The dolphin No_bob rises…

 

It’s been a while since i shared about No_bob, the world’s most famous stuffed dolphin [can you name any others] who i was going to call ‘Bob’ [largely due to this amazing Blackadder scene] but then realising that he was made out of material and fluff and would not in fact bob, he became No_bob.

When i was a speaker on the youth/school speaking circuit in South Africa i would usually take No_bob with me and introduce him to the crowds and pretty soon he started getting more cheers than me and i knew my ‘fame’ had been eclipsed by an inanimate object [that’s right, unlike a lot of people’s stuffed toys they pretend are real, No_bob is just a toy and knows it, or would if he was real, which he’s not]

He has had a song written about him by a then famous South African punk band, Serving Suggestion. He has been kidnapped and borrowed for overseas travel [see above pic] and used to ‘bring the rings’ in a wedding [mine, to the beautiful Val] and featured in magazines and more.

HERE’S WHERE YOU COME IN

Since coming to Americaland though, both i and No_bob have kept a low profile as the pond is much bigger and not many people know me here, but recently he has been introduced to the Re:generation church in Oakland and he ‘got to know’ an amazing bunch of youth and leaders in Florida Keys when i went to speak there, and so his fame feels on the rise again.

For years i have been trying to get Stephan Pastis, the cartoonist behind my favourite strip, ‘Pearls before Swine’ to include him just once in a cartoon, but even after meeting No_bob and signing a book in his name, he is yet to do that [but i won’t give up, so you might as well Stephan, if you can handle the fame and increased book sales!].

I have also recently been introduced on The Twitterer to an incredible artist called Ray Ferrer [@Ray_artist] who makes these unbelievably insane pictures using spray paint which i can’t even wrap my head around they are so good:

 

He has favourited a tweet or two of mine on the Twitterer despite having like a gazillion followers and i have interpreted that as a desperate plea to have permission to do a spray painting of No_bob. Ray, you have my permission…

So what you, my friends and general following public can do to assist is one [or both] of the following:

[1] Email Stephan Pastis [theratandpig@aol.com] or tweet him [@stephanpastis] and let him know how much you would love to see No_bob, the world’s most famous stuffed dolphin appear in his strip.

[2] Tweet Ray Ferrer [@Ray_artist] and encourage him by telling him how much greater his body of work would be with a No_bob piece or tell him you don’t really believe he has the skills to create a great resemblance of the most famous stuffed dolphin in history.

And add this link: https://www.facebook.com/Nounderscorebob – to make sure they know exactly what he looks like.

Finally, just to help you on the spelling of his name as there are many variations and mess ups as people get creative, but the official spelling of No_bob is Capital N, small b’s and an UNDERSCORE between…

Who else do you think we should get involved in No_bob’s fame revival? Any contacts you have who could up his profile?

 

 

Daily Prompt: Far From Normal

Latest challenge on WordPress: Many of us think of our lives as boringly normal, while others live the high life. Take a step back, and take a look at your life as an outsider might. Now, tell us at least six unique, exciting, or just plain odd things about yourself.

# i like to drink Top Deck chocolate from the bag – second best option is breaking chunks into smaller pieces and microwaving, but a far higher and i honestly believe tastier method is to leave the slab on the dashboard of your car in the sun or on a window sill til it melts and then make a hole in one end and drink to your heart’s content – INCREDIBLE!

# i like to bend the english language to my will as i posted about here. i spell some words differently on purpose like ‘thankx’ and ‘thort’ and use a minimum of capitalisation and promote some nouns into adjectives which i promote to verbs which i promote to nouns and so on. i think i came up with the saying ‘vibing a vibe.’

# as a hobby i occasionally put together short video clips for a made up you tube show titled ‘Dangerous Things You Can Least Expect’ – while the majority of people who watch them seem to think they’re pretty funny, they have not come close to going viral yet and sit more hesitantly at a spot i would assume they call ‘virus’ rather. my favourite one at the moment is probably the latest one i did on sax and violins but i guess other people didn’t think so as much cos at the time of going to press it has only had around 218 views.

# i have a yellow and white stuffed dolphin called ‘No_bob’ [i was going to call him ‘Bob’ but he doesn’t] – in many places around South Africa he is more famous than me – i used to feature quite prominently on the local Christian speaking circuit for youth groups and on two occasions i was introduced and about ten people clapped and as i started speaking i introduced No_bob and when i took him out of my pocket a good third of the room [few hundred people] started cheering. people try to convince me that No_bob used to be blue but he wasn’t. people will probably swear he was but i have pictures from the time when i won him on the pier a Brighton. a Cape Town Christian punk band called Serving Suggestion performed ‘the No_bob song’ and it became one of their most popular songs…

# i hate raisins with a passion – no i mean REALLY, not just like you pretend not to like them but you will eat them only by themselves, or only in things. i mean i started the ‘i hate raisins’ group on facebook, i once went with a friend to a park at night and burnt a bag of them just to do the world a favour. i have recorded two songs so far titled ‘the Squishy Fruit Conspiracy’ and ‘Sultanas’ which was a parody of the old Snow ‘Informer’ song…

# the word is traffic circle. if you enter at one point and leave before doing a full 360 degrees then what you have taken part in is called a traffic semi-circle or a half-moon or something. if you are going to insist on calling it a ‘traffic circle’ then like me you must go THE WHOLE WAY ROUND and usually not just once cos you have to make sure… three or four times is fun with first timers while the record with a full combi and trailer at the big Free State circle is i think 13 times with petrol attendants standing cheering at the side of the road and overall it is the 53 we did in Stellenbosch after cell group one nite. like a record playing, right round round round.

honourable mentions must go to biting people [which i used to do the first time i met people as a sign of affection, but the older it gets the creepier it gets so i’ve largely stopped] and cycling the 109km Argus cycle tour in either pink tights or fish net stockings [best way to keep yourself cycling when going up Suikerbossie – no ways i’m getting off in front of those crowds wearing pink tights!]

just a regular normal guy, really.

Squishy Fruit Conspiracy [and other anti-raisin songs i have recorded]

So back in the day i recorded a song with my friend Simon van Wyk [now a world famous Brother Streep] titled ‘Squishy Fruit Conspiracy’ which was about my personal hatred towards raisins and other related squishy fruits…

You can listen to that song here as well as the follow-up i did called ‘Sultanas’ which was a parody of Snow’s ‘Informer’ from a whole bunch of other years ago…

And the even famouser No_bob [the world’s most famous stuffed dolphin who i was going to call ‘Bob’ but he doesn’t!] song performed by my friends in the band Serving Suggestion [also very much back in the day] is also there as a bonus…

Feels like it’s almost time to come up with a new one… the world must know…