Tropicana Hotel demolished in the most Las Vegas way ever

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Originally published at: Tropicana Hotel demolished in the most Las Vegas way ever - Boing Boing

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Posted by Gail Sherman

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Are we sure that dust doesn’t cause any health damage? I know it’s Vegas, but still… Making a spectacle out of demolishing seems to be an American-only thing.

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Oh, there’s probably abestos and however many decades of other crap that got in the walls.

Best place to watch those are from several blocks away.

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Hook up the detonator to a slot machine so it explodes when it hits the jackpot.

… Of course, you’d actually want the slot machine to be rigged so that it’s only going to go off at a preset time anyway. Like a real slot machine.

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Five minutes of fireworks, then a countdown to… what? Then when the first tower actually goes down the video doesn’t even catch the beginning of it.

Sheesh.

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That’s why they demolished at night, having deafened and dazzled* the audience, so the cloud of deadly particles envelops them unnoticed.

*smoke and mirrors

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That’s amazing! How did they get all those car horns to go off on cue?

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And here I thought TV cop Sledge Hammer demolished a building in the most Las Vegas way ever.

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I was unfamiliar with the show, and had to do some research to decide whether that was a humorous parody of the excesses of “rebel cop who plays by his own rules” characters or a straightforward escalation of the same. The 80s really could go either way.

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Very much an over-the-top parody, which even child me figured out when I tuned into an episode spoofing the movie Witness which was called “Witless”. It also included a Godfather-type character whose running gag was that every time he got bad news he throws his cat out of the window, and has a different cat in every scene.

In the end the cat takes over the business.

sledgehammerwitless11

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All they had to do was name the cat ‘Kenny’, and they could have used the same cat.
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Tropicana Hotel demolished in the most Las Vegas way ever

Tom Jones? Nope!
Dancers? Nope!
A Magician making the buildings disappear? Nope!

Also, am I alone in finding fireworks interminable? The first couple make me go “Ooh!”, but I quickly lose the thrill. Even the Big Bay Boom out lasted my interest.

Over here, in the UK, we used to try to include a human sacrifice in our demolitions.

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We updated the tradition a few years back

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Everything is better with some Ennio Morricone, and without some Clarkson and Hammond (the cut-off point is around 2:44)

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Rich people…

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According to the Wikipedia article on the demolition, there was indeed asbestos in the structure that had to be removed before the explosives were brought in.

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If there isn’t something in the news about some sort of heist having been pulled off while everybody was distracted by the demolition show I shall be very disappointed.

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I’m on the record as a lover and defender of fireworks.

But this I just found vulgar. I don’t know what it is, but it was over the top and not in a joyful way. And how did they find a demolition firm who agreed to do this job? Usually, they are really professional and careful. No way could they do all their necessary pre-blast due diligence in that pandemonium! Not everything needs to be entertainment.

The drones were spectacular, though. They put fireworks on the drones at one point?!

This is the first time I did.

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Have you been to Las Vegas?

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