Bozo: Off-topic discussion forum: Grassroots Motorsports Magazine

Subscribe get a full year for only $23.95 Sample Free Test Drive—no strings attached

July 4, 2008 12:55 a.m. David S. Wallens Editorial Director

I never knew that Bozo was so popular. From today's cnn.com article about Larry Harmon's death:

Bozo -- portrayed in Chicago for many years by Bob Bell -- was so popular that the waiting list for tickets to a TV show eventually stretched to a decade, prompting the station to stop taking reservations for 10 years. On the day in 1990 when WGN started taking reservations again, it took just five hours to book the show for five more years. The phone company reported more than 27 million phone call attempts had been made.
July 4, 2008 5:04 a.m. bludroptop Dork

Occasionally, a trademark name will become synonymous with the product - Kleenex and Xerox are examples (and Google might get there).

Bozo achieved that. That's pretty impressive.
July 4, 2008 6:19 a.m. ddavidv SuperDork

George Costanza :

George: You've never heard of Bozo the Clown?

Eric: No!

George: How could you not know who Bozo the Clown is?

Eric: I don't know, I just don't.

George: How can you call yourself a clown and not know who Bozo is?

Eric: Hey, man - what are you hassling me for? This is just a gig, it's not my life. I don't know who Bozo is, what - is he a clown?

George: Is he a clown? What, are you kidding me!?
July 4, 2008 6:46 a.m. pete240z HalfDork

I watched Bozo as a kid on WGN in Chicago. It was a classic show for the era. It would never have survived in today's cable world.
July 4, 2008 8:50 a.m. Tim Baxter Online Editor

I knew kids growing up in Louisiana who were trying to get on Bozo for the grand prize game, and parents willing to take them to Chicago for it.
July 4, 2008 10:25 a.m. seann New Reader

Your link now goes to Jesse Helms obit, a bozo of a whole different sort. But in Portland we had a show called Ramblin Rod that kids would go on for their birthday. I watched it well into middle school because they would show really cool, super old cartoons. "heres another cartoon!!"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBk3jwNSteo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVk6t-DgHkU
July 4, 2008 10:28 a.m. David S. Wallens Editorial Director

seann wrote: Your link now goes to Jesse Helms obit, a bozo of a whole different sort.

Funny, I wasn't trying to make a link, just trying to say cnn dot com. Guess I should have spelled it out.
July 4, 2008 10:56 a.m. neon4891 HalfDork

I remember bozo the clown ice cream bars...on a stick, so thats what a clown must taste like
July 4, 2008 10:59 a.m. seann New Reader

David S. Wallens wrote:
seann wrote: Your link now goes to Jesse Helms obit, a bozo of a whole different sort.

Funny, I wasn't trying to make a link, just trying to say cnn dot com. Guess I should have spelled it out.

that's what I get for clicking on a link w/o reading it.
July 5, 2008 2:29 a.m. TransMaro New Reader

neon4891 wrote: I remember bozo the clown ice cream bars...on a stick, so thats what a clown must taste like

"Hey, do these ice cream bars taste funny to you?" Badump-tshhh

Shawn
July 5, 2008 9:11 a.m. poopshovel Dork

neon4891 wrote: I remember bozo the clown ice cream bars...on a stick, so thats what a clown must taste like

must...resist...easy...inappropriate...guido...joke.
July 5, 2008 10:22 a.m. mad_machine SuperDork

so, anybody have any idea what a clown funeral is like?
July 5, 2008 12:43 p.m. Tim Baxter Online Editor

mad_machine wrote: so, anybody have any idea what a clown funeral is like?

You wouldn't believe how many people get out of the hearse.
July 5, 2008 1:36 p.m. pete240z HalfDork

I think you did the joke wrong.

Why don't cannibals like to eat clowns? They taste funny.