Big Mouth Billy Bass
Big Mouth Billy Bass is an animatronic singing prop, representing a largemouth bass, popular in the late 1990s and early 2000s. The fish is made of rubber stretched over a mechanical frame; at first glance it appears to be a mounted game fish. Designed by Gemmy Industries, it turns its head outwards and then wiggles on its trophy plaque and sings kitschy cover songs, such as "Don't Worry, Be Happy" (the music was taken from the original Bobby McFerrin recording), and "Take Me To The River" by Al Green (the recording was arranged and produced for Gemmy Industries by Al Thomas of Designer Music). The singing mechanism was originally activated by a motion sensor and was originally intended to startle a passerby. Eventually a button was added to activate it. There have also been several copycat toys based on it, featuring various animals such as rainbow trout, catfish, lobsters, fish bones and even the great white shark, often featuring the voice of soul singer Shirley Ellis instead of Al Green. Some of these were created by Gemmy Industries for example "Travis the Singing Trout" but many were created by other companies. The concept was also adapted into a large mounted deer head.[1]
Appearances in popular culture
The success of the Big Mouth Billy Bass has made it something of a cultural icon. The toys appear frequently in pop culture.
Commercials
- A 2009 McDonald's commercial for the Filet-O-Fish sandwich features a singing fish mounted on a wall [citation needed].
- A November 2006 Verizon Wireless commercial featured one that sang Christmas carols.
- mcdonalds commercial is featured again when the driver of the car is getting ready to eat his filet o fish he gets a voice mail and the fish starts singing
Films
- The device also appears in Lemmy, when Kilmister activates a specimen hanging next to his bathroom mirror in his L.A. home.
- It was briefly seen in the 2008 film WALL-E in the robot's home.
TV shows
- It was shown briefly in an episode of 90210, when it was shown as part of a yard sale.
- It also briefly appeared on an episode of the PBS children's show, Arthur.
- Big Mouth Billy Bass was also mentioned in Blue Collar Comedy Tour: The Movie wherein Jeff Foxworthy said that a person with more than three of the toys (which Jeff himself is admittedly guilty of) "might be a redneck". Queen Elizabeth has one, which she displays on the grand piano of Balmoral Castle.[1]
- On Chuck, then-assistant store manager Morgan Grimes sports a Billy Bass on his office wall, emulating his manager and de facto stepfather Big Mike who has a large trophy fish (Marlin) mounted on his office wall.
- In the CSI: Crime Scene Investigation episode 1x11, Gil Grissom was seen to own a Big Mouth Billy Bass placed above his office door because its motion sensor was better than a watch dog.
- On the television show George Lopez, George has a singing fish in his office.
- It also appeared in Late Night with Conan O'Brien in 2008 with a singing fish doing the Jeremiah Wright speech.
- In the sitcom The Office, David Brent (played by Ricky Gervais) is seen asking for "more batteries for Billy Big Mouth".
- It is also seen on the television show The Sopranos (in the 2001 episodes, "...To Save Us All from Satan's Power" and "Second Opinion"), where Tony Soprano beats one of his underlings with it, for leaving it on his desk.
- It reappeared on The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien as "Big Mouth Biden Bass".
- It appeared on The Daily Show as "Michele Bachmann's Big Mouth Billie Vagina" in 2011 introduced by The Daily Show's Senior Women Issue Correspondent Kristen Schaal.
- In September 2011 an example appeared in the music video for Rihanna's song "We Found Love". The name on the fish is "The Talking Bass" instead of "Big Mouth Billy Bass". It can be seen at 1:31/1:32 into the video.
References
- ^ a b Schuessler, Heidi, Getting Under the Skin of a Fish That Can Get Under Yours, The New York Times, December 14, 2000, last accessed May 7, 2008.
