JohnCenaFan28
01-08-2009, 09:40 PM
The karaoke machine has been named in a government survey as the most irritating invention.
A poll of more than 2,500 adults found that that nearly 25% of Brits wish it had never been invented.
Other annoying creations included 24-hour sports channels, computer games consoles, mobile phones and alarm clocks.
Invented in 1971 by a Japanese musician called Inoue Daisuke, karaoke, which means "empty orchestra", became popular in Asia before being introduced to the rest of the world in the 1980s.
Daisuke never patented his invention, which he made by combining a car stereo, a coin box and an amplifier, a mistake which has cost him an estimated £100 million.
Kane Kramer, a director of the British Inventors Society, said: "Seeing the karaoke machine at the top of that list made me smile.
"When people are singing karaoke they are enjoying themselves, but as a member of the audience you are just watching somebody who can't perform, and isn't particularly pleasant to listen to, for as long as you can bear it."
The karaoke machine was brought to Britain by Ivor Arbiter, who died in 2005, and his daughter Joanne, after they visited a Japanese trade show in 1987.
Joanne said: "It might be irritating in the pub, but it's also given millions of people who didn't know they could sing the opportunity to discover they can."
But inventor Rob Law said: "If you've created a product that has become so popular that it's become annoying, then you're going to be put down as pretty great inventor."
-Nova
A poll of more than 2,500 adults found that that nearly 25% of Brits wish it had never been invented.
Other annoying creations included 24-hour sports channels, computer games consoles, mobile phones and alarm clocks.
Invented in 1971 by a Japanese musician called Inoue Daisuke, karaoke, which means "empty orchestra", became popular in Asia before being introduced to the rest of the world in the 1980s.
Daisuke never patented his invention, which he made by combining a car stereo, a coin box and an amplifier, a mistake which has cost him an estimated £100 million.
Kane Kramer, a director of the British Inventors Society, said: "Seeing the karaoke machine at the top of that list made me smile.
"When people are singing karaoke they are enjoying themselves, but as a member of the audience you are just watching somebody who can't perform, and isn't particularly pleasant to listen to, for as long as you can bear it."
The karaoke machine was brought to Britain by Ivor Arbiter, who died in 2005, and his daughter Joanne, after they visited a Japanese trade show in 1987.
Joanne said: "It might be irritating in the pub, but it's also given millions of people who didn't know they could sing the opportunity to discover they can."
But inventor Rob Law said: "If you've created a product that has become so popular that it's become annoying, then you're going to be put down as pretty great inventor."
-Nova