Mt. Rainier and Lenticular Clouds - Dec. 2008 copyright: JMM

January 31, 2010

Scare Bear

I love stuffed animals. I do. They were my only friends sometimes, when I was growing up, because as I've mentioned before, my part of town was rural and largely childless. I talked to them and they talked to me. They were my "pets" and I love them still, even though they aren't real. But they were very real to me. When the comic strip 'Calvin & Hobbes' came out, my parents told me it reminded them of me, how Calvin's tiger was fully alive to him, but a small stuffed toy when observed from his parents' point of view. It reminded them of me and my fave stuffed horse, Trax. There was one night my mom was rather alarmed, when I was supposed to be sleeping. She heard me in my room laughing my ass off. She called up to me, "Go to sleep!" and I called back, "Sorry, but Trax just told me a really funny joke!" I was probably 7 or 8.

That said, there is one stuffed animal that just Creeps. Me. Out. For my overseas readers, there's a fabric softener called Snuggle. I've never used it....I won't buy it. The ads, which have been running since the late 80's, feature a very scary animatronix or puppet bear, 'Snuggle', romping in the freshly clean laundry, or romping with children in a field of flowers. The way it blinks it's eyes and it's mouth moves is just......just so wrong...and a bit evil.
In 1989, when we first moved to San Francisco, I found a Snuggle bear puppet. I thought it'd be a very amusing Christmas gift for Holly, who was equally creeped out by this ad. But because Brian and I have a very, very twisted sense of humour, we had to take some pictures of it.


"Hi, I'm Snuggle, and I could learn to hate you!"

"I'M COMING TO GET YOUUUUUUU!!!! YOU CAN'T HIDE!!!!!!"

Snuggle Bear. Terrorizing Laundry Rooms for Over 20 Years.

11 comments:

  1. Anonymous2:13 PM

    I have no idea why he reminds me of Mr Stay Puff (?), the marshmallow man in 'Ghostbusters'; but with a knife! - LOL

    ReplyDelete
  2. Personally, I've never had a problem with Snuggles, but your portrayal of Snuggles and the little balloons below the pics remind me of Chucky. Now that's some scary shit. Ha.

    ReplyDelete
  3. i think he's rather cute even wielding a knife -

    i wasn't really into the stuffed toy thing as a child - well we didn't have many toys then but now i have one furry wolf who sleeps with me in place of the real thing ;>)

    ReplyDelete
  4. I'll reveal a fear of mine -- clowns. Those things frighten the hell out of me. I'm glad my mommy did take me to circus' as a child.

    ReplyDelete
  5. is NOTHING sacred ?!

    what's next ?
    the pillsbury doughboy ?

    ReplyDelete
  6. I didn't have a teddy bear till I was 15, but I've made up for it since. I even have a couple of very expensive ones, including a modern Steiff. But my favourites are a couple of alpaca wool teddies. They are the softest things I ever touched.

    Snuggles I'll live without.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Oh yes I agree that bear is really creepy.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Thank God! I thought I was a freak for being afraid 'demon snuggles'.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Is it bad that it just amuses me?What about the strange Teddy Ruxpin (sp?) thing that came out in the 80's?

    ReplyDelete
  10. Bryde, for some reason Teddy Ruxpin didn't bother me as much as Snuggle, although I did think Teddy was kind of strange.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Ahahahahaha! Priceless! I had better keep the sharp objects away from my Sam... yikes!

    ReplyDelete