Charlie the Tuna is back, and still has an uncontrollable desire to be destroyed

Talk about burying the lede. Only after wading through 500-plus words of a press release touting StarKist's Tuna Creations (marinated albacore that comes in a pouch, like fishy Big League Chew) do we learn that the canned-fish purveyor is bringing back spokesfish Charlie the Tuna after a two-decade hiatus. Children of the '70s will remember Charlie as the StarKist mascot who wore a snappy red beret and chunky-framed Charles Nelson Reilly glasses—a cool, downtown type who was forever trying to get hooked by one of StarKist's trawlers. While the notion of a hipster fish with a death wish was always a bit jarring—Charlie's outlook was a bit myopic, given what awaited him at the cannery—an appetite for self-destruction is SOP for animals in ads. (Check out the Suicide Food blog for ample examples, and this SNL bit starring the late Phil Hartman and a plucky pullet is a gross-out classic.) Charlie will swim back into America's hearts in a supporting role, appearing at the tail end of StarKist's TV spots. But for many pop-culture enthusiasts, the scaly Daddio never really went away. In his latest paean to paranoia, Inherent Vice, author Thomas Pynchon devotes an entire page to a stoner's deconstruction of the piscine pitchman's death wish. According to Pynchon's wigged-out doper, Charlie's plight reflects America's "suicidal brand loyalty, man, a deep parable of consumer capitalism. … It's no coincidence that he has the same name as Charles Manson." Sorry, Charlie.

—Posted by Anthony Crupi