Lachsack
A Lachsack (German, literally "laugh bag") is a novelty toy consisting of a small cloth bag containing a plastic box with a push button that, when pressed, plays recorded laughter. The Lachsack was invented in 1968 by German inventor Walter Thiele. It was the most successful of about 1,600 items he invented.
Also recorded as lough bag
Lachsack
Ulfbastel · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Field
- practical joke device
- Period
- 1968
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wikidata · Q1485983 · wikipedia · Lachsack
In this article
Overview
Overview
The device originated from a talking parrot soft toy that he produced for the Wienerwald restaurant chain. When the company rejected the parrot, Thiele placed its miniature battery-driven record player into a sock, replacing the disk recording with one of laughter and named it the Lachsock (laugh sock). The Lachsock was successful. Thiele developed the concept by staging a laughing contest and using a recording of the winner's laughter in the redesigned Lachsack in which the sock was replaced by a small sack. The winner, a tax inspector from Nuremberg, was offered a prize of either 1,000 Marks or a 10 Pfennig royalty per Lachsack sold. He played safe and chose the lump sum. An estimated 120 million had been sold by 2007 and the Lachsack is still in production. The original Lachsack was a brown bag made of jute. Today's versions usually are smaller, available in different colours and use digital audio technology. The toy is sold under several different names such as Laugh Bag, Laughing Bag, Bag of Laughs and Bag of Joys.
Chronology
Dated record
Chronology
The full dated record · 2 entries
1968
Lachsack first recorded.
1968
Lachsack is recorded from 1968.
Text attribution
Licensing
Text attribution
Part of the biographical narrative on this page reuses licensed material. Its origin, revision and licence are recorded here.
The biographical narrative on this page is based on the Wikipedia article Lachsack, revision 1317690708 (EN edition), by its contributors. VALÉORINE has edited that text and built its own documentary record around it. The reused material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, and this page's reuse of it is offered under the same licence. Everything else on this page — the chronology, the holdings, the evidence, the plates and the connections — is VALÉORINE's own record. Sources and licences.
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Broader subject
1- practical joke deviceTerminology
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Further particulars
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Further particulars
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Lachsack is connected to 1 other published record in the VALÉORINE Encyclopedia.
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The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 14 August 2026.
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