First nightmare involving a potato

Remember The California Raisins? Charming if more than a little creepy claymation figures pitching dried grapes with a Motown soundtrack? They were everywhere in the 80s - spawned a veritable cultural movement with toys, I think their own album, maybe a TV show … they were just everywhere.

But the Rice-A-Roni Potatoes? Maybe also claymation, doing some singing, but good lord … horror show. Don’t look for figurines of these guys next time you’re at a flea market. Those legs - kind of human-like if we forget these are supposed to be tubers. More clearly naked in a really distressing way than the Raisins. And they’re singing the Rice-A-Roni jingle, which I’d say might be the worst jingle ever, but it did convince me that I’d have this at least twice a day if I ever made it to San Francisco.

But tip of the hat to these spuds for leaning in to the “eat this stuff, not us!” marketing angle long before Chick-fil-A put a cow on a billboard. And the lead tater isn’t mincing words - begging us to put a stop to the “senseless slaughtering of innocent potatoes”; which is an approach I don’t think CfA is ready to pivot to.

Credit: Dave's Archives
Original Video: Vol. 519