Mr Blobby is a character on Noel Edmonds' Saturday night variety
television show Noel's House Party, portrayed by Barry Killerby, and was the
brainchild of British comedy writer Charlie Adams, a writer for the show. A
bulbous pink figure covered with yellow spots, he sports a permanent toothy grin
and jiggling eyes. Mr Blobby communicates only by saying the word
"blobby" in an electronically altered voice, expressing his moods through tone
of voice and repetition. Although popular, the character was not
well received critically. Origins
Mr Blobby first appeared in the 'Gotcha' segment of the second series of Noel's
House Party, in which celebrities were caught out in a Candid Camera style
prank. Mr Blobby was presented to the celebrities as if he were a real and
established children's television character, in order to record an episode
centred around the guests' profession. In truth, there was no "Mr. Blobby" TV
series, and he was created purely for the prank. Mr Blobby would clumsily take
part in the activity, knocking over the set, causing mayhem, and saying "blobby
blobby blobby." His childish and unprofessional behaviour was calculated
to irritate the celebrities taking part. When the prank was finally revealed the
Blobby costume would be opened, revealing Noel Edmonds inside.
Once the first 'Gotcha' segments had aired, Mr Blobby was no longer usable as
part of the 'Gotcha' sequences. He continued to make appearances on Noel's
House Party with various members of the production team donning the costume
created by artist Joshua Snow. Through Noel's House Party, Mr Blobby
was seen in short comedy sketches, 'guest-appearing' on other TV
programmes. Examples include Lovejoy, where he unintentionally broke antique
furniture, and Keeping Up Appearances, where he was seen making an impromptu
visit on Hyacinth and Richard Bucket, disrupting their kitchen.
Other appearances Mr Blobby was hired to make appearances
at events such as university balls. For example, he was the guest performer at
the University of Birmingham Spring Ball in 1994. John McLagan stood as "Mr
Blobby" in the Littleborough and Saddleworth by-election in 1995, having
changed his name by deed poll. He came seventh out of ten candidates, with 105
votes. He made regular appearances on Saturday morning show Live & Kicking and
Saturday evening show The Generation Game with Jim Davidson. Between 1997 and
2000 Mr Blobby made cameo appearances in the VHS releases, Women Exercising Madly
and VIP: Very Important Pennis Uncut. On 14 February 1998, Mr Blobby made a small
cameo appearance alongside Noel Edmonds in "Red Dwarf A-Z" during Red Dwarf
Night. On 22 Apr. 1998, Mr Blobby appeared as a guest during The Chuckle
Brothers' game-show To Me... To You..., and caused chaos! On 24 July 1998, Mr
Blobby starred in his own six-part BBC1 TV series "On Your Mars", alongside Mark
Speight and Tony Hart. He appeared on a Get Your Own Back Christmas special,
where he went on the Gunk Dunk to ask the questions when Dave Benson Phillips
was in the chair and because he could only say 'Blobby', Phillips got all the
questions wrong and was thrown in the gunge pool. It was therefore set up so
that he would go in. He also appeared briefly at the end of the 2001 Comic
Relief special of My Hero. Mr Blobby also made a surprise appearance at the
Witnness music festival, Fairyhouse Racecourse, County Meath, Ireland in the
summer of 2002. Blobby took to the stage and attempted to down a pint of
Guinness. He stopped while the glass was still half full to the jeers of the
crowd but quickly recovered to finish his pint and win the hearts and
affections of the crowd back. He was also a celebrity "Bungalowhead" on Dick
and Dom in da Bungalow, and appeared in the "cellar cage" in the final episode
of series four. In 2002 Mr Blobby appeared in pantomime in Croydon,
London. The character also appeared in the music video for Peter Kay's 2005
charity single "Is This the Way to Amarillo", where he was played by actor
Martin Jarvis. In a form of in-joke, Barry Killerby appeared on the 8 May
2006 edition of Dead Ringers as a contestant on a sketch spoofing Deal or
No Deal. He appeared again on the 29 May edition, this time in the Mr Blobby
costume. On 27 January 2007 Mr Blobby made an
appearance on Harry Hill's TV Burp in an EastEnders joke, where character Dot
Branning is in Pauline's kitchen, thinking an intruder is coming, grabs a
saucepan as weaponry and resorts to the corner of the kitchen. The door opens
and Dot says "You!" in disbelief. The camera cuts to the door and Mr Blobby is
standing there, starts screaming in his characteristic voice and proceeds to
smash up the kitchen, before Harry enters the set and knocks him
unconscious with a frying pan. Later in the episode he had a fight with Phil
Mitchell, to decide who was best at crashing through doors. On 8 September
2007, Mr Blobby made a cameo appearance at the beginning of Series 7 of Ant &
Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway. Just as Dec threw coffee on Ant's new suit, Ant
went to go and get changed and was replaced with Mr Blobby bursting through
the studio doors and causing mayhem nearly scaring the Sugababes who were at
present. On 24 October 2009, Mr Blobby made another appearance on Harry Hill's
TV Burp in another EastEnders joke with him being the father of Heather's baby.
Blobby made another appearance on 20 March 2010, this time in a joke centered
around Undercover Princesses; in which Princesses Sheillah Cinderella Nvannungi
comments on a patron at a restaurant she is working at as "too fat" and "too
pink" for her tastes, after which it is revealed she is referring Mr. Blobby,
who appears dismayed before smashing up the restaurant and attacking Sheillah
before being knocked unconscious by Harry once more. Mr Blobby makes an
appearance in the videos for "Chelsea Smile" and "The Comedown" by the band
Bring Me the Horizon. In 2012 he made an appearance on Channel 4's Big Fat Quiz
of the 90's giving the teams their final bonus question and terrifying panelist
Jack Whitehall at the same time. On Friday 13 November 2015, during Children
in Need night, Mr Blobby made a special appearance during a Harry Hill sketch in
which he was trying to reenact a whirlwind tour of the history of TV in
his own inimitable style. Criticism
Despite Blobby's lengthy tenure at the BBC, the character has received
significant criticism. In March 1994, Elizabeth Kolbert of The New York Times
wrote: "Mr. Blobby's rise to stardom has provoked anguished commentaries about
just what he stands for...Some commentators have called him a metaphor
for a nation gone soft in the head. Others have seen him as proof of
Britain's deep-seated attraction to trash." A Sun article published the
previous month had reported that Blobby reduced a young girl to tears after
throwing her birthday cake onto the floor during a show, causing the girl's
father to mount the stage and assault Blobby. Neville Crumpton, who owns the
rights to the character, said: "If the press can knock him, they'll knock him
whenever they can." A trio of failed Mr Blobby theme parks also resulted in
considerable negative press and scandal. Blobby's 1993 Christmas single "Mr
Blobby" is widely regarded as one of the worst songs ever recorded. His 1995
festive release "Christmas in Blobbyland" was voted the worst festive
song ever by British Christmas shoppers in a 2011 poll, and was named in the
Metro as the second-worst Christmas song of all time in 2013.
Journalist Tony Purnell declared in an April 1997 headline for The Mirror, "Mr
Blobby's not funny". Addressing the character's popularity, former longtime
BBC employee Sir Michael Parkinson confessed that he "really didn't get
it", and found him "far from amusing". In February 2009, Cole Moreton of The
Independent ranked Blobby number one in the "10 most irritating television
characters", asking: "Was there something in the water? Did the nation
really once fall about laughing at the clumsy antics of a bloke in a big pink
rubber costume with yellow blobs all over it?"
Music The Mr Blobby spoof theme song "Mr
Blobby" was released as a single, and hit #1 on the UK top 40 charts. A
follow-up single called "Christmas in Blobbyland" was released on 16 December
1995. The song failed to match the success of Blobby's first Christmas
release, peaking at #36. Mr Blobby had a wife, "Mrs Blobby", who was introduced
in "Mr Blobby's Holiday", with a personality similar to that of her
'husband'. Toys and merchandising
Around Christmas 1993, retailers came out with many types of Mr Blobby
merchandise. In addition to the CD or cassette tape single, you could purchase
Mr Blobby dolls, slippers, egg cups, condiment shakers, small cans of pink
lemonade, towels and other items. Lledo even made a die-cast Mr Blobby themed
pink, bull nosed Morris Van. Theme parks in Somerset and Morecambe
were created based on the Blobby character. Visitors could travel through
attractions such as Mr. Blobby's house. All of the parks have since closed.
Pleasurewood Hills theme park near Lowestoft also featured Mr Blobby and
Crinkly Bottom during the 1995 and 1996 seasons. Pleasurewood Hills is still
operating to this day. Theme parks
An agreement with Unique, Noel Edmonds' merchandising company, to use the
"Crinkley Bottom" theme at Happy Mount Park, Morecambe, led to large losses, a
local scandal toppling councillors and finally an auditor's investigation,
which reported in 2004 that "the Council's decision to proceed with the
Theme Park was, on the basis of information available to Members and
officers in March 1994, imprudent and failed to give due regard to the
interests of local taxpayers." The auditor noted "the failure of the
Council to carry out market research, the failure to make informed estimates
of likely attendance figures, the absence of a design concept, the absence
of a detailed specification, the absence of an accurate financial forecast and
the imprecise drafting of the Heads of Terms", concluding that "the Council
entered into an open ended commitment without knowing what it was going to get
for local taxpayers' money." Council losses stood at £2.5 million. Unique
successfully sued the council, whose activities were described as "imprudent,
irrational and even unlawful", for £950,000.
Similar parks in Lowestoft and Somerset also failed to outlive the 1990s with
the Somerset site being vandalised and used for raves following its closure.
Footnotes References
Death of comedy writer Charlie Adams - creator of Mr Blobby
External links http:www.bbc.co.ukilove1993/toys3.shtml