Vlog: Popeye Shredded Bubble Gum!
A new feature is up, covering ten more old comic book ads. Good ones, too. Everything from Game Genies to Brach’s Rocks. Read it.
…or read it after you watch today’s video, in which I examine Popeye Shredded Bubble Gum.
Made in 1981 and likely inspired by Big League Chew, Popeye’s gum has not aged well. The video will prove this. 
I was just pulling an all nighter listing stuff on Ebay and Craigslist and this was a great end to my night before I head to bed. Thank you Matt like always.
So is the “Pup-eye” pronunciation a regional thing?
I always appreciate your taking one for the team on these issues.
The cackling laugh sound effect while you were processing the taste had me rolling. Never knew this existed but in theory it’s pretty brilliant.
Ugh that looked painful. Doesn’t the sugar ferment over time or is 30 years too long and just decays?
To quote Poopdeck Pappy from the Popeye movie: “Eat your spinach, you no good infink. Eat it. EAT IT. Eat it.”
Wow, I have to admit the color of that gum held up really well! I just always think back to your Garfield Fruit Snack review from the days of yore when I think of old candies now.
I don’t know if I would eat gum that is as old as me seems kinda like a bad idea. You’re a brave and maybe a bit insane soul Matt.
Sometime in the past year I had some form of gum that disintegrated like that. I think I had left it in the car during the 100 degree summer days we get here. The heat had a really bad effect on it come fall when I tried to chew a piece it just turned into nothing but at least it didn’t taste like poison.
Matt, please don’t die from chewing 31-year-old gum.
By the way, that music is awesome. I know literally everyone has already said that and I know what album it comes from but I just had to throw that out there. I have not yet had coffee. Cut me some slack.
As someone with the strange taste to have a Facebook profile image of Walt Kelly’s Porky Pine, I always feel like noting the incredible disparity between Fleischer (and other animated) Popeyes and the original Segar one.
Comic strip Popeye was basically never beat up, ever, and almost never ate spinach (and rarely dealt with Bluto, either!), and I’ve come to like this version of him an awful lot more (I suddenly found myself very tired of the formula for the animated one–Popeye gets beat up, manages to acquire Spinach, theme plays, he beats up Bluto or whom/whatever…)
I do recommend checking those books out.
Actually, prior to Porky Pine, I actually had Popeye himself in his first appearance, with that immortal line: “‘Ja think I’m a cowboy?”
Okay, I apologize and you can go about your business.
I remember and loved this stuff. Sold it at a tobacco shop in our mall, which is long gone. Thanks!
I loved this stuff. Would get it from a tobacco shop in our mall (which is long gone) when I was a wee tyke….
Jerrod, my husband, a lifelong Bronx resident, also pronounces it Pup-eye. This is one of the very few things about him that grates on me without end. I’ve been trying to condition him out of it for years by whispering POPEYE into his ear while he sleeps, to no effect. This morning, when I heard XEMatt say Pupeye, I had no choice but to shake my head sadly, turn off my computer, and drown myself in the tub.
I’ll have to second “pup-eye” as an east coast thing. I grew up in jersey and the way Matt says popeye is the way I’ve always said it.
Looking at the ingredients, I think we’re lucky that back in 1981, candy was still relatively pure. I can’t imagine that current chemicals would stand up anywhere near three decades without tasting even worse. Although, maybe they would becasue there’d be more preservatives. Like Clark Griswold’s Long Life Preservative milk in Vegas Vacation.
The way I say “Popeye” is, I think, the standard around here. If I’m saying “pupeye,” believe me, I don’t know it.
I tried the gum because in my vast experiences with old food, gum is usually the safest thing. This time, aside from the quick dissolving to betray its rancidity, it also just tasted awful. The odd thing is that it looked very fresh.
@Annette: I love this music; I’m gonna have to change it up soon, but it’s hard to let go.
@FangsFirst: My Popeye expertise is iffy, but my favorite “Popeye thing” is that “Sinbad” short, which aside from being actually-truly-hilarious at points, is visually INSANE, mixing medias and just being totally mesmerizing. I used to watch it all the time.
“They make candy … not miracles.”
Quoting you back at yourself is my way of saying I like it.
pupeye is popeye’s nephew! along with pipeye, peepeye, and poopeye.
Steve, I am 99.5% certain you are throwing lies my way.
Funny you should review this; I just picked up the three Popeye cartoon sets Warners put out a while back on eBay, along with countless shorts on a public domain cartoon set my stepsister gave me for Christmas. There were four nephews in some of the later Popeye shorts on the public domain discs; I’m assuming they’re the ones Steve mentioned.
After watching this, the only thing I want to know is… What’s in the moose mug?
You grabbed your chest as if the gum was going to give you a heart attack. You would have a very pathetic gravestone, for sure, “Matt: Chewed old gum, kind of dumb.”
Lol, everything about this video is great. The music, those wonderful awkward gaps you leave. The wretchedness of the gum, It’s pure hilarity.
I have an urge to get a package of Big League Chew, cram the whole wad of gum in my mouth, and chew like the wind.
I could tell by the way you were looking at that pack of gum before you even opened it that you didn’t want to try it. The look on your face just said, “Ugh.” Yet you powered through and took on for the team. And we thank you.
steve is right, Rev. Popeye’s nephews are indeed named Pipeye, Peepeye, Pupeye, and Poopeye.
I didn’t notice how Matt pronounced “Popeye,” but I know I live on the east coast and I don’t say “Pupeye.” I say “Popeye.” Maybe it’s a northeast thing? Maybe it’s just a New York thing?
Love this vid. Then again, I love all things Popeye. Now I want some of this crap, rancid or not.
@ Matt – The Sinbad short is terrific, but If you ever come across it, the 1933-1938 Volume 1 DVD set is well worth a purchase. There is a lot of genuinely funny stuff in those cartoons, and Popeye is at his badass best. Really excellent shorts on par with any of the other “top tier” cartoons of the day. Vol. 2 (1938-1940) is okay, worth owning for “Goonland” alone, but the studios where the cartoons were animated were moved from NYC to Miami in 1938, and the quality of the cartoons dipped in all aspects, IMO. Worse yet, they started turning Popeye cutesy and steadily “wimpifying” him. Vol. 3 (1941-1943) IMO isn’t very good at all. I always hated the wartime shorts.
But, that Volume 1 DVD set, quintessential Popeye. Also, the original E.C. Segar comic strips have all been released, and they’re ALL worth a read.
Yes, I loves me some Popeye.
BTW, I’m in the midwest, and I’ve always heard it pronounced as “Pop-Eye”, except for my mom, who always says “Pup-Eye”. Drives me nuts.
Oh man. I remember seeing a neighbor girl chewing this gum but it woulda been more like 91 than 81 and this doesn’t seem like one of those products that would still be on shelves 10 years later. Either it was more popular than I would give it credit for or that chick was chewing 10 year old gum. On the other hand she also enjoyed the rock hard shards of grey gum that came in the TMNT trading card packs, so maybe she just had a thing for stale gum.
That was a pretty sweet electric bass solo – then Freddy Krueger interjects with his crazed laughter. Love it.
I paused the video & scanned the barcode, it came up as a product of that company…with no prices found haha.
Matt, you trying that Popeye spinach gum from 1981 reminded me of when I tried the gum that came in the packs of Topps E.T. movie cards. I got a box last year off of ebay. When I tried the gum, knowing how bad it would taste, it literally disintegrated in my mouth and it felt like I had sand in my mouth. Can’t imagine what the Popeye 32-year old gum must have tasted like to you!
I’ve been scanning everyone’s comments about Popeye and I came across Teddy’s comment about his nephews. Obviously they were a cash-in to Donald Duck’s nephews Huey, Dewey, Louie. I always wondered why in the world are they always the uncle? What happened to their parents?
Also Larry, I had those DVD volumes with all the special features and I learned so much about the character from those features. All three Fleischer 2-reel shorts, “Popeye Meets Sinbad the Sailor” “Popeye Meets Ali Baba and His Forty Thieves” and “Aladdin and His Magical Lamp” are some of the best cartoons ever made (Ali Baba is probably my favorite of the bunch). Also, when WWII came around, Popeye pretty much became a role model instead of just being a brute. That was also the time Paramount bought out the Fleischer Studios and it became Famous Studios. Popeye moved from an overcrowded urban style to a more countrylike suburban atmosphere, and of course he became a softie. However, even these cartoons I enjoy. Hell, I even like the Limited Animated shorts that came out in the 1960s (mainly because they featured the Sea Hag). I haven’t the 1970s shorts made by Hanna Barbara (the ones that always included a Popeye PSA short) or the 1980s series “Popeye and Son” in years, and I never got to see the CGI animated special “In Search of Pappy” either (Billy West provides Popeye’s voice). In my mind, the real Popeye will always be the one that came out during the Fleischer Brother days and his voice will always be that of Jack Murcer’s.
don’t let your health insurance co. see you eating this, Matt. I’m pretty sure there is a clause, voiding your policy if caught eating consumables almost as old as we all are…I say popeye…
I thought pop eye meant bulgy eyes..not a squinty one and a regular one…
@ RetroBJ – I found the CGI movie on DVD at Big Lots for like $3 brand new about 2 years ago. I never opened it (it’s still sitting around here somewhere), but it is out there cheap.
Believe it or not, I like the Famous Studios shorts a bit more than those later Fleischer’s. I think it’s because when I see the name “Fleischer” on a cartoon, I have the distinct image of the early Popeye cartoons, and Superman, and all the other high-quality stuff they were known for. The quality of those later cartoons is just so drastically different (and inferior, in my eyes) that I can’t dig them. The Famous Studios cartoons are just different enough, even if they were formed from the ashes of Fleischer, that I can enjoy them on their own merits (even though truthfully there’s only a select few Famous shorts I’d consider truly great).
The thing with those 1933-1938 Fleischer cartoons is that they remain pretty close to the original comic strips, in regards to how Popeye and the other characters act. I think Popeye was always sort of a role model, it’s just that they started smoothing out those rough edges in the later cartoons, and effectively neutered him (just watch the cartoon where he meets William Tell, or the one where he’s in a battle with a fly; Awful stuff, IMO). That’s something that the Famous shorts are guilty of continuing.
I have several Beta tapes with old 60′s Popeye shorts as well as some of the 70′s series, but I’m not real big on either of them. I do want to see Popeye & Son, I hear it’s pretty “out there”. I have an old promo for it, but unfortunately no actual episodes.
Here comes another I’ve-missed-the-last-few-days-worth-of-posts-and-just-caught-up giant, catch-up comment. First off, CURRENT TOPIC:
Big League Chew — That will always be linked in my mind to little league. I did it in the 3rd and 5th grade and wasn’t exactly the, uh…best…player on the team (participation trophy!), but I did chew the hell out of some Big League Chew before the games and during practice. We all thought it would make us better players. Pretending to chew tobacco didn’t do much for my game though. Just gave me something to unintentionally swallow as I ran around the outfield chasing the balls I couldn’t catch.
OLD TOPICS:
I’m so bummed that I missed out on the horror movie SNT discussion. I was in the middle of doing my show during all of that and in between cueing up tracks, answering the phone and keeping up with all the online stuff for the show, I don’t have a lot of free time to engage in much of anything else. I so would have liked to have been part of that though. I’ve got a few of those DVD collections, including one that features Carnival of Souls and a lot of others of that era, but none that’s as cool as Matt‘s. Chopping Mall ! Such a great one from back then. I’m ashamed to say I’ve actually never seen any of the C.H.U.D. movies. I guess I should do something about that.
Someone during that discussion asked what our favorite entries in all the major 80′s horror franchises were. Mine would probably break down like this:
Halloween: They’re all consistently pretty good, all the way up to H20 (I’d like to just think that Resurrection never happened), but I’d have to go with the original as my fave, with Part 6 ranking up there too. Of course, Part 3 is an underrated gem that doesn’t get enough recognition.
NOES: 1 and 3
F13: 2 and 3, although 4 ranks up there too. I was just reading an interview with Corey Feldman yesterday where he was talking about how he’s been trying for years to get another movie off the ground where he would come back and play Tommy Jarvis again and have a final showdown with Jason, completely ignoring the fact that someone else has already done that a couple of times. I’d love to see it!
Hellraiser: 1 and 2. I thought 4 actually had some good things going for it, although I seem to be the only person on the planet that does. It always makes me think of my high school girlfriend because we went to see that on our first date. At one point, we both reached into the popcorn bucket at the same time and came out holding hands. It’s a little known fact that The Lamarchand Configuration is responsible for more young love than any other demonic configuration.
Bill: Great score on that Return of the Jedi vinyl soundtrack!
“Jugendsehnsucht, good call on Hausu, that movie is really cool and very creative.”–Davey D.
Yes, good call, indeed! I just discovered it for the first time about a month ago. SO INCREDIBLY WEIRD AND JAPANESE. Of course, that’s pretty redundant.
“@Bill – Phantasm II was worth the watch! So much so that I’m gonna pop in the first one for another dose. You must be done with the Fog by now, gonna watch anything else? Also, I want that album too. I managed to score a copy of the Zombie (Lucio Fulci) soundtrack on vinyl for Christmas… it’s been on my turntable at least once a week since then.”–Davey D.
AMAZING SCORE! Good going on that one.
“You were trading your quarters for the great unknown…”–Matt
I don’t know what it was, but your delivery of that line in the Vintage Vending vid cracked me up. You literally had me laughing out loud. You were just so sincere about it.
“I’m not that great at Star Wars references, but I’m utterly shameless when it comes to music references, so I can’t help but notice how much at home that Tusken Raider would be on the cover of the latest reissue of Dopesmoker.”–Jugendsehnsucht
Great job on that one! Especially the shadow and how well you matched it to the background. What kind of filter did you use?
I was so jazzed that you guys got into a Captain Power discussion, too. Part of me would love to snag one of those ships again, as well as a couple of the VHS tapes. I used to have 2 of them back in the day and it was one of my favorite toys. If I remember correctly, the one that I had came with a guy to put into the cockpit, and if you were hit, the guy would instantly be ejected out of it.
Good lord that is some old gum. I can’t believe you ate that. I’m impressed and also a little worried for you.
One of my first memories as a kid was trick-r-treating and coming home to find Popeye gum in stick form in the stash. Not sure why that sticks out but it was around 1981 or so.
All those memories seem really orange.