Video: Urinal Elephants invade Japan
By Thomas Ricker 
posted Apr 22nd 2008 6:23AM
posted Apr 22nd 2008 6:23AM
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So...
Are we gonna talk about this big elephant in the room?
Nah, what worries me is the brown robot crocodile that is sitting in the crapper, I've been holding it in all night!
Drop a big fat log on it!
@jason: when are you gonna get a life?
hmm, covers urinal, makes lots of noise. Impressive.
I can never manage to 'go' when theres an Elephant in the room.
I Don't feel safe.
*Reads article*
I see.
This makes no sense whatsoever.
I think people will start making more of a mess to clean up when this thing starts invading their privacy.
That's funny, they usually put attractive women in Japanese advertisments.
Ive done worse. And I bet you have too!
I, for one, welcome our new robotic elephant toilet cleaning overlords.
I had to do it.
Did you say Overlords? You mean Protectors, right?
She's cute, in a chubby kinda Spinal-Tapish fat-bottomed way. I'd let her assist me.
under the table?
That's definitely face-to-face. Seriously.
wait, which elephant?
That is too freakin' cool!!! Making it into a big blue elephant is so much classier somehow...
uh.
Japan: Where a toilet-scrubbing robot isn't cool enough by itself, so they have to make it into an ADORABLE toilet-scrubbing robot.
The fact that there exists something that let me write the phrase "adorable toilet-scrubbing robot" in all honesty and seriousness just goes to show you that the US needs to step up the robotics research, and fast. Otherwise we're going to be overrun by cute, pastel deathdroids that smile and twitter in high-pitched voices as they blast us with glittery rainbow lasers of doom.
The awesome from this comment can not be contained.
Also, I want to see the other side of the elephant. Watching it cover a urinal and make lots of noise just isn't that impressive.
it looks like robot elephant ass, why do you want to look at robot elephant ass?
Wait...What?
Isn't there something inherently paradoxical about sticking a urinal up an elephant's ass to clean it?
haha.. have to watch the video with this new perspective now.
@John,
That made the Pepsi i was drinking come out of my nose.
Bravo, My Friend, Bravo.
I can still feel the bubbles in my nose. ITCHY!!
Thanks for the laugh
Bravo indeed my friend... this whole thread of replies is freaking hilarious!
everytime i see an elephant i just can't stop picturing it having a conversation with a snake.
Sorry?
The hat is a nice touch.
I have to admit, as odd as this is, it's creative. Just think what the japaneese would have done if they invented the zamboni? It's be pastel orange, be a cute tiger, and probably have TWO hats.
Major bonus points for the use of 'man-stew.'
Ha Ha, Man Stew, I'm going to refer to it as that from now on,
I only just noticed.
I came into the comments purely to make this comment. Well done Harlo and Thomas.
Ugh.
"man-stew".
Better than "man-chowder".
I live in Japan and I always chuckle when I see a sign above the urinal that says, "Please take one step forward"!
A big-ass robotic elephant cleaning up the urinals while I'm using one nearby would make me feel more at ease than the usual middle-aged to senior women one often finds cleaning them while they are in operation. (yes, women are in the men's room while men use them, can't see how that can't be viewed as entrapment!)
"Apparently, some guys who've used our washrooms have concerns about our practice of having female caretakers clean out nearby urinals even while men are relieving themselves. We need to help them feel comfortable using our facilities."
"Sir, what if we had the women push robotic blue cleaning elephants in yellow hats up to the urinals to do the work instead?"
"Great idea, Yakamura!"
What...
What did I just see?
That's cool... but is it really a robot?
Urine the money, dudes. But putting poor immigrants out of jobs isn't so good.
Engineering at its finest.
Is it just me, or is the intense code in which this article seems to be written much funnier than the articles around it?
Either she's really small or the Japanese have monster-size urinals.
Kinda cool but why the Hello Elephant design?
She looked trapped there at the very end... what happened after? how is this robotic?
I was thinking the same thing.
If the Elephant went around by itself backing up to urinals to clean them, then yeah, it would be a robot. This? Just a glorified steam cleaner.
Unless something really intense is happening at the ass end of the blue beast. Like, lasers and stuff.
Yeah, really. Where is the robot here?
Imagine how much more impressive it would be if we had a toilet trained elephant lumbering from one urinal to the next practicing its aim.
Of course, if it was autonomous, there would always be the horrific possibility of the silly blue giant accidentally shoving someone face-first into a urinal and then soaking them with anti-bacterial detergent.
And what cleans the nasty elephant?
A Bigger, BLUER elephant
I don't get this and neither do I find this amusing.
...japan is effing weird, man.
What they don't tell you is that there is a small mexican hiding inside that actually does the work.
thats gai
They only way I see them needing this is if they start letting Americans into their country.
Why doesn't the urinal clean itself?
Come on, Japan.
gotta love the POS's of the interwebs
is it really that hard to put on gloves, squeeze a bottle of clorox cleanup, move a toilet brush around, and flush?
But then the robot elephant would be out of business and I for one DO NOT want a homeless robot elephant looking in my window as I sleep!
???
Crack? Marijuana? What is it?
Yes.
1) After coming to terms with his addiction to Afghani Hash, Dumbo was content with his career in the Hospitality industry.
2) Would Larry Craig get turned on by this robot, and if so, would it be considered bestiality?
3) After cleaning out the urinals, does it crap out a fresh minty urinal cake?
4) If the robot was infected with a virus, would anything come out of it's snout?
5) Prior Urinal Cleaning Robotic designs including a fire breathing turtle, a wookiee, and a sumo wrestler didn't go over too well with test markets.
#3 definitely. Poop humor wins.
Why bother clicking, its either a pay site (with spyware) or a spyware site (with yet more spyware and maybe a virus)
I know I would be hiding my pee nuts if I were taking a piss and that thing lumbered onto the urinal next to me.
Anyone else notice that the trunk and eyes look like a big penis? yeah...
Whenever I go to the lavvy next to an elephant, I feel.. ..inadequate, somehow.