Low humor, base humor, even bathroom humor—call it what you may—tasteless as it often is, it continues to entertain us, even as we leave that time in our lives when its forbidden nature first made it so appealing. As adults we tend to see these base humors as an indulgence. They may not be something we’re generally proud of, but at times they almost help us to recover the same oddly innocent joy we felt as children.

Cheap Toys is a shining example of this simple pleasure. All of the toys displayed in the installation were won by us in Skill Cranes over the past two years. As adults we were finally able to conquer the machines that had so mystified us as children. We finally won toys. We won a lot of toys. And eventually, we started to wonder what possessed us to spend so much money on toys that we no longer had any great desire for.

After a night spent arranging our ‘collection’ into the sort of combinations featured in our installation, it finally sunk in. We were simply playing. What had started as an attempt to avenge ourselves upon the disappointments of our childhood had become a new form of genuine entertainment. A healthy dose of base humor was all that was needed to bring us full circle. And as our installation shows, we found that in abundance.

Cheap Toys wants to make you laugh, so please, feel free. Or don’t. Just remember—toys work cheap.

Read John Lamb's column about the installation, published in The Forum.

Read another article about the installation, published in North Dakota State University's Spectrum.

We would like to thank the Art Department at North Dakota State University for hosting the show in their space, the Reineke Visual Arts Gallery, located in the Reineke Fine Arts Center. We would also like to thank Jeff Shirley of Abstract Signs for providing us with a wonderful display of vinyl lettering.