Mr. Blobby
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Mr. Blobby was a fictional character featured on Noel Edmonds' Saturday night entertainment show Noel's House Party, which was often a ratings winner in the 1990s. He was a tall, fat humanoid, pink with yellow spots, a permanent toothy grin and jiggling eyes; he communicated by saying the word "blobby" in an electronically-altered voice, expressing his moods through tone of voice and repetition. Mr. Blobby started out as part of the 'Gotcha' feature of the show (originally called 'Gotcha Oscars' until the threat of legal action from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences), in which celebrities were caught out in a Candid Camera style prank. Celebrities such as dancer Wayne Sleep and rugby player Will Carling would be enticed to take part in a fictitious children's programme based around their profession. Mr. Blobby would clumsily take part in the activity, knocking over the set, causing mayhem and saying "blobby blobby blobby", until finally when the prank was revealed, the Blobby costume would be opened - revealing Noel inside. This was all the more surprising for the "victim" as during rehearsals Blobby would be played by an actor wearing only the arms and legs of the costume and speaking in a normal manner.
Following his popularity, Mr Blobby eventually became a character in his own right (with actor Barry Killerby, rather than Edmonds inside). Children loved him, adults loathed him and shops were soon full of Mr Blobby merchandise.
The Mr. Blobby costumes were created by artist Dominic Murray.
Through Noel's House Party, Mr Blobby was seen in shorts, 'guest appearing' on other fictional TV programmes. Examples include Lovejoy, where he unintentionally broke antique furniture, and Keeping Up Appearances, where he was seen making an impromptu visit on Hyacinth and Richard Bucket, disrupting their kitchen.
He had a Christmas Number One hit in the UK in December 1993 with "Mr. Blobby", the first eponymously titled UK number 1 single. Around this time, his own pink lemonade was sold in Woolworths. He held the number one spot for a week, before being knocked off by Take That's "Babe". However, he regained pole position for a further two weeks the following week. He was almost a true one-hit wonder had it not been for a follow-up "Christmas In Blobbyland" making Number 35 two years later, and a self-titled game for the Amiga home computing system, later ported to the PC. It is a Platform game, where the point is to change the grey background to a cheerfully colourful one, by walking over it. Some enemies walk or stand around and must be avoided, or shot with a paintball. The game is generally considered rather easy.
Edmonds licensed theme park attractions based on Crinkley Bottom and Mr. Blobby in Somerset, Morecambe and East Anglia. Following disappointing visitor numbers, and in the case of Morecambe, legal disagreements with the local council (dubbed 'Blobbygate') the parks eventually closed down.
In 1994 Edmonds attempted to take Blobby to the USA, where he appeared on Larry King Live.
Mr Blobby has also made regular appearances on Saturday morning show Live & Kicking and Saturday evening show Jim Davidson's Generation Game. He appeared on a Get Your Own Back Christmas special (17th December 1997), he went on the Gunk Dunk and because he could only say 'Blobby', he got all the questions wrong and was thrown in the gunge pool. He fell out of the pool shortly afterwards. The character Krotchy in the 2003 PC game Postal² seems to be a visual parody of Mr Blobby.
He has also appeared in the music video for Peter Kay's 2005 charity single "Is This the Way to Amarillo", where he was played by actor Martin Jarvis. He was also a celebrity Bungalowhead on Dick and Dom in da Bungalow. He also appeared in the cellar cage in the final episode of series four.
In a form of in-joke, Barry Killerby appeared on the 8 May 2006 edition of Dead Ringers as a contestant on a sketch spoofing Deal or No Deal. He appeared again on the 29 May edition, this time in the Mr Blobby costume.
On the 27th January 2007 Mr Blobby made yet another TV appearance on Harry Hill's TV Burp in an EastEnders joke, where character Dot Cotton is in her kitchen, thinking an intruder is coming, grabs a saucepan as weaponry and resorts to the corner of the kitchen. The door opens and Dot says "Oh it's you" in relief. The camera cuts to the door and Mr Blobby is standing there, starts screaming in his characteristic voice and proceeds to smash up the kitchen.
Mr. Blobby also made a surprise appearance at the Witnness music festival, Fairyhouse Racecourse, County Meath, Ireland in the summer of 2002. Blobby took to the stage and attempted to down a pint of Guinness. He stopped while the glass was still half full to the jeers of the crowd but quickly recovered to finish his pint and win the hearts and affections of the crowd back.
| Preceded by Meat Loaf |
List of Number 1 singles (UK)
5-11 December 1993 |
Succeeded by Take That "Babe" |
| Preceded by Take That "Babe" |
List of Number 1 singles (UK) | Succeeded by Chaka Demus & Pliers |
| Preceded by Whitney Houston |
UK Christmas Number One single" | Succeeded by East 17 |
