Wednesday, August 27, 2025

The King of Pop

I've been discussing Michael Jackson with an email correspondent, and the other day his title made me think of another "King of Pop" -- Bob Black, maker of Bob's Black Banana Pop. This was a fictional character and product, developed mostly by one of my brothers in childhood, with considerable input from other siblings and myself. There are no written stories about Bob; his is an oral tradition.

Bob's original Banana Pop was yellow and was marketed with the slogan "Like a fountain of gold." Later the spinoff product Bob's Black was developed and became so popular that it completely eclipsed the original. Bob changed his last name to Black to more fully identify himself with his product. Bob's Black was made with only the finest Bellyking bananas -- a detail that came from a dream of mine in which a supermarket offered four different types of banana, called John, Jane, Bellyking, and Native Kenjo.


The advertising jingle for Bob's Black ran as follows:

Like a fountain of crude
Like a fountain of crude
But less than a dollar
It helps you be rude

Like a fountain of crude
Like a fountain of crude
It's Bob's Nanner Collar
To drink with your food

This was derived from an earlier "fountain of gold" jingle, which in turn was based on a Pogo comic strip in which the characters try to come up with a jingle to sell Kokomo Cola, only to realize that it will only rhyme if cola is pronounced as collar.

More precious than gold
But less than a dollar
Most freshest and cold
Is Kokomo Cola

"It helps you be rude" was a reference to how drinking Bob's Black will make you burp. "Like a fountain of crude" was an adaptation of the earlier slogan, modified to fit a product that was black rather than gold. Thinking about it now, though, I'm reminded of the Flatt and Scruggs bluegrass song "The Ballad of Jed Clampett," which I used to play on the banjo. It was written as a theme song for the sitcom The Beverly Hillbillies, which I've never watched. The opening verse is:

Come and listen to a story 'bout a man named Jed
Poor mountaineer barely kept his family fed
Then one day, he was shooting at some food
And up through the ground come a bubbling crude
Oil that is, black gold, Texas tea

After Yogi Berra came up in "That old 'Fire and Ice' sync," I searched for a list of famous Yogi Berra quotes. For some reason, one of these was on IMDb, where a sidebar suggested I might be interested in a list of celebrities that died in 2015 (the year of Berra's own death).


The photo accompanying that "Celebrities That Died in 2015" caught my eye. I thought she looked rather striking but had no idea who she was. I clicked through and found that she is an actress best known for her role in The Beverly Hillbillies.


Her surname, Douglas, means "black stream" and thus ties in with the "fountain of crude."

When I searched for photos of Donna Douglas, one of the first results was this one, which syncs with Anglin's latest bit of absurdist brilliance:


I guess that a soft drink that compares itself to petroleum is a link back to the other King of Pop, via the 1980s schoolyard rhyme:

I pledge allegiance to the flag
Michael Jackson is a fag
Coca-Cola filled him up
Now he’s drinking Seven Up
Seven Up has no caffeine
Now he’s drinking gasoline

Note added: That Frankie and Johnny movie that Donna Douglas was in stars Elvis Presley (another musical "King"), and the poster has an Ace of Hearts and snake eyes.

2 comments:

William Wright (WW) said...

I've never heard that schoolyard rhyme, but the line 'Michael Jackson is a fag" caught my attention.

Jackson has been linked with the character of Abinadi, who was set on fire. A fag can refer to a cigarette, and not just a homosexual - something I didn't know until I served my mission in Australia, where on the first day in country I saw a sign advertising "fags for sale" and wondered just what kind of place I had landed in.

Cigarettes are things that are "lit up" or burned. In any case, fag is short for faggot, which ties to Abinadi. You find that word once in the Book of Mormon, where it says Noah's priests "scourged his skin with faggots, yea, even unto death." Which again gets to the imagery of the Burning Man.

That Elvis poster is great. My son created a picture of Elvis flying through the air, and he colored Elvis as dressed in red, yellow, and orange, which I had compared to the colors of fire, and this burning man symbolism. Here we have Elvis also dressed in those same colors, very deliberately for the fire theme given the text on the left:

"Elvis turns the land of the blues red hot with 11 great songs".

A blue land turning red hot seems relevant here, as does the association with the number 11. I had approached Eleven in a few different ways before, looking back in the comments on you Chubby Checker post. Namely, it being a reference on one level to the name Michael (El Even... one who is even with or like God, "Who is Like God"), but also to the Two Sticks (which are also represented by the Snake Eyes from the Caduceus). Thus, the "Great Songs" that will set the Blue Land on fire, or red hot, would be those that come from "Eleven", in the form of the person and also the Sticks (Stones).

Also, going back to that schoolyard rhyme, I had forgotten to note Coca-Cola, which had come up prominently on my blog and syncs, in both the symbol, name game, and theme song ("Perfect Harmony").

On the Perfect Harmony angle, and tying back to the Two Sticks, this morning in one very short dream segment, my youngest son came up to me and simply said "Peace Officer".

Per Etymonline, an officer can be a reference to a 'servant' and also to one 'entrusted with a responsibility or share of the management of some undertaking'. Thus, a Peace Officer in this sense would be a servant given a responsibility to bring about peace. This would tie with the Seer and the Two Sticks or Books mentioned in 2 Nephi 3. The sticks and their stories are intended to bring peace, said as a "confounding of false doctrines and laying down of contentions, and establishing peace".

WanderingGondola said...

Unfortunately, MJ had his own run-in with fire... and in connection with a soft drink.
michael-jackson.fandom.com/wiki/Pepsi_Commercial_Incident

The King of Pop

I've been discussing Michael Jackson with an email correspondent, and the other day his title made me think of another "King of Pop...