Pogo sticks were genuinely pitched to the United States military during the early twentieth century as a revolutionary method for infantrymen to rapidly traverse difficult, muddy battlefield terrain.

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Pogo sticks were genuinely pitched to the United States military during the early twentieth century as a revolutionary method for infantrymen to rapidly traverse difficult, muddy battlefield terrain. The original inventors firmly believed that soldiers bouncing majestically over trenches and barbed wire would provide a massive tactical advantage by completely ignoring ground obstacles. Fortunately, army officials possessed just enough sanity to realize that placing a soldier on a highly unstable, spring-loaded toy would turn them into highly visible, easily shootable targets bouncing rhythmically in the air. The image of a battalion aggressively springing toward an enemy bunker while desperately trying to maintain balance is arguably the greatest military comedy sketch never filmed. It proves that the line between a brilliant transportation breakthrough and absolute suicidal idiocy is incredibly thin, especially when military funding is involved