Bill Oakley is a busy guy. When he isn’t providing background information and commentary on the run of Simpsons seasons he worked on, the comedy writer and producer keeps an active schedule filled with stuff like developing a Mission Hill spin-off and providing the internet with its finest fast food restaurant criticism. Now, he’s also gone ahead and launched the first item in a line of high-end vinyl toys called Sight Gags.
A recently-launched Kickstarter for the project says its goal is to create “funny vinyl toys” starting with the Sight Gags series, a MAD Magazine and Wacky Packages-inspired collection of toys based on the “Least Popular Advertising Characters Of 1962.” The first of these (available to those who pledge $105 or more to the Kickstarter) is the Sneaker Sniffer, a fictional, stink-loving mascot for a shoe deodorizer company.
The Sneaker Sniffer, cartoon eyes half-shut with bliss as it appreciate a well-used shoe’s odor, is a good proof of concept for the rest of the Sight Gags. Oakley and crew plan to create another four to 20 figures depending on how well the Sniffer sells before moving on to another line. As a fake advertisement shows, some of the concepts that may be explored in the future include toys like “Prune Goon,” “Marquis de Sod,” “Big Hungry Diaper Pail,” “Borax Karloff,” and “Pudgy Fudgy.”
There are plenty of videos explaining the project and photos of the Sneaker Sniffer figure available on the Kickstarter page, if you’d like to take a look. For all our sakes, we just hope that each of these toys has the switch hidden on their backs flipped to “Good” before shipping.
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