Hutzler 571 Banana Slicer

A yellow plastic tool shaped exactly like a banana, with a row of blades across it, that cuts an entire peeled banana into even coins in one press. It’s 11.75 inches long, half an inch thick, and it does nothing else at all.

That single-mindedness is the joke. It looks ridiculous sitting on a counter, and then it slices a banana over the cereal bowl in one motion, every coin the same thickness. Hutzler pitches it for cereal, oatmeal, yogurt and banana chips, and as a way for kids to slice their own fruit without a knife. The plastic goes in the dishwasher.

This is the cheap, safe, guaranteed-laugh option for an office or family swap. It suits the friend who eats a banana every morning, the parent of a kid who wants to help in the kitchen, or anyone who collects single-purpose gadgets for fun. Wrap it flat and nobody will guess what it is.

The catch: it slices bananas and only bananas, and it takes up a drawer slot nearly a foot long to do it. That’s a lot of real estate for one fruit, and it’s lightweight plastic, so it won’t take rough handling.