Iiiiiiiiiiinnn West Philadelphia, born and raised...
Growing up in the 90's, what kid didn't know the words to that song? You probably either loved this show or you hated it, but either way, there was no escaping it. Every afternoon, it'd be on the tv, and you'd hear Will Smith's rapping and your kids or siblings or friends singing along. And probably laughing way too loud at the gags, but what the Hell did we care, we were kids.
Maybe some kids got in trouble for some show-inspired hijinks, as kids are wont to do, but it was all in the spirit of fun and rebel-tastic coolness. Will Smith was like the Optimus Prime of actual people; he was that cool.
Sadly, old-time fans will find themselves relegated to watching reruns on Nick @ Nite to get their Fresh fix. But for your enjoyment, here is a tribute site that is really god-awful. It's good for a few kicks and any website-revision project, because it's really just terrible. But I digress. There are also numerous sites where you can watch episodes of the show online, and you can now buy the first 4 seasons on DVD. Pop in some popcorn and let the hijinks commence!
Oh, and just try getting that song out of your head now.
On to our second bit of memorabilia:
Kool Aid Man!
Okay, so Kool Aid Man wasn't from the 90's; his actual birth date was in 1954 as "Pitcher Man". The animated rendition we know now, though, did start in the 90's. Circa '75, the now-famous (and often parodied) mascot was an actual person dressed up in a giant pitcher costume, while before that he was simply a smiling piece of creepy glassware.
By the time the 90's came around, advertisements featured Kool Aid Man performing extreme sports and bursting through brick walls. It was probably shortly thereafter that the clunky pitcher costume was abandoned in favor of an animated mascot (actual human beings do have an unfortunate lack of brick- and concrete-busting ability). Thanks to his sixth sense for finding large groups of bored children, Kool Aid Man would show up at backyard parties, pools and playgrounds to give everyone Kool Aid, announcing himself with a shout of "OH YEAH!" and thereby becoming the life of the party. Whether these spontaneous arrivals were met with restraining orders from concerned parents remains curiously unanswered.
Kool Aid Man's destructive tendencies and hilariously famous catchphrase has since been parodied in numerous animated cartoons, the best known of which being Family Guy.
Here's another gatecrashing food mascot. Partners in crime?
"How do you mascots keep finding me???"
And now here's something we hope you'll really like;
DAMN YOU, AOL!
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