<p>Now you all know that the USB toaster in the box you’ve just unwrapped is a hoax:</p>
<p>[Fake</a> gadgets put the ‘Gotcha!’ in giving - CNN.com ](<a href=“http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/12/16/gotcha.boxes.onion/index.html]Fake ”>Fake gadgets put the 'Gotcha!' in giving - CNN.com )</p>
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At first glance, it looks like an actual product: A “USB Toaster” that plugs into a laptop to toast a single slice of bread.</p>
<p>Graphic designer Arik Nordby with some of his GotchaBoxes, which look like they contain real products.</p>
<p>“Don’t be tethered to the kitchen! Take your toast … to go!” reads the ad copy on the slickly designed box, which sports images of a pop-up toaster and a busy-looking guy in a motel room biting into a piece of toast.</p>
<p>You can just imagine some poor sap struggling to look excited on Christmas morning after unwrapping the oddly useless gadget. Once he or she opens the box, however, an inside flap reveals the joke. “Gotcha!” it taunts. “There is no USB Toaster in this box. Even the concept of such a toaster is silly and unrealistic. In reality, you, the gift recipient, have been duped.”</p>
<p>That’s the punch line of the GotchaBox, a series of decoy gift boxes sold through the online store of The Onion, the satirical fake-news outfit. Other GotchaBoxes have featured such nonexistent products as a 28-piece “professional” whisk set and a build-your-own-umbrella kit.
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<p>but there is a usb coffee warmer!</p>
<p>I gave several gotchaboxes at the family Christmas last year. The favorite was the
lje62
December 16, 2008, 9:06pm
4
<p>It could’ve been a Chia-pet
<p>I actually love Chia pets…</p>