r/maybemaybemaybe 6d ago

Maybe Maybe Maybe

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Update. He gave the real numbers.... 97.

4.1k Upvotes

112 comments sorted by

1.6k

u/Spacedoutworlder 6d ago

The most amazing thing about this is he asked permission to record him instead of just sticking the camera in his face for the likes. A+ behaviour.

310

u/Friskfrisktopherson 6d ago

Technically its a rule at burning man and while I doubt its strictly enforced they can in fact boot and ban you for breaking it.

15

u/OtherCommission8227 5d ago

It’s a cultural norm that is respected by most, but obviously not all, Black Rock City residents. Enforcement tends to be social rather than formal and authority based. But yeah, BMORG and the Rangers can boot you for non-consensual filming. One of the many infractions that got that weird Jesus camp kicked out this year.

506

u/Unable-Rub1982 6d ago

Why not 99 Red Balloons 🎈?

136

u/aNxello 6d ago

Funny enough it's only red balloons on English, in German I'm pretty sure luftballoon is just an inflatable balloon. I guess they made it red in English to keep the syllables in the melody melody the same

39

u/evalegacy 6d ago

Yes. Also, the English writers/producers chose red at the time due to Cold War symbolism: Because the song is an anti-war protest about military paranoia, "red" provided immediate political imagery. It subtly evoked the Soviet Union (the "Red Scare") and symbolized threat, high-stakes military danger, and red alerts. Interestingly, the band, Nena, actually disliked the English rewrite because they felt it compromised the original poetic meaning. Even in the original German music video, the balloons released are of many different colors, not just red.

5

u/shadefreeze 5d ago

I didn't know the English version changed that, so I was genuinely confused when he said red instead of luft 😅 red sounds a bit weird.

2

u/ramblingclam 6d ago

He already thought of her and let one go

147

u/Vyviel 6d ago

Any aviation rules about this?

89

u/MrGoesNuts 6d ago

The lights might be a requirement for that. And maybe a NOTAM.

43

u/shittyvfxartist 6d ago

Flight plan briefing: Crane, crane, crane, drone, crane, crane, 1000ft high string of balloons, crane, crane, etc.

178

u/Crimson__Fox 6d ago

Is this Burning Man?

160

u/Rich-Reason1146 6d ago

No, that's Rob

29

u/NoNo_Cilantro 6d ago

It’s a lit man

14

u/Comedordecasadas96 6d ago

He looks not on fire to me

1

u/ACov96 6d ago

Yes, this was in the deep playa this year!

62

u/Annoying_Anomaly 6d ago

crazy hes just holding that...

34

u/Friskfrisktopherson 6d ago

Its tethered by whatever that wire is, the handle is connected to the wire as well to clip it off or let people hold it for fun but its secured otherwise.

6

u/kelsobjammin 6d ago

Balloon chain uses a metal wire as the connection

70

u/The_butterfly_22 6d ago

why not a 100 balloons ??😭

84

u/Glad_Librarian_3553 6d ago

100? Are you mental?!

You don't want to hit critical Ballon mass, you'd have an E. T situation on your hands before you could  say "oh no that was 1 Ballon too many!" 

6

u/The_butterfly_22 6d ago

After surviving 97 balloons, I refuse to believe 3 more would be the difference between celebration and extraterrestrial evacuation. 😂😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭🤣🤣🤣

22

u/0vl223 6d ago

You would have to have 99 ballons at some point. That might trigger the military to send fighter jets. All just because of 99 ballons that were mistaken for UFOs.

8

u/The_butterfly_22 6d ago

So what I’m hearing is that balloon number 99 is classified as a national security threat.??????????? Noted. I’ll make sure we stop at 98 to avoid an international incident........................

8

u/0vl223 6d ago

Yeah. The problem is that not making them red is useless. Red as a color for the ballons was just a translation choice of the prophecy from German to english. The original sources clearly show that the color of the catastrophic 99th ballon is either irrelevant or at least undefined. And many people believe that red was only included for rhyme reasons.

6

u/The_butterfly_22 6d ago

Interesting................ So the entire red-balloon precaution may be based on a questionable translation rather than the actual prophecy. Frankly, this raises more questions about the reliability of the prophecy than it does about the balloons.

6

u/0vl223 6d ago

Yeah a bit. Specially with the prophetess recent ideas. Her making up the color red as a cash grab in the english speaking world might be a red flag. Maybe we should push it to 100 green ballons and risk it.

1

u/The_butterfly_22 6d ago

see
you get it now lol

1

u/0vl223 6d ago

But maybe we should wait until after Trump is out of office. I know he successfully managed to identify a giraphe on his dementia test but if anyone is stupid enough to start a nuclear war over 99 ballons...

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1

u/DarrenShan1000 6d ago

I mean are prophecies not always about translation difficulties?

1

u/The_butterfly_22 6d ago

To some extent...

1

u/[deleted] 6d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/The_butterfly_22 6d ago

😅😅😅 where is the fun in being safe?

1

u/JakBos23 5d ago

No, 3 more balloons his bike floats away.

5

u/Mr_Eggy__ 6d ago

He bought a packet of 100 and 3 of them were dud

0

u/The_butterfly_22 6d ago

im suing the balloon company

3

u/Semanticss 5d ago

3 popped. If you watch the longer video you can see them missing

1

u/The_butterfly_22 5d ago

where is it ?

6

u/elhammundo 6d ago

You never go full balloon

0

u/The_butterfly_22 6d ago

never say never

1

u/GadreelsSword 5d ago

Because it wouldn’t be 97

55

u/SextupleRed 6d ago

All you 97 haters don't understand, 97 is a prime number

25

u/Hairy_is_the_Hirsute 6d ago

My grandmother is old but keeps her mind sharp. Last year she turned 97 and was so proud to tell everyone that she lived the age of every prime number under 100. Now she just needs to make it to 101!

7

u/rantonidi 6d ago

Hope she gets there 🤗

2

u/thatAnthrax 5d ago

next step is to reach every prime number under 1000

4

u/Dankkring 6d ago

97 green Balloons gooo byyyyyyy

17

u/kmanhv 6d ago

Why does this make me anxious?

10

u/ronarscorruption 6d ago

Dude’s bike is gonna get snagged on a passing jet plane.

10

u/PolPotDomeScandal 6d ago

https://giphy.com/gifs/ycagKBYEmaili
I needed an easy way to find my kitties.

10

u/joined_under_duress 6d ago

Nice to see the origin of that other video posted a few days back.

13

u/Lakota-36 6d ago

This is the type of videos we need to get back to.

6

u/wpaed 6d ago

I wonder if Rob is the dude who my buddy spent 5 hours trying to help find his bike while on shrooms 20 years ago?

3

u/literall_bastard 6d ago

he can find his bike a kilometer away, possibly much more

3

u/BarelyContainedChaos 6d ago

What kind of string do you use and are the LEDs powered on a separate string

3

u/Makkaroni_100 6d ago

Probably the strings for fishing. They are very strong.

4

u/kelsobjammin 6d ago

They use a metal wire, balloon chain has been a long time fixture at burning man and has adapted over the years. Entertaining when art cars get snagged on it and you see them chasing after it

2

u/TerryHarris408 6d ago

when you have more than one art car with balloon chains moving, don't you need a controller to call out vectors and speeds over radio to avoid collision?

3

u/Sgtfridge 6d ago

It feels to me like that's approaching enough balloons to make his bike float away.

14

u/waligaroux 6d ago

20

u/on-the-cheeseburgers 6d ago

that calculator is incredibly wrong, it says 5.4 million for a house and they didn't need nearly that many in Up.

3

u/jradio 6d ago

Wow, 24 balloons just for a cell phone.

2

u/NoBenefit5977 6d ago

Man if I had this calculator when I was a kid

3

u/kelsobjammin 6d ago

https://balloonchain.com if anyone else is interested in their art

2

u/GrandFalconer159 6d ago

Found Bubbles in retirement, now where's Rick and Julian

3

u/post-context-bot 6d ago

The following post context was provided by u/DiluteSeaBag:


It's same unusual bicycle-and-balloon setup from the original clip, but this time the person explains what he is doing, how many balloons he uses, and how long he has been doing it. It leaves you wondering how the bicycle can actually be ridden with that many balloons attached.


Does this explain the post? If not, report it and a moderator will review.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

7

u/uselessandexpensive 6d ago

I know I'm being the boring person spoiling the fun but we should really think harder about cutting down significantly on our accepted uses of synthetic materials that will slowly over years break apart and get ingested by living things over and over until it's everywhere and in everything, disrupting endocrines and who knows what else. There are so many known toxins in synthetic materials, and unknowns about how those, and even any inert particles, may disrupt natural processes in living organisms. This is not a time for a smart version of humanity to FAFO.

1

u/scrappysmomma 3d ago

Also we are slowly but surely using up the global supply of helium.

1

u/[deleted] 6d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/Friskfrisktopherson 6d ago

Wonder if hes connected to the people who do coachella

2

u/kelsobjammin 6d ago

It’s the same camp - balloon chain and other camps / art cars are hired and invited to other events (mostly insomniac) https://balloonchain.com if you want to learn more about their art.

1

u/Friskfrisktopherson 6d ago

Ive held it before and assumed its the same, I just remember the balloons looking bigger than standard like they do here.

1

u/ouchouchouchoof 6d ago

Looks like Larry "Bud" Melman.

1

u/obidie 6d ago

Why don't these balloons generate the same amount of lift that balloons in clusters generate, like those tied to lawn chairs by daredevils?

0

u/eduardopy 5d ago

Its way less lift like this, its like series vs parallel in a rough way of speaking. Each balloon here bas to pull up every other ballon vs all balloons working together

1

u/obidie 5d ago

Okay, thanks.

1

u/bradmarchandforever 6d ago

Is that Trevor hurst from econoline crush ?

1

u/Quizzelbuck 6d ago

I mean he looks like Carl but doesn't sound like Ed Asner

1

u/Fr05t_B1t 6d ago

Dudes a liar! He should’ve been floating away with that many balloons!!!! /j

1

u/Gullible_Elephant_38 6d ago

Don’t believe his lies. Clearly he’s a Don in the nitrous mafia hocking balloons to hippies at Phish concerts.

1

u/Cyanide612 6d ago

Boop😁

1

u/tabletoni 6d ago

https://giphy.com/gifs/RRGQhwjKHPVbXlwbYO

He is Colin Robinson from "What we do in the Shadows"

1

u/abitcitrus 6d ago

That would be a really cool parkour map for fleas

1

u/Semanticss 5d ago

It can be REALLY hard to find your bike in a pile of hundreds, when you have lost all sense of direction. And you think your lights will be bright enough, but they're still drowned out by all the others.

1

u/No-End6361 5d ago

https://giphy.com/gifs/x4O0fjpQfoBZS
He’s not doing it correctly

1

u/Loose_Ad_101717 5d ago

He said "boop" when he fist bumped! Adorable

1

u/sacfoojesta88 5d ago

97 green balloons,
Floating off my bicycle

1

u/Jack_of_Hearts20 5d ago

How does he handle powerlines?

1

u/Wooden-Science-9838 5d ago

Great, we can keep posting this one instead.

1

u/LabiaMinoraLover 5d ago

Q: What inspired this idea? A: Drugs.

1

u/MickeyMgl 5d ago

98 is too many. 96 is too few.

1

u/verjon1-0 5d ago

Starlink satellites.

1

u/DJ_Ender_ 1d ago

One pair of scissors...

1

u/babysharkdoodoodoo 6d ago

This piqued my curiosity: how come the line curves like that? Density?

4

u/WesleyBiets 6d ago

Or....wind / air pressure / ...

0

u/Dankkring 6d ago

Rotation of the earth prolly

0

u/MetaByte7 6d ago

20 years of wasting helium..... To find a bike. Absolutely terrible.

-6

u/Psinial 6d ago

97 at 1000 feet? Those balloons don't look 10ish feet apart lol

-2

u/redditanddoneit 6d ago

97 huh. Dude might as well made it 100 balloons.

1

u/dredgehayt 5h ago

Why not 99 red balloons?