PopCereal (pōp sērē el) n. 1. the certain bit of socially transmitted trivial behavior patterns, arts, beliefs, institutions, and all other products of human work and thought beloved by the generation of the Saturday morning cartoon 2.pop culture at garage sale prices
Friday, May 26, 2006
"hey good lookin'..."
A PopCereal pop quiz for you. Off the top of your noggin, rattle me off a line of dialogue from any TV commercial from 30 years ago. No fair chanting "Where's the beef?" or "I can't believe I ate the whole thing" 'cause, well, by design those taglines and slogans were made to stay locked within your brain matter for a half life of a million years.
There's one line that I know of that's been stained on my brain since my youth:
"Hey good lookin'! I'll be back to pick you up later."
No doubt that if you're a Saturday Morning kid like I was, then you'll remember that familiar and hammy refrain, along with the images of the black dude jive-turkeyin' his way down the street and the "professional entertainer" precticing her guitar while singing into their Mr. Microphones.
Mister Microphone has got to be the cheesiest commercial I've ever seen. And that's a good thing! How else would Mr. Miller have remembered Mr. Microphone unless it had a cheez factor of 108? Leave it to Ron Popeil to hotwire our memory, once again, with one of his pop culture inventions. I don't know that I knew one person who actually owned a Mr. Microphone, but damned if it wasn't on many a top 10 list come Christmastime. Right along with the Pocket Fisherman!
LOL!!! I was ecstatic to receive a Mr. Microphone one Christmas morning. I can vividly picture that commercial with that pick-up line -- what a blast from the past :-)
ReplyDeleteAs far as commercials from thirty years ago, how about the ominous voice saying, "It takes a steady hand. . ." as you watched a game of "Operation" in progress.
I'm not sure if this was the catch-phrase, or not, but another line I remember is:
ReplyDelete"Thanks for the gumball, Mickey!"
That was (naturally) from the commercial for the Mickey Mouse Gumball Machine.
Hey, did the Snoopy Sno-Cone machine have a tagline?
I don't remember the Mickey Mouse line, and you'd think I'd know the Snoopy one because I prayed to the sno-cone machine gods (to no avail).
ReplyDeleteI'm trying to see what I can remember without Googling, and now I can't get past, "YOU SANK MY BATTLESHIP!"
Oh god, I was referencing that Mr. Microphone line just this month! Strange how stuff so stupid can stick in your head and come up thirty years later.
ReplyDeleteDo you mean useless stuff like how many licks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop?
ReplyDelete