I'm generally not one to the get behind reality TV shows. Honestly, since the damned things first exploded in this country, I've considered them a blight on the cesspool that is American popular culture. That said, occasionally I catch wind of a concept that I can't help but love.

Take, for example, Super Rubes (currently in the casting process). Stupid name, sure, but according to Boing Boing, it has the sort of setup only a bona fide dork could love. A one-hour weekly show set to be broadcast on the Discovery Channel, Super Rubes features a team of inventors who create massive "Chain Reaction Machines" to accomplish simple tasks, like turning on lights, using as many steps as possible.

The name, of course, is an homage to the work of Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Rube Goldberg, whose strip was based on such outlandish devices. His name has since become the default description for these sorts of machines, and has lent itself to contests in which they're concocted.

It's only fitting that someone invoke his spirit to harness a reality show for the sake of honest-to-god entertainment--perhaps the most inefficient bit of machinery yet.