Monday, May 28, 2007

 

Ha ha, France! You have neither Don Kings nor King Dons! Bow down before the magnificence that is the U.S. of A.!



Earlier today, some people commented on my recent reference to "King Don" snack cakes. After doing a little research, I have found that they are variously known as "King Dons," "Ding Dongs" and "Ring Dings." As this blog makes clear, some people take snack cakes very seriously. (It also offered up the fine Don King photo reproduced here). For example, in the comments section over there, a woman from St. Louis named "Heidi" had this to say about the author's musings relating to said snack cakes:

are you retarted????? why would you think king dongs and don king have to do with each other?? you sound so un educated to say the least. your not a bit funny you sound foolish and assanine to me.. [sic]

Comment by heidi 08.19.04 @ 19:40


Oddly, Heidi refers to the snack cakes in question as "King Dongs," which (as a commenter earlier noted) is very unlikely to be associated with a product sold to children. Of course, I spent my college years walking past displays featuring a perky pre-teen, reading "Little Debbie Has A Treat For You!" That always made me feel a little uncomfortable.

Comments:
Obviously someone has common law rights to the trademark DING DONG for confectionary products in various parts of the country. This party alleged rights under Section 43(a) of the Lanham Act (15 U.S.C. 1125(a)).

I remember them as BIG WHEELS (with Chief Big Wheel) in Ohio and DING DONGS in Virginia.

--BTW, wouldn't be cool to have a Federal Statute named after yourself? Cong. Fritz Lanham of Texas retired from Congress in 1946, yet he lives on in the world of trademark law.
 
I'm a little worried about what would be regulated under the "Osler Act."
 
The Osler Act should regulate double entendres involving children's snack cakes.

Chocodiles are the best, and have a great Trade Character/Mascot Chauncey Chocodile. He and King Don were certainly friends...but the weirdest was Fruit Pie the Magician. Why Hostess yanked these guys from marketing I do not know.
 
Hey, thanks for enlightening me about King Dons and all their variations. That blog was a hoot, and very educational.

I don't remember what those Hostess cakes were called in North Carolina, except that they definitely were NOT King Dons. Maybe Ding Dongs? I suppose our parents weren't big fans of snacks with suggestive names.

But I remember those Little Debbie cakes really well. We used to eat the round ones with the cream filling and the raisins on top, whatever they were called. Little Debbie Snack Cakes??
 
I especially like Heidi's use of the term "retarted." How do you re-tart something? Hmmm. It does seem appropriate to a discussion of pastry, though.
 
Hello heidi??? Uhmmmm you spelled the word retarded wrong.....
 
This comment has been removed by the author.
 
This is why I come to le rasoir!

This regional stuff cracks me up: a coke is a pop is a soda, etc.

In my part of NC, growing up in the 60's and 70's, the chocolate snack cakes we ate were Ding Dongs or Suzy Qs, with the occasional HoHo also consumed.

But for sure, I don't think the manufacturers had double-ententres in mind when they came up with the goofy names.
 
It's hard to beat "Ho-Ho's" in the realm of unintentional double entendre.
 
Oops... having read the linked Hostess blog, I now recall that we did in fact call them "Big Wheels," not the aforementioned appellation, "Ding Dongs."

Damn, I'm getting old...

'Course, the partially-hydrogenated-oil variety of "Big Wheel" had/has nothing to do with the giganto-plastic-tricycle variety of "Big Wheel" made by Mattel.
 
WAIT!!!! Could Swissgirl be Heidi?
 
Nah... Swissgirl is a good writer-- an English teacher, even.
 
Hey, Swissgirl: Where in NC did you grow up?
 
Post a Comment



<< Home

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?

#