Looking back, it's hard to see how we as a nation were quite so obsessed during the 90s with the bulbous pink, spotty monster who answered to the rather formal sounding title Mr Blobby. The mischievous character, who communicated using only his own name, first appeared in 1992 on the hit BBC show Noel's House Party, where he pranked unwitting celebrities. His destructive antics made him perhaps a bigger star than the show's host, Noel Edmonds, and he was soon everywhere. He even made it onto Danish TV, though it turned out Scandinavian viewers are more discerning and his stint there was short-lived. At the peak of his popularity, Mr Blobby beat Take That to the 1993 Christmas number one spot with his self-titled novelty single. Did you know that the man inside the suit was a classically trained Shakespearean actor from Bradford, called Barry Killerby, who reportedly called the role 'exhausting and demanding'?placeholder image
Looking back, it's hard to see how we as a nation were quite so obsessed during the 90s with the bulbous pink, spotty monster who answered to the rather formal sounding title Mr Blobby. The mischievous character, who communicated using only his own name, first appeared in 1992 on the hit BBC show Noel's House Party, where he pranked unwitting celebrities. His destructive antics made him perhaps a bigger star than the show's host, Noel Edmonds, and he was soon everywhere. He even made it onto Danish TV, though it turned out Scandinavian viewers are more discerning and his stint there was short-lived. At the peak of his popularity, Mr Blobby beat Take That to the 1993 Christmas number one spot with his self-titled novelty single. Did you know that the man inside the suit was a classically trained Shakespearean actor from Bradford, called Barry Killerby, who reportedly called the role 'exhausting and demanding'? | Getty Images

Nine things we found hilarious in the 90s and noughties, but weren't as funny as they seemed at the time

Robert Cumber
By Robert Cumber

Property and retro writer

Published 28th Jun 2025, 11:30 GMT
Updated 28th Jun 2025, 11:30 GMT

The 90s and noughties were undoubtedly a funny time.

They gave us three of the funniest sitcoms ever made, in Friends, Frasier and The Office, after all.

But there was a lot about them which really wasn’t all that funny, however hilarious it might have seemed to us at the time.

Below are some of the most irritating characters, pranks and jokes we somehow fell for back then and briefly thought were side-splitting, only to realise our error.

It turns out the 90s and noughties have a lot to answer for.

How many of these do you remember, and is there anything else you can think of which seemed hilarious at the time but less so in retrospect?

Do you have retro pictures or nostalgic memories to share with us? Send them online via YourWorld at www.yourworld.net/submit. It's free to use and, once checked, your story or picture will appear on our website and, space allowing, in our newspapers.

OK, so this was around well before the 90s, but it was still a staple of schoolyard humour before smartphones rendered it obsolete. Who didn't get a laugh out of spelling the word 'BOOBIES' upside down on their calculator at school, and who, looking back, doesn't feel at least a little ashamed of their younger self?

7. Spelling BOOBIES on your calculator

OK, so this was around well before the 90s, but it was still a staple of schoolyard humour before smartphones rendered it obsolete. Who didn't get a laugh out of spelling the word 'BOOBIES' upside down on their calculator at school, and who, looking back, doesn't feel at least a little ashamed of their younger self? | Getty Images Photo: M. Fresco/Evening Standard/Hulton Archive

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Right Said Fred were famously too sexy for their shirts, as they told us in their 1991 hit song, and for almost everything else you'd care to mention. It was funny when they sang it but less funny when every man and his dog started uttering the phrase, thinking they were the funniest person, or dog, alive.

8. Telling people 'I'm too sexy' for all manner of things

Right Said Fred were famously too sexy for their shirts, as they told us in their 1991 hit song, and for almost everything else you'd care to mention. It was funny when they sang it but less funny when every man and his dog started uttering the phrase, thinking they were the funniest person, or dog, alive. | Getty Images Photo: Tobi Corney/Avalon

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Budweiser is to blame for this irritating trend of the late 90s and early noughties. The beer maker surely didn't know what it was starting when the orirginal advert, featuring a group of friends on the phone saying 'whassup?', first aired in 1999. It wasn't long before everyone everywhere was uttering the phrase, which was parodied, among many places, in the comedy horror film Scary Movie.

9. Asking each other 'whassup?'

Budweiser is to blame for this irritating trend of the late 90s and early noughties. The beer maker surely didn't know what it was starting when the orirginal advert, featuring a group of friends on the phone saying 'whassup?', first aired in 1999. It wasn't long before everyone everywhere was uttering the phrase, which was parodied, among many places, in the comedy horror film Scary Movie. | AFP via Getty Images Photo: STEPHEN SHAVER

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