A list of objects that, when broken, still function.
Things that, when broken, are the same only shorter/smaller:
- pencil => shorter pencil
- stick => shorter stick
- ruler => shorter ruler
- rock => smaller rocks
Things that, when broken, become insulated boxes:
- oven => insulated box
- refrigerator => insulated box
- microwave => insulated box
Things that, when broken, still maintain a subset of their original functions:
- escalator => stairs
- moving sidewalk => ground
- electric toothbrush => heavy toothbrush
- electric bicycle => heavy bicycle
- electric fence => fence
- quantum computer => classical computer
- iPhone (with broken cellular contract) => iPod Touch
- headphones => earmuffs
- speech => stuttering
Things that, because of being broken, become something new:
- government => environmental theater production
- ceiling => skylight
- skin = scab
(via Mitch Hedberg's joke about broken escalators: "Sorry, escalator temporarily stairs.")
Meanings of "broken" (as adjective):
- having been damaged and no longer in working order (e.g. with ruined electrical components)
- having been split physically into pieces
- (of speech or a language) spoken falteringly, as if overcome by emotion, or with many mistakes, as by a foreigner.
If oven gets to be insulated box, so should fridge/freezer. I think in general most electric things when they stop working become different things that still do something. Also iPhone without cell contract -> iPod Touch.