Hasta La Ideas

Australian kitchen goods company Dreamfarm, which notably has an in-house design team, produces these:

They’re called Clongs (partly because they have a click-lock in the manner of ballpoint pen, and partly because, well, Australia), and the simple design change of adding elbows keeps mess off of the counter. Alternatively, you can flip it over to hook the elbow-pits onto the edge of a pan.

As someone who uses tongs in the kitchen a fair bit and always forgets to set up a rest for them, I call these brilliant.