Veg-O-Matic
Veg-O-Matic is the name of one of the first
Made famous by saturation television advertising in the mid- and late 1960s, Veg-O-Matic is a manually operated
The steel cutting blades are contained in a circular, cast-metal holder several inches in diameter. By rotating the top holder, the blades could cut flat slices or square strips, such as for French fries. By putting the slices through the machine a second time, they would be diced into small cubes. In the ads, Popeil would rapidly demonstrate this, with the now well-known catchphrase "It slices! It dices!" Sales were nearly exclusively via direct marketing,[2] and Veg-O-Matic was one of the first products (if not the first) to bear the red-and-white "As Seen on TV" logo on the box.[6][7]
In popular culture
The "It slices! It dices!" catchphrase is used tongue-in-cheek to satirize Veg-O-Matic ads:
- The ads for Veg-O-Matic inspired comedian Gallagher to create his trademark "Sledge-O-Matic" act
- Dan Aykroyd was a fast-talking commercial pitchman in the famous "Super Bass-O-Matic 76" sketch on Saturday Night Live
- Throughout the 1980s, Frank Zappa satirized the product, as exemplified by recordings on You Can't Do That on Stage Anymore, Vol. 3 and 4. The text of the songs were often modified ad-lib
- Jonathan Richman recorded a song, "Dodge Veg-O-Matic," in the 1970s
- A song by Steve Goodman entitled "Vegematic", written by Goodman, Shel Silverstein and Mike Smith, appeared on Goodman's 1984 album Affordable Art
- In the 1990 Ninja Turtles movie, Michelangelo jokes "It slices, it dices, it makes french fries in three different..." while Leonardo is cutting a pizza into slices with his katanas
- The phrase "It slices, it dices, it splices your multimedia data, it'll even julienne fries!" was used in a TV advertisement for the Ultimedia M57SLC computer in the early 1990s[8]
- A gag at the start of the fries!! Will not break. (clonk clonk) Will not b— It broke."
- The second VeggieTales tape, called God Wants Me To Forgive Them?!, features a sketch advertizing an invention called the Forgive-O-Matic, fitting in with the tape's theme of forgiving. Just like other parodies of the Veg-O-Matic commercial, it has outlandish features like being able to turn into a Chia plant.
- "Weird Al" Yankovic recorded a song called "Mr. Popeil" for his 1984 album In 3-D.
Notes
- ^ ISBN 978-0-7867-4718-4. Retrieved October 21, 2017.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-316-08614-1. Retrieved October 21, 2017.
- ^ Gladwell in 1963, Malcolm: What the Dog Saw, page 20. Little, Brown, 2009.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-931686-09-9. Retrieved October 21, 2017.
- ^ Mateja 2013, p. 26.
- ISBN 978-1-61308-076-4. Retrieved October 21, 2017.
- ISBN 978-1-55862-584-6. Retrieved October 21, 2017.
- ^ Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: It slices, It dices. YouTube.
Bibliography
- Mateja, Andrew (2013). The Rise and Fall of the First Popeil Gadget Dynasty. Tate Publishing. ISBN 9781625103628.