I’ve written about the joke of Wii both here (1) and here (2). I get in trouble every time I post about video games because people are really defensive about those things. This article had me ROFL.

Offering a selection of activities–from running to push-ups to yoga–Wii Fit is now in almost 1.5 million homes across the country. But is anyone actually using it?

Nope, they aren’t. It’s just a credit card acquisition that collects dust in the corner, like treadmills and ellipticals and Nordic Track skiers (remember those?).

Don’t blame Nintendo for people’s sloth, observers say. The company has marketed its new cash cow brilliantly, and it’s not responsible for whether consumers play the game or not. Nintendo declined to comment for this article, but Wii Fit creator Shigeru Miyamoto has previously gone on record and said that the game is less about people losing weight and more about broadening the videogame market. Still, it seems a little disingenuous for Nintendo to heavily market a fitness tool that’s sitting in more than a million American living rooms collecting dust.

Of course you can’t lose weight playing Nintendo Wii, and more than you can lose weight watching “Dancing with the Stars!” First of all, activity is just one of many variables in losing weight, and it’s far less important to weight loss than that other activity – eating. Additionally, how is it disingenuous for Nintendo to sell a product that people choose to buy and choose to never use? I think Nintendo Wii is simply the most ridiculous and juvenile fad that has ever graced the American junk scene. (iGallop might give Wii a run for its money except that I don’t think anyone buys those things.)

But then again, those people at Nintendo know exactly who they are marketing to, and thus it has been a brilliant product and marketing strategy. Kudos to Nintendo for making tons of dough on crap that people have to buy because everyone else is buying it. Here are a few more fairly memorable fads that haven’t escaped my memory:

- Mood rings. My mother bought one and I used to wear it.

- 8-tracks. Nah, not a bad fad, just an unfortunate piece of technology. I still have some in my basement – Abba, Steely Dan (Pretzel Logic), Santana, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Velvet Underground….

- Baby on Board. Did anyone ever really care?

- Elevated orthopedic nightmare. My brothers had them and the chicks loved them.