I think if you rode around on something like that around the time it came out you got laughed at, or maybe it was "cool" for a year or so I dont know, I was too young to remember, but when BMXs came out (I was born at the same time about) being seen on a banana seat bike got you laughed at!
I remember seeing a bike very similar to that thing around the farm yard of an old friends house back in the 80s, I remember picking it up and thinking "Ugh what the hell is this, its a bicycle that wants to be a dirt bike!" good times.