The secrets of Mr Blobby’s everlasting popularity, according to those who love and loathe him

He is at least seven feet tall, has a tummy and a head that are as round as beach balls, and wears nothing but a bow tie and imposing eyelash extensions. His flesh is rubbery, the colour of a cooked prawn, spotted with brash yellow splodges reminiscent of a stale party ring biscuit. He’s supposed to be an adult, but could justifiably be placed anywhere between three and 80.

He only says one word, and he is in dire need of anger management classes – with his clumsy endeavours and aggressive behaviour towards the likes of Gary Barlow making him an A-list anarchist.

And yet that bizarre combination of characteristics made Mr Blobby an unstoppable force in British entertainment, a success that somehow continues 29 years on.

Eclipsing even Flat Eric as a 90s icon, Blobby’s re-emergence began as PR stunt for Noel Edmonds entering the I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! jungle in 2018, but now appears to have spiralled into a full-blown revival.

After the character was cast in a Peter Pan pantomime in Milton Keynes this winter and ended up being “interviewed” on BBC News last week, where he was filmed bashing a mince pie into news anchor Christian Fraser, reprising his reign as an agent of chaos.

Things took a genuinely unexpected turn when a parody Twitter account, @WorstBlobby – which reimagines the character as a foul-mouthed sex fiend – went viral after mocking JK Rowling’s views on transgender rights and identification.

It’s worth reminding ourselves that Mr Blobby was intentionally created as a horrific – and therefore horrifically funny – secret parody of a children’s TV character.

As a prank dreamed up in 1992 for the BBC’s Saturday evening family TV show Noel’s House Party, unwitting celebrities would be told that he was a genuine kids’ entertainment star and be asked to film alongside someone in the costume.

Believing they were expected to maintain decorum, they did their best to keep straight faces while they watched him wreck sets and behave disastrously.

Blobby was not expected to actually entertain children – and yet he did, and the BBC ran with this development, in a bizarre case of life imitating art.

In a search to find out what makes Mr Blobby TV gold – and so uniquely loved and loathed – i has spoken to a cohort of Blobby ultras, academics, former Crinkley Bottom theme-park workers, and haters with with Blobbyphobia, to get under the skin of his staying power.

What Blobby meant to children

For me, this journey of discovery began with my first encounter with Mr Blobby when I was about six years old. I can still remember being parked in front of a TV screen at the house of my great aunt, inhaling a Capri-Sun while I watched this large pink lump stumble onscreen, shrieking.

He was a poster boy for dyspraxics (a learning difference that affects how the mind processes actions, usually affecting coordination and movement) such as myself, and my soft spot for his clumsiness has paved the way – I have to admit – for a decades-long obsession, with novelty T-shirts, face masks and even a pillowcase in my collection.

For fellow journalist Thomas Hobbs, his everlasting love for the character was borne out of a more profound childhood significance, with his Mr Blobby fandom coinciding with the death of his father.

This included moving experiences at the Crinkley Bottom theme park at Cricket St Thomas in Somerset, which was based around Noel Edmonds’ TV show where he first appeared and featured Blobbyland.

“I have vivid memories of going to Blobbyland and the organisers setting it up so Blobby gave me a big hug following my father’s passing,” he says. “It meant the world as I was only four. He subsequently holds a special place.”

Hobbs believes his fond memories are shared by a lot of children of the 90s, who understand and appreciate Blobby in a new light as they’ve aged.

“I think there’s a real nostalgic boom for 90s pop culture right now, with Mr Blobby only benefiting from this wave of interest. I guess he’s a reminder of a simpler time; where people’s only major concern as children was which confused celebrity the pink and yellow spotted mutant would mess around with.”

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The same theme park that provided such an important source of comfort for Hobbs triggered a lifelong fear of Mr Blobby for Sam Neve.

Now aged 28, he visited Blobbyland with his parents when he was four, after spending what seemed like most of his weekends watching a Mr Blobby video that featured all the best bits of the theme park.

“As the day went on, the prospect of actually meeting him became scarier and scarier,” says Neve.

“Then, when I finally got to meet him, he screamed ‘Blobby Blobby Blobby’ and charged towards me… To this day, I still get shivers down my spine when I see his face.”

Despite these misgivings, Neve agrees that the characters possesses what you might call a potent energy. “The aura of Blobby was and is everywhere.”

Alana Jeffreys worked at the theme park complex as a catering assistant while she attended university, and remembers when Blobbymania imploded.

“Cricket St Thomas was a wonderful park and really was ruined by Blobbyland,” she tells i.

“We’d frequently see Noel Edmonds walking around. He took staff meetings sometimes, talking a lot about how wonderful Blobbyland would be. It wasn’t.

“Blobby Mania lasted about a year and it was crazy but then it disappeared. I was not a fan of Blobby really. I never understood the reason for its popularity in the first place.”

On the resurgence of interest at the moment, she says: “Hopefully the craze will move on swiftly!”

Understanding the phenomenon

Dr Vanessa Jackson, associate professor at Birmingham City University’s School of Media, worked for the BBC during Blobby’s beginnings on Noels’ House Party.

She recognises that while Mr Blobby is viewed as a children’s TV character, it’s not exactly the case. In effect, the outlier is “quite unusual as a TV mascot.”

“Mr Blobby wasn’t originally involved in advertising, unlike a lot of TV’s popular non-human characters – he didn’t lead a particular campaign, unlike Pudsey, and crucially, he was not part of children’s programming,” she tells i.

“What is surprising is his longevity and his ability to pop up in a different context every couple of years. He has now been involved in advertising, he has taken part in Children in Need and other charity appeals, as well as appearing in children’s programmes.

“He has also been very happy to skip around various channels, appearing on ITV and Channel 4, as well as on various BBC programmes.”

Considering his appeal across a variety of demographics, Dr Jackson thinks his charm boils down to his silliness.

“He has a distinctly limited vocabulary, basically only repeating ‘blobby’ over and over. This makes him universally understood, in a way that appeals to both young and old. He also has an anarchic side, creating chaos wherever he goes, which is rather liberating.”

The Blobby paradox is well known to anyone who has seen him in action. He makes no sense in any setting, yet crops up in all of them; he is loved by many, but loathes everyone.

Mr Blobby’s off-kilter 1993 Christmas single, “Mr Blobby”, exemplifies this. Produced by none other than Simon Cowell, it is frequently voted the worst festive number one of all time – yet spent three weeks at the peak of charts, reclaiming the title after being knocked off a week earlier by Take That’s “Babe”, and keeping the top spot for New Year.

The refreshing levity which rebuffs the British stiff upper lip has been welcomed in spades by fans.

“He was never meant to be the star of the show and started out as a prank, it’s the kind of joke that wouldn’t work anywhere else but the UK,” the superfan behind the Instagram account Mr Blobby Collection tells i.

“He’s not a proper children’s character, but he’s not a parody either, he fits into his own pear-shaped category.”

Falling in love with Blobby at the age of three because of “how bonkers he is,” this fan – who prefers to remain anonymous – has created an archive of the weirdest souvenirs and branded products dedicated to the character, ranging from HP pasta Blobby shapes, stamps and scented candles.

“I set up the page back in 2018 as a way to keep track of what merchandise I had and to show others my little collection. That was when it all fitted into a small drawer,” he says.

“I loved hearing people’s experiences and this convinced me to make a proper website. Now with over 600 items, it’s become a fully fledged archive, where I speak to those involved with the show in order to preserve Mr Blobby’s barmy history”.

When I ask what he thinks drew so many people to this Michelin man of mischief, the collector says the answer is in his unpredictability. “He’s unconventional but simple, you know he’s going to cause havoc yet you can’t wait to see what he’ll do next.”

A Blobby nightmare

Of course, there are also plenty of Blobby haters. One man who loathes him says he’s “simply a pervert,” while a woman tells me she “wants him dead”.

Fashion worker Tiffany Grous has a phobia of Mr Blobby and can’t imagine anything less welcome than his return.

“Blobby terrifies me,” she says. “The sound of him, the eyes wobbling around, the chaotic disregard for any sort of social compliance, never knowing what his next move will be… It makes me feel uncomfortable to my very core.”

Even self-professed Blobby expert Dr Jackson has little time for him. “I’m afraid I’m not personally a fan of Mr Blobby, I find him deeply irritating,” she says.

The Twitter parody @WorstBlobby has picked up on the character’s more malevolent side, moulding a profile full of ominous, barely legible threats, always written in capital letters.

The page has racked up 11,500 followers, and is only growing as Blobby’s success ramps up speed. It signals a new wave of fandom, championing his misanthropic edge for destruction which borders on ghoulish.

Explaining the character’s appeal, the person behind the profile writes: “BLOBY IS BECOME SO POPULAR ONCE MORE BECASE THE MASSES NEED A CHAOS MONSTEROSITY TO LOOK TO IN THIS TIMES OF CLIMATE COLAPSE AND GENERAL SHITTERY.” (sic)

They add: “THE POPULACE HAS BEEN ABEL TO HAVE SEEN THAT BLOBY CANOT BE BOXED INTO ANY SOCIAL MORES OR RULES OR REGULATIONS – BLOBY IMAGINES THE WORLD TO BE DIFERENTLY AND SO TO CAN YOU.” (sic)

This is not the only twist on the character. Whether it’s Cardi B WAP TikTok parodies of a Mr Blobby costumed-dancer racking up hits among the Gen-Z crowd, or pictures of mud-soaked twenty-something in a Blobby outfit ripping it up at Glastonbury, these tributes have created an X-rated version of their childhood star.

My i colleague Katie Grant, now in her thirties, loves Mr Blobby unabashedly, but forsees a rift opening up between the generations of fans.

“The Mr Blobby renaissance has taken me by surprise – I honestly don’t know where it’s come from,” she says.

“He hasn’t aged a day. I do fear that some of his newer self-professed fans have only an ironic appreciation for him. True Blobby fans laugh with Mr Blobby, not at him.”

In the current state of things, both those who love him and fear him see a big future for Blobby. After all, he is designed to dine out on disaster.

“In a world where we don’t know what’s what, misinformation is everywhere,” says superfan Jamie Taylor.

“The consistent chaos of Mr Blobby is weirdly grounding. You know what you’re gonna get. Plus he’s hilarious.”

“I think as people realise more and more how out-of-touch celebrity culture is – which is something that’s only intensified since the Covid-19 outbreak – and thanks to all the infuriating ways the famous have tried to latch on to the tragedy, a character like Blobby becomes more relevant,” says Hobbs.

“Whether it’s the sketches or just his appearance and lack of speech, Blobby is as anti-celebrity as it comes; a lot of people can maybe relate to that right now.”

For superfan Thom Clarke, Mr Blobby’s existence is one long fever dream that will wax and wane throughout his generation’s lives.

“I can’t quite believe that he is a thing that exists,” says Clarke. “I think he just represents a particularly mad part of loud and mad 90s British TV history, which makes you go ‘I can’t believe this was and is a thing'”.