For a little fun, how about trying a Donald Trump comb-over?
That’s one of the ideas being pitched by the “Funulator,” a square, gumball-machine-like box placed on various city corners to dole out “fun” ideas to people looking for less-conventional wisdom about how to make their lives lighter.
For two quarters, users receive a “fun” idea, one quarter back, a penny to leave as luck for someone else and a little toy.
“Adults have forgotten how to have fun,” said creator Jake Bronstein, an ad-agency consultant. “I thought the Funulator would help others remember the awe and wonderment we had as children.”
Bronstein’s ideas of “fun” include encouraging people to: buy a lottery ticket, never scratch it and tell people they don’t because they like life the way it is; brush their hair like Trump; or start hug chains when waiting in lines.
Last week, the Funulator sat at the corner of Prince and Greene streets in front of the SoHo Apple Store, where Megan McCarthy, 23, giddily popped in two coins.
Out came a plastic container with “fun” idea No. 673: Do the Trump comb-over. It included a color print of the “Apprentice” host and detailed instructions. She also received a quarter, penny and a red, sticky starfish.
“I love this thing,” said the college senior from Waterbury, Conn. “And look – the starfish, you throw it on the wall, and it sticks. I loved to play with these as a kid.”
Not everyone, though, was smitten with the Funulator.
Ryan McDermott, 23, was disappointed with idea No. 126: to freeze in place while waiting outdoors in the winter.
“This is stupid! What terrible advice,” said the college senior from Buffalo. He also got a lamp key chain, but it wouldn’t turn on.
Since the machine’s debut two weeks ago, it has dispensed over 400 ideas, Bronstein said.
Bronstein, 30, likes to sit across the street and observe people’s reactions as they read their suggestions.
He said he had a previous career as a contributing editor for FHM magazine but was fired after offending Howard Stern’s girlfriend, Beth Ostrosky.
A vending-machine company is so intrigued by his Funulator concept that it wants to franchise it, Bronstein said.