Mr Blobby

Mr Blobby
First appearance	Noel's House Party
Created by	Charlie Adams
Portrayed by	Barry Killerby
Information
Gender	Male

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 (17 December 1997), 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 (played by lead singer Oliver Sykes). 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 Mr Blobby "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 on 22 November 1993 as a single, and hit #1 on the UK top 40 charts. A follow-up single called "Christmas in Blobbyland" was released on 4 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 (no longer in production), 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.

References

• Death of comedy writer Charlie Adams - creator of Mr Blobby

External links

• http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/ilove/years/1993/toys3.shtml