Media

Simon the Walrus: UK Argos Advertisement

First, a disclaimer: No, walrus do NOT forage around atop the ice for food, I am aware that they root around the sea floor with their whiskers. And no, walrus and penguins do NOT happily co-exist in the frozen north (or more properly south). Suspend your disbelief and enjoy the post.

“Simon the Walrus” is currently advocating the benefits of grocery delivery in the UK. These spots are amusing, and it’s fun to see a walrus being used as an advertising spokesmodel. From his accent, Simon must have gone to a good school, with a dignified voice that befits his station.

But even more enjoyable is the “behind the scenes” video posted to Youtube by Argos, showing how the spot was shot and how Simon was made and animated – I assumed it was CGI. I was wrong. Check this out!

We got the experts, the top guys in this business, to do this walrus…

The spots are created by UK Ad agency CHI & Partners.

Ride The Walrus!

Ride the Walrus!
Extreme Walrus Juice!

Made from fresh-squeezed walrus! Once again, graphic evidence that somewhere in the writing crew associated with Matt Groening’s various production companies – there is a fan of the walrus. This one’s from Futurama. A semi-interesting aside: When my son was younger and we were swimming, he’d yell out “Ride the Walrus!” and climb on my back to be pulled around the pool. I’ve only seen like 3 episodes of Futurama, but this must have been one of them. As far as my claim that someone associated with Futurama/The Simpsons is a fan of the walrus, allow me to link to my earlier post “Grand Theft Walrus!“…

Buy a T-Shirt with the Extreme Walrus Juice design from Zazzle:
http://www.zazzle.com/extreme_walrus_juice_tshirt-235269074600073354

What Does a Walrus Sound Like?

Despite what you may have heard, walruses do NOT say “Koo Koo Ka Choo” although you wouldn’t know it by the frequency at which that phrase is posted to Twitter. In actuality, a walrus sounds a little like “Chewbacca” from Star Wars or more accurately, the other way around. Walrus make a variety of grunting and whistling sounds, they do NOT bark like sea lions. Hear and see for yourself

Here’s a “soundboard” of various walrus sounds as well. Now you know!
http://www.soundboard.com/sb/Walrus_sounds.aspx

Chumley The Walrus

Chumley the Walrus
Chumley the Walrus

So my first commenter, my friend Kristen, who co-runs the very nice boston-area foodblog North Shore Dish left the following comment:

Wow. Now all I can think of is Chumley the Walrus from the Tennessee Tuxedo cartoons. Love the site – nice and clean. Also, cracked up when one of the Google sidebar ads was for “need a carpenter?”

Well, Kristen’s only a year or so older than I am, but I had never heard of Chumley the Walrus, and had only a passing understanding of “Tennessee Tuxedo“, although now that I have the benefit of some Googling behind me, this Tennessee Tuxedo show sounds remarkably similar to my favorite cartoon of all time, “Help! It’s the Hair Bear Bunch”

Chumley is portrayed as the dim-witted sidekick, in some ways the equivalent of “Botch” on Hair Bear, and looking at the voice talent from the two shows, the back and forth between the Don Adams-voiced Tennessee Tuxedo and Chumley must have sounded an awful lot like the verbal banter between Botch and Mr. Peevley, the zookeeper on Hair Bear. Although it should be noted that TT had a zookeeper and inept sidekick character as well.

Notable Chumley facts: Apparently Chumley is a South Pole Walrus, the only one of his kind if thats’ the case. Hence the friendship between Chumley and Tennessee Tuxedo I suppose.

What other cartoon Walruses am I missing out on  – I’ve discovered two more since drafting this post, and I’ll get posts up about them very soon.