February 8th, 2007
#186 – Paint
I love the look of freshly painted walls. There is something magical about changing the color of a room. I wish there was some sort of digital paint technology that would let me change the colors on a whim. It would be great to be able to change the walls to match the mood or the season.
February 8th, 2007 at 12:04 am
Ah if only you could either use high yield explosives or just change paint on a whim. Also, it seems like even if two rooms are painted the same color, they still look different…
February 8th, 2007 at 12:12 am
Sorry to say that the Mythbusters have disproved the idea of this happening. Also, First Post!
February 8th, 2007 at 12:28 am
actually there is but it isnt commercial use yet, i read an article about it in Popular Science at the doctor’s office the other day, it was pretty cool idea too
February 8th, 2007 at 12:33 am
Oh, poor Biff, I hope he likes shrapnel…or he can run super fast.
February 8th, 2007 at 12:59 am
Hmmm…that makes me think about paint shrapnel. The possibilities……..
Are strange. But so is Biff! And we all like Biff…
February 8th, 2007 at 1:08 am
An episode of Mythbusters covered this. The paint will just splatter and not go evenly.
February 8th, 2007 at 1:53 am
That can’t be good.
February 8th, 2007 at 4:53 am
Ahhh… I rember when this happened in Mr. Bean… One of the funniest ever episodes IMO
February 8th, 2007 at 5:47 am
They did this on Mr. Bean as well. Even so, Chris has a good track record for creativity (the ‘uphill both ways’ strip is my personal favorite!) and I doubt he intentionally stole the idea, whether he’s seen it either on Mythbusters, Mr. Bean, or elsewhere, or not.
February 8th, 2007 at 5:56 am
Mythbusters covered this? Was this an actual myth? “Putting explosives in a paint can will paint a room really fast”? I can’t imagine people actually thinking that will work.
Biff will get it to work somehow, though. He’s done other impossible things.
February 8th, 2007 at 6:16 am
I wonder if he finally moved the dynamite from next to the emergency candles…
February 8th, 2007 at 7:02 am
LOL
That is so Biff, I couldn’t think of a better character to do something like that.
But I’ve seen this idea before on the english comedy TV show “Mr. Bean”, casting Rowan Atkinson (I think that’s his name).
Still LOL
February 8th, 2007 at 7:18 am
Wow they did this on Mythbusters? How funny that someone other than Biff would think to do this in real life. I was just trying to think of a fast but ridiculously bad way to paint a room and came up with this. Earlier ideas had 20 or so paint rollers all attached to one big pole that was then attached to another contraption. Biff would have to climb up onto a ladder and jump down onto one end of the pole to get the rollers to go up the wall. This was easier to draw
February 8th, 2007 at 7:46 am
I admit, my favorite way of painting a room involves throwing a bucket of paint. No brushes, no rollers. just me and the bucket. Looks totally hardcore when I’m done too.
February 8th, 2007 at 8:21 am
Only one stick of dynamite? What’s the fun in that?
February 8th, 2007 at 8:36 am
I look forward to seeing a Biff-shaped area on the wall that is mysteriously lacking paint =)
February 8th, 2007 at 8:47 am
Oh my god, yes, I so want to do that!
February 8th, 2007 at 10:45 am
Why not apply “Mood Ring” technology, to have walls that change color just by changing the thermostat? It would also indicate which room-areas are the hottest (or coldest) spots…
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Different (liquid crystal) mixtures could then produce different color-pallettes at the same temperature, so that at any temperature you could still have contrasting trim around door frames, baseboards, etc.
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HMMM-m-m-m… maybe I should get this idea down to the U.S. Patent Office?
February 8th, 2007 at 11:19 am
this reminds me of a news article i read some time last year (i think); it was about this new “digital paper” technology that supposedly would allow full motion video on a flexible and thin piece of paper. i seem to recall them saying it would be like 80c a square foot or some such, and have an image quality slightly lower than current hdtvs.
they were talking about how they wanted to use in on the front page of newspapers and the covers of magazines to help grab your attention on the rack. i wanted to use it as wall paper.
February 8th, 2007 at 11:21 am
oh, and i personally think that mythbusters, awesome beyond awesomeness thought it may have be, has been scrapeing the bottom of the barrel for a long time now.
February 8th, 2007 at 12:16 pm
Very nice, but Mr. Bean inspired. Extra points!
February 8th, 2007 at 2:10 pm
I remember some old brit show did this joke. Saw it on late night PBS.
And I’ll need to catch the mythbuster eps proving that.
February 8th, 2007 at 2:44 pm
…is also a good way to mix porridge.
February 8th, 2007 at 4:33 pm
I love you Biff
that is all
February 8th, 2007 at 6:12 pm
Heh, why should time stop you from painting on a whim? The mother of a friend of mine paints entire rooms just for parties or big events. Pretty ridiculous.
February 8th, 2007 at 9:25 pm
But… but… I just went through all the comics after a friend told me about the site. OUTSTANDING! However, I must now find something else to keep me occupied for an hour or so. I laughed aloud several times, once so hard I nearly cried and hyperventilated at the same time. Outstanding work, Chris.
February 8th, 2007 at 9:28 pm
James in the third post mentioned an article in popular science about a technology that would allow you to repaint a room on a whim. I read the same article, the idea involves a special paint, which when exposed to different voltages, produces different colors. It works just like your monitor, with the three colors of paint in microscopic beads. Anyway, when you run a current through it, you can make the different colored beads rise to the surface in varying proportions, which means that you can paint a room any color you want by just sitting at your computer and typing a command.
Also, you don’t have to have a continuous current through the paint, you only need current to change it, meaning that it is efficient with your electricity.
The same issue also mentioned something about a similar technology which involved glass walls on your house, and you could make them opaque and colored wherever you wanted, which means you can repaint AND relocate windows on a whim. Pretty awesome stuff, I can’t wait for it to go commercial, and then become marginally affordable.
February 8th, 2007 at 10:41 pm
Thanks Mokkie. Hope you have found something to do for the next 80 minutes.
February 9th, 2007 at 12:50 am
Biff is god.
Do you know how I know this?
Because it explains everything…
Not new, but only recently posting!
Hi, I’m Prime, and Biff kicks ass!
February 9th, 2007 at 4:35 pm
This is very similar to what Mr. Bean did a while ago! But I’m willing to bet you just happened to think of it on your own.
February 10th, 2007 at 5:25 am
Organic LED technology looks promising. The problem with the ‘three bead’ technology is down-scaling it, the resoloution quality is a bit patchy so far.
Organic LEDs use a long-chain molecule that glows in different colours depending on the current run through them. They got the idea from deep-sea jellyfish, and synthesized the molecule that they use to glow. The beautiful thing is they can be produced with what is pretty much a modified Bubblejet printer. Theoretically you can load this stuff up into a spray can, blast it on your wall, hook up a pair of electrodes and run a varying current through it for a very funky party wall. Drawbacks are that if the molecule is exposed to air it degrades very quickly. They surpass this by suspending the molecules in a conductive clear material. But scratches can be very permantent for an OLED monitor. The only reason we aren’t seeing mind-blowingly cool monitors printed onto pieces of paper is because OLED technology hasn’t found any corporate backing. They’re all happy to continue developing LCD and CRT technology. Which is a real shame.
February 11th, 2007 at 11:25 am
Damn, I’m soo glad the Mythbusters are around to tell me that if I put explosives in my paint it will splatter. Seriously, as entertaining as that show is all the myths they test seem to only be believable if you lack any common sense or a basic understanding of physics. Still, I’m shocked at the amount of people that are surprised when I correctly predict the outcome of every show.
February 12th, 2007 at 6:52 pm
he coud die make him die allready, but in arelated story paint is flammable so kids try this at homme
April 11th, 2007 at 2:07 pm
the Mythbusters were testing the senerio seen on Mr. Bean.
April 16th, 2007 at 5:29 pm
I wouldn’t care if it didn’t paint the whole room, it’d be neat to have splatter paint style.
April 25th, 2007 at 9:20 pm
that’s from Mr. Bean XD, btw really nice comic, found through BnG
May 18th, 2007 at 9:33 am
I guess he got tired of everything being the same colour.
May 25th, 2007 at 4:41 pm
My best friend has decided that in her house there will be one perfectly white room. In that room there will be a paintball gun.
June 26th, 2007 at 10:06 am
The mythbusters were actually testing it based on Mr. Bean. Just saw it recently.
July 1st, 2007 at 12:27 pm
I think on Mythbusters, Jamie’s rig would have worked if they had used a more powerful charge.
July 1st, 2007 at 4:04 pm
If only this would work, life would be so much cooler.
July 17th, 2007 at 5:20 pm
That’s good motivation to paint it fast…
July 25th, 2007 at 11:44 am
I’d love to be in the romm watching him do this stuff!
August 1st, 2007 at 7:21 pm
Yay! Green paint! I’m surprised he even has a white wall right now. Maybe this was before he painted everything green. Chris DID say that it’s not in chronological order.
December 8th, 2007 at 9:19 pm
Hmmmm…. this reminds me of when he painted everything in his house green… the shade of the paint is oddly reminiscent of that green…
December 25th, 2007 at 8:46 pm
Hmmm…the pattern would be awesome, and the pieces of bucket would accentuate nicely.
But wouldn’t a pressure-washer work better? *looks at holes in drywall* maybe not…
April 7th, 2008 at 12:04 am
You sir, have had a brilliant idea there. I’m sure there is or will be a way to do that with your walls someday… and the ceiling. Maybe even the floor too.
Also of note, it seems you have an incredible thought clarity Chris. Everything you write in your notes below the comics seems so focused and thoughtful. I’m a babbler personally.
June 19th, 2008 at 12:33 am
Man, it’s not a good myth. I bet the Mythbusters just wanted to blow some stuff up.
Damn, now I want to blow some stuff up.
July 13th, 2008 at 9:27 pm
Oh snap, Biff’s doing something ineffective! How unusual!
June 3rd, 2009 at 9:33 pm
XD Maybe it did work; after all, at some point the entire contents of his house were that color green…He failed at painting just the walls. x3
June 23rd, 2009 at 8:37 pm
DUCK AND COVER! Biffs at it again!
December 8th, 2009 at 4:43 pm
The Mythbusters episode in questions: http://mythbustersresults.com/episode52