Trick potato. One of many possibilities: potato has a cow magnet (or something similar) inside, inserted through end of potato not visible to camera. “Oven” has hole in back, with someone reaching in and moving another magnet back and forth underneath the baking sheet.
Movie people call such things “practical special effect”s, and a movie or theatre person would probably know a far less elaborate and better way to produce the effect than what I came up with.
My first guess – like Lyc – would have been steam within the potato slowly escaping through the skin. Taters, being roundish but irregularly shaped, generally come to rest on the side that is closest to the center of gravity, like a weeble-wobble or those joke inflatable punching dummies. If that is the same side that was poked with the fork, maybe the small jet of steam pushes it off its center, and then it rolls back, and so on and so forth, setting into a rocking rhythm.
Another possibility is something I used to observe as a kid in the kitchen. When a pot was put on the electric stove on high heat with very little in it, occasionally it would begin to rhythmically wobble in place. It was explained to me that if the bottom of the pot is heated unevenly, part of it will begin to expand and move away from the burner, which makes it then cool and contract back into place, only to expand again, and so on. Maybe the baking sheet is doing the same thing here. As the stove begins to heat it, a spot on the sheet expands and bows out slightly, which makes the potato touch the spot, cooling it enough to make it contract again. Hmmm…
Allan Hough (7858)
Brittany Janis & Katie Cruz (104)
Trick potato. One of many possibilities: potato has a cow magnet (or something similar) inside, inserted through end of potato not visible to camera. “Oven” has hole in back, with someone reaching in and moving another magnet back and forth underneath the baking sheet.
Movie people call such things “practical special effect”s, and a movie or theatre person would probably know a far less elaborate and better way to produce the effect than what I came up with.
Here’s a hint… ever cut open a hot potato and steam came out?
I did poke it with a fork on one side . . . but I was thinking something else . . .
My first guess – like Lyc – would have been steam within the potato slowly escaping through the skin. Taters, being roundish but irregularly shaped, generally come to rest on the side that is closest to the center of gravity, like a weeble-wobble or those joke inflatable punching dummies. If that is the same side that was poked with the fork, maybe the small jet of steam pushes it off its center, and then it rolls back, and so on and so forth, setting into a rocking rhythm.
Another possibility is something I used to observe as a kid in the kitchen. When a pot was put on the electric stove on high heat with very little in it, occasionally it would begin to rhythmically wobble in place. It was explained to me that if the bottom of the pot is heated unevenly, part of it will begin to expand and move away from the burner, which makes it then cool and contract back into place, only to expand again, and so on. Maybe the baking sheet is doing the same thing here. As the stove begins to heat it, a spot on the sheet expands and bows out slightly, which makes the potato touch the spot, cooling it enough to make it contract again. Hmmm…
I’m diggin’ your potatoes.
That is one powerful potato. A king among tubers. A potentater.
I’m still thinking ghost caterpillars.
so if they were french fries would they all hop around?
Yeah, they would dance like a little Busby Berkeley thing in the oven.
The oven isnt even on…
The dial is turned 90º.