Everyone knows the expression “go big or go home,” but former NASA JPL engineer Mark Rober lives by a slightly different principle – “go home and make something really big.” It’s why he built the world’s largest Super Soaker, and also the biggest air horn anyone has ever seen. Bigger isn’t just better, it’s a lot of fun. However, for years one dream eluded him, because some ideas aren’t as simple as they sound. He wanted to make a giant pool full of Jell-O, but even fore a brilliant engineer that posed an especially challenging concept to pull off. Others have tried, but they didn’t really make gelatin, and that’s what he would have to do to make his childhood wish a reality. But after six months of planning, and a week of intensive labor, he finally did it, and we’ve never wanted to dive into a dessert quite like this.
Because making Jell-O require you to heat it to a very hot temperature before cooling it (without freezing it), just putting a mixture of water and gelatin into an empty pool was never going to work. The solution wasn’t any easier though. It required six 55-gallon drums with both a heating and hose system, but that allowed Rober to slowly create layers of gelatin in a pool in his brother’s backyard.
With a limited time to find the perfect weather to boil it during the day while chilling at night, it took an intensive week of work to put it all together, but the results speak for their slimy, silly self. Watching a kid do a back flip onto a sheet of Jell-O is as pure a moment of joy as you can find.
Watching a bunch of teenagers not know how a freaking slip ‘n’ slide works is fun for a different reason.
This tub of Jell-O is even better than the time Rober filled an entire pool with 25 million Orbeez water balls.
All these years we thought we had to “go big or go home” when we should have been doing both.
Featured Image: Mark Rober
