16 January 2008

Not For Lack Of Trying...



I had designs to do a sick exclusive on the Good Humour ice cream characters of my youth; namely Fat Frog and Bubbleo Bill (whom I mistakenly seem to remember as Bubbalo Bill?). Problem is they are nowhere to be found online. Like, nowhere. No pictures, no words, no nostalgic poetry, nothing. Talk about a conspiracy! Where's Dan Brown and Tom Hanks now?

Seems the novelty ice cream characters of our youth, like everything else in the world, have been co-opted to tie in with cartoons and movies now.

Back in my day Fat Frog and Bubbleo Bill were rogue heroes. They had no allegiance to anyone. No movie studios, no comic book companies, nothing. They were what they were. Tasty funny faced treats.

























Look at this poor bastard, Chip and Dale. Dudes don't even get their own bar. Instead we get some test tube amalgam of both characters? How cheap! That better not be a bubble gum nose like my man Bubbleo Bill had! I'll sue!

Seems like Good Humor is now just switching the faces a bit to ahere to their sponsor dujour.

That motherfuckin' Ninja Turtle ice cream dude (below) looks suspiciously like my man Fat Frog, may he rest in peace.

My man Bubbalo Bill was a cowboy with a bubblegum nose and I think he was part cookie like those WWF pops they still make.
Fat Frog was one mean mofo. He was green, he had M&M's for eyes and a hard chocolate candy back. Fat Frog was the fucking man.


Yeah, hello, Mr. Ninja Turtle motherfucker. You are a fraud. You are Fat Frog reborn as a turtle with a Zoro mask. You aren't fooling anyone!

Humiliated, I fired off a letter to my boys at Good Humor inquiring as to there whereabouts of my beloved Fat Frog and Bubbalo Bill and here's what they said:

"January 16, 2008

Dear Mr. XXXXXXX,


Thank you very much for contacting us. I am sorry to inform you that the Fat Frog and Bubbleo Bill products were discontinued many years ago.

Unfortunately we do not have any photos of them to send you.

Thank you


**Please do not respond to this email. This account will not accept incoming messages. If you need to communicate to us again, please visit our website at icecreamusa.com and reference your previous file #3069388"

Yeah, thanks. I smell a rat, a big fucking ice cream rat. Don't think I don't know what you're doing, Good Humor. I see you've torn the faces off Fat Frog and my man Bubbalo Bill and now you're replacing them with the flavours of the month, quite literally.

I've got my eye on you, Good Humor.



This photo truly sums it all up. The ice cream heroes of my youth, in the fucking trash.
** Next time we'll talk about my ice cream man, Sid, and we'll discuss Cookie Puss and Fudgie The Whale.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Fat frog was a vanilla based ice cream pop. The current character pops are fruit flavored ice. I think the only hold over from the golden 80's is the snoopy ice cream pop. Boo hoo. I feel you on the loss though.

Deirdre said...

I'm so glad that someone else tried to find Fat Frog online, and was incredibly disappointed to find nothing!

Unknown said...

Wow----I am not the only person looking for Fat Frog and Bubble-O-Bill (Bubleo I do not remember).

There was even a Fat Frog Commercial with a catchy jingle! Too bad there is no evidence of his sugary existance.

Great blog!

Unknown said...

holy shit, this was bothering the hell outta me also. i flagged down an ice cream truck last week and ended up with a ninja turtle cuz that was the closet thing to it. i found your blog while looking for a pic of fat frog

Unknown said...

Pic of fat frog! http://www.alleewillis.com/awmok/kitschenette/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/DSC00262-550x412.jpg

lipstickconservative said...

I ran a fat frog ice cream truck at a flea market in high school - go fat frogs!