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[smjjames]

Looked at their site and it's a whole bunch of stuff with a humorous take on santas elves watching you. I guess they took the joke too far here. I suppose they could replace the camera with a elf head in the dome, but then it'd just end up creepy instead of funny.

Is that the same or something different as that elf-on-a-shelf thing?

It's a spinoff of the elf-on-a-shelf, except taking it further and more places.

[Trekkin]

It's supposed to be shocking and horrifying and repulsive, because it's trying to get you to either buy it as a joke or show it around your social networks in disgust until it reaches someone who will. This is clickbait made real. "You'll never believe what they turned Elf on a Shelf into!"

Being vociferously outraged and loudly proclaiming how much you'd never do such a thing to your kids to everyone who will listen is exactly what they want you to do, and they thank you for the free publicity.

EDIT: Now just wait for people to buy and publicly destroy them.

[NJW2000]

Not to mention it'd get kids acting up intentionally.

[Greiger]

it reaches someone who will.

Not going to buy it, but yea it almost just did exactly what you described there with me.  What with it still being cheaper than a real security system (and arguably just as effective) but looks enough like one to be a deterrent.

[TD1]

At this point, I no longer remember which of the security cameras round our place are real.

It's kinda off-putting

[heydude6]

I’m honestly surprised by the outrage going on here. When I was a kid, we were given these monthly catalogues at school and I remember fake cameras showing up there all the time. Hell, I even bought one because I was a dumbass who thought they were real. I was pretty disappointed when I found out it wasn’t, but otherwise I don’t see the harm.
 
Does it have to do with the fact that this device is specifically marketed as something meant to trick kids?

[TD1]

More like "kids think there's a Big Brother out there, and this is psychologically bad."

Though my primary school had security cameras all over the place, and I'm (somewhat) sane. Guess it coming from a parent adds a layer of betrayal of trust.

[Yoink]

More like "kids think there's a Big Brother out there, and this is psychologically bad."

Doesn't the whole idea of Santa knowing naughty children from nice ones do that already? I always just assumed he was omniscient somehow. Don't think it ever stopped me from doing bad things, though - guess I was just a hardcase.

...Now I'm picturing the bloated, red-glowing form of Santa Claus hovering above a tower set in some desolate landscape, rotating to face this way and that ala the Eye of Sauron.

[TD1]

"We must take the candy cane to Santa's Grotto! Only where it was sugared may it be destroyed!"

"One does not simply walk into Santa's Grotto."

[Trekkin]

More like "kids think there's a Big Brother out there, and this is psychologically bad."

Doesn't the whole idea of Santa knowing naughty children from nice ones do that already? I always just assumed he was omniscient somehow. Don't think it ever stopped me from doing bad things, though - guess I was just a hardcase.

...Now I'm picturing the bloated, red-glowing form of Santa Claus hovering above a tower set in some desolate landscape, rotating to face this way and that ala the Eye of Sauron.

I think part of the idea is it's worse when there's a constant physical reminder you're under constant observation by this slave-driving overlord silently judging all from his polar sweatshop/aircraft hangar, awaiting the day when he is free to roam the Earth at aphysical speeds, break into their homes, and dispense either toys or fuel according to his whim.

[Yoink]

"We must take the candy cane to Santa's Grotto! Only where it was sugared may it be destroyed!"

"One does not simply walk into Santa's Grotto."

Legolas is certainly less glamorous in this interpretation.


New wtf: I am in a very weird mood indeed. It's as though I am simultaneously inexplicably happy and irrationally sad. Idk wtf omg bbq. Think I shall just sit on this train and finish my book, then get some all-you-can-eat Indian food in the city and buy some fancy earplugs for the weekend.


I swear there was something in particular that was upsetting me just a moment ago, but I cannot for the life of me remember what it was.

[pisskop]

i had a dream where an army of identitical mes were created, all  exactly me in every way down to the memories.

and we all highlighted my best and worst features by working together on large projects, from building homes to revolutions.

and though even working together speaks to my ability, what a messed up dream.

[martinuzz]

It was no dream, it was an interdimensional work meeting with your co-selves.
I hope yours didn't go like mine, when you find out 3 years afterwards that after the meeting was over, you were accidentally swapped out with a co-self from one of the more extreme parts of the mulitverse, and suddenly Trump is elected president in this familiar yet strange new place you ended up in. I still miss my old normal universe.

[Egan_BW]

I'm a minor celebrity among all my other selves for living in such a radical universe. Raddest of the Egans, right here.

[TD1]

I'm on the low end of self-celebrity.

Cannibal me, dictator me and genocidal-maniac me vie for the top position. The meetings are fun, though.