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08/30/2006: August Megaparty #30: Swedish Fish AquaLife!

This one’s going to be short, because my computer decided to be cute and not work for the last hour. I will forgive my computer in time, but right now, I want my fingers off of its keyboard so I can follow through with my threat to make it sit in the corner and think about what it’s done.

Swedish Fish have evolved from a sea populated only by darling red herrings to an ocean teeming with life. AquaLife. New-ish Swedish Fish AquaLife are bags of soft and chewy candies that indeed include the famous crimson fishies we all know and love, but add new creatures for them to either team with or destroy.

Seahorses, puffers, starfish and dolphins have joined da fray at da cay, and all of the candies, including the original reds, seem a bit larger than what we’re normally used to from Swedishland. Not really in a good way, because half the fun with Swedish Fish is proclaiming that you could “eat X amount simultaneously” and trying to live up to your vow.

It took me several chomps to be confident that what I’m about to say is true: The different colors represent different fruit flavors. At least, I think they do. I’m eating purple things and they taste kind of grapey, but not so grapey that I’d bet the boat on it.

I told you this would be short. I hate my stupid computer.

Man i’d hate to bite into a puffer, they’re sharp and taste like grape! I hate grape you see

Ahh, evolution. First the red herring, then it grew in size and several sub species evolved. Hooray! I love de Swedish fish and Iâ€™m definitely going to have to try these out, that or buy several packs of them and then have giant battles. Oooh, I could be a giant monster that comes and eats them and they have to team together to defeat me. I smell a summer blockbuster!

I think I saw these at TRU the other day. I was going to stop and look at them closer, but then I got all distracted. *sigh* I always loved Swedish Fish. But, who didn’t…

On a gummy-related note - I bought me some Hello Kitty fruit snacks tonight at Target. There are some that are translucent and red, and all the others look like (and feel) like bits of play doh. They aren’t very gummy. After 2 packs, I’m confident in my assumption that all flavors are cherry.

Wait, I forgot there was a clear orange one in there… and the yellow star, that can’t be cherry! Crap, now I have to eat another bag.

Team together to get me. That makes since. I also just notice, after posting, that in the second pic it looks like the candies are all mugging Krang!

Oh Poop, you are so young. Tom Green had a novelty hit with it several years ago

I have so totally always wanted to eat a purple puffer — now my dream can finally come true!

That’s always been the weird thing about Swedish Fish. Just as Matt said, they sorta taste like the colors they represent, but if were to blindfold me and do a taste test, I’d probably fail. I wonder if that has to do with being jellies as opposed to gummies. I kind of have the same problem with those jelly bears that Brachs make.

Wow, Swedish Fish! My sister and her husband have just finished their first week of a year-long volunteer trip to Ethiopia. They have access to e-mail, and one request that they have is that they are sent more Swedish Fish, as they have already gone through most of their supply. I guess the Addis Ababa corner store ran out.

Did the blog go weird or something? I swore there was a post linking to that wikipedia bum bum song… Hope I’m not going crazy… crazier.

I’m excited

Looks like Adult Swim is gonna finally get way more interesting come Sept. 9!

Ladies and Gents and children of all ages, for those of you that haven’t seen it yet, click my name for some retro dancey goodness, Top that, Top that!

I forgot to mention, it is by far the best thing to happen to Pop Muzak EVER!!!! Top that, Top that, I don’t even know your name but top that!

Hey, Another Matt - I know you haven’t posted anything here yet, but you’re always hangin’ around on these boards so I’ll give it a shot.

I was looking back through the comments on a recent post at Slumbering Lungfish when I saw that one was left by “Another Matt.” Was that you?

Jester that video made my day (or early morning, whatever). I love me some old school white people rap!

Several months ago when I had my short stint working at the arcade, they had packs of Aqualife in the ticket redemtion case. They were like 58379523 tickets so no one ever got them. Needless to say, I partook of a few packs of Aqualife. I’m sure they each had different flavors.

Blarg. I can’t eat Swedish Fish anymore. You know how sometimes, you eat way too much of a certain food in one setting, and then the next time you even catch a whiff of the stuff it makes you nauseous? Yeah, that’s where I am. Stupid movie theater and their stupid two pounds of Swedish Fish.

I must be a cretin… I’ve never heard of/seen Swedish Fish. Is it an East Coast thang or? I mean I’ve seen those sorts of candies, just not that brand. Ah, well!

Todd - Good question. Having only ever lived in Pennsylvania, I can only say that I’ve always had Swedish fish around…they seem to be especially assocaited with those old-timey candy stores, but according to http://www.originalswedishfish.com/ they’re manufactured in both Sweden and Canada…it says nothing about distribution.

This post makes me sad. I’m not allowed to eat Swedish fish anymore. My dentist threatened to beat me up if I pulled my cap off again.

And, I don’t think I’ve ever even eaten a swedish fish before, but I love gummy stuff.

Matt, it’s funny that your computer should start acting snarky last night as my wife and I decided to put on “Electric Dreams”, a great movie starring a snarky computer.

And as for the Swedish Fish Aqualife, if I wanted to eat dolphins, I’d go buy a can of tuna.

Does anyone remember the candy called “Punkies” or maybe “Punkys”? They were little pill sized candies, 3 different flavors, and they came in this small cardboard box with neon colors on it.

I’m an east-coaster, and I’ve never seen Swedish fish EVER. How ’bout you Colonel?

LOL at “da fray at da cay”.
I’ve seen Swedish Fish here on the West Coast, but I think maybe popularity varies regionally. I never really knew they were particular favorites until they showed up on here and I read people’s comments.

West Coaster here and I’ve been obsessively eating Swedish Fish since forever. So they’re definitely not just an East Coast thing.

When I was a kid, I used to love buying a bunch of Swedish Fish, but now I really only eat them when someone offers them to me. Of course, then I want to eat a billion of them. So it’s weird I never buy them anymore. I’m going to be on the lookout for Aqua Life, though.

I’ve seen different colors/flavors of the classic fish too. The flavors definitely matched the colors.

Hey all. Have been here in a while. Still owe some people a thank you on My Space for the kind words. I’m still alive. Had gone to Vegas and was really busy with work. Was trying to concentrate on other things.

Should have been paying more attention to the Blog as I’ve had almost 14 days of reading to do. Wow, you guys are full of alot of comments.

Didn’t see anything discussing the new Transformer Movie designs, so click my name to see Prime. I’d post Megatrons designs, but it looks like total and utter generic ass. Seriously, I hate it.

Wonder what people on here think. I’m assuming I’ll get more guys responding then girls, but correct me if I’m wrong.

Did anyone get any flack for representing the WestCoast, when you were from the East, or vice versa? I rocked a MXPX ‘Left Coast Punk’ sticker forever back in the day, when I still thought they were cool. But I still feel that way with Green Day and the Ataris. Although, My Chem are from Jersey and that makes me very happy, because if I could be from anyplace, I’d want to be from Jersey. Kevin Smith and My Chem, it truly is the promised land. *sigh*

I haven’t really looked at too much TF movie stuff. I’ll see it on pronciple, but Transformers: The Movie will never be topped. I remember renting it over and over and over. I mean, me and my dad would go to Video Update rent it, he’d return it in the morning and we’d go get again that afternoon after he got back from work. I remember it not being there once, and just going ballistic. Not crying because they didn’t have it, but threatening to beat the holy hell outta the kid who rented it.

I am amped about the TF movie, but havn’t seen much. And the link above said the picture of Optimus Prime had been removed. Anyone got any good links to the pics?

I dunno, multiple flavors kind of defeats the whole purpose in my mind. I always like swedish fish cuz red was the best flavor and here we had an entire candy devoted to it. Throwing in other flavors enters a candy genre controlled by giants like gummy bears.

On a slightly different note, where does one draw the line between “Fruit Snack” and “Candy”? Swedish fish were always candy in my mind. Gushers are definately a fruit snack though. Are the terms synonymous or is there a defining property that I’m not conciously acknowledging?

Thanks for the link. It will be so awesome if they do posters like that with all of the Transformers.

i have the same questions as RYLE, .. these same thoughts have remained a mystery for years and years…

This is just my personal opinion, of course, but I think that to be considered a “fruit snack”, an item must have at least 10% actual fruit. “Candy” is more about the artificial flavoring.

The whole “fruit snacks” thing is just a marketing ploy used to fool stupid parents into buying their kids candy.

4 year old daughter: Daddy, can I have some ice cream?
Me: That’s fine, but I don’t want to think about chicken when I’m eating Doritos.
4 year old: ok.
14 year old daughter: What did you just say?
Me: I said “I don’t want to think about chicken when I’m eating Doritos.”
14 year old: What does that mean?
Me: What does what mean?
14 year old: “I don’t want to think about chicken when I’m eating Doritos.”
Me: Me, neither.
14 year old: Whatev…

They sell these at IKEA, right? At least I think I bought them there. And Peps! Does anyone else remember Peps?

Sorry for the double. If you go to a store like Trader Joes or Whole Foods, they have actual 100% fruit snacks. I think the stuff we were fed as kids, as well as stuff today, like fruit by the foot, is mostly candy.

Knegative — Jersey *IS* the promised land. But not because of My Chemical Romance. They suck. Now if you said Lifetime, I’d agree with you.

And if they are a band, do they have action figures like My Chem? I didn’t think so

Whats up with the Krang paint-it-yourself ornament. Looks cool, probably look even better painted.

Also, I’m almost certain that Fruit by the Foot counts as however many servings of fruit you can line up beside it when it is rolled out like a measuring tape. Gushers are also at least two servings of fruit, because you get the solid and the juice. Regular fruit snacks, like cartoon ones, may count for up to four or five servings a day depending on how many flavors they have. So clearly, it is not only good for you to eat fruit snacks versus fruit candy, but doctor recommend as per the food pyramid.

Wow, I want a Knegative figure! That would be sweet. Hey, what if we all ponied up and got our figures made and sent them to Matt so he could do a X-E convention story!!!

Also, though Swedish Fish may be considered candy, they are good for you since they are fish. The whole fruit candy vs. fruit snack debate only gets more complicated here. Now we know why top scholars, medical experts, and world leaders have been at odds for centuries trying to sort this mess out. Maybe one day there will be a consensus that we can all agree upon, until then, keep your doors locked and be sure to keep plenty of bottled water handy.

Hey, what if we all ponied up and got our figures made and sent them to Matt so he could do a X-E convention story!!!

I thought that was an awesome idea, until I saw the $400 starting price. Not surprised it costs that much to make a custom figure, but a little sad.

Maybe instead we could all chip in and get a bunch of “Matt” figures made up. Might creep him out, but…

You mean we make paper-dolls of ourselves? I would be down for that, but we’d have to have time to do it right.

K-Neg — You call yourself an “Emo Kid” and you don’t know who Lifetime is? FOR SHAME. If it wasn’t for Lifetime, there would be no My Chemical Romance or Fall Out Boy or any of those Hot Topic “Emo” bands you kids listen to. Know your roots, brotha.

Action figures for a punk band … what hath this world wrought? Joe Strummer’s ghost sneers at you.

And everyone can forget about those other bands, because both Debbie Harry and Yo La Tengo hail from Jersey. Have the members of My Chemical Romance ever been Playboy Bunnies? I think not.

Dude, are you nuts? I’ve been privy to Swedish Fish for years. Target has had them readily available for just as long. You needs to grub some.

Oh, and thanks for that damned Tom Green reference back there. All I could think of this morning getting ready for work was Glenn “Hollywood” Humplick. I hope you’re satisfied.

Knegative- After watching the bum bum song video, I know what ye be speaking of. I never knew what it was called or who that crazy man was, the one putting his bum on things. Such a naughty man. Well now I know, and knowing is half the battle! YO JOE!

Knegative- thats so funny that you should mention the mxpx “left coast punk” thing, i used to have a sweatshirt that said that and even though i live on the west coast and that means technically im representing the correct coast, everyone i knew used to make fun of me because it was a stupid slogan…oh well, i loved them anyways.

As for the paperdoll idea, i think that would be awesome! how fun would it be to see ourselves interacting?

oh and this whole swedish fish thing just made me think of “My mother is a fish”

I originally made the paperdoll suggestion many, many, many threads ago. It means we can all gather together on the floor of Matt’s front room, and he can take pics of us worshipping him. Or, being chewed on by his cats. Someone said it was similar to the faces-on-spoons gag from “Kids In The Hall”. Then, he can later hang us on his Xmas tree.

Man, that reminds me of an stupid ornament I made in preschool. It had a picture of me glued to it. My mom still puts it on the Christmas tree every year.

I made one of those in preschool. It is made from a dixie cup ans glitter. It looks like holy hell but somehow also manages to make it on my Moms tree.

Nickelodeon- YES! I LOVED those candies…Punkys, Punkies…not sure how it was spelled, but they were damn good. As a person who has been taking pills for most of my life, it was fun to eat good tasting pills.

I LOVE gummi candies- all of them. Worms, bears, fish, foot long fruit strips, whatever! As I mentioned in the last post, since I can’t eat chips anymore, I am eating extra gummi substances….

Screw the paper dolls idea. Let’s just find out where Matt lives and show up on Halloween. You know he’s still got some of those Hulkcicles in his freezer. And he’ll have a ton of candy after the Halloween countdown.

Chris Martin: I used to assume that showing up randomly at the houses of people I knew from the internet was a good idea. And that’s why I am rapidly becoming a man without a country…one five hundred yard radius circle at a time.

I DO consider “furit snacks” to be Fruit by the foot, and anyting that has fruit in the main name of the snack. Otherwise, i got nothing to contRIBUTE TONIGHt..dam puppy all up on my keyboard..where was I ? oh yeah, im sick as hell and dont feel like posting much, ovarian cyst and what not, so i bid you all adieu for the evening

Or show up, whatever, though that does sound an aweful lot like an extremely bad and creepy idea.

PS: my mom still puts up everything I’ve ever made on the tree, and I started making her stuff for the tree over two decades ago. My wife and I have already determined that when we do have kids, we’re going to have what we like to call “the stupid kid closet” and put all of their crafts that suck in there. I don’t think that will hurt their ego too much, I mean, their what; 3, 4?

When I was little the old town convenience store had a big candy counter up front and you could get Swedish Fish for 1Â¢ a piece. He’d have bags of 25, 50, and 100 all ready. So you could go exchange $1 for a brown lunch bag filled with 100 Swedish Fish. It was the best.

The paper doll idea made me laugh. I think I’m gonna make a paper doll family with my family. Just for something to do.

2.) I stopped worrying about “roots” a long damn time ago. Blue Skies, Broken Hearts…Next 12 Exits, Ocean Avenue, and I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love are good enough for me. Why? because they are important to MY life, not just some albums or bands that alot of people agree on. “Oh I’m punk, I own Nevermind the Bullocks and love it! I own Swiss Army Romance, I’m emo!”

Those people can bite me. I don’t know the vast majority of the bands that existed, exist, or will exist, I’m a human being!

As for Lifetime, I’ll check them out. thanks for the recommendation! And no disrespect Colonel about Swiss Army, I’m just making a point. And yes, of course I own it

My brother LOVES Swedish Fish! I’ll bet he’s tried these. He’s always working his way through a bag. I hate anything gummy; they get stuck in my teeth too easily.

Based on the samples Lifetime sound kinda like several harder/sloggier old-school ALL songs. Godbless Bill Stevenson. I dub him the godfather of emo.

“She’s my ex, don’t cross her path, she still belongs to me, she’ll be my ex til I say when, til I get her back again/She’s my ex, nothing more, nothing less, she’ll always be my ex”

I mispelled Bollocks!!! And as for the figures, they’re part of MCRs theatricality and unbridled creative expression (totally just made that up!). Plus, they’re just badass. Coffin cases, prayer cards, and they all have guns. Haha.

mandy_Reeves: I feel your pain. Ovarian cysts are hell. I ruptured one once. Not fun, to say the least.

The only place I’ve ever found that specific type of Swedish Fish is at the one place you wouldn’t expect to find them: Best Buy.

Seriously. I can’t find them at the grocery store, or the gas stations, or even the candy store, but I can find them at the consumer electronics store, right by the rack of discount DVDs. Talk about obscure. I’ll bet most people never even notice them (or even care for that matter). Oh well. At least when I want to get my Swedish Fish Aqua Life fix, I know where to find them (and I know that they’ll be there for a long time).

Anyone watching the VMAs? what just happend? with britney spears? and did jack black just get dissed by jack white?

I was trying to watch ‘em. But I fell asleep. I think its time for Black to whup White’s ass. That’s been coming for a while. Kyle could take Meg. PPV of the month, dude!!!!!

NATE Thanks for the Best Buy info. I was wondering where these were sold since I hadn’t seen them anywhere around my house. I LOVE Swedish Fish! I hope the other “marine beings” are as good!

I love swedish fish, I finally tried them a few months ago and then I had the next week to get them in the bulk food section so I could throughly enjoy them! If I see this package I might get them but anywhere except the bulk food aisle they are quite expensive.

I just wanted to say something about my job. I work at a call center and somebody called today with the last name Bowser! It was so cool saying “your order was processed mr. Bowser” I wanted to put a mario bro reference in there but I didn’t want to piss the guy off I have enough problems in my life lol. Wednesday I had someone call up with the name Tina Turner. Cool.

I am confused about this photo of the Swedish Fish Aqualife. Is the purple “candy” in the middle the starfish or the puffer fish? What is the green fish thing? Is that the puffer fish? HELP! Really, I am just killing time ’til Matt’s post. Hope his computer hasn’t failed him!

Hey thanks for clarifying about the availability of Swedish Fish on the Best… er West Coast.

The purple thing is definitely the puffer, the green thing looks like a whale, to me, and sadly, no starfish is shown.

I want to see him, too…

Ok here is the deal with these thingys. Going down the shore (wildwood NJ) we always stop and get some snacks, this year I spotted these gems and couldn’t resist. After leaving the half empty bag in the car for 3 days of beach baking goodness I attempt to devour what is surely to be a stale dried up dead fish. DELICIOUSLY wrong! They get even CHEWIER than usual and melt in your orgasming tongue, try it!

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