The Guacfather

The origin story of a wobbly toy with a peculiar name.

We have a Patreon now! Members get access to Overunderstood, our bonus podcast. Check it out at patreon.com/underunderstood.

Show Notes:

1:47 - Nickelodeon's Wild & Crazy Kids Gwok Ball on Dailymotion 4:26 - Google Books Ngram Viewer results for "guac" 4:57 - Maureen Down piece from the New York Times Magazine, May 29, 1994: The Lost Quayle Diaries 5:27 - The New York Times, January 22, 1997: Snacks to Fix in Super Bowl Timeouts 6:16 - "Guac" used in a 1993 episode of Norther Exposure 6:34 - "Guac" used in a 2000 episode of Will & Grace 7:46 - Guac Ball on Toy Directory 8:12 - Creative Imaginations website, archived August 3, 2008 9:25 - Wham-It on the front page of the Wall Street Journal in December 1989 (PDF) 12:40 - Wham-It on Amazon, complete with photos of the can 16:04 - Lars and the Real Girl, with which this story has - and I cannot stress this enough - nothing in common 18:28 - Regina's Guac Ball 19:42 - K·B Toys (RIP) on Wikipedia 19:54 - Gymboree on Wikipedia 24:57 - John asks Reddit: Is "guac" an old surf term? 25:32 - Dave Chappelle coins "Zip it up and zip it out" 26:32 - "Guac" in the LA Times, April 7, 1989