Steve Gadlin wants you to help him be the guy who sold 1,000 raccoon penis bones. It's as simple as that. He started a Kickstarter campaign, made a sickeningly-sweet video with a song that borders on madness, and is now imploring you to help him meet his goal.Launched on May 30, the campaign is all-or-nothing: If he raises all of his $19,000 goal in a month, it's funded. If not, he's boned. So far, he's raised $550 in two days.Someone sent him a link to jewelry made of raccoon penis bones, and he thought the raccoon penis bone market seemed ripe for disruption.Finding the bones online was easy, but to assemble a stash of 1,000 bones, Gadlin told me over email, he had to deplete the stashes of several sellers. He expects to clear $10,000 if he can convince at least 1,000 people to participate. "Otherwise I'll be operating at a hefty loss."Etsy hosts plenty of sellers hocking raccoon penis bone goods, as do higher-end specialty shops. Gadlin isn't interested in making lucky amulets out of the bones, himself, but promises that if the goal is met, he'll put each bone into a plastic tube and ship them to backers who pledged $10 or more.Many mammals have penile bones, called baculum, including some primates, dogs, cats, bats, and rodents. Scientists aren't entirely sure what the baculum does, but some think it has to do with fertility. In some studies, the more girthy the bone, the more babies it bred.In the video description of his campaign, a cartoon bird-creature mentions the "Economy of Stupid." I asked Gadlin what he meant by that (although the meaning was pretty clear within 30 seconds of the video). "I use the word 'stupid' in a very affectionate way," he said. He'd mentioned The Economy of Stupid in an appearance on Shark Tank years ago, when he sold a piece of a stick figure cat drawing company to Mark Cuban. "There's plenty of money to be made in absurd and ridiculous things that hold little to no actual value." Like the guy who Kickstarted a bowl of potato salad for $55,000, he said, or the company that mails potatoes with custom messages."I like to think I'm a part of that world. These commerce projects like the Raccoon Penis Bone Kickstarter and I Want To Draw a Cat For You are really performance art pieces. People are spending money to be part of a fun and ridiculous experience. I think that's pretty cool."The proceeds will go toward his Chicago cable access television show, Steve Gadlin's Star Makers."Of course if I don't sell 1,000 of them, I'm the guy that's stuck with 1,000 raccoon penis bones. Which makes for a great story."Subscribe to Science Solved It , Motherboard's new show about the greatest mysteries that were solved by science.
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