Count Chocula
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Count Chocula is a breakfast cereal produced by General Mills for the North American market that contains chocolate-flavored corn cereal bits and marshmallows. Count Chocula is also the cereal's trademarked mascot character, whose name is a pun on the vampire Count Dracula. The character was first introduced in 1971, and is is one of several "ghoulishly" designed members of other lines of General Mills cereals.[1] Instead of craving blood like Dracula, Chocula craves Count Chocula breakfast cereal. The cereal was once a part of a product line of five monster-themed breakfast cereals, including Franken Berry, Boo Berry, Fruit Brute, and Yummy Mummy. There were some public concerns regarding the potential health implications of eating Count Chocula, in part because the product used to contain high levels of sugar, which may have led to it being temporarily discontinued. However, it was later reintroduced with healthier ingredients, such as whole grain corn..
Cultural references
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Television
- On the TV series Futurama, The Count has been promoted to Archduke and is known as Archduke Chocula, just as Cap'n Crunch is now Admiral Crunch.
- The Simpsons episode Sweets and Sour Marge shows a parody of him, named Count Fudgeula, as being a sugarholic that wishes to quit (his teeth have fallen out due to gingivitis) but finds himself unable to resist. In Treehouse of Horror IV the credits list Matt “Count Chocula” Groening. The episode The Old Man and the Lisa, has Mr. Burns shopping for cereal. When he sees Krusty with a box of Krusty-O’s he asks, “Can you tell me where they put the Burns-O’s?” Krusty replies, “They don't put nobodies on cereal boxes!” Then, he notices the Count Chocula cereal and says “Hmm. I suppose this one looks a bit like me.”
- An episode of Invader Zim contains a parody character named Count Cocofang, a mascot for Coco Splodies cereal.
- On the episode "Health Care" of "The Office", Jim or Pam lists "Count Choculitis" as an illness when Dwight forces the staff to disclose their diseases in order to reduce health benefit costs. Dwight asks "Did you write that because you know I love 'Count Chocula'?"
- In Robot Chicken, Count Chocula is seen as a judge in an American Idol spoof called Zombie Idol in which he substituted for the role of Simon Cowell.
- A cut-away in the Family Guy episode "Wasted Talent" shows Cap'n Crunch wanting The Godfather to assassinate Chocula because "that son of a bitch has been spreading lies! My cereal does not cut the roof of your mouth! With all respect." [1]
- In the 21 Jump Street episode Old Haunts in the New Age, Doug Penhall (Peter DeLuise) dresses up as Count Chocula for Halloween.
- In the HBO Original Series The Sopranos, mobster Johnny Sack is jokingly referred to as Count Chocula.
- In the Psych episode American Duos, Emilina Saffron refers to Detective Carlton Lassiter as Count Chocula due to the detective's likeness to the mascot.
- In the Imaginationland episode of South Park, Count Chocula appears among the imaginary characters in the titular land.
- In one television commercial, instead of the usual animation, Count Chocula was played by a live actor.
- In the TV series Freaks and Geeks episode "We've got spirit", Sam Weir is eating a bowl of Count Chocula for breakfast with the box in front of him on the table.
Film
- In Wedding Crashers, John Beckwith resists the temptation to go over-board in taking on fake occupations in order to sound fascinating; he says "I'd like to be pimps from Oakland or cowboys from Arizona but it's not Halloween. Grow up; Peter Pan, Count Chocula."
- In Blade: Trinity, Dracula walks into a store that sells vampire souvenirs. He picks up and looks at a box of Count Chocula cereal, then kills everyone in the room.
- In the movie Tank Girl, a character states he's better in the dark, like Count Chocula. He's angrily corrected by a friend, who tells him that "It's Dracula, fool! Count Chocula is the guy on the detergent box!" which sets off a heated argument until Tank Girl tells them to shut up.
- In the movie Multiplicity, Doug Kinney #4 (the child-like clone of Michael Keaton's character) finishes off a box of Count Chocula (and all of the rest of the food in the clones' apartment).
- In the movie Sugar & Spice, Jack Bartlet (James Marsden) asks Diane (Marley Shelton) which character she would rather be: Count Chocula or Trix the Rabbit, during their trip to the grocery store. She said Trix.
Music
- In one of the many versions of his song "Your Body is a Wonderland", John Mayer imitates Bobby Brown singing "And in the morning, girl, I'm gonna pour you a bowl of Count Chocula".
Literature
- In Thomas Pynchon’s novel Vineland, the story of the book starts with a note lying next to an empty Count Chocula box. After reading the note, Wheeler simulates the Count Chocula cereals with Froot Loops and some Nesquik.
- In 1999, the satirical newspaper The Onion ran a front-page story about Count Chocula (online here), characterizing him as an actual blood-sucking monster to underscore the humor of his role as mascot for a children's cereal. Franken Berry is also referenced in the article, although not by name.
- In Vampire Kisses book 1, in the chapter 15[] Raven Goes to have a dinner with Alexander and when she is almost to go she whishes she could live with him and have Count Chocula cereal as breakfast.
Internet media
- In the Halloween edition of Something Awful's Tub Bites series, there is a sketch where Count Chocula, called Chocolate Dracula, is trying to make kids eat his cereal, along with Frankenberry, called Strawberrystein. The kids are scared by the pair and kill them. Boo Berry looks out of the window and floats away.
- In the popular webcomic Something Positive, protagonist Davan McIntire and his best friend Aubrey Chorde buy a large supply of the monster cereals, which Davan (who has a culinary bent) transforms into a number of experimental desserts. The odd foodstuffs are then "donated" to a bunch of collegiate potheads.
Other
- When Danny Kass won the silver medal in the Snowboard Halfpipe event at Salt Lake Olympics in 2002, he shouted "I'm going to be on the Count Chocula box! Count Chocula!." In Robin Williams Live On Broadway 2002, Robin made a reference to this event by noting that Kass would've preferred being on a box of Chocula over a box of Wheaties, alluding for the craving of the former's high sugar content after the consumption of marijuana.
- A t-shirt with Barack Obama's face over an image of Count Chocula and bearing the slogan "Count Barackula For President" surfaced on the internet during the 2008 U.S. presidential race.
- In the Troika videogame Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines an e-mail mentions a way to hack the game in order to play as a chocula clan vampire.
Taglines
- I vant to eat your cereal! (1971 - 2008)
- How about a monster for breakfast today!
See also
References
- ^ Advertising Mascots - Count Chocula from TV Acres - Internet guide to television program facts