Where would America be without Hula Hoops?

If there was anyone in the annals of American business who could say he manufactured fun, it was Richard Knerr.

Knerr, along with partner Arthur Melin, gave us the Hula Hoop, the Frisbee, the SuperBall, the Slip ‘N Slide and Silly String.

Knerr died this week at his home in California, which prompts us to stop and ponder: Where the world be today without these silly, absolutely essential pieces of foolishness?

Without the Hula Hoop, would a 19-year-old American named Kareena Oates be noted for setting a world record last year by simultaneously twirling 103 hoops?

Without the Frisbee, would the dog known as Ashley Whippet have been dubbed the “Michael Jordan of canine Frisbee-catching?” No one who has seen video of Ashley speeding down the field and leaping, twisting and just plain showboating as she snatches her master’s Frisbee out of the air could forget it.

Without Silly String, high school band members would not have to march in Pierce County’s Daffodil Parade with an eye out for sneak attacks by “weapons of mess destruction.” High school band directors everywhere wish this stuff had never been invented.

And how many of us bear deep psychological scars caused by Hoop Humiliation Syndrome – that genetic inability, no matter how hard we try, to keep a Hula Hoop twirling for more than a second?

Knerr didn’t invent the hoop as a plaything. The Egyptians had hoops 3,000 years ago. But he and Melin invented the name, found a way to make them light and cheap, and started both an enormous fad and an enduring pastime.

That’s genius.