Andy Capp Hot Fries

June 28, 2013 8:51 AM

Was there ever an instance of Andy Capp actually eating "hot fries" in the actual comic strip either as a basis for product as a cross promotion later?
posted by josher71 to Food & Drink (12 answers total)

Seems really unlikely as the comic strips were written for a British newspaper, and the product was never sold in the UK.
posted by pipeski at 9:08 AM on June 28, 2013 [2 favorites]

Andy Capp would *never* eat fries, being English, but he might have had chips when coming home from the pub from time to time. Then I found this, some kind of synthi-snack to top you up with salt, saturated fats and HFCS. Reviews of the product seem to indicate it is vile, which doesn't surprise me but I am rather surprised that a minor Daily Mirror cartoon character made it over the pond. EDIT: he was renowned for wife beating, heavy drinking and chronic idleness. Is this really who you want advertising your fatty snacks?
posted by epo at 9:11 AM on June 28, 2013 [1 favorite]

Point of information - they aren't just "Hot" flavored.
posted by The 10th Regiment of Foot at 9:14 AM on June 28, 2013

The wikipedia page for Andy Capp's fries says the licensing agreement was made in 1971.

If you can decode a "flavor" out of this ingredient list, be my guest:
DEGERMED YELLOW CORN MEAL, VEGETABLE SHORTENING (PALM, COTTONSEED AND/OR PARTIALLY HYDROGENATED SOYBEAN OIL), DRIED POTATOES, WHEY POWDER, SALT, DEXTROSE, TORULA YEAST, SPICES (INCLUDING MUSTARD), MONOSODIUM GLUTAMATE, SPICE EXTRACTIVES (INCLUDING PAPRIKA), TOMATO POWDER, WHEAT FLOUR, HYDROLYZED SOY PROTEIN, NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL FLAVORS, GARLIC POWDER, FRESHNESS PRESERVED WITH SODIUM BISULFITE, TBHQ, BHA, BHT.
posted by dobi at 9:19 AM on June 28, 2013

If you can decode a "flavor" out of this ingredient list, be my guest:

What I meant was there are also "chedder" and "BBQ" as well as the aforementioned "hot" in the Andy Capp line of products. Taste is at the discretion of the purchaser.
posted by The 10th Regiment of Foot at 9:35 AM on June 28, 2013 [1 favorite]

Andy Capp Hot Fries descended from, and eventually eclipsed, Andy Capp Pub Fries. It's still a long walk from Pub Fries to the comic strip, but maybe not quite as impossible as the Hot Fries.
posted by dirtdirt at 9:45 AM on June 28, 2013 [1 favorite]

I think dirdirt has it. The "pub fries" were apparently marketed (at least in part) to bars for them to sell to guys drinking beer. Andy Capp (which I realized only just now was a pun on the English pronunciation of "handicap") was an internationally famous and beloved drunkard. So the marketing tie in is not that Andy loved hot fries but that Andy was always in a bar. So if you are in a bar and want some snacks who better to have on your bag.

(side note: I remember very clearly being a kid and reading his strips and not understanding why it was funny that a guy was constantly coming home from the bar late and fighting with his wife. But I guess the 70s in England/Australia were a good target for it.)
posted by AgentRocket at 10:07 AM on June 28, 2013 [4 favorites]

I was eating Andy Capps Hot Fries back in the 70s and I was not old enough to drink back then (born in 67). I used to read the cartoon too and never once saw HIM actually eat them. FTR I got them in a convenience store called, "Highs" back then.
posted by brownrd at 2:19 PM on June 28, 2013

I've read books and books of Andy Capp, and have only just heard of this product.
posted by pompomtom at 4:40 PM on June 28, 2013

Yeah, one of those things where the product long outlived the character endorsing it - Andy Capp's Hot Fries are incredibly popular, as they're cheap, usually less than half the price of other snack chips. (See also Funyons and Munchos). Other flavors and styles come and go (usually go), but Hot Fries will probably be the last product line standing.

Andy Capp's Hot Fries weren't sold in the UK (hence the name - they'd be "Hot Chips"), so it's unlikely Reg Smythe's primary audience - readers in Britain - would recognize the product. I'm not certain any of GoodMark's products were sold outside of the Americas.

Instead, the snack was marketed to fans of the character by a few strips that were printed on each bag of the product, up until the end of the comic's run in the US, when they stopped bothering.
posted by Slap*Happy at 8:07 PM on June 28, 2013

(hence the name - they'd be "Hot Chips")

They'd be 'crisps'.
posted by pompomtom at 6:03 PM on June 30, 2013

Actually, they are crisps - but they're supposed to represent chips (or "pub fries" aka unpeeled french fried potatoes) in shape and flavor. They don't come anywhere close to succeeding, but this was the 70's, they could get away with that kind of marketing then.
posted by Slap*Happy at 7:13 PM on June 30, 2013