I was thinking about couch potatoes today and where the expression comes from. It was during a telephone conversation on July 15, 1976, that the phrase was first uttered. Tom Iacino of Pasadena, California, was a member of a Southern California group that humorously opposed the fads of exercise and healthy diet and favored sitting in front of the TV and eating junk food! They called themselves boob tubers because the TV was called the boob tube. He substituted the word potato as a synonym for tuber. Thinking of where the potato sits to watch the tube, he came up with couch potato. Did you get that the guy's name was Tom?!!!
Hearing the new phrase, Robert Armstrong, the co-founder and member of the boob tubers, drew a cartoon of a potato on a couch, formed a club called the Couch Potatoes, registered the trademark, and began selling Couch Potato merchandise, everything from T-shirt to dolls. He published a newsletter called The Tuber's Voice: The Couch Potato Newsletter. He also wrote a book, Dr. Spudd's Etiquette for the Couch Potato.
The Potatoes were an all-male club, but the wives of the members demanded a similar club for women called the Couch Tomatoes (motto: "Equal Rights to the Couch.") Armstrong sold Couch Potato and Couch Tomato memberships. I'm still not kidding, guys!
Couch Potatoes® - The society for the prolonged viewing of television. The Couch Potatoes® organization feels
that "in a country where there are more homes with televisions than with indoor plumbing," it was time for television watchers to "come out of the closet and lie down and be counted." The organization (now defunct) included both "Couch Potatoes®" and "Tater Tots" (the younger members). The children were encouraged to watch as much TV as possible stressing historical programming like DAVY CROCKETT, YANCY DERRINGER and THE LIFE AND LEGEND OF WYATT EARP. Watching shows such as SESAME STREET or THE ELECTRIC COMPANY was a violation of one of their ten commandments: "Thou shalt not watch anything educational or British."
There was a game showed called Couch Potatoes in 1989, where players competed to win $5,000 for answering TV trivia questions. In the late 1980's, in Massachusetts, another group came into existence called the Potato Anti-Defamation League. It was formed in response to the negative association with prolonged TV viewing.
UK farmers want couch potato removed from the dictionary because they believe theexpression is damaging the vegetable's image. A campaign for changing the term couch potato to couch slouch was led by the British Potato Council, representing 4,000 growers and processors. The council argued that potatoes were "inherently healthy." Still not kidding here....
Charlotte and I played around with the Hot Potato today. I think she was "buttering" me up for my post today!
Charlotte is a couch tater and proud of it! Actually, she gets a good walk in the morning and plays with Caesar during the day, but she takes her relaxing at night to a whole other level.
You don't have to butter me up to play Fred Figglehorn's Tater Haters:
