Even Better Than Hootbot: the Otamatone

In regards to technological devices designed to delight their owner and annoy everyone else within earshot, the Hootbot has just been beaten. An anonymous comment on the Hootbot post has led me to discover the Otamatone, an actual music instrument — shaped like a musical note, no less — that makes a sound that I’d place somewhere between a mournful, beached whale and early video game music as heard by a person drunk to the point of passing out. Observe, please, three Otamatones attempting to perform “Greensleeves” in a way that is only marginally better than, say, three alley cats with terminal feline STDs attempting to perform “Greensleeves”:

Yes, the bulb of the note has a face complete with a mouth that can be squeezed open to change the instrument’s pitch and take the whole project into the deepest recesses of the Uncanny Valley. Terrifying. And amazing. So yes — screw the Hootbots and change your orders for Otamatones. And megaphones. We’ll need those too, because I’m ditching the band idea and attempting to get a job diffusing hostage situations with the world’s most annoying noise.

It’s only slightly better than the Brown Note — which the boys in the lab are still working on, mind you — and I love you all the more for coming to this conclusion already.