Articulating Mr. Blobby’s Genius is an Almost-Impossible Feat

December 29, 2021 12:50 PM

Mr Blobby Is the Anti-Capitalist Agent of Chaos Banksy Never Was
posted by chavenet (25 comments total)

" The proverbial frosting on the cake is his multicolored bow tie — usually the only clothing he wears. This accessory gives him the distinct aura of a horror movie clown"

Sans-culotte in a new cool tie.
posted by clavdivs at 1:28 PM on December 29, 2021 [3 favorites]

This reminds me of fellow anti-capitalist icon Gritty, similarly an agent of chaos
posted by an octopus IRL at 1:29 PM on December 29, 2021 [10 favorites]

The first time I encountered Mr. Blobby as an American was his appearance on the Big Fat Quiz (the "on a British game show" link in the article). I was delighted by the actor's enthusiasm and physical-comedy chops - the faceplant was especially impressive. Having watched some of the other videos, I wonder if the actor varies; sometimes Blobby seems like an overeager bumbling oaf, sometimes just full of pure aggressive destruction. I like the oafish one, the pure aggro not so much.
posted by Greg_Ace at 1:35 PM on December 29, 2021 [4 favorites]

When they took off the mask they found out it was actually Guy Debord the whole time.
posted by deadaluspark at 1:35 PM on December 29, 2021 [7 favorites]

Mr Blobby is absolutely one of the strangest things to come out of 90s TV, and he was born out of a need for the chaotic and anti-authority - that was his whole reason to be.

The article doesn't explain it in depth, but originally he was part of a 'show within a show' on the variety show 'Noel's House Party'. In a pre-filmed segment, each week a different celebrity would be pranked - a process known as a 'Gotcha!' (c.f. 'Oscar').

Often this would involve the celeb being conned into filming for a fake kid's TV show with Mr Blobby. The antics of the actor in the Mr Blobby costume would escalate and the celeb would be asked to do steadily more insane things, and got more wound up. It would cumilate in the show's star (Noel Edmonds) revealing it was him in the costume and the celeb had been 'Gotcha'd'.

Of course, this only worked for one season as everyone knew to watch out for Mr Blobby after it aired, but luckily the character was a break out star - Vice had a great article on it all https://www.vice.com/en/article/qj85mq/mr-blobby-oral-history-television

He was always 100% anarchy.

It's fascinating that he's now touted as sort of anticapitalist though. During his main incarnation as a 'star' on prime-TV, his face was sold on everything from calendars to bath sponges and a failed theme park. (A great episode of the podcast Crash Bang Wallop is on the failed theme park. https://audioboom.com/posts/7100925-crinkley-bottom-theme-park-1994)

As you might tell I was a kid at just the right time to be fascinated by this, I've been following the savagely brutal Blobby twitter account for a while. I think my sister had a Blobby soft toy that said 'Blobby blobby blobby' when cuddled. It's kind of haunting.
posted by NoiselessPenguin at 1:43 PM on December 29, 2021 [6 favorites]

It's fascinating that he's now touted as sort of anticapitalist though. During his main incarnation as a 'star' on prime-TV, his face was sold on everything from calendars to bath sponges and a failed theme park. (A great episode of the podcast Crash Bang Wallop is on the failed theme park. https://audioboom.com/posts/7100925-crinkley-bottom-theme-park-1994)

That's recuperation for you. They take anything Anarchic and make it safe and palatable for the masses. Essentially, they tried to rein him in so they could sell him. I've seen this happen a lot. The community organized /r/RandomActsofPizza spawned Mars Chocolate's "Random Acts of Chocolate" (TM) (R), which was pushed as an ad campaign within a year of the first post in RAoP.

Good thing for us you can't stop anarchy. Rock over London, Rock on, Chicago!
posted by deadaluspark at 1:50 PM on December 29, 2021 [9 favorites]

Is chaos actually anti-capitalistic?
posted by paper chromatographologist at 2:29 PM on December 29, 2021 [5 favorites]

The UK has a lot to answer for. Let’s start with Mr. Blobby. The costume is bad enough, but that voice of damnéd souls crying out in horror is the worst.

Compared to that, Banksy is just a third-rate stencil painter.
posted by JustSayNoDawg at 2:32 PM on December 29, 2021 [1 favorite]

Mr. Blobby had escaped my notice: Google says Mr. Blobby was portrayed by Barry Killerby (1992–2015) and Paul Denson (2015-present)

Mr. Blobby is definitely my kind of light entertainment shooting, 100% of the time, for a point two miles over the top
posted by From Bklyn at 2:38 PM on December 29, 2021 [1 favorite]

Mr. Blobby is Banksy.


Obviously.
posted by Liquidwolf at 3:36 PM on December 29, 2021 [1 favorite]

Blobvioskly!
posted by Greg_Ace at 3:45 PM on December 29, 2021 [2 favorites]

Is chaos actually anti-capitalistic?

I mean, capitalism wants to have infinite growth in a finite system while physics wants everything to eventually turn to entropy.

So, you tell me.
posted by deadaluspark at 4:28 PM on December 29, 2021 [1 favorite]

How many of them entropies can I get per dollar?
posted by Greg_Ace at 4:44 PM on December 29, 2021 [2 favorites]

portrayed by Barry Killerby (1992–2015)

Jesus. 23 years of being Mr Blobby. By the end he can't have been anything more than a flesh suit, his soul hollowed out.
posted by biffa at 4:49 PM on December 29, 2021 [5 favorites]

There's a vein of utter anarchy running through the history of British comedy, and Mr Blobby would not exist if Rod Hull and Emu hadn't existed first. Here's America's first introduction to their unique style of humour, via the Tonight Show, Johnny Carson and Richard Pryor.
posted by Hogshead at 5:00 PM on December 29, 2021 [7 favorites]

There's a vein of utter anarchy through the history of British comedy.

Thats a fine crisp-cute line of a trillion laughs. I suspect the weekly run -sheets of Mr.' Blobby resembled a claw run Jug, dry towards the end though not Benny Hill dry, John Bird arid. To counter such peckish anarchist tendencies, Historically, I believe, is remeded HERE and Again.

cuffs down, chin moulded, the gyre tyre has 30 arye gauges sharing one hub.
posted by clavdivs at 6:26 PM on December 29, 2021 [3 favorites]

From what I can tell he's a goofy British clown who smashes stuff, there was never any kind of actual anti-capitalist message, before or after his supposed recuperation. Say what you will about Banksy, as subtext-free as his art is, it at least generally has a clear message that your average person can understand. If Mr Blobby is anti-capitalist agitprop, it's not very effective, because it seems to have gone over the heads of pretty much everyone who watched it. If you're trying to get the masses to agitate for revolution, having your message be so cryptic that only the most navel-gazey art majors will understand it turns out to actually be a bad idea! There's a reason the communist manifesto wasn't delivered via an interpretive dance routine.

Slightly off-topic, but it seems to me that pro-anarchist propaganda should really focus a lot more on the utopian society that's supposed to come at the end of it, and a lot less about how much fun it would be to burn everything down. To the politically uninformed, AKA the people that a revolution would need to convince, the latter message makes anarchists seem functionally indistinguishable from the rhetoric spread by any given far-right militia. The glorification of violence for the sake of violence right into the hands of every boomer conservative who says that anarchists just want wonton violence.

Oh, and also anarchism is a very iffy idea that probably doesn't work on a level larger than small tribes, and would almost certainly be disastrous if implemented. I'm not a huge fan of governments and hierarchies of power, but excuse me if I don't want to have a violent revolution just so I can roll the dice on that one.
posted by ThisIsAThrowaway at 8:35 PM on December 29, 2021 [3 favorites]

We need to get Mr. Blobby together with NyangoStar.
posted by technodelic at 9:48 PM on December 29, 2021 [2 favorites]

>How many of them entropies can I get per dollar?
20, gve or take losses to chaos. Same as in blobby-blobbyblobbyblobby.
posted by k3ninho at 11:54 PM on December 29, 2021 [4 favorites]

Two long standing theories of my own.
Mr. Blobby is, based on physical appearance and voice modulation, either:
a) what's inside of a Dalek
b) made of clown meat
Or perhaps both?
posted by bartleby at 12:07 AM on December 30, 2021 [1 favorite]

>every boomer conservative who says that anarchists just want wonton violence.

To be fair, that is the stated goal of the Anarcho-syndicalist Culinary Workers of China

I'll see my self out
posted by kleinsteradikaleminderheit at 12:51 AM on December 30, 2021 [9 favorites]

Previously.
posted by Ashwagandha at 5:41 AM on December 30, 2021 [1 favorite]

Blade Runner but Mr. Blobby


Another favorite is Mr. Blobby on the Big Fat Quiz Show terrorizing Jimmy Parr and Jack Whitehall.

"Genuinely distressing." "How the fuck were you allowed near kids!?"
posted by loquacious at 11:49 AM on December 30, 2021 [1 favorite]

> Oh, and also anarchism is a very iffy idea that probably doesn't work on a level larger than small tribes, and would almost certainly be disastrous if implemented.

Now we know!
posted by user92371 at 6:44 PM on December 30, 2021 [2 favorites]

Oh, and also anarchism is a very iffy idea that probably doesn't work on a level larger than small tribes, and would almost certainly be disastrous if implemented.

Now do capitalism.
posted by biffa at 6:23 PM on December 31, 2021 [3 favorites]