YouTube inventor makes explosive pool cue, then plays his friend

Taking his "cue" from an old Tom and Jerry cartoon, YouTube content creator Alex Apollonov from the 'I Did A Thing' channel has created an explosive billiards stick. Then he played his friend in a game. What could go wrong?

"You know, I'm pretty good at pool. You know what I'm not very good at? Hitting a pool ball hard enough that it hits my mate in the head and makes his eyes turn into billiard balls like that scene from Tom and Jerry."

So begins another offbeat but strangely compelling video from Apollonov, an Australian YouTuber and comedian whose "I Did A Thing" channel has over five million subscribers. Apollonov is no stranger to creating oddball and legitimately dangerous items, with past triumphs including an underwater fishing shotgun, a leg-breaking hidden spring trap inspired by the Clash of Clans mobile game, and an ejector seat office chair.

For the pool cue project, Appollonov decided to create a power-packed pool cue using a piston system powered by blank rounds. As he mentions in the video, Apollonov is a big fan of blank rounds, having used them in the past to create a power hammer that allowed him to fling nails through his roof – as you do.

In creating the loaded pool cue, Apollonov not only wanted to see if he could make a stick that would rocket a pool ball off the table, but he was also attempting to break the world record for the fastest billiards break ever recorded. After overcoming a lathe breakdown, tackling some explosive physics issues, mourning the now-deceased MythBuster Grant Imahara, and wisely building a safety screen, Apollonov finally creates a piston tip for his billiards stick that is triggered by a blank round when it smashes into the pool ball. Then, he challenges his friend to a game, which he very much intends to win.

Does he? Does he break the, um, break record? Does the contraption even work? There's one way to find out. Check out the video below.