If you’re feeling a little bit sniffly and you don’t want to go into the office — don’t worry, we’ve all been there — the time-honoured tradition is to put on your best sick-person voice and make a gurgly phone call to your boss. If that all sounds a little bit too low-tech for your 21st century job, how about 3D printing an entire human doppelganger?
Thanks to a partnership with Keech 3D in Bendigo, Groupon in Australia has built a $59,000 man flu body double as part of the company’s Winter Warmers catalogue. It requires a 30-minute 3D body scan to create, but it’ll definitely — obviously — pay for itself with just a couple of sickies.
3D MAN, as he’s called, takes four weeks to build and ship to your doorstep, but after that you’ll have him handy whenever you need to take a sick day or if you want to sneak out to a festival or go to the footy. Seriously though, this thing looks scary as hell. Here’s hoping you can at least pose with a smile if you have the $59,000 to throw away on one.
Like warm beer or a broken thong, man flu is the Aussie male’s kryptonite. During winter each year, tens of thousands of blokes are struck down with flu symptoms similar to those that appear in women – only infinitely worse. Runny noses, foggy heads, and a mild temperature are enough for them to spend up to four days on the couch, wasting precious sick days. Until now.
Thanks to the marvel of modern technology, man flu victims can send 3D MAN – a 3D printed life-size body double – to work in their place, saving sick days for when they really need them (like the day after the Melbourne Cup or Australia Day). These lifelike human replicas will stare blankly off into the distance in work meetings, in front of a computer screen, or in the lunch room with colleagues – just like their flesh and blood counterparts.
[Groupon]