We had these toys that were basically suction cups with springs inside them. You’d jam it down onto a table or flat surface of some kind, and the spring would eventually cause the suction cup to “let go” and the device would be projected into the air.

The amount of time it would take for this to happen varied, but if the surface was non-porous it could take about forever.

I don’t remember what was on the top of these things, but it seems they came under some trolls.. One way or another, the top wasn’t important, it was the bottom, the part that acted as a delayed action surprise.

I had “Gotten” my sister with this thing about a hundred times, but I was waiting for the big moment: I was going to give her the shock of her life. I stuck the popup thingy to the porcelean inside the toilet bowl, under the rim where you couldn’t see it.

Except she didn’t get “Got”.
And I forgot it was there.

Till that night, when a very ungentlemanly yell erupted from the bathroom as the popper smacked my dad in the nutsack while he was taking his evening constitutional. To say he was startled was the defining understatement of my lifetime.

I was less surprised about the beating than dad was about the sharp impact to the nether regions.