10 Times a pitch got roasted by Mark Cuban on Shark Tank

Having a sharp acumen for business, being brutally honest, and seamlessly wheeling out the witty roasts in Shark Tank, definitely shaped Mark Cuban's celebrity. Being a billionaire investor, he has seen it all-from brilliant to questionable concepts and downright ridiculous pitches. While some wow him with their innovation and strategy, others become cringe-worthy. When Cuban sees something he believes to be wrong, he sometimes pleas for no more than good common sense appear to be lost. Be it bacon-cooking alarm clocks or plastic "phones" that do nothing, he has never held back his disdain for the impractical, absurd, and downright dumb concepts. His in-your-face critiques will go down in history as some of the most memorable on Shark Tank, where his scathing rebuttals implored sarcasm, exasperation, and even laughter.

But amid the comedy, Cuban's most galling critiques are always couched in salvific business lessons, such as the need for scalability, the demand for large markets, financial strategy, etc. From cringe-worthy bird feeders to gold-generating machines, here are some ten times Mark Cuban has utterly graded a pitch on Shark Tank-boldly at times, sarcastically at other instances, and sometimes even worth an investment.

1. Mark Cuban Mocked This Cat-Drawing Business—Then Shocked Everyone by Investing

Mark Cuban thought it was hilarious that Steve Gadlin had a funny little business drawing stick-figure cats for anyone who would pay him for it. He sarcastically called it "the most ridiculous business I've ever seen" and proceeded to grill Gadlin on why anybody would pay for that kind of thing. But Cuban shocked everyone by offering Gadlin $25,000, thereby undertaking proof that even crazy ideas can have market viability. The deal turned out quite nicely: Gadlin sold thousands of cat drawings, and Cuban said it was one of the strangest yet profitable investments he has ever made. Cuban even acknowledged, after sort of roasting Gadlin, that novelty sells.

2. The “Gold-Generating” Machine That Made Cuban Lose His Patience

Mark Sullivan fired a bold statement: his invention would generate electricity and even gold from ocean water, which immediately raised eyebrows-skeptical ones. Cuban was upset visibly due to cutting through the nonsense: "This is one among the dumbest things that I have ever heard." He was not alone, no Shark, of course, bought into Sullivan's vague, unproven science. Cuban dismissed it outright, stressing that such an idea was worthless without any evidence in a real-world scenario. Such an event thereafter was ushered into the annals of Shark Tank history as one of the most famously ludicrous pitches.

3. An Alarm Clock That Cooks Bacon? Cuban Called It a Fire Hazard

What an ideal morning dream for every breakfast lover-an alarm clock that would cook bacon. But not for Mark Cuban. He immediately asked the obvious question: "Are you aware that you are creating a fire hazard?" The Sharks laughed as Cuban savagely scored the proposal: "This thing does not even take safety into consideration." And while it had a marvelous gimmick, all the investors were stumped by that liability threat. Wake N' Bacon never saw the light of day, and Cuban's roast will always stand as a cautionary tale about the importance of practicality over gimmicks. It was clearly a blunt reaction: innovation is not just a catchy idea.

4. Three-Sock Packs? Cuban Didn’t See the Point

Edwin Heaven was a man who thought he had resolved a universal problem: the issue of missing socks. This is where his idea came to sell socks in sets of three instead of pairs. But Cuban was not impressed. He asked, "What is stopping any other sock company from doing this?" and sent everything else tumbling down as unnecessary. There wasn't any traction for the business; most likely the truth in Cuban's statement design would be easily copied by any brand-was the reason. Throx attracted a small niche clientele, but it did not change the sock industry.

5. A Fake Phone to Cure Addiction? Cuban Wasn’t Buying It

The NoPhone—nothing more than a block of plastic resembling a smartphone—has put Cuban seething. "You sold a piece of plastic to people as innovation? Give me a break." He saw through the ruse and just wouldn't entertain the pitch as any kind of serious business. So what if Cuban basically took NoPhone to task? It found its niche audience among gag gift buyers, and the company sold thousands of NoPhones. They even introduced a "NoPhone Air," which was literally nothing more than an empty package. Albert, sharpen your claws; this one isn't for you. However, it proved someone that who marketed absurdity well could still make dollars.

6. Cuban’s Brutal Reality Check for a Motorcycle Movie Pitch

A pitch about a motorcycle racing movie came under fire from Mark Cuban's sarcasm. "So your business plan is to make a movie, cross your fingers, and hope it makes money?" There was no clear financial strategy, and with that Shark immediately shut down the idea including Cuban. Cuban is an investor in vast media and sports; he knows well that filmmaking is nothing risky without backers, majorly. Ended up with nothing to show, and Track Days never turned out to be a blockbuster. Hence, Cuban had proved right. His criticism revealed the harshest truths about the business of entertainment.

7. A Shock-Delivering Bird Feeder? Cuban Was Appalled

At first, to Cuban, the bird feeder that could electrocute squirrels seemed more like a prank than an actual product. He was disgusted and yelled, "You want me to invest in animal cruelty?" That pretty much ended the deal as the concept was ethically dubious. The inventor tried to defend that the weak electric shock was harmless, but Cuban was not buying it. The product made it to the market and then flopped. Cuban made a point by rejecting it that an idea shouldn't just be profitable; it must also be morally sound.

8. Cuban’s Epic Takedown of a Shock Therapy Wristband

Pavlok, a wristband created to zap people into breaking bad habits, would quickly prove one of the most contentious pitches in Shark Tank's history. A particularly irate Mark Cuban called the entrepreneur "a con artist" and picked apart the business model. "You are the worst kind of entrepreneur. You are a wantrepreneur," he snapped. He guided his doubt from the lack of scientific backing and the product's reliance on pseudoscience. However, for all of Cuban's biting words, Pavlok eventually squeezed into a market and kept selling on the web. That's how Cuban stomped on lovely dreck with his uncompromised approach.

9. A Firefighter’s Million-Dollar Mistake That Left Cuban Fuming

The firefighter's creation of a fire hose adapter with a quick-connect mechanism seemed like a brilliant idea—until the inventor refused to negotiate. Cuban initially praised the product but became frustrated when the inventor showed no flexibility on the equity. He snapped, bellowing, “You are an idiot! You just threw away a lifetime opportunity.” The pitch is one of the most painful deals to have slipped through the fingers of the show. Despite Cuban's eruption of frustration, the product still attained some level of success in the marketplace; however, with the backing of a Shark, it could have changed the game. This was simply a lesson in negotiations gone wrong.

10. A Scraper Broom That Swept Cuban’s Patience Away

Originally a broom with a built-in scraper sounded like a practical invention. But not Cuban. He pummeled the inventor about the complete absence of a solid business plan to which he bluntly remarked: "You don't even know what you're doing. It's ridiculous." Now, that was not a terrible idea, but Cuban's blood boiled because of the entrepreneurs' lack of preparation vision. The product eventually surfaced on the internet, though without a Shark's investment, it could never gain real traction. That was the lesson Cuban reacted to: that an idea alone would win the day, but only when the entrepreneur was prepared to pitch.