The US loves Mr Blobby. Actually, let’s clarify that a little: a clutch of American Redditors have just discovered Mr Blobby via a YouTube video of his 2012 Big Fat Quiz of the 90s appearance, and their uncomprehending howls of confusion – sample comments include “I feel like I just took acid” and “It’s like Paul Blart: Mall Cop fucked a Minion” – have spread across the internet like wildfire.
Perhaps you are one of those Redditors. Perhaps you’ve only seen that one video – in which Mr Blobby howls like Linda Blair in The Exorcist, throws himself through a wall, loses an eye and then dies – and you’re keen to know exactly how this berserk creation came to be. If that’s the case, please treat this as your definitive Mr Blobby explainer.
Who is Mr Blobby?
Mr Blobby was the brainchild of writer Charlie Adams. He first appeared on Noel’s House Party, a 1990s light-entertainment programme broadcast on Saturday evenings, much in the vein of your recent failed Neil Patrick Harris vehicle Best Time Ever. Noel’s House Party was hosted by Noel Edmonds, an egomaniac powerhouse who looked like the cowardly lion from The Wizard of Oz after attending a regional networking seminar, strongly advocated the practise of cosmic ordering and to this day keeps attempting to buy the BBC like a wayward baddie in a Muppet film.
Noel’s House Party included a Candid Camera-style hidden camera segment called the Gotcha Oscars (later renamed The Gotchas after a threat of legal action by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences), whereby Edmonds would spend a day gleefully attempting to psychologically destroy one of his peers in what can only be described as a demented power move. Mr Blobby became a semi-regular fixture in the Gotcha Oscars, as the hapless star of a disastrous fictional children’s TV show where celebrities would demonstrate their trade.
Here’s professional dancer Wayne Sleep being driven to the point of madness by Mr Blobby. And here, in possibly the zenith of Mr Blobby’s career, is former England rugby captain Will Carling slowly becoming consumed by pure hatred.
Was Mr Blobby really that popular?
Unfortunately, yes. Mr Blobby became a sensation immediately, which effectively killed his career. Unable to perform in any more Gotchas, he became a bit-part player on House Party, turning up sporadically to break something or fall over. His debut single, Mr Blobby, quickly gained a reputation as one of the worst ever, despite being the 1993 Christmas No 1 and spawning a video starring Jeremy Clarkson. At this point, despite lingering on for a few more years, Mr Blobby became a widely despised irritant, described by no less than the New York Times as “a metaphor for a nation gone soft in the head”.
I want to visit the UK and pay homage to Mr Blobby. Can I do this?
To some extent, yes. Once Edmonds saw what a potential cash cow Mr Blobby was, he quickly plastered his face on whatever tatty merchandise he could. Most notorious were a trio of Blobbyland theme parks – featuring such attractions as a fibreglass hut called Dunblobbin and the world’s most dismal miniature train ride – in Morecambe, Somerset and Lowestoft.
These were cynically designed, sparsely filled disasters – in 1994, the Somerset park played host to my most miserable birthday yet – and gained such a toxic reputation that they quickly closed. However – until recently, at least – the Somerset park has remained fenced off and ghoulishly abandoned, a decayed sarcophagus for the ills of unchecked capitalism. If you can find it, this is where you should pay your respects to your newly beloved Mr Blobby.
