Okay, trivia time.
What were the two inventors of Bubble Wrap trying to make instead of packaging material back in 1957 at the Sealed Air Corporation? Take a guess and let’s see what you got (answer below).
For the patient folks, let’s chat for a moment about the different ways to do the deed:
1. Olde Time Classic. Your average pop. Just squeezing it in your hands with a satisfied smile on your face. Nothing flashy here, folks. Just a thumb, some fingers, and lots of satisfying pops.
2. The Big Bang. A trickier move, this one requires delicately wrapping the unpopped bubble wrap into a tight ball or Bubble Cube, and then, in one quick move, just hugging the whole thing against your body really hard. Try to do this before 10pm so you don’t wake the neighbors.
3. Walk This Way. You’ll need a large piece of bubble wrap for this one, likely from a new TV or fridge that got delivered to your house. Just pull the wrap out, lay it down on the floor, take off your socks, and … just walk all over it. Walk back and forth, walk in circles, just don’t stop walking, don’t stop popping. When the pops slow down you may have to inspect it closely for any leftover bubbles. I say jump on those ones.
4. The Virtual Pop. Crank up the sound and get your pop on, people.
5. The Twister. Just hold it in front of you, roll it up like a carpet, and twist your hands in different directions really hard. When you’re done, you’ll have a nice flat well-popped piece in the center of your wrap, and you’ll have to move on to a new section.
6. Mini-Pops. Sometimes you expect to pull out a big, fat mess of bubble wrap and out comes a thin, little sheet of mini-bubbles instead. But sometimes that’s all you get, man. So do a few mini-pops and enjoy it.
My friends, loudly popping bubble wrap is a great joy in life. It’s a satisfying stress relief, a fun surprise, and a rare little moment to act like a kid during a boring day at the office or while unpacking after a hectic move.
So, aren’t you glad they made Bubble Wrap into packing material and not textured wallpaper instead?
AWESOME!
50 Comments
January 30, 2009 at 12:42 am
This one is really awesome. I love to do the Big Bang. :D
January 30, 2009 at 12:54 am
Got to love bubble wrap…..off to go and find some hehe
pop pop pop pop
Also the twisting of the bubble wrap is cool
January 30, 2009 at 2:42 am
Dear God, I LOVE bubble wrap, especially popping them. It’s one of the few ways that I can successfully relieve stress.
What is Bubble Wrap shipped in? Curiously enough, it’s styrofoam, which is shipped in a layer of bubble wrap.
July 20, 2009 at 2:15 pm
lol
January 30, 2009 at 5:41 am
I do something like this and it gives me untold pleasure…. popping zits… or mabey that should be a separate entry
January 30, 2009 at 8:18 am
Such a good stress reliever. I think people should take up popping bubble wrap to calm the nerves instead of smoking or drinking. We’d all be a lot healthier that way.
Of course, I have not been able to pop bubble wrap for the last 15 years without imagining myself as Ace Ventura in a tutu. Good times.
January 30, 2009 at 9:08 am
Yes! Such a simple pleasure.
January 30, 2009 at 9:10 am
Yes! Such a simple pleasure.
January 30, 2009 at 9:33 am
A fun one at work is to lay out the buble wrap on the floor of my cube and then roll around on it with my office chair. Yeah, my coworkers love me…
January 30, 2009 at 9:34 am
A fun one at work is to lay out the bubble wrap on the floor of my cube and then roll around on it with my office chair. Yeah, my coworkers love me…
January 30, 2009 at 11:10 am
This one never fails at our office—my co-workers and I love to pop bubble wrap by walking on it, standing on it while pretending to have serious conversations, snapping it deliberately, etc. The familiar sound is guaranteed to bring a people out of their cubbies.
January 30, 2009 at 11:25 am
Ha, I would still have bubble wrap textured wallpaper. Bouncing off of the walls would be fun until there were no bubbles left to be popped!
January 30, 2009 at 12:49 pm
A more diabolical scheme is to take bubble wrap, preferably the big air packs that come in some shipping boxes, and put them underneath car tires. Gets people EVERY time. And it’s pretty funny to watch their reaction.
March 16, 2010 at 9:17 am
One time I laid a sheet on the floor and rolled over it with my chair. The cat was sleeping nearby at the time. It jumped almost three feet in the air as it woke up – sorry cat, but you kept us laughing for hours.
Oddly, the cat kept away from us for quite a while after that.
January 30, 2009 at 12:54 pm
This is definitely one of my all-time favorite things to do. My g/f gets me bubble wrap on my birthdays and christmas.
Apparently my cat is also quite fond of the stuff. I guess it’s proof she’s my cat.
June 16, 2009 at 11:59 pm
Not exactly. Do a search on “bubble wrap” and “cat” on YouTube. Apparently all cats are fascinated by bubble wrap, unless all these cats along with your cat are related. My favorite bengal is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfXzGqn9lKs
June 17, 2009 at 12:05 am
Sorry, wrong link. oops.
I meant this one:
January 30, 2009 at 1:13 pm
Okay, this is what you should do:
get a nice big roll and roll lay it out in a hallway or some place long.
put some socks and slippery pants like pjs on.
get a head start and run towards the bubbles.
slip and slide down the the bubbles.
me and my childhood neighbor used to do this over 20 years ago.
AWESOME!!!
January 30, 2009 at 1:43 pm
ahh this is such a stress relieving mechanism…and if you ever run out of it, you can even do it on the internet now! Good times people..
January 30, 2009 at 2:21 pm
HUGE Fan, but I get so disappointed when it’s the invincible bubble wrap….you know? the super reinforced once that are almost impossible to pop…no good….no good at all!
January 30, 2009 at 2:32 pm
I learned on the news that bubble wrap is a fantastic insulator because of the trapped air. So, if you’re cold and have nothing else besides bubble wrap, DO NOT POP IT but wrap yourself in it.
January 30, 2009 at 6:00 pm
I didn’t expect wallpaper.
Just so you know, I love your blog. It is so unique and fun to visit.
Renee
January 30, 2009 at 7:40 pm
I love the BIIIIIG bubble wrap, like what’s in the new packaging (particularly amazon)
February 1, 2009 at 12:49 am
The Twister..almost as good as cracking every knuckle. ALmost.
February 1, 2009 at 9:54 am
Twice in the last year I have had the best thing ever happen to me. I have been driving down the road, and come across a large sheet of bubble wrap in my lane. Nothing my friends is as satisfying as driving over bubble wrap, nothing.
February 1, 2009 at 6:26 pm
I love the sound they make when you pop them.
July 20, 2009 at 2:19 pm
thats like saying george bush is somewhat unintellegent
February 1, 2009 at 10:13 pm
Popping bubble wrap is carthartic
February 2, 2009 at 3:32 am
This should have been in the top 10 at least.
Nothing is more awesomer than bubble wrap.
Hell, I even have a bubble wrap game on my iPod Touch!
February 21, 2010 at 6:36 pm
Me too!
February 2, 2009 at 11:00 pm
840!?!?!? i think this clearly makes the top 100, but good post anyway.
March 24, 2009 at 5:45 pm
I LOVE POPPING BUBBLE WRAP omg it’s so friggin amazing
March 27, 2009 at 1:53 pm
There’s a new kind of bubble wrap that can’t be popped because all the bubbles are interconnected. I work at a pottery shop and our bisque sometimes arrives packed in it. I HATE IT! I want the proper bubble wrap! >:(
April 26, 2009 at 8:58 pm
It. is. awesome!!
May 6, 2009 at 7:46 pm
I just checked on this web site for the first time and I had to check if this one is listed. Personally I think that the best thrill is popping the last one and havinf the satisfaction knowing that you got them all. Personally I rate this one high on the cool fun things to do list as it’s really cheap.
May 17, 2009 at 11:51 am
LOVE THIS! I’ve even had people had work bring me bubble wrap so I can wheel my chair over it, and POP POP POP to my heart’s content. I am such an uber geek and glad to see I’m not the only one ;)
May 27, 2009 at 7:12 am
sadly i knew the answer to the bubble wrap wallpaper trivia question as I used to work for sealed air… I got a bit excited when I realized i knew the answer to that question
June 15, 2009 at 3:57 pm
wow i luv this stuff
July 20, 2009 at 2:21 pm
can you buy it? my dollar tree has small wrappingpaper sized oned that take only a few mins.
October 15, 2009 at 2:12 am
My dad once brought home TONS of the big bubble bubble wrap. We lined it up in two rows behind the tires of our car in the driveway. We had neighbors popping out of doors in seconds. I think that most of them hadn’t moved that fast in years!
November 15, 2009 at 2:43 pm
One day I emailed my mom that I was bored and needed entertaining, she sent me back this link to virtual bubble wrap: http://www.virtual-bubblewrap.com/popnow.shtml I especially like the “Manic Mode” option. ENJOY!
February 12, 2010 at 10:41 am
TRY THIS ONE. CAREFULLY CUT ONE SINGLE BUBBLE FROM THE ROLL. THEN HOLD IT HIDDEN BETWEEN THUMB AND 2ND DIGIT. WALK UP TO YOUR FRIENDS AND PRETEND YOUR CRACKING YOUR NECK. IF YOU TIME IT RIGHT YOUR SURE TO GET PEOPLE FREAKING OUT. HINT USE THE HAND THAT IS HOLDING THE SINGLE BUBBLE TO PUSH AGAINST YOUR HEAD, KNEE, ELBOW OR JAW.
March 30, 2010 at 2:46 pm
[...] #840 Popping Bubble Wrap MULLLLLLIIIIKIIIIILEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!! (Kammoon, see ei vaja ei seletust ega tõestust-pakkige kõik asjad mulle mullikilesse!) [...]
April 20, 2010 at 12:29 am
There’s always the great fun where you take your friend or co-worker behind a door and loudly offer to crack his or her back and then do the bubble wrap twist while the other person loudly moans and “oh-ahs” about how great that felt.
April 20, 2010 at 2:18 am
[...] when I was a kid), building a fort (I even build one in a hostel in Spain they are so awesome!), popping bubble wrap (no explanation [...]
April 21, 2010 at 10:26 pm
I love bubble wrap!! Way cheaper than therapy. I had the best bubble popping experience the other day… I drove over a huge sheet with my car!!! It was awesome!!!
May 11, 2010 at 8:01 pm
Because of rennovations going on at my school, we’ve had to pack everything up into these insanely huge rolls of bubble wrap. I’m talking three feet high and 100+ feet long with huge half dollar sized bubbles on them. Needless to say, all us highschoolers has many a field day popping the huge roll as we passed by it in the hall. It even got so bad that they made a rule that anyone caught popping the bubble wrap would be punished.
We still pop it though. :D
May 17, 2010 at 3:54 pm
[...] simple, universal y cotidiana alegría, como los días nevados, el aroma de una pastelería o reventar las bolitas del envoltorio de plástico“, escribe [...]
June 7, 2010 at 9:55 am
[...] I did this as my life was falling apart. My best friend took his own life and my wife and I went different ways. We sold our house, I moved to a tiny apartment, and I tried to get things back on track by talking about one simple, universal little joy every single day — like snow days, bakery air, or popping bubble wrap. [...]
June 12, 2010 at 7:01 pm
I love bubblewrap!!!
I even had a large piece of bublewrap, which I saved for months, and on my most stressful days I’d pull it out and pop a few – sweet joy!
The only downside was that it irritated my Mom! LOL!