Author’s Imagining of The Pillsbury Doughboy, Western Style, After All, She Lives in Arizona
Sad news: It is with great sadness that we report the passing of the Pillsbury Doughboy. The cause of his death was from a yeast infection and trauma from repeated pokes in his belly.
He was 71
Doughboy was buried in a greased coffin, with the grave site piled high with flours.
Dozens of celebrities turned out to pay their respects; including Mrs. Butterworth, Hungry Jack, the California Raisins, Betty Crocker, The Hostess Twinkies, and Capt. Crunch. Aunt Jemima delivered the eulogy and lovingly described Doughboy as a man who never knew how much he was kneaded.
Born and raised in Minnesota, Doughboy rose quickly in show business, but his later life was filled with turnovers. He was not considered a very smart cookie, wasting much of his dough on half-baked schemes. Despite being flakey at times, he was still a crusty old man and was considered a positive roll model for millions.
Doughboy is survived by his wife, Play Dough, and his three children: John Dough, Jane Dough, and Dosey Dough. He and his wife also had one in the oven. He is also survived by his father, Pop Tart.
The funeral was held at 3:50 for about 20 minutes.
Well, I had a good laugh when I read this. Tricia Holley,Country Gables Neighborhood near me • 24 March 2022, On My Local Area NextDoor, had posted it.
Of course, I had only bought one can of the cut up dough – ever! It was so long ago I don’t even remember if I had to slice it or if it came pre-separated. Why? I didn’t think it was cheap enough for me, and I nearly always bake and cook from scratch. See one of my Frugal Kitchen Warrior articles.
My instincts, or frugality, as it were, happened to be on point even before I learned about nutrition and change my eating dramatically, albeit one change at a time. I don’t eat most, if any, of the ingredients in the Doughboy product.
In order to use this piece of humor for my article I felt I had to see where it came from. So, Detective Google gave me a lead to – the “Funny Biz” site, which has a lot of, well, funny stuff. The article there had a little more than Tricia put in. I can understand why she hadn’t included Doughboy’s age; it didn’t make sense to me with the further research I conducted.
Maybe one of you can enlighten me.
The Doughboy has a formal name.
It’s Poppin’ Fresh, which was inspired by the sound of the vacuum-sealed crescent and biscuit containers make when you open them. Wow! I might never have noticed.
Pillsbury biscuits first came out in 1869.
The Pillsbury Doughboy has long been the iconic mascot for the Pillsbury Company brand for more than 50 years. (So where does 71 come in?)
But what might not be widely known is that Pillsbury Doughboy is not actually his name at all and in fact, the mushy mascot’s true identity is Poppin’ Fresh.
Poppin’ was first created in 1965 by copywriter Rudy Perz who was working on the Pillsbury account for Leo Burnett and was inspired to make a mascot that seemed to ‘pop out of a can of refrigerated dough.’
Poppin’ Fresh started in stop-motion.
It wasn’t until 1992 that the Doughboy was computer-generated. Before then, he was a series of 3D clay models worth $16,000 that were shot in stop-motion format.
The lovable icon was voiced by Paul Frees — known for voicing Boris Badenov in The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle — who beat out more than 50 actors for the gig.
Who remembers Rocky and Bullwinkle? I loved that show and those characters, and, especially the writing.
What’s in Pillsbury dough?
Enriched Flour Bleached (wheat flour, niacin, ferrous sulfate, thiamin mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), Water, Sugar, Vegetable Shortening (soybean and palm oil, hydrogenated palm oil, fractionated palm oil, water, mono and diglycerides, TBHQ and citric acid [preservatives], beta carotene [for color]), Baking …
There you have it. Is it more than you wanted to know? Well, you could have stopped right after the obit.
Hope you had a laugh, though, as I did. Let me know! Also, if you didn’t like my artwork, it’s not my forte, but I had fun rendering it.
