Things that never needed to be.

Infomercials try to tell us that our lives are somehow incomplete without their product. That somehow we are not competent enough to drain a pot of spaghetti into a normal colander. What are you, a barbarian? Of course you need the Magic-Strain even though you've poured countless pots of pasta into a standard colander without a fuss. The best part of infomercials is when they cut to a short clip of some buffoon trying to use normal everyday products and failing miserably and the overreaction to the failure is even better. That standard colander slipped out of the way and all that pasta when into the sink and is now inedible [cut to starving family at the dinner table]. To further sell you on the product, they tell you that it's a $50 value now for only $19.95. Who determines the value? The value of the plastic is roughly 40 cents probably. The sweatshop workers probably cost them 10 cents per product. That $50 is a completely arbitrary number. But wait... if you act now you'll get two of these things you don't need. Just pay shipping and processing.

Let's examine a few examples...

Why is this necessary? The soda can was designed to be a hand-held size to begin with.

Because putting on a shoe is too much of a hassle. On a side note... those joints look pretty weak like it won't hold up to much abuse. Such abuse as being stepped on repeatedly. Also the design limits how flat you can crush the can. I could get it way flatter with just my foot.

This one blows my mind . Who is going to bother digging in the junk drawer for the banana opener every time they want to eat a banana? Chimpanzees are experts in eating bananas... Human to chimp DNA is 98% similar. Somewhere in that 2% we've lost the ability to open a banana.

Because I don't have time to pour this teapot twice. We need tea now! This product works great unless you're pouring for an odd number of people. You'll get a teacup's volume of tea all over that lovely tablecloth.

Now on the other hand there have been some great products to come from infomercials...

The Flowbee is brilliant. You can cut your own hair and there is no clean-up!

The Clapper is outstanding. Sometimes you don't want to get out of bed to turn off the lights. The only flaw in this design is if the commercial for The Clapper comes on you lights are going to be turning on and off a lot.