Of all the anthropomorphized pop culture “characters,” Mr. Potato Head has to be one of the weirdest, right? I mean… who was the galaxy brain who was like “the toy is a potato and you can put different wigs and mustaches and hats on the potato, okay?” And Hasbro was like “MY GOD, it’s a million-dollar idea!” Was there ever a pull to extend the line? Miss Broccoli, Madame Fig, the Honorable Mr. Grapefruit? Anyway, because it’s 2021, we can no longer have gendered potatoes. The predictable people are mad about it, but I’m sort of charmed by the idea that Hasbro was like “let’s take a preemptive step to degender Potato Head.” I mean???
Mr. Potato Head is no longer a mister. Hasbro, the company that makes the potato-shaped plastic toy, is giving the spud a gender neutral new name: Potato Head. The change will appear on boxes this year. Many toymakers have been updating their classic brands in recent years, hoping to relate to today’s kids and reflect more modern families.
“It’s a potato,” said Ali Mierzejewski, editor in chief at toy review site The Toy Insider. “But kids like to see themselves in the toys they are playing with.”
Barbie, for example, has shed its blonde image and now comes in multiple skin tones and body shapes. Thomas the Tank Engine added more girl characters. And American Girl is now selling a boy doll. As part of the rebranding, Hasbro will release a new Potato Head playset this fall that will let kids create their own type of families, including two moms or two dads. The Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head characters will live on in some form, Hasbro said, but didn’t provide details. Both have appeared in the “Toy Story” movies.
Dropping the “Mr.” from its name could encourage other companies to stop assigning genders to its toys, a trend that has already been happening, said Mierzejewski. Barbie maker Mattel released a gender-neutral doll line in 2019. But Mr. Potato Head is one of the biggest brands to do so.
“It’s setting this new standard,” Mierzejewski said.
Mr. Potato Head first hit the toy scene in 1952, when it didn’t even come with a plastic potato — kids had to supply their own vegetable to poke eyes, a nose or mustache into. Hasbro, which also makes Monopoly and My Little Pony, bought the brand and eventually added a plastic potato.
Kids had to provide their own potato!!!! I HAD NO IDEA. The secrets of anthropomorphized potatoes! Anyway, I’m honestly all for toy companies trying to be more inclusive and more gender-neutral in how they market toys. Mr. Potato Head and Mrs. Potato Head were/are the same f–king plastic potato, they just came with different spudsy accoutrements. Now kids will learn that gender is something that can be snapped on and off! I AM JOKING. (Also: Hasbro confirmed that Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head will still exist, but they’re just also adding a nonbinary option.)
Dr. Potatohead was her MOTHER.
— Emily Nussbaum (@emilynussbaum) February 25, 2021
Conservatives seeing the Mr. Potato Head story pic.twitter.com/f6WeDuiLal
— The Daily Show (@TheDailyShow) February 25, 2021
The left is trying to cancel Mr. Potato Head's glorious penis.
— Cody Johnston (@drmistercody) February 25, 2021
Please, just call me Potato Head. Mr. Potato Head was my father
— Josh Billinson (@jbillinson) February 25, 2021
Hold that Tot – your main spud, MR. POTATO HEAD isn’t going anywhere! While it was announced today that the POTATO HEAD brand name & logo are dropping the ‘MR.’ I yam proud to confirm that MR. & MRS. POTATO HEAD aren’t going anywhere and will remain MR. & MRS. POTATO HEAD pic.twitter.com/6I84KrxOLQ
— Hasbro (@Hasbro) February 25, 2021
Photos courtesy of Getty.
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Back in the 1950s and 1960s, Mr PotatoHead had friends that included Katie Carrot, a cucumber, and several other vegetables.
ETA conservative Twitter yesterday seemed to think this was far more horrifying than the attack on the Capitol. Ben Shapiro tweeted about it over a dozen times. America will never be the same or something.
It seems clear that on the right if you’re not railing against a perceived injustice or cultural horror you’re just not really living.
Emphasis on the perceived, through their racist, sexist, transphobic and homophobic filters. Real social injustices they couldn’t care less about.
OMG I am in Texas and one of the most important bills for our AG is the Star Spangled Banner Bill because the Mavericks have not been playing the song enough – i sh*t you not. The ERCOT reform bills are there too but this is a priority???? There are also TWO anti abortion bills because one isnt enough. The priorities and worries of the GOP at a time like this are so insane and stupid.
They have had sets with a carrot and corn in recent memory. I’m a preschool speech path, so am up on all of the marvelous things they do 😀 I’m in the trying not to buy more phase in my 60s, but I love potato heads!
I love Mr. & Mrs., Potatohead as both toys and actors. Toy Story is one of my favorite movie series.
I agree BTB. I loved giving Mrs. Potatohead her purse! And off she would go…………pre video games and pre minime daughters who go to the salon with their mommies for manis and pedis.
As long as one of them still has a purse/bag because otherwise where would they pack their angry eyes?
I love Toy Story.
If Hasbro drops the “Mr. and “Mrs.” from the Potato Head toys, how will we know which one gets paid less from doing the same job?
seen on Twitter
Comment of the week!
Ha, perfect.
Whatever.
Ditto.
Wait, so Mr and Mrs Potato are actually original toys that have been around for way longer than the Toy Story movies? That’s the news for me! Lol.
Oh, my sweet summer child…
Dood. I’m so old that I had the one that required you to supply an actual potato!
I taught preschool until fairly recently and the kiddos didn’t really care about the gender of the toys, mixing and matching looks and accessories any way they pleased. Between this and the Trump era in general, I’m reminded that preschoolers generally possess more wisdom and humanity than many adults.
That was the fun of Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head when I was a kid! I loved to mix and match the accessories and really never cared about their genders.
Me too! And I mean they didn’t have genders. I am pretty sure the main body of the toy was the same thing, a plastic potato. They just came with different accessories, not genitalia.
I think this is great
As the very first televised advertisement for kids, I think the move is great. Let all the boomers shit their pants as they remember the first commercial for toys and kids go binary. Perhaps Hasbro can create aged wrinkley white potatoes with bifocals and hearing aids. We wouldn’t want want to exclude anyone.
Non-binary that is. I hadn’t had my coffee. And I’m still watching Tom’s lip sync battle.
Imagine Marjory Taylor Greene’s outrage at this news.
This makes me happy.
I don’t remember having a Mrs. Potato Head when I was a child. Maybe I did. But I definitely had Mr. Potato Head and loved playing with him. He was just a fun, silly toy to young me.
ugh my MAGA brother in law could not be more upset over this. meanwhile, he never looks anything up for himself and has no idea that there will still be a Mr and Mrs P-head. I’m just so tired of people that lap up everything they are fed but never try to find out anything for themselves
I think that the coverage of this has been overall misleading, as they will still be producing the gendered toys Mr. Potato Head and Mrs. Potato Head, it’s just the BRAND that’s dropped the “Mr.”
What?? Wait…you mean all these years I could have been sticking eyes, ears, mustache, purse in a real potato? I don’t know why but that just sounds like so much more fun. Bring the real potatoes back! 🙂
This is possibly the stupidest thing I have ever read. Who gets upset about a potato toy. Jesus people give me a break.
It’s all and good that there is a wide variety of options, all forms of genders but if all misters are de-gendered, who do cis-boys relate to then? Can’t they have anything?
🚀☀️
Because for a toy company’s to actually create NEW gender neutral toys is IMPOSSIBLE! They hafta erase grown ups childhood memories of the toys they grew up with. Sigh. Can’t wait for the re-edits of Mister Rogers slipping into stilettos. Can’t have naked dinosaurs like Barney singing to kids!
Right wing twitter loves this sh*t cos they get to moan about the left and cancel culture. Except it wasn’t “the Left” or “snowflakes’ who even cancelled anything. Just like the left didn’t cancel Grease or Friends or Adele’s hair. It’s right wing media who blows this sh*t out of proportion, to make it look like ‘the left’ are just crazy and will attack anything. All to put the fear into centrist white people to get them to swing to the right.
I don’t really mind or care if mr potato head has a d*ck or not.