The Gorton's Fisherman in Popular Culture
The iconic slogan, "Trust the Gorton's Fisherman," produced in 1978, and the familiar yellow slicker and beard has made the Gorton's Fisherman a recognizable pop culture icon. In particular the Gorton’s Fisherman, has been featured on the "Late Show with David Letterman" numerous times:
- On the January 12, 2007 show and again on the January 7, 2008 show David Letterman sported a yellow slicker, hat and beard and acted out an improvised Gorton’s Fish Stick commercial as the Gorton’s Fisherman complete with a box of Gorton's Fish Sticks.
- The Gorton’s Fisherman made the number seven spot on the “Top 10 Answers to the Question How Rainy Is It?” on April 16, 2007, which read “Number 7. It’s so rainy Regis’s guest host today was the Gorton’s Fisherman.”
- The Gorton's Fisherman also made the number five spot on the "Top 10 Surprises in 'Titantic'" list on January 8, 1998, which read, "Number 5. Graphic love scene between Kate Winslet and the Gorton Fisherman."
Other notable pop culture appearances include:
- In the 2006 Halloween edition of the popular cartoon website, Homestar Runner, The King of Town is dressed as the fisherman in the Gorton’s logo.
- On February 6, 2005, during Super Bowl XXXIX, the Gorton's Fisherman appeared in a Mastercard commercial featuring 10 legendary advertising characters from various food and household products.
- In the movie remake of the classic TV series "Bewitched" (2005), Nicole Kidman's character, Samantha Stephens, encounters the Gorton's Fisherman during a trip to the supermarket. The image of the Gorton's Fisherman on the box comes to life and speaks to her when she picks up a Gorton's package from the frozen food section.
- Fans of the New York Rangers of the NHL often taunt their rival team, the New York Islanders and its fans. In the mid-1990s, the Islanders briefly changed their uniform from their traditional logo to a more new-age logo that featured a fisherman that many thought resembled the Gorton’s logo. Rangers fans have been known to chant, “We want fishsticks!” at both Madison Square Garden and the Nassau Coliseum during games between the teams.
- In an edition of WWE Magazine, the feature “Would You Buy This?” was a parody of Gorton’s, calling it, “Orton’s and replacing the fisherman with wrestler Randy Orton.
- The Gorton’s Fisherman has been the answers to questions/ puzzles on "Jeopardy!" and the "Wheel of Fortune" game shows.
- The Gorton's featured in a rap by an inmate in San Quentin Prison. (See YouTube page in references)
Read more about this topic: Gorton's Of Gloucester
Famous quotes containing the words fisherman, popular and/or culture:
“Some people are under the impression that all that is required to make a good fisherman is the ability to tell lies easily and without blushing; but this is a mistake. Mere bald fabrication is useless; the veriest tyro can manage that. It is in the circumstantial detail, the embellishing touches of probability, the general air of scrupulous—almost of pedantic—veracity, that the experienced angler is seen.”
—Jerome K. Jerome (1859–1927)
“The poet needs a ground in popular tradition on which he may work, and which, again, may restrain his art within the due temperance. It holds him to the people, supplies a foundation for his edifice; and, in furnishing so much work done to his hand, leaves him at leisure, and in full strength for the audacities of his imagination.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“The hard truth is that what may be acceptable in elite culture may not be acceptable in mass culture, that tastes which pose only innocent ethical issues as the property of a minority become corrupting when they become more established. Taste is context, and the context has changed.”
—Susan Sontag (b. 1933)