the Wry Baby Blog

Wry Baby Dave’s got a killer Handlebar Mustache situation happening. He’s betting it all on the Handlebar comeback this year. All the kids’ll be rocking it at Spring Break. Wearing their wool bathing suits and battling with fisticuffs for the ladies’ attention. There’s a long history of dashing HB action in the Wry Baby Family that dates back to the Civil War Era (thanks for the archival assistance, Josh). Gentlemen, it’s not too late to get nice and mustachioed.

Stay warm and snuggly tonight! To inspire you, enjoy this parade of happy hideous holiday hotness.

Baby’s First Toys (1978) gets it horrifically wrong from the cover. Balloons? Inside, marbles and buttons (buttons!?) are included in what may be the worst childrens book ever. This in contrast to be BEST dangerous baby book ever, Safe Baby Handling Tips.

As a kid, I idolized Soupy Sales. Even though I grew up in the Seventies, I somehow was able to catch reruns of the late-’50’s/early ’60’s Soupy Sales Show on TV. So weird. So spontaneous. So…weird! I loved it, but what really hooked me was Soupy’s masterwork, the Soupy Sales Show LP.

Put out in 1961 on Reprise Records, it’s a snapshot of what his show was like in the beginning, before all the ’60’s era celebs (Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., etc.) thought it fun publicity to be hit in the face with pie on his show. The LP is, basically, a show in itself with music. Soupy gets a call from a record label who wants him to record an album. He agrees to do it, but doesn’t have any songs, much less a singing voice. But his puppet gang (White Fang, Black Tooth, Hippie the Hippo, Pookie the Lion) all come to his rescue offering songs from their songwriting club. The songs are not only hilarious, but catchy as all get out and are stylistically outrageous. Ranging from Rock ‘n’ Roll to a Cha-Cha-Cha to a tender ballad about the love between a boy and his…dog. The album was a huge hit.

As a kid, as well as now, my favorite bits were the songs about Soupy himself and no song sums up what made me love him more than “Pie In The Face“. In 1985, Soupy said he’d probably be remembered for the pies, and he was okay with that. But while this song is about his signature pie-in-the-face-bit, it explains WHY he loved getting hit with pies. Simply because it made people laugh. That was hugely inspirational to me and eventually became the basis for my doing what I do now with Wry Baby. It really is the greatest feeling of all to make people laugh.

When I was in elementary school we had to perform skits for a senior center in Orange County, CA. Each kid had to do a short bit for a crowded audience. I chose to lip sync to Soupy’s “Pie In The Face” (complete with two back-up dancers) and in the end get smacked with two big whipped cream pies. We had never rehearsed with real pies, though. You’d really be surprised how far all that whipped cream goes once it hits your face. I have to admit there weren’t many laughs at the end of THAT performance, but I still chuckle out loud whenever I think about it. Thanks so much, Soupy!

Remarkably, you can get this release! On CD even! Rhino Records put out a two-record set of Soupy’s LPs, the Soupy Sales Show and Up In The Air, his second release. Click here to get to Rhino where you can even listen to snippets before you order. Only $19.98.

We’re getting ready to launch a TON of fun baby gifts at the NYIGF this August and this video (found over at mr. diggles + you) has become my shining beacon of ultimate personal and professional aspiration. I’m so simultaneously horrified and hillarified at this guy’s…well, EVERYTHING… that there is no other choice but to model myself after him in every way possible during my run in NY. Why? Because life is not about being liked. It’s about being effective.

My favorite bit is when he fumbles the one-handed opening of the business card that it took him 25 years to design. Read just the tiniest bit more about the amazing Joel Bauer here, at TIME of all places.

If you haven’t figured it out by now, our company motto, Raise Funny People® is also our parenting philosophy. And just because we trademarked the term doesn’t mean we gots dibs on fun. Whoever you are, wherever you are, whatever you’re doing, just using a little imagination can turn even the most mundane tasks into a fun family adventure.

Kelly bought me a Flip video camera and we use the heck out of it. It’s small, it’s easy and for both those reasons it’s almost always on my person. We just happen to all be on a little breather with friends at Lake Chelan, WA., and on a quick stop for cheddar cheese, Atticus and I made this fun impromptu supermarket video poking fun at our hosts. Illustrating that you really can have fun doing just about anything if you put your mind to it.

We just launched our first iPhone app. We’re getting lots of new stuff ready to launch at the big New York International Gift Fair this August. We’re making a smart phone friendly version of wrybaby.com. We’re putting the finishing touches on the funnest new things for our friends at Cost Plus World Market. We’re signed up for Baseball and Soccer while getting ready for our son’s big End of Grade testing while continuing restoration of our 103 year old home. So what do we do for fun?

The final presentation includes every kind of media imaginable. If you were wondering why Mysterio has dominated the blog over the last month, here’s why! Thanks for pitching in, Mysterio!

We’re branding our town, of course! Kelly and I have extensive advertising backrounds from our 15 years in San Francisco and our Downtown Commission asked our help to re-brand Mooresville, North Carolina’s historic downtown area. How could we say no!? We’re getting ready for a big launch in June, so stay tuned for the grand unvieling of the biggest, most un-baby-related thing Wry Baby has ever made…a whole town!

We took a company vacation over Spring Break to cruise down to Mexico to crawl around some Mayan Ruins. If you’ve never been on a cruise, they have formal nights in the dining room where you and the other 2997 of you dress in your fanciest of fancys. They take your picture before dinner against a beautiful backdrop on loan from the Sears Portrait Studio and it’s all very elegant. Unless you’re cruising with the Wry Baby family who takes every opportunity to goof around.

We do not recommend trying to eat through Lucha Libre masks. Also, we found them to be increadibly hot. Otherwise, a good idea for shaking up any stuffy situation.

Check out this very weird short. We could totally do one of these but with Mom’s saying, “He’s a Boy.”

Found on dlisted.