FRIENDLY FRIDAYS: FRUIT BRUTE

I've become obsessed with Fruit Brute. Who? Fruit Brute! Don't feel bad, I hadn't heard of him either. Surely you know Count Chocula. Well Fruit Brute was his cousin. Sort of. He was one of the other General Mills "Monster Themed Cereals." This motley crew of monsters was made up of the delicious chocolatey Count Chocula, the Strawberry pop of Frankenberry, the cool blueberry delight of Boo Berry and what I can only imagine as the tastebud explosion of Fruit Brute. They stopped making Fruit Brute in 1983 but I can't figure out why. If you look up the monster cereals on Wikipedia you'll learn that the initial batch of Frankenberry contained a dye that didn't break down in the body leading to what some dubbed "Frankenberry Stool." But yet they won't say who killed Fruit Brute. I suspect a silver bullet since that's really the only way werewolves die. Maybe it was a silver banana.

Now here's where the story gets a bit interesting. In 1988 they resurrected the Fruity Monster serial but this time handed it over to a new character named Fruity Yummy Mummy! Now come on. How can you kill off such an adorably wild mascot and replace him with a Mummy? Couldn't they have kept Fruit Brute and just had Frosted Yummy Mummy or Peanut Buttery Mummy? I actually remember Fruity Mummy well. I had thought the cereal was only my imagination, but apparently not. I guess the Fruity thing didn't sell because they discontinued The FY Mummy in the mid-1990's.

I think Fruit Brute should return. He's my new favorite advertising character. In other character news, I'm going to be Mr. Peanut for Halloween!