YouTube personality Casey Neistat took a break from his paternity leave to open and test his new (not a) toy, the Boring Company's "Not a Flamethrower."

As you may know, the Boring Company is an Elon Musk entity. Its $500 propane torch (the "flamethrower") is, as Neistat describes it, Musk's "$10 million dollar joke."

He notes that it's simply a roofing torch encased in a plastic air gun shell topped with a bike water bottle holder (to hold the tank of propane), parts he says you can get on the internet separately for much less. Still, he thinks it's "hysterical" and gives it a whirl, melting the cover to his microphone.

Previously: The Boring Company's Not a Flamethrower is a joke compared to actual flamethrowers, Build your own Boring Company flamethrower! Read the rest

I own a propane torch, so I know one when I see one. The Boring Company's Not a Flamethrower? It's definitely a propane torch... which, I suppose, means that Musk's marketing department is pretty much on the mark.

To drive the point of the Not a Flamethrower's not being a flamethrower home, the folks at DriveTanks.com subjected the Not a Flamethrower to the Pepsi challenge against a Vietnam-era M9 flamethrower and a XM34. Seeing how much more destructive these two weapons are compared to Musk's torch makes me glad that it's definitely not a flamethrower that the Boring Company was selling. Read the rest

I'm not saying that building a flamethrower is a responsible use of your time – but I'm not saying that you shouldn't take the time to build one, either.

In January, Elon Musk's Boring Company built 20,000 $500-flamethrowers and sold them all to the tune of $10 million. $500 is a lot of cheddar to throw at what basically amounts to a fancy tiger torch. Provided you've got the right tools on hand, as you can see in this video, it's possible to build one for considerably less.

Disclaimer: Despite the fact that you can totally play with it, a flamethrower is not a toy. Always use fiery weapons that are the stuff of nightmares responsibly. Read the rest

Jim Fouts, mayor of Warren, Michigan, has proposed a ban on flamethrowers.

Chris Byars, seen above, is CEO of Detroit-area flamethrower firm Ion Productions Team. He says that to automatically assume people will do stupid things with his company's products is "insulting and discriminatory." Read the rest