How to Make an Emergency Kazoo

Kazoos are fun. Kazoos are easy to play, and can be hilarious in the right hands. But you don't always have one on hand when you need one. Never fear--with a few simple objects you probably already have in your home, you too can hum the ridiculous tune of your choice!

Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• A cardboard toilet paper tube
• A small piece of waxed paper OR aluminum foil
• A rubber band
• Something to poke a hole with, such as a sharpened pencil

1. Tear a piece of waxed paper or foil, big enough to fit over one end of the toilet paper tube, with a little overlap.
2. Put the rubber band tightly around the same end of the tube, holding the paper or foil in place.
3. At the same end, but about an inch toward the center, poke a hole. The reason you do this is so that when you hum into the other end, you won't blow the paper or foil loose.
4. Put the open end of the tube over your lips and hum, or sing a song, or make a 'doot--doo-doo--doot-doo-doo--DOOOOO!' noise.

Tips & Warnings

• You can actually use any thin paper, like wrapping paper or tissue paper for the paper on the end, but waxed paper is best. Plastic wrap doesn't work at all, and foil is a poor substitute, but better than nothing.
• You can use a paper towel tube or, really, any cylinder of roughly a size that you can put over your mouth, as long as there's a hole at each end and a hole in the side somewhere.
• Even a child as young as 4 years old can make a kazoo and learn to use it, if you help her or him poke the hole in the side.
• Be careful during the hole-punching process that nobody gets hurt.