I want to be very clear upfront: I am a serious person. I have a serious job. I own a spreadsheet for my household budget. I have opinions about pension contributions and the correct way to load a dishwasher.
I also own a giant rubber duck. And it has, without exaggeration, made my life measurably better.
Let me explain.
The Problem With Being Too Serious
Last year was relentless. Work was demanding in the way that work sometimes gets — not dramatically, not catastrophically, just relentlessly, persistently, grindingly busy. I was tired all the time. I'd stopped doing things for fun. My idea of unwinding was watching something on television while simultaneously checking my emails, which is not unwinding at all, it's just doing two things badly at once.
A friend of mine — a person of impeccable judgment who I trust completely — told me I needed to do something silly. Not something relaxing, not something productive, not something that could be justified in terms of self-improvement. Something silly. Something that served no purpose except to be ridiculous and make me laugh.
I told her that was a very unhelpful suggestion. She sent me a link to the Giant Rubber Duck Bath Toy by AJ Toys & Books with the message: “Buy this. Trust me.”
I looked at it for a long time. It was £24.99. It was enormous. It was a rubber duck.
I bought it.
The Arrival
The parcel arrived and was considerably larger than I'd anticipated, which was itself funny, because I'd known it was going to be large and had still somehow underestimated it. I opened it in the hallway. The duck emerged. It was magnificent. It was absurd. It was the most cheerful object I had ever seen.
I put it in the bath. I ran the water. I got in.
The duck sat at the other end of the bath, enormous and yellow and completely, serenely pleased with itself. I looked at it. It looked at me. And I laughed — a proper laugh, the kind that comes from somewhere genuine, the kind I hadn't done in weeks. Not at anything in particular. Just at the sheer, glorious absurdity of the situation.
I lay in the bath for forty-five minutes. I didn't check my phone once. I didn't think about work. I just lay there, occasionally looking at the duck, occasionally laughing quietly to myself, and felt, for the first time in months, completely and utterly present.
What Happened Next
The duck became a fixture. Not just in the bath — though it lives there permanently now, a cheerful yellow presence that makes the bathroom feel like somewhere you actually want to spend time — but in my life more broadly.
My partner, who had raised a single eyebrow when the parcel arrived, now refers to the duck by name. (Gerald. The duck's name is Gerald. This was not my decision but I have accepted it.) Gerald has been photographed by every person who has visited our flat since his arrival. He has appeared in the background of at least three video calls. He was, briefly, the subject of a lengthy debate about whether he constituted bathroom décor.
He does. He is the best bathroom décor we own.
But more than any of that — more than the laughs, the photographs, the ongoing Gerald discourse — the duck reminded me of something I'd forgotten. That silliness is not the opposite of seriousness. That joy doesn't need to be earned or justified. That sometimes the most useful thing you can do is buy a giant rubber duck and get in the bath with it and laugh at yourself for twenty minutes.
I'm less tired than I was. I take baths more often. I check my phone less. I laugh more. I'm not attributing all of that to Gerald — but I'm not not attributing it to Gerald either.
Who Is This For?
Anyone who is too serious and knows it. Anyone who needs a gift for someone who is too serious and knows it. Anyone who wants a conversation starter, a bathroom centrepiece, a novelty that is genuinely novel, or simply something that will make them smile every single time they see it.
The Giant Rubber Duck Bath Toy is £24.99. It is oversized, it is cheerful, it is completely without practical purpose, and it is one of the best things I have ever bought. Buy it for yourself. Buy it for someone you love. Buy it for someone who needs reminding that life is allowed to be ridiculous.
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