It was nothing but a funny joke back in the 1987 Mel Brooks classic Star Wars parody, Spaceballs—cans of clean, fresh air to be inhaled through the nostrils by residents of Spaceballs, who have very little good air remaining, until they can steal all of the air of the planet Druidia for themselves—but now it has somehow found a way to become a reality, as so many things from movies tend to do.

Beginning yesterday, Chinese billionaire Chen Guangbiao launched his new product, cans of air called “Good Person Chen Guangbiao” (seriously), with photographic instructions on how to use them. We get the feeling was inspired by something else. You can see the images below.

Each can of Chen’s air costs 4 to 5 yuan ($0.63 to $0.79), and is fill with the freshest air reaped, err…produced, ahh…harvested…from Wuhe county in Anhui province and Taiwan, as well as other low-pollution areas such as Qinghai, Sichuan, Yunnan, and Tibet in southwest and northwest China.

The process is quite simple, really, as Chen puts a chip in each can so that his staff need only “swing their hands three times to push the air into the can,” which will close automatically when the chip reads that the can is full.

Many folks aren’t so impressed, understandably, as Chen says it’s all to increase consciousness of the growing pollution problems and doing more to improve the planet. Of course it’s hard to imagine all these cans are made by hand, and mass producing them could prove…dirty. There’s also the whole thing about bottling the air we’re all welcome to breathe on this planet, and then selling it to folks. You can see why some are a tad agitated.

Still, it was only a matter of time before someone tries it. At least Chen is sending 0.10 yuan from every can sold to charity.

If you lived in a major city with pollution problems, would you pick up a case of canned air?

[Source: Kotaku, China.org]