This isn’t exactly the same Mr. Potato Head who appears in Toy Story movies. Nor is he the facially flexible tuber who appeared in either the 1986 Potato Head Kids or 1998 Mister Potato Head animated series. However, like all of the above, he was licensed from Hasbro, the manufacturer of the perennial toy. Indeed, the newspaper comic strip Mr. Potato Head had an impressive lineage, because it was created by Garfield cartoonist Jim Davis and his longtime collaborator, Brett Koth. This is one of those licensed comic strips that are now hard to believe existed, but it did indeed premiere on this day in 2001.
Basically, Mr. Potato Head and his patient wife were a lot like Blondie and Dagwood or Hi and Lois, but they could also remove their limbs and facial features. When the strip started, Mr. Potato Head had the great good fortune to be promoted to a do-nothing Vice President position at his toy company. However, his executive assistant, Lucille, a disembodied intercom voice, does even less.
Frankly, Mr. Potato Head works plenty hard just trying to keep the peace between his teenaged daughter Julienne and his younger son Chip. He has very Ralph Kramden-esque shortcomings but he deeply loves his wife and he isn’t afraid to show it. His persona is closer to Tim Allen’s Home Improvement alter-ego (Mr. Potato Head also digs his tools) than the abrasive Don Rickles voiceovers in the Pixar films.
Mostly, Davis’s gag-a-day jokes are derived from workplace situations and highly relatable family dynamics. However, they often have a subtlety macabre overtone, because they often involve dislodged eyeballs or other stray detachable body parts.
