Rube Goldberg is actually a great cartoonist who drew to entertain America with his silly little machines. His actual name is Reuben Lucius Goldberg. Since most inventions are made to make difficult tasks simple, his inventions made simple look very complex. Rube Goldberg's cartoon contraptions were made complex to perform basic things. Today, these complex machines come to life. They are called the Rube Goldberg projects. Even a small funny idea can turn into something cool. Here is an example of one of his cartoons: 

Simplified Pencil Sharpener

Rube Goldberg is the ® and © of Rube Goldberg Inc.

Open window (A) and fly kite (B).  String (C) lifts small door (D) allowing moths (E) to escape and eat red flannel shirt (F).   As weight of shirt becomes less, shoe (G) steps on switch (H) which heats electric iron (I) and burns hole in pants (J).   Smoke (K) enters hole in tree (L), smoking out opossum (M) which jumps into basket (N), pulling rope (O) and lifting cage (P), allowing woodpecker (Q) to chew wood from pencil (R), exposing lead.  Emergency knife (S) is always handy in case opossum or the woodpecker gets sick and can't work.