Cartoon : Eating Munchies

Cartoon by Brian and Ron Boychuk

Mrs. Potato Head doesn’t like the fact that Mr. Potato Head spends all his day as a couch potato eating munchies. Those are the small little snacks we like to eat such as chips (crisps in British English). If you want to say you are hungry or are getting hungry, you can say, “I have the munchies” or “I’m getting the munchies.”

What is a couch potato? To find out, follow this link to my very first blog post where I explain the expression along with a few other related one:

 http://the-english-spot.blogspot.com/2008/09/slang-and-idioms-01-couch-potato-and.html

Slang and Idioms 01: Couch potato and the boob tube

The word couch potato refers to someone who is lazy and probably overweight because he or she probably spends too much time sitting on the couch watching the boob tube.

Tube is a term meaning television set and is so called due to the vacuum tubes that were used in their fabrication. You'll probably recoginze the use of this slang term from the famous website Youtube!

 

A boob is another way of saying an idiot or foolish person. So, the term 'boob tube' implies that a television renders a person stupid because that person spends all their time in front of it without thinking.

The term 'couch potato' was born on July 15, 1976 and was termed by Tom Iacino of California who was a member of a Southern California group humorously opposing the new exercise and diet fads of the day. This boob tuber then humorously substituted 'tuber' with 'potato' to create the term 'couch potato.' This was a play on words with 'tuber' because a tuber is a term used to refer to any sort root vegetable.