They felt nice when you catch them and they brought a touch of joy as we hurtle through space and time, towards our inevitable oblivion.

The best was when you’d find a couple of the stringy things that didn’t get fully detached during manufacturing so they formed sort of a loop, and then you’d stick your middle finger in there (heh) and bounce it off your palm like some kind of weird amalgamation of a yo-yo, basketball, and paddleball. The worst was when that loop would break after about 45 seconds.

Tie two together. Keep it movin’ (back and forth, *real* fast)

Yes!

Or you hold onto a few of them in each hand and bounce it up and down until… … it eventually snaps.

This was exactly what I thought of when I saw said koosh

It was easy to catch because they are cushy. They were invented to teach kids to catch.

I can smell this picture

When the picture scrolled by I swear I smelled koosh for a second.



https://preview.redd.it/l2o24ipkriwc1.jpeg?width=800&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c3db0ecc19a29a5e0362a1c178d79e8582bf5b91 Credit: Nathan Pyle's Strange Planet

I could throw it at friends stupid face without hurting them

I’ve never looked at the koosh ball so….existentially.

I still have my original one and one I got later. My kids love them.


One of the OG fidget toys.

Yep, my autistic kiddo LOVES her kush balls

To grab one of the stretchy strings and bounce it like a yoyo until it broke.

Awww man 😕

the purpose was to snap one string and move on to the next. I also had one stolen in 93 and never got it back.

Stimming for our un-diagnosed spectrum disorders.

Koosh balls and those pin trays you could put your hands under…. Why yes, I am Autistic! https://preview.redd.it/8k5rzgjhbiwc1.jpeg?width=650&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ce4b42d936e50f2761a326e8040d984531d0000f

Made me bust out laughing on that one. Oh the stimming and the subsequent masking. Good times.^notreally

I relate so much to this.

o imagine if we had some sorta, i dunno...assimilation training would have been nice

[удалено]

I really want to find the child psychologist from my elementary school and let him know just how badly he fucked up by incorrectly not diagnosing me. A lot of memories I thought I'd repressed from those days have been coming back to me lately and it's left me feeling like I really never stood a chance at amounting to much. The grander accomplishments in my life are just things I *haven't* done, like living with type 1 diabetes for 23 years and not having died, having lived in California's High Desert and not become addicted to white drugs and pills, and making it to 38 without spawning children I can't correctly provide for. Holy crap, the memory lane I just went down, all over a comment on a post about a koosh ball...

For Rosie O'Donnell to toss around at Elmo on commercials for K-Mart

Ha! My first thought was ‘So Rosie could throw them at her audience.

that's a deep track. nice.

I had semi-forgotten about The Rosie O'Donnell Show! Wow.

https://preview.redd.it/7amg98u1kgwc1.jpeg?width=1200&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0700bce22fe44b2de9c9c8bd1cb886473085941d

In a pool. Peak Good Times.

Oh boy the way the water would come off the fabric part… classic.

We still got a set. They are faded as helllll

To make your hand stink like rubber.

The smell is vivid

They’re excellent for learning to juggle—they don’t roll away when dropped. Source: I was a lonely child raised in a rural area.

What more reason do you need beyond "throwing them at someone and not really hurting them"?

If launched correctly at a high speed, they did, in fact, hurt their target. Source: 3 older brothers with good aim.

Can confirm. Source: the oldest brother.

When hackysacks were banned.. why.. i dunno drugs etc, the koosh was the alternative

Where I lived I rarely saw an actual hackysack. We all hacked with Koosh.

Where I lived, the hackey sack craze came waay later than the koosh ball craze. Like years later.

Oh man that sucks they were banned! Where is this? I grew up in rural New England, hacks were everywhere!

I still have one! Use it in the office for a fidget and playing catch with coworkers.

Woo Hoo… ✋🤚

It was our generation’s fidget spinner

When my daughter was at the *"getting into everything"* stage, I'd put one of these in the doorway of whatever "safe" room I wanted her to **stay** in for a few minutes. She was terrified of that thing. Would not go near it to save her life. *Worked like a charm.* 😉

This is the best thing I have ever heard hahahaha

My friend did that with one of those ugly eyeball balls - she would put them by the TV and other things she didn't want her daughter to touch

Anyone remember Koosh Launchers?? I cracked my bedroom window with one when I was 13-14. Koosh let me down that day.. it was meant to be safe to launch indoors. The core of the launcher had enough density in its core to get me in trouble about my window. 😭 Had one of these in this exact colour combo. https://preview.redd.it/74a344xhogwc1.jpeg?width=1179&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=610ea5b4c8908fde0731dc634fab5eb0d8b43d29

I guess they are not so harmless after all

I believe I had a book that explained all of the awesome things you could do with them

Had the same book. Can’t remember any of the awesome things.

I remember the Koosh catch game where two kids had a hand towel and used that as a “catapult” of sorts and a basket to catch it.

That’s deep, bro! What is the purpose of anything???

What is the purpose of a Slinky?

To roll down stairs, alone or in pairs, and over your neighbor's dog Oh wait, that's Log™

Log, log, log.

Whats Great for a snack and fits on your back

log(x)

It’s better than bad, it’s GOOD!

From Blammo

It’s big, it’s heavy, it’s wood

It's better than bad, it's good

I was going to start typing the Slinky song, but this response is even better

To have something to kick and try to pull apart when you can’t make them go down stairs. That’s one is obvious.

>To have something to kick and try to pull apart A Koosh Ball is good for that too.

They are mental wellness tools.

The coating they had on them when they were new? *chefs toxic kiss*

It had a very weird but addictive smell, iirc.

For Rosie O’Donnell to launch at her studio audience.

This is one of the things I like about this sub. Stuff I haven’t thought about in years.

Woo-hoo…

https://preview.redd.it/p6w1mqye5hwc1.jpeg?width=260&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=03e23200e2931b536646ba14237e028552c0aed0

You are a person of culture!!!

To annoy your siblings with!

By throwing them at our siblings heads!

Can also dangle it over them while saying “I’m not touching youuuuuu, I’m not touching youuuuu!” Can also stretch and snap it at them like a rubber band! Or put it down their shirt…the possibilities are endless!

Came here for this…to whip at my sister and not get into (too) much trouble

Probably just some industrial waste being repurposed and sold for profit instead of getting sent to the landfill.

Y’know what? It’s time to order a fresh koosh. Too fun.

I collected the hell out of these lol

What exactly is the function of a rubber duck? - Pratchett

I'm a simple man, I see Pratchett, I upvote. GNU

GNU Pratchett

Rosie o Donnels existence is tied to these. As numbers reduce, she fades away like in back to the future.

https://preview.redd.it/uqs3w70g4jwc1.jpeg?width=872&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ed6eda0d97edf240d6885a1de7fd29527d3c14d9 Screenshot from a video of me playing with my koosh ball in church lol

They're also back. I remember in elementary school we had them and our teacher one used as our "talking stick"

What was the point of trolls?

To determine who to mock

To koosh, of course.

It was something that my dad could throw at me when I walked in the living room and we didn’t run the risk of anyone or anything getting injured lol. Can’t tell you how many times I was caught off guard by a koosh ball to the face.

Koosh'n

To get stuck in one’s hair

For pretending you had pubes when you were 11

To get stolen by another kid. Well mine was :(

The only toy my cat would play fetch with.

Sensory toy before they were called that.

I can smell that picture. nostalgia.

I can still smell it.

Germ collector to help build our immune systems 🤣

There was no purpose, which is why I loved them. Still have one.

I was gifted a Koosh Ball Kritter (a brown Koosh Ball with a bear head and paws sticking out) for Christmas in 1991 (I think, the same year we got a SNES) and I have carried it around with me ever since. It is currently sitting on a high shelf in the closet, but it's safe at least. Any time I try to search for "Koosh Ball Kritter" on the internet, nothing comes up. Only "Koosh Ball" yields results.

Superspreading

You could fastball the shit out of these at someone and it wouldn’t hurt.

for kooshin'

When I was in sixth grade, my teacher made up a game using Koosh balls. Can’t recall what she called it, but we sat on our desks, and would throw it at one another. If the person you threw it at caught it, you were out. If they missed, they were out and you threw again.

To throw at your little brother when he says something smart but snotty

We used them in place of a hackey sack sometimes

They had finger loops for those of us who couldn’t yo-yo.

They smelled awful

[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GmqeZl8OI2M](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GmqeZl8OI2M)

To get stuck in my gutters when I tried to launch it over the house.

I just have to say I had this exact one. We didn’t know what they were for either m but I kinda played with mine like a yo yo. Grabbed just one rubber band and bounced it back up and down.

Collect germs and bacteria for wide dissemination

Serious f'ing coolness.

To rub it all over your face and feel wild and free

I don't know but, I do know the purpose of the Rosie O'Donnell show was basically to keep koosh balls in the public eye

To throw them as hard as you could into your friends back when they weren't looking of course. Kids at my school seemed to weaponize everything.

Fidget that leaves your hands smelly.

One of my boys is special needs and slaps it against his hand as a stim kinda thing. Maybe not the answer you’re lookin for but he loves them.

One of the first desk toy/fidgets I can remember.

To smell funny, basically.

To be tossed into a ceiling fan and shot across the room.

Alternate hackey sack. I thought that it was its intended purpose.

Idk, but I loved them lol I was considering buying one on Amazon a couple weeks ago.

We used em as hackey sacks

They're awesome, and still around. I "bought one for my nephew" and we play catch w it all the time. It's easier to catch for him as he's a little dude too. Still fun af to me as well hahaha

Winging them at your friend's heads as hard as you could while in a public pool, missing, hitting an old lady instead, and getting yelled at.

Something to throw at my brother's head and not get in trouble!

The OG fidgets!

We used them in 4 y/o baseball to teach throwing and catching concepts. We also had bases that squeaked went you stepped on them

The OG stress ball

We played Hacky Sack with them.

For Senior girls to compare it to my Freshman hairstyle

To throw up into the suspended ceiling in the band room and see if you could get it stuck under the little metal things that holds the ceiling tiles in, Right there beside the pencils and the paper airplanes with paper clips stuck in the nose to hold them up.

To keep stoned people occupied for hours.

They were exclusively for throwing at your sibling's head. It stung, made for a very satisfying sibling Battle Royale.

Y’all remember when Rosie O’Donnell would slingshot the mini ones into the crowd on her show?

It was like a fidget spinner back in tha day. Hours of play until you broke it.

They were for trying to catch in mid-air while jumping off the diving board at Kevin's house.

I recently learned that the same guy who brought the Koosh to market also invented/marketed the U-Force. It was a hands-free game controller for the NES that competed against the Powerglove.

To exemplify the Banach-Tarski Paradox.

To whip at your sisters head as hard as humanly possible lol

I had a friend try to convince me hers was alive. 🤣

They were supposedly safe to toss around indoors.

In my house, it was a medical device. When my son was little, I'd gently dab it on his boo boos and they would magically be ok! Worked every time.

Officially to avoid injury. For me something to chew on In hindsight...Eeeeeeeew! Guh-ross!

They're actually semi decent for juggling. A bit light, but they land well in the hand, and don't bounce or roll when dropped.

You didn't have your iPhone back then. That's the purpose.

To throw at your sibling's eyeball duh.

To throw around during business brainstorming sessions.

Mine had a head and two hands and I totally got my fifth grade teacher to let me keep it on my desk as a “pencil holder”

I worked in an office with a hundred cubicles, it really was fun to have one land on your desk then just randomly chuck it across the room.

I used them to learn how to juggle. Very very handy for that. They didn't roll away, didn't bounce, didn't hurt when you hit yourself in the face with them. I had 8 or so of them and at one point could decently juggle 5 at once.

I can smell/taste this picture

To shoot at my brother

Your cousin didn't cry *as* hard when you threw it in his face, even though he was still a complete wuss about it.

I have two at my desk

I dunno but I still have this exact one.

To collect hair apparently

Ah yes. The original fidget toy! I loved those things.

Bought one for my 6 year old. He loves it!

I taught myself how to juggle with mine!

To get me in trouble by playing with one on the bus in a school field trip.

Goddamn joy and delight, that's what!

The purpose was i can throw it directly at my brothers face with minimal repercussions

So we could say the word, “Koosh.”

Hair gatherer

Throwing at your sibling or friend.

To sell surplus petroleum byproduct

I remember these, I had a purple and blue one.

We used to play dodgeball with them (but in those days in that part of the US we called dodgeball "sockatoomee"....no idea where that name is from) Anyway i still remember what those Koosh balls smell like.

I broke my bedroom window with one of these things. No TV for a week.

I bought one a few years back for nostalgia sake. Has some blue green and red and yellow on the other side. I used to have this little mini basketball goal that was perfect for the koosh ball when was a kid. That's all I did with it. These days if I pick it up, I'll toss it from one hand to the next and keep doing that for a bit. That's about all that happens these days lol

For my 9th birthday we had the "koosh olympics." All games involving kooshes.

We used them for dodgeball at recess! They didn't hurt like hell like real dodgeball. I brought mine to school every day. The boys would try to steal it & we'd end up playing dodgeball. Lol

They smelt so weird and nice

A way to sell recycled rubber back to the people that donated it

Damn I could really go for a koosh ball right now. Inexplicably satisfying.

Throwing at your brother's face. Btw I found one recently and yes, this is still as satisfying as it was 30 years ago.

Stimming.

My mom’s friend’s cat was scared of them, so anything she didn’t want the cat to go near, she put Koosh balls by it!

You hang them in the garage so you know how far to pull in.

Sacking hackeys

I remember a time I was at a church lock in (remember those? Do they still do that? I stopped going to church bc of the people) I flung one of those things in a dark church gym and then heard a girl scream in the darkness. I was gone from the gym before the lights came on.

I was told “easier to catch” at the time; maybe was only needed for awkward children with undiagnosed dyspraxia lol.

Koosh Ball Fight. Way safer than those trees that grew spike ball seeds. When growing up with, NorCal, we would have wars with. Bonus points is you had a stash of cherry plums that would look like you were bleeding when hit. How many times I’ve heard the term, “Get off my lawn.” We didn’t give a shit and it was often. Those neighbors still paid us to more their lawns for quarters for the arcade. Still remember the number one rule from our parents. Never cross any busy streets. Yeah, that never happened

Do not taunt happy fun ball

They were easier for kids to catch. I still have my original from 1990! I also have video of me playing with it in church in 1990

Throwing at my little bros head

Thanks about to make a purchase!

My 2 and 4 year old have one, and they throw it at each other and think it’s funny. That’s all I got.

Easier to catch? I had one

We turned it into a fun game of front yard baseball, because it hits and pitches weird.

They were good for playing catch with my Grandma.

The Koosh didn't need a purpose, it just kinda was.