Cartoonist who drew ridiculously complex contraptions:
*** http://www.rube-goldberg.com/

(from Rube Goldberg's Gallery: 

Not to ruin the fun... but that pillow is sure not going to hit the ground before your head if you're past it when it starts falling... methinks he forgot the spring loaded pillow gun to blast it down quick :)

Not if you try to hold your balance, but fail at the last moment.  Physicists would do better to wonder about the center of gravity of the device.
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A similar cartoonist in England is HeathRobinson.

In Denmark, Robert Storm Petersen (Storm P.) (1882-1949) made similar cartoons.

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(Sarcastically) See RubeGoldbergMachine, BigDesignUpFront, EnterpriseJavaBeans, DotNet