Couch potato

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A couch potato refers to a person who spends most of his/her free time sitting or lying on a couch. This stereotype often refers to lazy and overweight men who watch a lot of television, sometimes in their underwear and sometimes drinking beer. Generally speaking, the term refers to a lifestyle in which children or adults don't get enough physical activity.

An alternate definition comes from the Canadian Province of Newfoundland and Labrador. In this province the people refer to slob as a type of ice. When the ice is in this condition it is very thin and can be broken through easily. Slob ice looks the same as if snow is placed in water.

[edit] History

The term "Couch Potato" was first coined in 1976 by American underground comics artist Robert Armstrong. In the early-1980s, he would register the term as a trademark with the US government; he would also co-author a book with Jack Mingo, called The Official Couch Potato Handbook, which delve into the lives and secrets of Couch Potatoes. ([1], [2])

The term would eventually enter common American vocabulary, generally defining one with a habit of eating potato chips while watching TV. The phrase was entered into the Oxford English Dictionary in 1993. Though this derivation of the phrase may have currency, the idea of a couch potato stems from the idea that they (potatoes) given enough time and left alone tend to sprout. People living on a couch tend to sprout all kinds of funk.

Amongst Canadians, adhering to colloquial vernacular, the couch potato is referred to as the Chesterfield Spud or a Jon Whyte.

[edit] Health

Some studies have said that the "couch potato lifestyle" is a serious health hazard to its practitioners[3]; in the United Kingdom, a plan of the Prime Minister's Strategy Unit tried attempts "to combat the couch potato culture" to "[improving the U.K.'s] international sporting performance." [4]

Ten studies presented at the 2003 meeting of the American College of Sports Medicine suggested that there could be a genetic basis for the "couch potato lifestyle".[5]

From Don Hoss Watson on how the saying entered common use In our everydaylanguage. In 1983 I first saw the Couch Potato examined on an National Football League Broadcast. The interview with couch potatoes was on a half tme interview. I made note of the term and in 1985 began to organize a sporting event as a lead up to the 1988 Olympics in Calgary Alberta Canada. I called the event the Couch potato Pentathalon. Five events displaying the ineffectiveness of the potatholete.It started with swimming 50 meters, bowling, darts, Billiards with a finishng round of caps( throwing beer caps in your opponents beer). Included in the handy cap was the requirement to consume 12 beer while participating. Invitees included friends some of whom were involved in Local Calgary media. It became a bit of a joke amongst the media people about the couch potato Pentathalon. It made CBC Radio in Canada and became the talk of the airwaves. The USA MEdia market picked up on the term and away it went.I kept the articles from the news paper and an interview with one of the Potatholetes. So that is how the term Couch Potato came into main stream.

[edit] Popular Culture

• Various activities have been designed for the couch potato, including a type of investment portfolio ("Couch Potato Portfolio")[6], and fantasy football leagues.

• Greyhound dogs, who are well-known for their sprinting ability but otherwise require little exercise, are sometimes called "forty-five mile per hour couch potatoes" by adoption and rescue agencies. [7]

• Music artist "Weird Al" Yankovic's song Couch Potato (a parody of Lose Yourself by Eminem) describes him watching hours upon hours of television, "until [his] brain is numb, [his] eyes bloodshot."

• The phrase has coined the spin-off mouse potato (or sometimes computer potato), meaning one who spends too much time in front of a computer.

• In The Simpsons, Homer Simpson is a good example of a couch potato because he is lazy, gluttonous, and (obviously) spends a lot of time on the couch.