It’s still insane how Mr. Blobby started as a spoof of annoying children’s characters, only to quickly become the exact thing that he was meant to make fun of.
God, I remember my parents taking me to Blobbyland as a child! I remember this one maze attraction, where children entered this lumpy pink structure with Blobby-themed scenes inside (I remember being slightly unsettled by how the colour and texture made everything look like flesh). The maze had one entrance, but - unbeknownst to parents and children, multiple exits scattered widely around the park. It was essentially Mr. Blobby's Child-Losing Machine.
Yikes...luckily, my parents used to drive straight past Blobbyland at Cricket St. Thomas on the M5 on our way down to our holidays in Devon in the 1990s. We never had to suffer Blobbyland. I think I was fortunate.
As a small child I was always terrified of Mr Blobby. I would see adults around me laughing at his antics and I can distinctly remember feeling horrified at this, not understanding why they weren't as disturbed as I was by this abomination. It's one of my earliest memories as I was really young so I feel like it must have scared me enough to become a core memory or something. Traumatised by Mr Blobby.
As an American who very briefly lived in the UK, I was only vaguely aware of Mr. Blobby up until this point. Now I know far more about Mr. Blobby than I ever could have wanted to know. I am cursed with knowledge.
Tis indeed a heavy burden, on behalf of britain, myself and my friends who only thought it was funny because the adults hated it so much, I apologise profusely
Mr. Blobby, living proof that it's not just the internet that makes children get attached to the most incomprehensible things. The Skibiddi Toilet of the 90s.
There's nothing incomprehensible about the Skibiddi toilet thing, I'm in my 40s and I followed DaFuqBoom long before he started that stuff (i found him via the beatboxing vids) because his Gmod videos were, are and continue to be amazing. What you ignore all the meme-shit surrounding the Skibidi Toilet vids they are a story pushing the medium of Gmod to it's limits. One might even argue that the constant escalation in the videos is a comment on the nature of memes and internet culture.
@@Jayfive276I think it's less about the actual plot or whatever, but about the brain rot that comes out of people making other things with the character
I've lived in morecambe since 2008 and this is the most in depth informative video I've seen on the scandal. Many people here have been misinformed that Noel Edmonds was to blame for the failure and cost the town dearly. Not that shocked to find out it was the council being incompetent 😂
They had history with that. I remember several years before Blobbygate, when The Wombles were all the rage there were plans for a Wombles attraction in the same Happy Mount Park. I remember that all that amounted to was a small and underwhelming 'Womble House' in the corner of the park where the kiddies playground is now. I think it was set on fire by vandals in the end.
I'm an american who moved to the uk some years back and i thought my spouse was just joking at first when they said mr blobby was a sensational icon here. He's creepy to look at and his voice is incredibly unsettling and almost scary. How did this not terrify kids 😬
Best way we can describe Blobby was it was The Producers for real. He was made as creepy and abnoxious as possible to annoy everyone. For some reason he actually became popular for some unknown reason.
I actually think Mr. Blobby is peak comedy but maybe I'm just a freak. That bit with them asking him to speak clearly into the mic so he just starts screaming had me dying. 😂🤣
As someone from the other side of the pond I had never seen Mr. Blobby until I watched the Big Fat Quiz of the 90s a few years ago. Mr. Blobby screeching "JAAAAACK!!!" at Jack Whitehall after he said he was terrified of Mr. Blobby and then Jack ducking down behind the desk is still one of the funniest things I've ever seen. 😂 I just now learned he was supposed to be satirical and not a real children's character. Now I understand why no one was shocked when he made a joke about nailing a teletubby lol
I loved Mr Blobby as a kid. It was the nonsensical chaos and slapstick I'm sure that just tickled me as a kid. I'm really suprised the parks opened and closed so quickly as it felt like they had been open longer when I was younger.
Mr Blobby, Noel's House Party and all the rest was really a reflection of much of 1990's UK culture. Colourful, crass and decidedly lowbrow without being vulgar, and 7 year old me loved it. I still want to build a replica of that gunge tank to this day.
A friend told me a story once about how Mr Blobby was at like a military recreation place and was fucking around with the prop weapons which could actually hurt people (cuz they were made to look like the real things, metal and wood included) so apparently at some point they staged a mock hit squad on mr blobby to get him out of there.
Fascinating stuff and proof of just how weird the 90s were. I grew up in the Mr Blobby era but never saw his appeal and had totally forgotten the horrors he inflicted upon the nation. Thanks for the reminder, now I'm going to have nightmares about him! And ending with "Mr Blobby will return" sounds like a threat.
Being not from the UK, my first exposure to Mr. Blobby was him being on the Big Quiz and Jack Whitehall being absolutely terrified of him, going so far as hiding away. That just about seems the right response to him, imho.
This was great! A bit of nostalgia for a 90s kid, born and raised in Morecambe. Unfortunately Lancaster city council continues to bring controversy... 🙃
I was part of the entertainments staff team at Frontierland, Morecambe in 1993, as Mr Blobby's popularity was in full effect. At that time the company were not adverse to him at all, and invited the character to make an appearance on the same day as the illumination switch on, in the park's theatre venue. To this day I have never seen such a flood of people clamouring to get close to him, and there were so many children coming at him, that Mr.Blobby had to be whisked outside through a back emergency exit, and thrown onto a pick-up truck, before things got out of hand. It's so sad that it all went wrong over the next 3 years, but at that time, the Mr.Blobby character was like a real life rock star. A true phenomenon. I would add, from knowing the lay out of Happy Mount Park, that it was never a suitable choice for a theme park. It is far too small, and as mentioned in the video, never had parking capability from the start. What is worse, is due to the controversy, Frontierland went as well, so overall it is the people of Morecambe that paid the highest price.
I had never heard of Mr. Blobby before this video, but from the description it sounds like that one Black Mirror episode has a character based on him. I can't remember the specifics as it's been years since I watched it, but there was a tv show that had a fake children's character used to prank celebrities that thought it was a real, well-known character.
** so you actually used clips of blobby and pleasurewood hills so this just makes me even more happy ** So mr. Bobby actually made it to a couple other parks. I remember growing up with blobby and Noel at my local park ( pleasurewood hills, Lowestoft ). He never had any structures but I'm pretty sure he had his own show in the castle theatre.
I remember being there the day that it opened. I remember there being entertainers around the park. A creepy Punch and Judy show that made me cry. And how every year there was this cool exhibit in one of the buildings, usually about dinosaurs or tech or something. I used to go there quite frequently. And honestly it is astounding is how quickly everything just crumbled away. And then all the buildings and kids stuff got locked up. First at the park and then in Morecambe more generally. It was heart breaking to just see the town decay and rot away thanks in part to that pink git.
It never fails to make me laugh just how *Partridge* Noel Edmunds was. Such incredible hubris and shortsighted-ness. Did he also try to do a Deal or No Deal Land?
@@user-kw7mr6xt9n Partridge - a fictional TV presenter who is too full of his own ego to understand his mistakes, and an inability to laugh at himself being the cause of most of his problems. This applies very much to Noel Edmonds.
I was around at the time of Blobbymania and cannot express how much I adore Mr Blobby. He’s so awful, it’s brilliant. Also really glad to see more homegrown UK topics! Would love to see more. :)
I remember when I was younger, Mr Blobby came to my birthday party, I was so excited, and all he did was basically fuck everything up, parents were pretty mad, but me and my friends at the time thought it was hilarious though. When I think about it 25 years later, it's super creepy and just totally messed up. No idea why kids use to love this, it's just fear inducing 😱
My sister remembers that Mr Blobby followed me into the toilets at a birthday party. There’s a photo of me wearing his feet, all I remember is us kids dragging him to the floor 😂
Well done Sam. I wondered when you were going to cover this iconic attraction. My kids grew up on Blobby although they would probably never admit it. I can remember taking our eldest to the Crinkley Bottom attraction at Cricket St.Thomas in the nineties and much like the 'Ice Cream Bunny' in one of your previous videos I had nightmares for months afterwards.
I remember years ago owning the Mr Blobby VHS tape. It showed some of his early highlights when he was being taught various things by celebrity guests. Or he was going out and about to the gym, the airport, etc.
I went there several times as a child as I live nearby !!! Loved it !!! And as a teen I got bass lessons off the guy who did Mr Blobbys voice and he had the original Mr Mrs and baby Blobby suits !!!
I can remember the Cricket St Thomas park having a boat ride that took you though scenes from classic British children's TV shows - Bill and Ben, The Magic Roundabout, Bagpuss, etc. The problem was, the start of the ride had the boats float in though a massive smashed TV screen, complete with sparking noises and two giant flashing diodes. Scared the crap out of me as a kid.
Wow I have learned something new from this video as I never knew there was a second Mr Blobby park in Morcambe! Me and my family were huge Mr Blobby fans so I would’ve loved to visit one of these parks. (The moving character displays at the Morcambe park look very interesting too!) However as we lived down the other end of the country we took a special trip to see Mr Blobby at Pleasurewood Hills instead. ☺️ it was great!
I'm an American, so until I first saw another video covering the history of the abandoned Blobbyland parks, I knew nothing and was probably better for it. Like clowns, Mr. Blobby is so freaky and nightmarish to me. XD
When I was a kid I loved mr Blobby! I always wanted to go to blobby land but my parents wouldn’t take me 😂 now its just weird, Cheesy and kinda creepy!
9:17-Animals of Farthing Wood! That series was incredible, one of the greatest children's programmes of all time! Why didn't they just make AOFW the focus of the park?! Fox or Badger would've made much more charismatic mascots than that Pepto-Bismol nightmare.
As a kid I'd go to Cricket St Thomas with my family, all year round, they used to do exceptional outdoor learning sessions for kids, I loved it. Then Mr blobby came. He ruined everything. Those activities stopped. I hated him after that. But I used to love noels house party, great to watch with family. Shame he pushed it too far.
You're explaining it, yet my brain is actively refusing to understand. All the words you say make sense in the order you say them, but when I try to go back and put it all together into a coherent tapestry in my head, I find that all the individual ideas have slid off each other into a mess.
I live near Cricket St Thomas and somehow have family lore of blobbyland so seeing this video was so funny to me. I wasnt old enough to go to Mr Blobbyland but my elder sister went a few times and met Noel Edmonds?? He did a lot of charity work and would do experiences and stuff for disabled kids and my sister got to be a part of that. Crazy.
When you talked about the Blobby Single you mentioned CDs and Vinyl but not tapes. Back in the early 90s Cassette tapes where extremely popular in the UK, Due to there cheap price and portability. CDs and Vinyl tended to be more for the serious listeners back then. I Bet more people brought that song on Tape than any other Format
I have vivid memories of visiting Mr. Blobbyland when I was four. There was a doorbell if I remember correctly that you had to ring to get him to come out of his house. It was scary to ringit, as he may or may not come out but when he did, he came barreling out full pace screaming Blooby Blooby directly at a child or parent. Then proceeded to throw himself around chaotically before running back inside. He flirted with women and tried to get dads to fight him, it was bizarre and exactly like he was on the TV show. This must have been the Morecambe one, as it's not far from where we lived and I don't remember any theme park and it was literally just the house you visited. Mr Blobby brings out the fight or flight in most British people, even when on TV you still felt like you had to keep your eye on him at all times for fear of being collateral damage. The house party I remember most is when Mr Blobby accidentally fell off the top of the set, I think he either nearly took Noel with him or landed on Noel. The look of sheer panic on Noels' face and everyone panicking on set. Only for Mr Blobby to get right back up and choose chaos.
Im an American that loves Amusement Parks. Especially failed Amusement attractions. Ive only seen Mr. Blobby on a Comic Relief video. It was Is This the Way to Amarillo with Peter Kay that I found on TH-cam back in 07. I was deployed to Kuwait and Iraq back from Nov 05- Nov 06. When we got our orders to go North into Iraq, we had a Scottish SF guy give us a Friendly Fire brief and we only understood probably about every 3rd word he said. He finished up by showing us the Royal Dragoon version of Is This the Way to Amarillo. You could tell who like British humor because we were laughing our asses off. When I got back, I was telling some of my new work friends about it. Looked it up on TH-cam and saw the Peter Kay version. And thats where I saw Mr. Blobby for the time. Interesting history he has.
@@ExpeditionThemePark Our local PBS station here in central California had the rights to air Keeping Up Appearances and Are You Being Served, both of which I blame for my weird sense of humor XD
I learnt a lot from this or had forgotten, or more likely expunged from my memory in favour of sanity haha, definitely some interesting history though and a glimpse into the UK's psyche during the 90s! I also commend you on your diligent and surreptitious inclusion of all the lyrics from the original Blobby song in your script, well done mate! I'm pretty sure I still have that CD single lurking around the family house somewhere... 😁
Loved this! Please can you do Dobwalls adventure park in Cornwall. Loved that place as a kid, Mr Blobby used to visit there also my brother was terrified 😅
Can you imagine hearing Mr. Blobbys voice at 3 in the morning, and you turn on the lights and see a pink creepy looking thing just standing there and staring at you at the foot of your bed?!😨😱
I hated Mr Blobby as a kid, to the point I use to scream and cry when he came on the tv and run off and hide. My siblings and my Dad use to rush to turn the tv off. However my mother (being the vile person she is) booked a day out at Crinkly Bottom. My Dad went ape shit because he drove us there while my mother gave direction telling him it was a “family surprise day out” and drove for hours. I cried the whole time and my mother spent the whole time telling me I was being naughty and ungrateful. To this day I still have no idea why I was scared of Mr Blobby😂
A lass I went to school with broke her arm at the Morecambe park. I don’t think my parents ever forgave the “family friends” who gave me the Mr Blobby single for Christmas in 1993 (I don’t think they still have and both of them have been dead for over a decade).
As an Australian, I think perhaps I had seen the odd random image of Mr Blobby over the years without having any idea what it was. Just seemed like a badly designed kids mascot, or a rushed promotional decision. Realising only now that it was all intentional, and that he actually walked into walls has genuinely made me laugh.
After growing up in Morecambe from the age of 3 (now 44) Lancaster City Council have done nothing but ruin Morecambe, other than Frontierland and the Illuminations the rest of the town was derelict for years ! We had so many attractions at one point including a Wax Works called Luis Tussauds, Marineland, Central Pier, The Dome and Bubbles swimming complex which sadly only last a few seasons, it later was demolished by the Council because it wasn’t making them enough money to keep it open, the town literally has nothing now and are planning to build Eden North which I doubt will happen as tourists go to Blackpool rather than Morecambe oh and Crinkley Bottom was left to rot for many years
Morecambe local here: Morecambe has never truly recovered from this. The hope at the moment is yet another risky investment with the Eden project. The old theme park mentioned still sits as wasted boarded up land. The prom is full of rotting boarded up shops and attractions. Many in the area consider Morecambe a disappointment and locals desperately try to keep it relevant with crowd funded charity events. The local council runs both Lancaster and Morecambe with very different ideas and views. Too many chefs in the kitchen. The potential is there, but it’s a big job.
I used to go to the punk festival there between 99 and the mid 00s. First years I went Frontierland was still open and there were a couple of decent venues on the seafront Year by year you could see the place fading away. One of the venues got knocked down and replaced with a Aldi. The festival eventually moved back to Blackpool. I still remember the last year I was there, I think the remains of the Polo Tower were still there, along with a couple of random bits of rollercoaster track. Is The Dome still around?
@@keithchristmas7315 sorry to report the dome is no more, it was torn down not long after the Arctic Monkeys sold out there in a surprise gig in the mid 00s /10s
Such a shame, and ironically recently Kent had plans for a big theme park starting BBC properties. Shame as done right, a movie park could work well in the uk. Thanks for posting and creating this video.
My dad was convinced Blobby was the personification of STDs - no really, he thought he was some kind of weird awareness mascot for VD. Honestly I thought so too forever, until I was enlightened by this very channel.
To anyone wondering what's there now, the remains of the St Cricket park were demolished in 2014 and today sit as woodland. The Morecambe version was torn down and replaced by eateries as the theme park still operates today.
Mr Blobby is far and away the most famous British thing that we here in America have more or less never heard of, at all. Considering how saturated Brit culture was, virtually no one here in the states has heard of him. I've been a huge fan of British TV for 40 years, and this is literally the first video I've seen that actually explained wtf the character did. I only in the last year or two heard that Blobby had something to do with Noel Edmonds (who I thought was just some guy who did TOTP for a while). Not that we're missing anything, of course. We're all better off if Mr Blobby is left to nostalgic obscurity, I think. ;)
True. I’m an American who had never heard of or seen an image of Mr. Blobby and I’d say I’m more interested in/exposed to British pop culture than most people I know. He just seems not to have penetrated the public consciousness here at all!
Excellent Vlog Please please do a section on the Blackpool owners and dealings with Southport and Morecambe. Am a train driver based at Liverpool but I started in 93 and remember going back and forth to morecambe while training and all the advertising on the seafront for this attraction. I can remember in the very early 2000s Local TV channel Granada reports doing a report on the Blackpool owners buying Southport pleasure beach and closing it just like they did at Morecambe in the late 90s. Then they moved the Southport rollercoaster Traumatizer to Blackpool and was advertising it as a brand new Coaster. They had to backtrack and state it was not a new coaster and why they closed a popular park down ie competition 🤣🤣🤣🤣. Keep up the great work 👍👍👍
Speaking of Morecombe. We used to visit family in Lancaster when I was a kid. A highlight of the trip was always heading to frontierland, a rundown little park with a bit of charm from what I remember. They had a decent woody called Texas Tornado. Might be somewhere for you to consider covering.
I went here as a kid! I thought the wishing well and the bridges/tunnels were really pretty 😅 I went with my mum, dad and big brother. I was on my dads shoulders and my my brother on my mums. We went into Mr Blobbys house, and Mr Blobby came out, and my brother screamed bloody murder, which of course caused me to join in the screaming. It was hilarious 😂
Great video. I went to blobby land when I was a kid and I swallowed a wasp while climbing a fountain... I'll never forget it. Also there was a dark ride as well that scared me as a kid.... not sure if it was this park but it was a park with an actual blobby land.
Even at the time I couldn't understand how you could make a Theme Park out of a character with such limitations. It says it's name and knocks things over. You'd be hard pressed to make a one issue comic book out of it. While it started as a joke by Edmonds to wind up celebrities, the extension of this seems like a cynical plan to fleece the public. But the OMG aspect was never going to last that long. Looks like Edmonds ego and I can get away with anything attitude was his folly.
I loved Blobbyland. I remember we saw Mrs Blobby getting out of the shower and remember thinking that I should not have seen that! But here I am still talking about it! 😂
Well thanks for helping me understand the cultural cntext of a Magnus Protocol episode months later! Glad I always watch your videos since I'm on the other side of he Pond 😂
Noels house party was bangin. I don't remember much about it except thinking it was his real house and it felt like you were in the audience. Also my dad found ,mr blobby absolutely hilarious and I never understood it.
Mr Blobby, Creepy or Cute?
Unsettling and creepy.
Extremely creepy
Adorable and funny
DEMON~!
super creepy
It’s still insane how Mr. Blobby started as a spoof of annoying children’s characters, only to quickly become the exact thing that he was meant to make fun of.
People forget the same was true of PeeWee Herman.
Yep
@@damianstellabott3613Exactly
right?!
The tragic irony
God, I remember my parents taking me to Blobbyland as a child! I remember this one maze attraction, where children entered this lumpy pink structure with Blobby-themed scenes inside (I remember being slightly unsettled by how the colour and texture made everything look like flesh). The maze had one entrance, but - unbeknownst to parents and children, multiple exits scattered widely around the park. It was essentially Mr. Blobby's Child-Losing Machine.
I did that!
" slightly unsettled by how the colour and texture made everything look like flesh" His Head being shaped like a Phallus didn't help.
Yikes...luckily, my parents used to drive straight past Blobbyland at Cricket St. Thomas on the M5 on our way down to our holidays in Devon in the 1990s. We never had to suffer Blobbyland. I think I was fortunate.
@davidjames579 a phallus head with yellow pustules on it at that 😢...
I got lost here too! 😂
Mr. Blobby requiring 4 more bodyguards than Noel Edmonds is insanely funny to me.
It was to protect other people from Mr. Blobby.
Ngl that part made me laugh out loud
Why on Earth would Noel Edmonds need a Bodyguard? Unless it was from people who wanted to attack for him creating the vile abomination.
As someone that has worked in costumes, people love to attack 😅
People guards
As a small child I was always terrified of Mr Blobby. I would see adults around me laughing at his antics and I can distinctly remember feeling horrified at this, not understanding why they weren't as disturbed as I was by this abomination. It's one of my earliest memories as I was really young so I feel like it must have scared me enough to become a core memory or something. Traumatised by Mr Blobby.
This is exactly how watching family guy and American dad made me feel for some reason LOL
oh noooo!~
I was really scared of him as a kid, and how destructive he was. 😅
@@RookieTok I agree! I hated how he’d burst in screaming his name over and over and attack everything, it was kind of aggressive
Traumatised by Mr Blobby gang. He’s terrifying
As an American who very briefly lived in the UK, I was only vaguely aware of Mr. Blobby up until this point. Now I know far more about Mr. Blobby than I ever could have wanted to know. I am cursed with knowledge.
*blobby blobby blob blob*
Hahaha! I think I would have been afraid of him.😄😄😄😄He must have been the precursor to a gentler, fuzzy Elmo.
Tis indeed a heavy burden, on behalf of britain, myself and my friends who only thought it was funny because the adults hated it so much, I apologise profusely
Mr. Blobby, living proof that it's not just the internet that makes children get attached to the most incomprehensible things. The Skibiddi Toilet of the 90s.
There's nothing incomprehensible about the Skibiddi toilet thing, I'm in my 40s and I followed DaFuqBoom long before he started that stuff (i found him via the beatboxing vids) because his Gmod videos were, are and continue to be amazing. What you ignore all the meme-shit surrounding the Skibidi Toilet vids they are a story pushing the medium of Gmod to it's limits.
One might even argue that the constant escalation in the videos is a comment on the nature of memes and internet culture.
@@Jayfive276I think it's less about the actual plot or whatever, but about the brain rot that comes out of people making other things with the character
"The Skibidi Toilet of the 90s" 😂
I've lived in morecambe since 2008 and this is the most in depth informative video I've seen on the scandal. Many people here have been misinformed that Noel Edmonds was to blame for the failure and cost the town dearly. Not that shocked to find out it was the council being incompetent 😂
They had history with that. I remember several years before Blobbygate, when The Wombles were all the rage there were plans for a Wombles attraction in the same Happy Mount Park.
I remember that all that amounted to was a small and underwhelming 'Womble House' in the corner of the park where the kiddies playground is now.
I think it was set on fire by vandals in the end.
@@wirebrushofenlightenment1545they really seemed to have something against that park huh…
I'm an american who moved to the uk some years back and i thought my spouse was just joking at first when they said mr blobby was a sensational icon here. He's creepy to look at and his voice is incredibly unsettling and almost scary. How did this not terrify kids 😬
Best way we can describe Blobby was it was The Producers for real. He was made as creepy and abnoxious as possible to annoy everyone. For some reason he actually became popular for some unknown reason.
Mr blobby is a legend
No, no, plenty of kids were terrified.... Others love chaos and want to see the world burn and Mr Blobby fed into that!
Have you seen old Mickey costumes? Literally nightmare fuel .
It did terrify kids 😂 I was one of them!
For 7 minutes I was so invested in Blobby history I comlpetely forgot that this was a video about theme park rides
I actually think Mr. Blobby is peak comedy but maybe I'm just a freak.
That bit with them asking him to speak clearly into the mic so he just starts screaming had me dying. 😂🤣
gotta say i laughed watching it.
Put it in a perfectly cut scream compilation haha
As someone from the other side of the pond I had never seen Mr. Blobby until I watched the Big Fat Quiz of the 90s a few years ago. Mr. Blobby screeching "JAAAAACK!!!" at Jack Whitehall after he said he was terrified of Mr. Blobby and then Jack ducking down behind the desk is still one of the funniest things I've ever seen. 😂
I just now learned he was supposed to be satirical and not a real children's character. Now I understand why no one was shocked when he made a joke about nailing a teletubby lol
I loved Mr Blobby as a kid. It was the nonsensical chaos and slapstick I'm sure that just tickled me as a kid. I'm really suprised the parks opened and closed so quickly as it felt like they had been open longer when I was younger.
Didn't we all!
Remember how some guy punched Mr. Blobby for ruining his daughter’s birthday party, and everyone cheered?
This is the British equivalent to Barney the purple dinosaur
Are you even British if you didn’t have an aspiration to punch Mr Blobby?
I saw something similar where a ton of kids were ganging up this blobby dude at a birthday party.
I saw it on AFV.
Ohhhhhh, so THAT's the reason Mr. Blobby required 5 bodyguards.
How exactly did Mr. Blobby ruin her birthday? It better be a doozy to cause an assault over. Geez!
Mr Blobby, Noel's House Party and all the rest was really a reflection of much of 1990's UK culture. Colourful, crass and decidedly lowbrow without being vulgar, and 7 year old me loved it. I still want to build a replica of that gunge tank to this day.
it is true
A friend told me a story once about how Mr Blobby was at like a military recreation place and was fucking around with the prop weapons which could actually hurt people (cuz they were made to look like the real things, metal and wood included) so apparently at some point they staged a mock hit squad on mr blobby to get him out of there.
😆
Fascinating stuff and proof of just how weird the 90s were. I grew up in the Mr Blobby era but never saw his appeal and had totally forgotten the horrors he inflicted upon the nation. Thanks for the reminder, now I'm going to have nightmares about him!
And ending with "Mr Blobby will return" sounds like a threat.
As a child younger than 10 during his run, I was a massive fan!!! What a chaos demon 😂😂
ahaha right
Oh gosh, you bought the record, didn't you? 😂
Being not from the UK, my first exposure to Mr. Blobby was him being on the Big Quiz and Jack Whitehall being absolutely terrified of him, going so far as hiding away. That just about seems the right response to him, imho.
Aha yeah, seems about right
I immediately thought of Jack Whitehall when I saw this video 😂
This was great! A bit of nostalgia for a 90s kid, born and raised in Morecambe. Unfortunately Lancaster city council continues to bring controversy... 🙃
I was part of the entertainments staff team at Frontierland, Morecambe in 1993, as Mr Blobby's popularity was in full effect. At that time the company were not adverse to him at all, and invited the character to make an appearance on the same day as the illumination switch on, in the park's theatre venue. To this day I have never seen such a flood of people clamouring to get close to him, and there were so many children coming at him, that Mr.Blobby had to be whisked outside through a back emergency exit, and thrown onto a pick-up truck, before things got out of hand. It's so sad that it all went wrong over the next 3 years, but at that time, the Mr.Blobby character was like a real life rock star. A true phenomenon.
I would add, from knowing the lay out of Happy Mount Park, that it was never a suitable choice for a theme park. It is far too small, and as mentioned in the video, never had parking capability from the start. What is worse, is due to the controversy, Frontierland went as well, so overall it is the people of Morecambe that paid the highest price.
I loved Frontier Land as a child 😊 log flume and runaway mine train were the best.
I had never heard of Mr. Blobby before this video, but from the description it sounds like that one Black Mirror episode has a character based on him. I can't remember the specifics as it's been years since I watched it, but there was a tv show that had a fake children's character used to prank celebrities that thought it was a real, well-known character.
Could be!
Are you on about Waldo? 😂
came here from the magnus protocol episode 10, a clown named bonzo was apparently a reference to mr blobby.
Came here looking for this comment. I think blobby is equally terrifying as mr. bonzo tbh
This is so interesting and we had no idea this even existed. We love the fact that you share such unique and fun content!!!
Yep
thank you so much
Thank you for the detailed history of the character! I'm in the US and only know Mr. Blobby from that abandoned theme park.
Yeah, i thought i would explain it a little this time.
** so you actually used clips of blobby and pleasurewood hills so this just makes me even more happy **
So mr. Bobby actually made it to a couple other parks. I remember growing up with blobby and Noel at my local park ( pleasurewood hills, Lowestoft ). He never had any structures but I'm pretty sure he had his own show in the castle theatre.
He did indeed! I went to see him in the castle theatre, I remember Noel was there too!
I remember being there the day that it opened. I remember there being entertainers around the park. A creepy Punch and Judy show that made me cry. And how every year there was this cool exhibit in one of the buildings, usually about dinosaurs or tech or something. I used to go there quite frequently. And honestly it is astounding is how quickly everything just crumbled away. And then all the buildings and kids stuff got locked up. First at the park and then in Morecambe more generally. It was heart breaking to just see the town decay and rot away thanks in part to that pink git.
Never heard of this thing.
What the hell am I looking at?!
Another awesome video!
The UK has had some strange shows.
it is true! Thank you
The UK is just unhinged
I never realized Don't Hug Me I'm Scared was just parodying this specific show, thanks.
It never fails to make me laugh just how *Partridge* Noel Edmunds was. Such incredible hubris and shortsighted-ness. Did he also try to do a Deal or No Deal Land?
Partridge....? what do you mean?
Agreed.
@@user-kw7mr6xt9n Partridge - a fictional TV presenter who is too full of his own ego to understand his mistakes, and an inability to laugh at himself being the cause of most of his problems. This applies very much to Noel Edmonds.
I was around at the time of Blobbymania and cannot express how much I adore Mr Blobby. He’s so awful, it’s brilliant. Also really glad to see more homegrown UK topics! Would love to see more. :)
I remember when I was younger, Mr Blobby came to my birthday party, I was so excited, and all he did was basically fuck everything up, parents were pretty mad, but me and my friends at the time thought it was hilarious though.
When I think about it 25 years later, it's super creepy and just totally messed up. No idea why kids use to love this, it's just fear inducing 😱
My sister remembers that Mr Blobby followed me into the toilets at a birthday party. There’s a photo of me wearing his feet, all I remember is us kids dragging him to the floor 😂
that sounds about right to me, Mr Blobby was legend, but was it for a good reason, who really knows@@elainestokes2787
Mr. Blobby was wayyyyy more creepy than that Ice Cream Bunny in Florida.
Ahahah yeah
What ice cream bunny in Florida?
YEEESSSSS
I have a funny feeling you enjoyed making this Sam. Thankyou for the nostalgia, house party was my favourite show growing up but blobby was sooo scary
Mr. Blobby looks like one of those stress reliever toys
he does abit
Only difference, he's not going to be the one squeezed, you are 😂
Yay. I have something to watch while at work today. Thank you.
Well done Sam. I wondered when you were going to cover this iconic attraction. My kids grew up on Blobby although they would probably never admit it. I can remember taking our eldest to the Crinkley Bottom attraction at Cricket St.Thomas in the nineties and much like the 'Ice Cream Bunny' in one of your previous videos I had nightmares for months afterwards.
Thank you so much. Two nightmares in a month for me
I remember years ago owning the Mr Blobby VHS tape. It showed some of his early highlights when he was being taught various things by celebrity guests. Or he was going out and about to the gym, the airport, etc.
That was a popular VHS!
I went there several times as a child as I live nearby !!! Loved it !!! And as a teen I got bass lessons off the guy who did Mr Blobbys voice and he had the original Mr Mrs and baby Blobby suits !!!
I can remember the Cricket St Thomas park having a boat ride that took you though scenes from classic British children's TV shows - Bill and Ben, The Magic Roundabout, Bagpuss, etc. The problem was, the start of the ride had the boats float in though a massive smashed TV screen, complete with sparking noises and two giant flashing diodes. Scared the crap out of me as a kid.
It did! Opened the second year
Wow I have learned something new from this video as I never knew there was a second Mr Blobby park in Morcambe! Me and my family were huge Mr Blobby fans so I would’ve loved to visit one of these parks. (The moving character displays at the Morcambe park look very interesting too!) However as we lived down the other end of the country we took a special trip to see Mr Blobby at Pleasurewood Hills instead. ☺️ it was great!
Blobby had a ton! for a short time
No way you’re doing this!!! Bravo research!!!! I remember visiting this place lol
I'm an American, so until I first saw another video covering the history of the abandoned Blobbyland parks, I knew nothing and was probably better for it. Like clowns, Mr. Blobby is so freaky and nightmarish to me. XD
Growing up near the Somerset attraction, I have such fond memories of it, we used to go all the time!
When I was a kid I loved mr Blobby! I always wanted to go to blobby land but my parents wouldn’t take me 😂 now its just weird, Cheesy and kinda creepy!
Very interesting! Never heard of Mr. Blobby but a fascinating history. Great work as always!
Mr. Blobby as a prank is funny, and works well. But...then becoming what he's parodying is...kind of terrifying, LOL.
9:17-Animals of Farthing Wood! That series was incredible, one of the greatest children's programmes of all time! Why didn't they just make AOFW the focus of the park?! Fox or Badger would've made much more charismatic mascots than that Pepto-Bismol nightmare.
As a kid I'd go to Cricket St Thomas with my family, all year round, they used to do exceptional outdoor learning sessions for kids, I loved it. Then Mr blobby came. He ruined everything. Those activities stopped. I hated him after that. But I used to love noels house party, great to watch with family. Shame he pushed it too far.
i saw a really cool helicopter show there!
Noel's House Party was great entertainment and a staple of Saturday Night. But I always went out of the room when Mr Blobby came on, it was cretinous.
You're explaining it, yet my brain is actively refusing to understand. All the words you say make sense in the order you say them, but when I try to go back and put it all together into a coherent tapestry in my head, I find that all the individual ideas have slid off each other into a mess.
I live near Cricket St Thomas and somehow have family lore of blobbyland so seeing this video was so funny to me. I wasnt old enough to go to Mr Blobbyland but my elder sister went a few times and met Noel Edmonds?? He did a lot of charity work and would do experiences and stuff for disabled kids and my sister got to be a part of that. Crazy.
When you talked about the Blobby Single you mentioned CDs and Vinyl but not tapes. Back in the early 90s Cassette tapes where extremely popular in the UK, Due to there cheap price and portability. CDs and Vinyl tended to be more for the serious listeners back then. I Bet more people brought that song on Tape than any other Format
I was aware of Noel for Deal and No Deal and Mr Blobby for getting the hell beaten out of by Harry Hill.
I have vivid memories of visiting Mr. Blobbyland when I was four. There was a doorbell if I remember correctly that you had to ring to get him to come out of his house. It was scary to ringit, as he may or may not come out but when he did, he came barreling out full pace screaming Blooby Blooby directly at a child or parent. Then proceeded to throw himself around chaotically before running back inside. He flirted with women and tried to get dads to fight him, it was bizarre and exactly like he was on the TV show.
This must have been the Morecambe one, as it's not far from where we lived and I don't remember any theme park and it was literally just the house you visited.
Mr Blobby brings out the fight or flight in most British people, even when on TV you still felt like you had to keep your eye on him at all times for fear of being collateral damage. The house party I remember most is when Mr Blobby accidentally fell off the top of the set, I think he either nearly took Noel with him or landed on Noel. The look of sheer panic on Noels' face and everyone panicking on set. Only for Mr Blobby to get right back up and choose chaos.
Im an American that loves Amusement Parks. Especially failed Amusement attractions. Ive only seen Mr. Blobby on a Comic Relief video. It was Is This the Way to Amarillo with Peter Kay that I found on TH-cam back in 07.
I was deployed to Kuwait and Iraq back from Nov 05- Nov 06. When we got our orders to go North into Iraq, we had a Scottish SF guy give us a Friendly Fire brief and we only understood probably about every 3rd word he said. He finished up by showing us the Royal Dragoon version of Is This the Way to Amarillo. You could tell who like British humor because we were laughing our asses off.
When I got back, I was telling some of my new work friends about it. Looked it up on TH-cam and saw the Peter Kay version. And thats where I saw Mr. Blobby for the time. Interesting history he has.
BARKING laughter at Hyacinth Bucket (OBVIOUSLY pronounced "Bouquet") being in the intro of nostalgia
I loved that show aha
@@ExpeditionThemePark Our local PBS station here in central California had the rights to air Keeping Up Appearances and Are You Being Served, both of which I blame for my weird sense of humor XD
That little bit of yours at the end (“Mr Blobby will return”..) comes off a bit ominous there, Sam!
I always picture Jack Whitehall freaking out when Mr. Blobby comes up in conversation.
right?
Despite being a 90s baby I had no idea about any of this so thank you for educating me! A very well constructed and engaging video ❤
“Old McBlobby had a farm, blobby blobby blob” has to have been the lyric which sold the album to the execs. It’s so good.
I learnt a lot from this or had forgotten, or more likely expunged from my memory in favour of sanity haha, definitely some interesting history though and a glimpse into the UK's psyche during the 90s! I also commend you on your diligent and surreptitious inclusion of all the lyrics from the original Blobby song in your script, well done mate! I'm pretty sure I still have that CD single lurking around the family house somewhere... 😁
Destroying a free public park to build a terrible paid theme park is like an act of terrorism against a small town like Morecambe. Just awful.
Loved this! Please can you do Dobwalls adventure park in Cornwall. Loved that place as a kid, Mr Blobby used to visit there also my brother was terrified 😅
PLEASE do one on the 'Dr. Who' attractions! Whovians of the world demand it!! =D
I'm from the US and I was only vaguely aware of Mr Blobby before this, I had assumed he was an actual children's show character!
I thought Barney was terrifying here in the United States. Mr Blobby is the nightmare the nightmares have.
As someone from Morecambe, we still talk about the disaster of blobbyland now! They cant have done anything much worse
Absolutely creasing at the blobby song lines you keep sneaking in 😂😂😂 massive blobby fan here!
Can you imagine hearing Mr. Blobbys voice at 3 in the morning, and you turn on the lights and see a pink creepy looking thing just standing there and staring at you at the foot of your bed?!😨😱
I hated Mr Blobby as a kid, to the point I use to scream and cry when he came on the tv and run off and hide. My siblings and my Dad use to rush to turn the tv off. However my mother (being the vile person she is) booked a day out at Crinkly Bottom. My Dad went ape shit because he drove us there while my mother gave direction telling him it was a “family surprise day out” and drove for hours. I cried the whole time and my mother spent the whole time telling me I was being naughty and ungrateful.
To this day I still have no idea why I was scared of Mr Blobby😂
Awesome episode mate and loved all the scandal!
A lass I went to school with broke her arm at the Morecambe park. I don’t think my parents ever forgave the “family friends” who gave me the Mr Blobby single for Christmas in 1993 (I don’t think they still have and both of them have been dead for over a decade).
never a perfect time to put it on!
I've never heard of him before.. uhhh.. how did Mr Blobby not terrify children? I'm an adult and find him terrifying. GO AWAY
Mr. Blobby is total nightmare fuel
A lot of childhood memories unlocked. Cheers, Sam!
As an Australian, I think perhaps I had seen the odd random image of Mr Blobby over the years without having any idea what it was. Just seemed like a badly designed kids mascot, or a rushed promotional decision. Realising only now that it was all intentional, and that he actually walked into walls has genuinely made me laugh.
After growing up in Morecambe from the age of 3 (now 44) Lancaster City Council have done nothing but ruin Morecambe, other than Frontierland and the Illuminations the rest of the town was derelict for years ! We had so many attractions at one point including a Wax Works called Luis Tussauds, Marineland, Central Pier, The Dome and Bubbles swimming complex which sadly only last a few seasons, it later was demolished by the Council because it wasn’t making them enough money to keep it open, the town literally has nothing now and are planning to build Eden North which I doubt will happen as tourists go to Blackpool rather than Morecambe oh and Crinkley Bottom was left to rot for many years
UK: we made blobby to poke fun at mascots
US: we made Barney
A+ video!
Thank you so much for the history of Blobby and the theme parks! He is basically unknown here in the United States.
Loved a trip to crinkly bottom! Its was actually such a fun place to visit.
Morecambe local here: Morecambe has never truly recovered from this. The hope at the moment is yet another risky investment with the Eden project. The old theme park mentioned still sits as wasted boarded up land. The prom is full of rotting boarded up shops and attractions. Many in the area consider Morecambe a disappointment and locals desperately try to keep it relevant with crowd funded charity events. The local council runs both Lancaster and Morecambe with very different ideas and views. Too many chefs in the kitchen. The potential is there, but it’s a big job.
I used to go to the punk festival there between 99 and the mid 00s. First years I went Frontierland was still open and there were a couple of decent venues on the seafront
Year by year you could see the place fading away. One of the venues got knocked down and replaced with a Aldi. The festival eventually moved back to Blackpool. I still remember the last year I was there, I think the remains of the Polo Tower were still there, along with a couple of random bits of rollercoaster track.
Is The Dome still around?
@@keithchristmas7315 sorry to report the dome is no more, it was torn down not long after the Arctic Monkeys sold out there in a surprise gig in the mid 00s /10s
Such a shame, and ironically recently Kent had plans for a big theme park starting BBC properties. Shame as done right, a movie park could work well in the uk. Thanks for posting and creating this video.
Mr. Blobby is scary to me. He is UKs version of Barney.
I enjoyed this expedition and yet confused by it!
The best way!
My dad was convinced Blobby was the personification of STDs - no really, he thought he was some kind of weird awareness mascot for VD. Honestly I thought so too forever, until I was enlightened by this very channel.
does look a bit iffy
Mr Blobby terrified me, not only his voice but his thrashing gestures 😵
To anyone wondering what's there now, the remains of the St Cricket park were demolished in 2014 and today sit as woodland. The Morecambe version was torn down and replaced by eateries as the theme park still operates today.
Mr Blobby is far and away the most famous British thing that we here in America have more or less never heard of, at all. Considering how saturated Brit culture was, virtually no one here in the states has heard of him. I've been a huge fan of British TV for 40 years, and this is literally the first video I've seen that actually explained wtf the character did. I only in the last year or two heard that Blobby had something to do with Noel Edmonds (who I thought was just some guy who did TOTP for a while).
Not that we're missing anything, of course. We're all better off if Mr Blobby is left to nostalgic obscurity, I think. ;)
True. I’m an American who had never heard of or seen an image of Mr. Blobby and I’d say I’m more interested in/exposed to British pop culture than most people I know. He just seems not to have penetrated the public consciousness here at all!
Great video! Loved / hated being reminded of the pink icon that was Mr Blobby!
Thank you for not exporting this monstrosity anywhere else in the world.
Excellent Vlog
Please please do a section on the Blackpool owners and dealings with Southport and Morecambe.
Am a train driver based at Liverpool but I started in 93 and remember going back and forth to morecambe while training and all the advertising on the seafront for this attraction.
I can remember in the very early 2000s Local TV channel Granada reports doing a report on the Blackpool owners buying Southport pleasure beach and closing it just like they did at Morecambe in the late 90s.
Then they moved the Southport rollercoaster Traumatizer to Blackpool and was advertising it as a brand new Coaster.
They had to backtrack and state it was not a new coaster and why they closed a popular park down ie competition 🤣🤣🤣🤣.
Keep up the great work 👍👍👍
Speaking of Morecombe. We used to visit family in Lancaster when I was a kid. A highlight of the trip was always heading to frontierland, a rundown little park with a bit of charm from what I remember. They had a decent woody called Texas Tornado. Might be somewhere for you to consider covering.
I went here as a kid! I thought the wishing well and the bridges/tunnels were really pretty 😅
I went with my mum, dad and big brother. I was on my dads shoulders and my my brother on my mums. We went into Mr Blobbys house, and Mr Blobby came out, and my brother screamed bloody murder, which of course caused me to join in the screaming. It was hilarious 😂
And he's baaaaaaaack, this time he's gone from our nightmares to Simon Cowell's now future nightmares.
ahah yesss
Great video. I went to blobby land when I was a kid and I swallowed a wasp while climbing a fountain... I'll never forget it. Also there was a dark ride as well that scared me as a kid.... not sure if it was this park but it was a park with an actual blobby land.
Even at the time I couldn't understand how you could make a Theme Park out of a character with such limitations. It says it's name and knocks things over. You'd be hard pressed to make a one issue comic book out of it. While it started as a joke by Edmonds to wind up celebrities, the extension of this seems like a cynical plan to fleece the public. But the OMG aspect was never going to last that long. Looks like Edmonds ego and I can get away with anything attitude was his folly.
I loved Blobbyland. I remember we saw Mrs Blobby getting out of the shower and remember thinking that I should not have seen that! But here I am still talking about it!
😂
I met Blobby when I was tiny Apparently I was terrified and cried But stopped long enough to get a nice picture with him
Well thanks for helping me understand the cultural cntext of a Magnus Protocol episode months later! Glad I always watch your videos since I'm on the other side of he Pond 😂
Why have I seen Mr Blobby two times in days? 😱 now this video is suggested to me.
Noels house party was bangin. I don't remember much about it except thinking it was his real house and it felt like you were in the audience. Also my dad found ,mr blobby absolutely hilarious and I never understood it.