork/ victorian inspired alternate history type stuff, Is something steampunk if it is made of metal now?

is my grandfathers knee steampunk?!?

These are the questions people/
i_prefer_yeti

at last I’ll have something to shove phallically into my banana underwear!
lasttide

I see your Bananaphone and raise you a Bananagun.

A Blananderbuss?
siliconsunset

Calm down people, Cory has simply successfully trolled you. If you’re going to be upset about something, consider choosing that.

Cory: good work, sir.
Grey Devil

Speaking of Steampunk. Cory i started reading Boneshaker yesterday, I noticed that you’re quoted in one of the first pages in the book. it’s kicked off fairly slow but i’m liking it so far.
alowishus

Whatever happens, don’t let the Banandroid get its yellow hands on this!
Fred H

I just like how it lulls the monkeys into a false sense of security: Hey, its a banana. Alright!
Then….BANG!
Selkiechick

If it shoots monkeys- how do you load them. This gun is defective- clearly it has an insufficient simian magazine.
- Anonymous
  
  It has a simian mobile disc launcher
cmuwriter

This reminds me of that little known Clint Eastwood movie “Any Which Way But Harry” and that famous line from it.

Harry Ape: “I know what you’re thinking. “Did he fire six monkeys or only five?” Well, to tell you the truth, in all this excitement I kind of lost track myself. But being as this is a steampunk banana gun, the most powerful steampunk bananagun (that is actually a banana flintlock), in the world, and would blow your head clean off, you’ve got to ask yourself one question: Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?”

Punk: “I gots to know!”

Harry Ape: “Well it’s actually only a single shot so not only is the gun empty, I actually only shot once earlier. I’m surprised you were not paying attention…nevertheless you’re under arrest, citizen.”
Dewi Morgan

funniest part of the post is the “See also” list. It’s HUEG!
sayeth

This would be the perfect weapon for Guybrush Threepwood.
Teresa Nielsen Hayden

I think someone’s written an app that generates comments that say “That’s not steampunk, it’s just [fill in description from entry headline].”

Alowishus, flintlocks and wheellocks both work for me, and the low muzzle velocity makes it an appropriate gun for indoor social confrontations.
salsaman

Just look at this exploding banana mask:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0Vw0I-PhcA
Then look at the invading Gleek army:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cn8eLbu_ugc
Jaan

I must be missing something…is it “hip” now to call pretty much everything mechanical steampunk? Gosh I feel old. Am I steampunk now?
Anonymous

It’s only a matter of time before we see girls playing home-made steam-punk Ukuleles in banana suits while singing a song about daleks and unicorns based on a theory by robert anton wilson in order to protest secret copyright treaties, the DMCA, the TSA, and DRM, and to promote Cory’s podcast where he reads an excerpt from Big Brother in the UK, simulcast to transgendered psychedelic maker librarians and artists in San Francisco and Disneyland.
- tim
  
  It’s only a matter of time before we see girls playing home-made steam-punk Ukuleles in banana suits…
  
  You mean you missed it ? Man that was so last week.
  
  Oh, and calling Ray Comfort…..
  - Pipenta
    
    Roy Comfort, yes, see post #3!
Wordguy

“What? I can’t hear you Bert; I’ve got an awesome steampunk bananagun in my ear.”
IWood

Also:

ring ring ring ring ring ring ring BANANAGUN
- Talia
  
  *shakes a fist!* by two minutes!
  
  but I think you meant bang bang bang bang bang bang bang. :)
ChibiR

I first read the “Just look at it.” in my RSS reader before the image had loaded (and without checking the headline), which resulted in “Wait, is that one of these crazy banana posts again? What will it-[image loads]-*FACEPALM*”
DanielZKlein

What IS it with all the JUST LOOK AT posts? This is freaking me out right now! I feel like I’m missing a meme, only me missing the meme seems to be part of the meme, in that there is no meme, just a thing that wants to look like a meme, kind of like an octopus that camouflages itself as a coconut.

BANANA!
- Cheqyr
  
  Just look at this touchingly befuddled post by DanielZKlein.
  
  Just look at it.
skeptacally

say what you will, grumpipants of the world, but nothing generates comments like a bananapost.
Bevatron Repairman

What if he’s got a pointed stick?
- sic transit gloria C.F.A.
  
  I cannot believe it took 42 comments before we had any reference to the famous sketch. Today’s youth have no appreciation for the classics.
Xopher

BANANA one two three, I am a tree.
jackie31337

The steampunk theme and the banana gadget theme were bound to intersect eventually. How is Cory ever going to top this?
- the Other michael
  
  >How is Cory ever going to top this?
  
  A DIY WiFi steampunk banana-gun that has been banned from taking photos in Akihabara by anti-Darwinist cosplayers.
octopussoup

why does boing boing list everything not modern as steampunk.

Im surprised Adam Savage’s blade runner gun wasn’t called steampunk.
Shelby Davis

This thread is just so much full of win. :)
holtt

I’m waiting for Gunther von Hagens to plasticize a dead banana myself.
grimc

Explain how this is steampunk, when it appears to be just a run of the mill flintlock banana. Just explain it.
- Cory Doctorow
  
  It inspires pedantic, humorless nitpicking. Therefore, it is steampunk.
  
  QED.
  - the Other michael
    
    Cory, I think you’ve become so attuned to run-of-the mill pedantic nitpickerry [all too common], that you missed the tone of the first comment:
    
    run of the mill flintlock banana
    
    Either that, or you are living in some alternate England where flintlock bananas are run of the mill.
    
    Here in the US flintlock bananas are still luxury items, hoarded by the privileged few, while the jealous, desperate masses are forced to cobbled-together DIY bananas when dealing with post-apocalyptic hordes of steampunk monkeys.
    
    I’ve naught to defend my loved-ones but a plantain that squirts smelly water.
  - grimc
    
    Fair enough. I had better things to do today, but I will look at it.
Pipenta

Banana guns! Proof that god wants us to be armed.

Man, somebody really wants to give guns to monkeys.
resigned idealist

I’m so confused. Does “It shoots monkeys” mean that it uses monkeys for ammo, or is it only used against monkeys?
- Halloween Jack
  
  Ape shall not kill ape!
Cydonia

Who comes up with this stuff and why? WHY? It looks like something out of a gorilla western.
thebelgianpanda

I find this meme quite appealing :)
IWood

God damn it, no. I’ll get mine to market before these bastards, I swear.
Chrs

Banana returns! Ah, the glory of yellow phallic fruit.
snakedart

Flintlocks were cutting-edge tech in … what? The mid-17th Century? That predates steampunk by a century or two. This would qualify as ‘blackpowderpunk’, I guess. And ‘fruitpunk’ as well, I suppose.

Too many memes. Head hurts.
Avram / Moderator

I was hoping it fired bananas.
Anonymous

This does not top the hilarious exploding nose banana.
Xeni Jardin

pew pew pew!
Felton

Small arms for gorilla warfare.
zikman

is it meant to target monkeys, or does it fire monkey bullets?
h0ss

Thanks for posting this. It’s been a miserable day, and I’ve been laughing out loud so hard that my sons asked if I was OK.

Better than a unicorn chaser.
dross1260

Quick way to get potassiumâ€¦nitrate.