Talking Potatoes: Couch Potato "Very few words have a birthday so precise, and so precisely known, as couch potato. It was on July 15, 1976, we are told, that couch potato came into being, uttered by Tom Iacino of Pasadena, California, during a telephone conversation. He was a member of a Southern California group humorously opposing the fads of exercise and healthy diet in favor of vegetating before the TV and eating junk food (1973). Because their lives centered on television--the boob tube (1966)--they called themselves boob tubers. Iacino apparently took the brilliant next step and substituted potato as a synonym for tuber. Thinking of where that potato sits to watch the tube, he came up with couch potato. Or so the story goes, as told in the subsequent registration of Couch Potato as a trademark. In any case, when the new phrase reached the ears of Robert Armstrong, another member of the boob tubers, he drew a cartoon of a potato on a couch, formed a club called the Couch Potatoes, registered
the trademark and began merchandising Couch Potato paraphernalia, from
T shirts to dolls. He published a newsletter called The Tuber's Voice:
The Couch Potato Newsletter
If the story ended there, couch potato would have been as passing a fad as the "pet rock" (1975) of the same vintage. But since the 1970s the tube has grown more alluring and the couch potato culture more compelling, especially with the 1980s invention of the zapper (1985), or remote control. No longer a cartoon character, the couch potato is now one of us."---Answers.com Wordsmith Radio adds this: "The term couch potato has been with us long enough now that a dictionary editors recognize it as a permanent member of our lexicon. A couch potato, according to the American Heritage College Dictionary, is "a person who spends much time sitting or lying down, usually watching television. Taken with the name and the concept, the group of TV addicts got off the couch to appear in the 1979 "Doo-Dah Parade," a parody of the Tournament of Roses event held in Pasadena. Assembing themselves on a float carrying TVs and "ceremonial couches," the couch potatoes lounged passively, unashamedly watching television for the duration of the parade. Encouraged by the Doo-Dah crowd's enthusiastic support, the couch potatoes trademarked their name, marketing bumper stickers, caps, and stuffed couch potato dolls, even publising a newsletter called The Tuber's Voice: The Couch Potato's Newsletter. And why the potato emblem for the couch lifestyle?
Lumpy, heavy, and inert, the tuber lounges on its soft divan, training
its many eyes on the television screen, for endless hours. Steve Krupp's Curio Shop has more: Most people use the term "couch potato" (for habitual TV-viewers) without awareness of its origin. Cartoonist/musician Bob Armstrong invented the term.
Armstrong co-founded the original Couch Potatoes as a fraternal organization of admitted TV-worshippers in his native Pasadena CA. He was also smart enough to trademark the term. So when ubiquitous TV Guide (with its enormous '70s circulation) trumpeted the odd fez-wearing Potatoes
in a major article, and the wire services followed, "couch potato" became an instant part of the American language. And Bob, until pirates wore him down, made a nice little living licensing the trademark for Coleco dolls and other merchandise.
The Potatoes were an unabashedly all-male club but under spousal pressure formed an auxiliary club for women called the Couch Tomatoes (motto: "Equal Rights to the Couch.") Armstrong sold C.P. and Couch Tomato memberships which included nifty buttons, created under commission from Kitchen Sink.
Couch Potatoes® - The society
for the prolonged viewing of television. The Couch Potatoes
® organization feels that "in a country where there are more
homes with televisions than with indoor plumbing," it was time
for television watchers to "come out of the closet and lie down
and be counted." Their motto (emblazoned on official T-shirts worn
while watching the tube) read: "Sic Semper Potatum Reclinus."
Their official emblem (circular in shape) depicts a large spud reclining
on a couch in front of a TV set. It was designed by underground cartoonist
and illustrator, Bob Armstrong, one of the nine Couch Potato® elders.
The organization (now defunct) included both "Couch Potatoes®"
and "Tater Tots" (the younger members). The children were
encouraged to watch as much TV as possible stressing historical programming
like DAVY CROCKETT, YANCY DERRINGER and THE LIFE AND LEGEND OF WYATT
EARP. Watching shows such as SESAME STREET or THE ELECTRIC COMPANY was
a violation of one of their ten commandments: "Thou shalt not watch
anything educational or British." Watch a Couch Potato Doll video ad from Coleco. Fighting Back: Saving the Potato's Image
A group in Massachusetts in the late 80's organized
The Potato Anti-Defamation League as the potato's response to the negative
association with prolonged tv viewing. UK Farmers want "couch potato" removed
from the dictionary because they believe the expression is damaging
the vegetable's image.
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