A toy, made of a wooden tube with a dowel rod attached to a bullet-shaped cone. The dowel has a notch near the free end so that when it is inserted into the wooden tube, the notch is supposed to hook over a rubber band passed through the tube near the far end from the opening. It is called an "Idiot stick" because the dowel is not long enough to hook the rubber band so that when it is pulled out it will snap back into the tube when released. The operator must squeeze the bullet end and thereby propel the dowel back with the illusion it is being done by the rubber band. The "victim" will try for a long time to hook the rubber band, therefore looking like an idiot--especially when it is finally explained to him!
May apply to a shovel used by bricklayers labourers or a spade used by ground labourers ,a term of contempt for menial workers in the constructionindustry.
The foamy rubber tubes NBA and NCAA teams disseminate among fans in the stands under respective baskets at each end of the floor--with the expectation that beating two crazy-colored "noodles" together in cacophonous non-unison will distract a highly skilled player from making a free throw.
Idiotsticks aflail, the hometown crowd jeered then roared when the opponent's top player choked a one-plus-one.