May 1, 2007

Happy Birthday, Cheerios!


Today Cheerios are 66 years old. First sold in 1941 under the name "CheeriOats", they were the first oat-based, ready-to-eat cereal. They did not acquire their first mascot, Cheeri O'Leary, until a year later.

In honor of the day, let's remember some of the best of the fictional breakfast cereals:

Little Chocolate Donuts: Breakfast of Champions
These were featured in a Saturday Night Live "commercial", featuring John Belushi as a very un-athletic-looking jock.

Kellogg's Live Angry Hornets
From a David Letterman skit about FDA-rejected food items.

Crickly Wicklies
From the sit com Green Acres. Everyone except Oliver found jewelry as prizes in their cereal boxes -- diamonds, emeralds, rubies. Oliver kept getting Yogi Berra baseball cards.

Nothin' But Sugar: Now with Ritalin!
I just love the name of this cereal. From Married with Children.

Admiral Crunch and Archduke Chocula
31st century cereals from Futurama. It makes sense, I guess.

Chocolate Frosted Sugar Bombs
Calvin's favorite cereal, from the comic strip Calvin and Hobbes. Explains a lot.

Snicker Snax
From the classic comic strip, Peanuts. In one strip, Charlie Brown discovers that the Snicker Snax Company has made a mistake -- his box contained 400 marbles and one Snicker Snack.

Krusty Brand Cereal: Now with FREE Flesh-Eating Bacteria
From The Simpsons, the cereal endorsed by Krusty the Clown. Other cereals featured in The Simpsons include: Krusty-O's with FREE jagged metal Krusty-O in every box, Chocolate Frosty Krusty Flakes ("only sugar has more sugar"), and Penicill-O's (for people with syphilis).

Photo: © Annette Gulick

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