'Wacky
Packages' parody planning a
comeback
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NEW YORK
(AP) - Somewhere, in a a junior high school
locker, sits a faded sticker: "Weakies, the
Breakfast of Chumps."
Time to
scrape it off, and make room for a new
generation of pop culture spoofs. "Wacky Packages," the hot 1970s fad
parodying popular household products, is
revamped and ready for the 21st
century.
In May, the Topps Co.
will re-release Wacky Packages with one
eye on the nostaglia market and its other on
kids brought up in the computer age. The company
hopes its product can transcend time and the
generation gap.
"Poking fun at things,
making parody, is a long accepted form of
entertainment and one we think transcends
generations," said Ira Friedman, vice president
of new products at Topps.
"But the question
remains: aside from the adult market, will it
resonate with younger kids today? We hope
so."
Born in 1967, the
" Wacky Packages" were hand-drawn
parodies done with Mad Magazine style-humor,
placed on punched-out cardboard with a
lick-and-stick back, and sold like baseball
cards in a pack with a piece of gum.
Early artists included
pulp-novel cover master Norman Saunders, who
also created the Mars Attacks series for Topps,
and Art Spiegelman, who later won the Pulitzer
Prize for his illustrated holocaust narratives
"Maus" and "Maus II"
Everything was fair game.
Jell-O became Jail-O - a metal file hidden in a
jello mold and billed as Sing Sing's favorite
dessert.
Gravy-Train Dog Food
became Grave Train, with a picture of a dead dog
and the grim tag line, "Your dog will never eat
anything else."
Topps even took swipes at
its own products, turning Bazooka gum into
Gadzooka.
Initially, the cards were
not successful but when they were brought back
in 1973 as stickers they quickly became the
biggest thing since white rice (or Minute Lice,
as the stickers would have it).
"Anyone who was 7 years
old in 1973 who wasn't really square was into
this stuff," said Greg Grant, a University of
Pennsylvania research mathematician who also
runs an elaborate " Wacky Packages" Web site.
"It was just life back then."
With their booming
popularity, New York Magazine put them on the
front page, The New York Times gave them a large
spread and kids all over the country affixed
them to school desks and lockers.
"It's an inherently
common pastime for kids to take a printed
sticker and - as a from of expression, mind you
- put it on something," said John Williams, the
creative series manager at Topps. "It's kind of
like graffiti, I suppose, just maybe not as
messy."
By 1976, Topps began
running out of ideas, and called it quits after
printing the 16th series. Briefly in early 1980s
and again in the early 1990s, Topps came out
with new " Wacky Packages" series but they never
took off.
"Those ones from the '80s
and the '90s sucked. It was just too far into
gross-out humor," Grant said.
Oddly, the Topps folks
decided on the re-release after the success of
last summer's encore of the uber-gross
Wacky-Pack-successor,
"The Garbage Pail Kids."
The new
series will feature art from some of the
original artists and with takeoffs on modern
products like baboon-flavored "Chimp Stick"
(Chap Stick), "Mr. Coffin Casket Liners" (Mr.
Coffee coffee liners), and blue snazazberry
flavored "Bling Pups" (Topps' own Ring
Pops).
Completing the consumer
angle, the backs of the new stickers will
feature fake coupons offering savings like $2 on
"Vinnie's Brooklyn-English Translator" or seven
cents on an "Extremely Complicated
Straw." | 
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robbers face stiff
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