meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Log in
Ridiculous History

Vacuum Cleaners are Ridiculous!

Ridiculous History

iHeartPodcasts

History, Society & Culture

4.24.7K Ratings

🗓️ 26 February 2026

⏱️ 35 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Did you know over 90% of US households own a vacuum cleaner? These handy-dandy descendents of the carpet sweeper revolutionized the cleaning game... but where did they come from? As Ben, Noel and Max discover in today's episode, your humble vacuum is the result of centuries' worth of wild ideas -- and more than a few crazily ambitious inventors, as well.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Ridiculous History is a production of IHeart Radio. Welcome back to the show.

0:28.0

Fellow ridiculous historians.

0:29.6

Thank you, as always so much for tuning in.

0:32.6

Let's hear it for The Man, The Myth.

0:34.8

Our super producer, Maxwell Hoover, Williams, but not Hoover the way you think.

0:41.4

Max Vroom Vroom, Williams. And for, uh, for an episode about things that effectively suck,

0:48.6

we want to be clear and say that Max, you do not suck. Uh, you are really cool and we're glad you're here.

0:55.5

You'll remember that bit from Wayne's World where there's the guy that's got the vacuum

0:59.6

cleaner, haircut device called the suck cut, and he goes, it sucks as it cuts.

1:04.6

And then Wayne goes, it certainly does suck.

1:07.9

I do vaguely remember that.

1:10.0

That was how old. I've got to remember that. That was it.

1:14.0

I've got to rewatch Wainsworld. What a franchise.

1:15.2

It holds up.

1:16.8

It was back during that Halcyon age where if you had a good enough character on Saturday

1:22.7

Night Live, you automatically got a movie deal for the weirdest things.

1:26.9

Wayne's World occupies some rarefied air, though,

1:29.4

and it was a real precursor to a lot of the third wall breaking kind of absurdist humor of the day, of today.

1:38.0

I'm really big fan.

1:39.0

Two is not quite as good, but it's still great.

1:41.3

But, man, Wayne's World Classic is a

1:44.2

banger. Ben, we're talking about

...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from iHeartPodcasts, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of iHeartPodcasts and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.

Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.