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This is my weekly installment of “writing about writing,” in which I scan the world for material to help other writers. Today I discuss a video about the inflatable man…
Writer and blogger Austin Kleon is deeply creative. In a recent 51-second video, he explores the reality of the inflatable man.
I’m sure you’ve seen this guy, somewhere. Also known as a tubeman, a skydancer, an air dancer, and the Noodle Guy, he’s an inflatable stick figure made of fabric tubing attached to a fan. As the fan blows air through it, the tubing moves in a dancing or flailing motion.
The inflatable man draws the attention of drivers and is usually used to advertise retail businesses. But he’s also used within agricultural industries to keep birds away.
Peter Minshall, an artist from Trinidad and Tobago, came up with the concept, and it was developed by a team that included Israeli artist Doron Gazit and Arieh Dranger for the 1996 Summer Olympics.
In Kleon’s charming YouTube video, the inflatable man is an unworthy attention stealer. “He’s all over the place, but he ain’t going nowhere,” Kleon’s script says. “He’s got no spine, nothing holding him up.
I wanted to see the 114-word, 51-second script as a critique of social media. The punchline says: “All he wants is your attention, but when you give it to him, you realize there’s nothing there. He’s empty inside. Nothing but hot air. Take a minute of your life to watch it now.
