urbpan | Representational Cereal

I'm eating Boo Berry cereal, and it occurs to me that there are marshmallow bits in the shape of something, and I never thought to check what they are. This is my last bowl of it, and I don't think I'm going to buy another box, as I bought it basically on a whim. How can eat something and not know what it represents?! (this is probably not a problem for most people, but it really bothers me)

After a moment of staring into my bowl I realize that the marshmallow bits represent the three main Monster Cereals: bluish blobs for Boo Berry, Pink lobed heads for Frankenberry, and purple bats for Count Chocula. (The actual cereal itself is shaped like Pac Man ghosts.) I then think about these characters. Boo Berry is a ghost--cuddly with stoned eyes, wearing a hat and bowtie, and flavored like blueberry--but a ghost nonetheless, the spirit one who has departed the earthly coil. Frankenberry, we must assume, is a strawberry flavored monster made of reanimated corpses. And of course Count Chocula (famous for being the cereal most resembling Mr. Burns) is a cocoa flavored vampire, cursed to a living death as a nocturnal blood sucker who turns milk chocolatey.

(note to my brother and others: Shut up about the werewolf. 1. I've never seen the cereal, 2. It doesn't fit in with my point) ((the mummy probably does fit in, but I haven't seen that one either))

Are these the only group of cereals with mascots that are the living dead of one form or another? (If Mr. T dies, will Mr. T cereal count? and will the value of the boxes skyrocket?)

The infantilization of halloween icons has meant for some fascinating characters. The Count, from Sesame Street comes to mind--does he feed on the blood of monsters that have been lured to the castle and hypnotized by his obsessive counting? (For a very nice cross between the Munsters/Addams Family and Peanuts, see Steven Weissman's "Yikes," and other comics.)

My fascination has some distance to it, because even though I like horror movies, I don't much care for ghost and vampire horror. I prefer mutant and monster animals and robots. Zombies are pretty good, because they are kind of mutant/monster animal/robots.

Are there any zombie cereals (besides Frankenberry)? Robot cereals? Mutant animal cereals? Does Tony the Tiger count? Should I go back to writing about Urban Nature (don't worry, there are only four more months of winter, then I'll be out there taking pictures of bugs and weeds again!)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

The practice of emulating Peter Lorre's unforgettable voice, look, and mannerisms is quite notable throughout television and cinema, dating from impersonations in various cartoons such as Looney Tunes and characters such as Ren from Ren and Stimpy, Morocco Mole from Secret Squirrel, Rocky Rococo from various Firesign Theatre sketches, Surface Agent X20 from Stingray, Mr. Gruesome from The Flintstones, Staring Herring from Beany and Cecil, Marlon Fraggle from Fraggle Rock, Cruel from Count Duckula, Harry Slime from Avenger Penguins, Doctor N. Gin from the Crash Bandicoot series, Boo Berry from Boo Berry cereal, the hanging lamp from The Brave Little Toaster, Cosmos from Transformers, Flattop from The Dick Tracy Show, Wart from Rescue Rangers, and Digitamamon from Digimon were based on Lorre's mannerisms. In the episode "The Tick vs. Chairface Chippendale" from The Tick animated series, one of the villians attending Chairface's birthday party is "The Man Who Looks Like Peter Lorre." The script for Godspell includes a line which is suggested as being done in the style of Peter Lorre. Also, Rob Schneider ably played Lorre's character in the Saturday Night Live sketch, "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea." Even today, films show his distinct characteristics in characters, such as a routine Robin William's genie character did in Disney's Aladdin and the maggot in Corpse Bride. And even in video games, the 2005 video game Destroy All Humans features aliens that look similar to Lorre. As well, during gameplay, some humans will shout; "Help! We're being invaded by Peter Lorre!"

you're not going to even try to bring up Fruit Brute?

Representational Cereal

wikipedia agrees!