back to article Critics aim to sink Titanic ice cubes

The UK press has mobilised to express its dismay at a ice cube-making kit which produces miniature Titanics and accompanying icebergs. The Gin & Titonic Fred and Friends, the US maker of the The Gin & Titonic, describes the product as an "unsinkable addition to your next party" and invites revellers to "Go ahead...sink …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Hundreds?

    No willingness to do a little research maybe? "Hundreds of people died in the tragedy"... no, it was more than a thousands.

    But of course, it wasn't 'distasteful' to make a few movies out of the story, just like it isn't to make movies out of basically everything... and we also have to remember that the fscking ship went down in fscking 1912! Almost a century ago!

    How long before a broken WTC? Well, let's talk about it in a century huh?

  2. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
    Thumb Up

    Funny stuff!

    "ice cubes of the Twin Towers to commemorate 9/11"

    Fireworks in my martini glass? Why not, as long as the cherry is in Cheney's likeness.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    Or...

    How about a tsunami style chocolate fountain?

  4. Dr Bod
    Alert

    The Film?

    Of course, the 2 Billion dollars made from the film all went to charity... didn't it?

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_highest-grossing_films

  5. censored

    So long as there's a drink-related pun...

    "How long will it be before this firm makes ice cubes of the Twin Towers to commemorate 9/11?"

    Not too long, I hope. And I'd buy them.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Joke

    Ban this sick filth!!!1!

    What next? A film re-imagining this tragic event? If we don't stop this now we will open the floodgates to firms profiteering on dramatic real-world events which resulted in the loss of many lives, and where would that leave us? Do we really want perverts to profit on events such as D-Day, or Pearl Harbor? No!

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Thumb Up

      Oh no!

      Please don't use the trendy term "re-imagining"? Everytime I see it I feel like I have to stick pencils in my eyes! To my mind it's as bad as non-Italians using the word, "ciao"!

      On a different tack....

      Hmmm, so I presume that this is the same UK tabloid scum that had a field day when Mr Gately died? Coming up with their dirty little theories about his private life and what he'd been up to on that tragic night. Ah, thought so, 'cos I thought the UK press had suddenly been appointed our moral guardians!

  7. Piro Silver badge

    WTC?

    Why would they make ice cubes of the twin towers? The titanic at least has a close link with ice cubes, which is clearly the reason they made them.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Transplant

    Maybe the icecube kit should come with a free voucher for a sense of humour transplant.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    Distasteful?

    I'm surprised it is still legal to do anything distasteful....

    Mine's the tasteful one

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Offended!

    "We design housewares that are functional and fun. The Gin & Titonic is quite a good seller around the world. Somebody is always going to be offended by something, "

    I am utterly offended. "Houseware" is an uncountable noun!

    I will be cancelling my subscription.

  11. Robert Carnegie Silver badge

    Before the boat finished sinking

    Quoted (and not absolutely believed) at http://www.snopes.com/history/titanic/astorice.asp

    In fact, one of the Titanic's survivors, Lawrence Beesley, in his account of the sinking published later that year, claimed:

    One of the [card] players [in the Second Class smoking room], pointing to his glass of whiskey standing at his elbow, and turning to an onlooker, said, "Just run along the deck and see if any ice has come aboard: I would like some for this."

    ----

    The thrust of the Snopes article is that Edwardian moneybags John Jacob Astor did NOT say it, but was rumoured to have done. It seems that he died and I suppose his wife survived, since their private conversation is described.

  12. Sorry that handle is already taken. Silver badge

    Too Soon?

    Maybe we should use little crucifix ice cubes instead?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Coat

      Thats already planned..

      Thats being launched for Easter

  13. DrXym

    Pure hypocrisy

    The Daily Mail and other newspapers profit greatly from reporting on tragedies, emblazoning their front pages with the most lurid pictures or headlines to sell copies. So complaining that some previously unheard of company does the same is the pot calling the kettle black.

    Besides, every day a movie, TV show, book, video game or even a song turns up which glorifies, fictionalises or otherwise capitalises on some contemporary or historical event where people died. Look at the number of WWII first person shooters as one example. Why single out some ice cube mould and not those others?

  14. Anonymous Coward
    WTF?

    Who's right? Tim or Brian?

    Historian Brian Ticehurst thundered: "How long will it be before this firm makes ice cubes of the Twin Towers to commemorate 9/11?""

    Then Tim Brant, secretary of the Merchant Navy Association pipes up with: "The sinking of the Titanic is an event that should be commemorated not celebrated."

    Sorry to p1ss on your parade Tim but Brian seems to suggest they are commemorative. ;0)

    And in answer to Brian's question: in about 89 years or so.

  15. Rob Crawford
    WTF?

    Fecking Titanic

    as a resident of Belfast I am sick to death of the Titanic (and the further commercialization of the damn thing.)

    In he case of the ice cubes I find it funny, but with the developers with The Titanic Quarter, I'm hoping it will slide under the waves with all the property developers still onboard

  16. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    For crying out loud

    The thing sank in April 1912.

    ...

    .....what, too soon?

    I'm posting this from Belfast, where the flipping thing was built. 100 years on and it's still a big thing. Nearly half of the older North Eastern section of our city is taken up by a permanent memorial to the Titanic, which they're putting up as a tourist attraction.

    There's a popular joke which goes something along the lines of "Belfast - You built a boat. It sank. GET OVER IT."

    It was a tragedy, sure, but nobody these days even has a close family member who died in it. It was a freak accident that happened nearly 100 years ago (or, depending on who you believe, insurance-fraud-gone-badly-wrong), not a terrorist bombing or the result of a war.

    I'd be far more concerned about the impact of modern-day atrocities.

    The ice cubes are HILARIOUS.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Coat

      Well you're a fine one to talk

      > The thing sank in April 1912.

      > ...

      > .....what, too soon?

      >

      >I'm posting this from Belfast, where the flipping thing was built.

      You're posting this from Belfast, which is also where there are still people fighting each other over some old beef from way back in 1690, and you think 1912 is too long ago for someone to still have a chip on their shoulder over something?!

      1. Rob Crawford

        Never changes does it

        If course if you had a clue you would know that 1690 has very little to do with it (apart from an excuse for senile old men to march about in bowler hats & sashes, and the other lot who can't live without them becasue then they would have no soapbox to shout from)

        But then you are probably bitching about the French cos the Normans invaded in 1066, or perhaps the Scots regarding the Battle of Culloden or the Edwards oppression of the Welsh.

        So please grow up, and gain the backbone to include your name

  17. Tom_

    dumbass

    "Somebody is always going to be offended by something, especially when it involves... "

    ...lots of people dying horribly.

    On the other hand, if you're doing WTC stuff, surely a pair of candles or commemorative Jenga set would be more appropriate.

    1. CD001

      WTC Jenga

      Wrong, but funny :)

  18. Gordon861

    US Only

    So where's the UK supplier?

    1. DPWDC
      Thumb Up

      UK suppliers

      Firebox or Iwantoneofthose - i spotted them yesterday when looking for secret santa ideas.

  19. James Hughes 1

    Bloody brilliant name for a product

    Gin and Titonic.

    Awesome.

    1. John Square

      Name for the 9/11 version....

      ... "Twin (towers) and Tonic", shurely?

  20. Ed Blackshaw Silver badge
    WTF?

    Here's a crazy thought

    If you don't like it, don't buy it. Personally, I find plenty of things offensive and distasteful. Thankfully, they have now cancelled Big Brother.

  21. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Space shuttle cigarette lighter.

    I remember seeing a space shuttle cigarette lighter soon after the disaster. (That soon that it must have been an unfortunate co-incidence.)

  22. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Next thing will be

    Ginger parents moaning about xmas cards...

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Kind of diffrent...

      Near racist cards sold by Tescos and funny icecubes?

  23. A J Stiles
    Coat

    Viz did better

    I think Viz Comic did much better with their "Raise the Titanic" bath game -- for gentlemen only. Anybody else remember it?

  24. Eddie Edwards
    Unhappy

    This is absolutely disgusting

    It's far too late to buy them in time for Christmas now.

  25. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Point already made, but let's be specific.

    Can we expect a similar campaign against Dad's Army?

    After all, that clearly mocks the suffering and deaths of millions.

  26. Jolyon Ralph

    So what...

    No survivors are still alive, I say it's fair game.

    And anyway, it wouldn't be 9/11 ice cubes. If anything, it should be, in a hundred years or so, a Twin Towers commemorative double pack of Jenga.

    Jolyon

  27. AndyG_IOM
    Coat

    too soon ????

    Twin Towers BBQ set ????

  28. Robert Ramsay
    Joke

    Perspective

    To waste time complaining about such trivia is like rearranging the deckchairs on the ... oh, wait.

  29. stooz

    Humour is a cure

    I laugh at anything, I appreciate it isnt always my taste, but so what? Humour is a proven medical tonic to sadness. Bring on the cardboard twin towers and polystyrene jumbo elastic powered planes game, with realistic explosion effects for direct hits.

    If you cant laugh at the titanic 100 years later, what hope is there for happiness? I dont want to live in a world where I cant laugh.

    1. Mike Flugennock
      Thumb Up

      Well said!

      I'm an old space geek from way back -- was one of 99% of young American boys who wanted to be astronauts when they grew up, back in the '60s -- and it took me a long frickin' time to get over the Challenger tragedy, but here it is nearly a quarter-century later (already?) and the scars on my psyche have finally healed enough for me to appreciate the joke about the last words transmitted from the Challenger crew: "No, NO! I wanted a BUD LIGHT!"

  30. Chris Simmons
    Pint

    I'll take...

    two Titanic sets (gin and titonic - brilliant!), one WTC before (common market) and one after (smoky martini or choking hazard), one Paris Hilton exiting a limo (quick fuck), a bush on a segway with added pretzel detailing (zombie) and a hanging Saddam (one balled dictator, lynchburg lemonade or satan's whiskers).

    Ta very much.

  31. Anonymous Coward
    Boffin

    David W.'s rule of press outrage:

    Any article using the word 'sick' outside a health context immediately loses all credibility.

  32. Shadowthrone
    Thumb Up

    Am I going to hell??

    When I was linked this by a colleague from the Telegraphs website the first things to pop into my mind (between that laughs) were:

    1) That is awesome

    2) I want some.

  33. lpopman
    Coat

    titular thingumabob

    @Lester Haines:

    "We look forward to Fred and Friends' Space Shuttle Challenger novelty firework set ("Guaranteed to make your party go with a bang!") in due course."

    hehe, 7-up with a drop of Teachers would be more fitting :)

  34. Kev K
    Thumb Up

    I soooo hope mine

    will be here in time for my New Years Eve Party

    Thanks for the heads up on this El Reg

  35. Anonymous Coward
    Boffin

    Streisand effect...

    Sales are booming right now, , because the audience just got much bigger...

    It is in bad taste, but it's a joke and some people like darkish humor. I personally wouldn't buy them, unless for some special occasion that called for it, but banning similar items is going way too far. Let the market take care of it - the more offensive an item is, fewer people will buy it and if that that raises the price to an unsustainable level they will stop making the things

    It is impossible to ban everything that might offend someone. For starters, you'd have to ban (for example) almost everything by Monty Python. Then disaster movies, news programs, youtube, jokes, etc...

    Don't lawmakers have better things to do with their time than <CENSORED> around making stupid laws that benefit nobody except tiny special interests*?

    *Oh, sorry, I forgot...

  36. Bean

    What do 'you' think?

    ...long time reader, first time poster...

    Not offten I feel compelled to write something but I am getting a little frustrated at peoples lack of qualification before they write something on all these sorts of headlines.

    What I mean is, people seem to be so concerned with what 'other' people might think rather than what they themselves think.

    Is it a protective instinct - do we think, "oh no, there must be people offended somewhere out there so I should speak up on their mortified behalf"

    Or like me. "I don't feel strongly about this at all, I guess if someone else is offended they will say something if they feel they want to."

    However I get the feeling that the majority of the people who shout blue murder are not the ones who are actually offended but the protectors.

    Lets worry about things we feel strongly about ourselves, and not simply empathising with those unknown 'hurt' people.

  37. Sceptical Bastard
    Flame

    Well I think it's a hoot!

    Po-faced gits and hypocrites! I thought the shipshape ice cube was mildly funny - y'now, like fart jokes are funny when you're pissed.

    Besides, what could possibly be more offensive to the memory of the 1,517 people who drowned in 1912 than Leonardo De Crappio and Kate Winceyette hamming it up in front of unconvincing CGI? Am I the only one who thought that film was a tedious and overlong fest of sentimental meretricious trash? My excuse for watching it is that it was on telly one Christmas and I didn't want to provoke a row with the missus.

    As to "...ice cubes of the Twin Towers..." surely that marketing opportunity goes to candle-makers or fireworks manufactures? We don't hear an outcry against 'Mount Vesuvias' and 'Roman Candle' fireworks because they show disrespect to the citizens of Pompeii.

    So let's have some commemorative trinkets of the WTC - I'd buy 'em if only to say "fuck you" to Al Quaeda. On which thought, "Firestorm Over Tora Bora" fireworks, anyone?

    1. Mike Flugennock

      WTC commemorative schwag?

      If you ever make it over to this side of the Pond, you can buy all the goddamn' 9/11 commemorative schwag you can handle -- especially in New York City. However, most of it is the most exploitive, smarmy, treacly, melodramatic, overwrought, often flat-out racist/fascistic crap you've ever seen. If you're looking for something darkly humorous or sarcastic, though, you're pretty much SOL.

      I've also just realized that the tenth anniversary is coming up in about a year and a half or so, meaning next year's probably going to be building up a crescendo of insufferable media hype. I'm absolutely dreading it.

      Personally, I can't wait for the exploding 9/11 Commemorative Jenga set.

  38. Ian 54
    WTF?

    slow news day?

    Hunour

    sense of

    get one.

    nuff said?

  39. adrianww
    Go

    Funnily enough...

    ...while channel-hopping on the goggle-box last night, I happened upon an old episode of Live at the Apollo, with Russell Howard serving as MC. He did a very fine routine about people feeding their own misery by getting themselves all uptight, irate and self-righteous about this, that or the other bit of modern life.

    How singularly appropriate that I should see this story so soon after seeing that.

  40. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "Titanic"

    For those who can't stomach the full-length film...

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OuSdU8tbcHY

  41. Yorkshirepudding
    Pint

    another idea

    Zeppelin fire-lighters?

    1. Bob Holtzmann

      Or...

      i.e. .... Hindenberg - shaped charcoal briquettes?

  42. Anonymous Coward
    Black Helicopters

    Oh!

    There are many uk suppliers, generally those peddling the usual array of boys toys etc...

    There are also 'skull and cross bones' surely either (a) insult on all those people who died in the world ever, (b) inciting spotty youths to destroy the music and film industry by ilegal down loads?

    Also, thre is an AK-47 Ammo version! why no outrage at that considering gun crime on our streets and the dozen of armed coonflicts around the world!?

  43. Keefey
    Go

    UK Stockists...

    Amazon!

    *buys*

    http://www.amazon.co.uk/Exit-Interiors-GANDT-Titonic-Tray/dp/B001GQ2SQ6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=kitchen&qid=1260880851&sr=8-1-spell

  44. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Dont buy the Jihadi ones

    I cannot recommend the Al Qaeda Jihadi Icecubes range. Mine had a rather unfortunate and violent reaction when I poured alcohol into the glass.

  45. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    WTC commemorative Twin Jenga set

    I so want one of these that i will knock-up the box artwork myself, a perfect sick present for a close family member. Perhaps one is also required to propel a mini foam plane into each tower at the end of each go.

    1. Mike Smith
      IT Angle

      WTC commemorative Twin Jenga set

      C'mon, we need an IT angle - USB launched foam planes!

      @el Reg - hey, what's with not being able to copy text from these new sodding comments?

  46. Anonymous Coward
    Joke

    Global Warming Ice Cubes?

    ... Just add water to your drink...

  47. Greg J Preece

    Sick? Distasteful?

    I shall buy some immediately. I do love winding up the thick-skinned. Come on, Titanic was a century ago. Even their children are dead. Plus, we regularly make fun of WW1, a far greater tragedy of that point in history (Blackadder Goes Forth?)

    "How long will it be before this firm makes ice cubes of the Twin Towers to commemorate 9/11?"

    You're on. Give me an afternoon.

  48. Stu Pid
    Flame

    Daily Fail

    So they decide to get outraged about a product that's been around for ages? I nearly bought this for Christmas last year. What a waste of trees. The sooner that paper goes under the better, taking the equally crappy Metro with it.

    Though I do love the Gin and Titonic name, utter genius.

  49. Simon B

    Am I the only one?

    I think it's very bad taste, am I the only one?

    1. Michael H.F. Wilkinson Silver badge

      apparently

      you are

    2. Captain Thyratron

      Then maybe...

      ...you should buy better gin?

  50. Minophis
    Thumb Up

    You think that's bad?

    If Tim and Brian don't like the Gin and Titonic (brilliant name) it is lucky that they probably haven't seen the Titanic bouncy castle that 'captures all the excitement of the famed ocean liner on Titanic's™ maiden voyage'

    http://www.funsourceinc.com/Titanic.htm

    It can also be turned into a fun assault course with the addition of an inflatable climbing thing in the shape of ... THE ICEBERG.

    http://www.designsodistinction.com/images/iceberg_challenge.jpg

    Genius

  51. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    Tabloids...

    Shut the fuck up and have a drink.

    1. Cameron Colley

      I'd rather they ate Sushi.

      Preferably in the back of a limo while not wearing a seatbelt and drinking water to get over an otherwise harmless MDMA tablet.

      Or, they could just cut their own wrists with heir favourite knife and bleed to death without leaving a trace of blood at the schene.

      Either way is good.

  52. ahahaha you won't catch me that easy again
    Badgers

    wasn't there a...

    space shuttle challenger jigsaw on the market for a bit before it was somewhat hastily withdrawn 'lest anyone got offended?

    the miracle there is the fact i remember which one the challenger was...so it can't all be bad surely?

    1. Daniel B.

      Oooh the Challenger!

      I bought a toy Space Shuttle sometime circa 1985. It was the "Challenger". Years later I found out that after the Challenger blew up, the toy was being sold as the "Discovery" now. That would make my "Challenger" toy a rare item it seems ... which might explain why it got stolen from my mum's house. Arrrrgh!

      Anyway ... comparing "Titanic sinking" with 9/11 isn't quite in the same league. Titanic was an accident, mainly because of an arrogant attitude on the "unsinkable boat" idea. 9/11 was a terrorist attack.

      1. Campbeltonian

        Lusitania?

        They were originally Lusitania ice cubes, but had to be renamed as Titanic ice cubes for the same reason.

        1. fch
          Coat

          Lusitania icecubes - using a zeppelin-shaped torpedo

          Ah, the smell of true synergies - definitely worth patent-trolling about in a year's time !

          (need my coat to go out in this cold to buy some)

  53. V 3

    Ice floats

    ... and so, presumably, does a Titanic made of ice.

    So what's the problem?

    Or is this a special "sinky" sort of ice....

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Happy

      The tip of the iceberg.

      Ever hear that phrase? Yeah, well, now try imagining a boat that only 1/10th of the top of it was sticking out above the surface of the water.

      I think most people would call that "sunk"!

      1. V 3

        so how much of you

        ... is out of the water when you swim?

        Not un-adjacent to 10% I would guess.

        Icebergs are rather clearly floating. Floating low in the water ain't sunk, as any polar bear will vouch.

        And anyway, what do you mean, "10% of the top of it"? Surely 10% of ALL of it is the appropriate thing to worry about.

    2. ElReg!comments!Pierre
      Boffin

      Re: Ice floats (or does it?)

      Well I distinctly remember making a few pranks based on "heavy water" (deuterium oxyde) ice cubes when I was a lad...

      Technically you can make "sinky" ice. The point is it would be no fun at all, the ice titanic featured here being clearly a *sinking* (as opposed to *sunk*) ship. So the emerged 10% should be fine (and even necessary).

  54. Thomas 4
    Pint

    Distasteful...

    I disagree - it depends on what you fill the glass with.

  55. Nat Pryce

    Edgy humour... yawn.

    If you can't be funny, be shocking. The refuge of the unfunny attention-seeker.

  56. Graham Bartlett

    Awesome

    I want one of those for Xmas. Nothing like scandal for good publicity!

  57. Someone
    Pint

    Brian, the Twin Towers didn’t sink

    If you want an analogy, think Twin Towers skittles/bowling pins. Anyway, in this country, don’t alcoholic beverages and thoughts of the dearly departed go together?

  58. alphaxion
    FAIL

    heh

    I'm christmas temping for Red5... we have these in and thought they were brilliant!

    Pathetic misers who think because they're sullen, then everyone should share their misery.

    I note they have no problems with the bullet ice cubes and the space invaders ice cubes you can buy (think of how many space invaders have been slaughtered over the years, won't someone think of the pixellated space invader children?!).

  59. Sarah Bee (Written by Reg staff)

    Re: Oooh the Challenger!

    I think they both qualify as tragedies. One occurred because of human error, one because of malign intent, in each case lots of innocent people died. That's undeniable whether you're offended by this stuff or not, innit.

  60. Mike Flugennock
    Thumb Up

    Whoaaa! Sweet!

    I think that's frickin' _hysterical_, man! And, apparently, they're being sold in the States, also? Love 'em -- not so much because it makes sick fun of the tragedy itself, but because I hate James Cameron and Leonardo diCaprio and Celine Goddamn' Dion.

    Too bad I probably can't have one deilvered in time for Christmas... but maybe there's still a chance I can order in time for New Year's Eve?

    I eagerly await the Challenger Bottle Rocket Set for next Fourth Of July.

  61. John Dougald McCallum
    Boffin

    copy and paste

    Right Click Submenu appears,Left Click Copy,Left Click Paste done. @el Reg - hey, what's with not being able to copy text from these new sodding comments?

    What is difficult about that?

  62. ElReg!comments!Pierre

    PS

    Clearly the twin towers are out (no relationship with liquids; technically too complicated; high risk of burnt eyebrows), but what about a Steve Irwin ice"cube" ? Now *that* would be distasteful. Maybe combined with a heavy-water-ice stingray figure for added offensiveness. Ooooh, I want one now.

  63. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Greg J Preece

    Quote from Greg J Preece - "we regularly make fun of WW1, a far greater tragedy of that point in history (Blackadder Goes Forth?)"

    Are you watching the same programme as everyone else ?

    BA4 is about laughing in the face of death ? Did you piss yourself at the end when they all 'went over the top' and got massacred ?

    ??????

  64. Evil Auditor Silver badge

    Black only should be humour

    Gin Titonic is really a cool idea. Twin Tower ice cubes isn't. I mean, what does the WTC has to do with ice?! I'm thinking more about Redbull Air Race. Pylons.

  65. jon 72
    Pint

    Brilliant

    Politician shaped would be ideal

  66. Russell 2
    FAIL

    BAN EVERYTHING

    I don't like World of Warcraft. It's just not to my taste, and furthermore, five people have died whilst playing it. I therefore call for it to be banned immediately.

    Oh and Burton on Trent offends me too (the all-pervading smell of Marmite is just too much) and I bet some people have died there at some point, so probably best ban that too.

    What's that you say? The opinion of the few shouldn't spoil things for the many? That's not the case when the few have the ear of the tabloids...

  67. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Crackers

    Following joke research by a committee of newspaper editors all jokes will be puns. Please ensure that all other jokes are removed from circulation by April 1st 2010 to avoid prosecution.

  68. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    Huh?

    Yes it may be in bad taste but if I remember right haven't all the survivors passed away now? Some people are too sensitive...

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