Rube Goldberg

American cartoonist Rube Goldberg used his knowledge of engineering and love of drawing to create a series of comic strips depicting absurdly complicated machines designed to complete simple tasks. His cartoons have had such a lasting effect on American culture that overly elaborate machinery of any kind is called a "Rube Goldberg device."

Goldberg's first popular comic was Foolish Questions in 1908, a series of sarcastic answers to the ridiculously obvious questions people sometimes ask. Goldberg started the inventions series in 1914, then went on to political cartooning in 1938, for which he won the Pulitzer Prize. He retired from cartooning to become a sculptor at the age of 80, winning the Reuben Award for humor in sculpture in 1967.

1. "When I was taking a course in analytic mechanics, the professor had a big machine that each student had to experiment with and get an answer. You had to find the weight of the earth with this contraption... I did that, and there was nothing more ridiculous to me than finding the weight of the earth because I didn't care how much the earth weighed."—Rube Goldberg
2. "My name is in the dictionary, and I'm very pleased."—Rube Goldberg