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Fudgie the Whale is a type of ice cream cake produced and sold by Carvel in its franchise stores. It was developed by Carvel in the 1970s as an expansion of its line of freshly made products, along with Hug-Me Bear and Cookie Puss.
Contents
Development
Although the cake depicts the shape of a whale and was originally decorated as such, it was sometimes adapted for holiday uses by rotating it 90 degrees counter-clockwise so that the whale's body, now upright, could represent a face. The whale's tail would then represent whatever a character traditionally had on its head: the Easter Bunny's ears, a leprechaun's hat, or Santa Claus's tassel. But Fudgie the Whale was usually promoted around Father's Day, using the slogan, "For a whale of a dad."
In popular culture
Fudgie the Whale has been the subject of parody for comedians Patton Oswalt, Kevin Smith and Billy Crystal. It has also been used for comedic effect on television shows such as How I Met Your Mother, The Simpsons, The Daily Show, Damages, Family Guy and The Office.
In the early 1980s, David Letterman "Exposed" the cake as really being a dog in disguise.
An episode of The Colbert Report displayed what Colbert called a "Prophet Muhammad Carvel ice cream cake", which depicted Fudgie the Whale with a turban.
An episode of 2 Broke Girls shows the main characters talking about and eventually obtaining a fudgy on the bus ride back home from visiting Caroline's Dad in prison.
Also on The Colbert Report during his September 27, 2010 show, Colbert asks "if God can turn himself into a burning bush, then why can't he take the form of Fudgie the Whale?"
Musician Jonathan Coulton's song "I'm Having a Party" references Fudgie: "Expect a visit from Fudgie the Whale / Ice cream and crunchies in his fudgy tail".
A Fudgie the Whale cake was featured on the January 8, 2007 edition of WWE's RAW, being devoured by a Rosie O'Donnell impersonator.
"Fudgie the Whale" is repeatedly referenced in the long running (1989-1999) Comedy Central and Sci-Fi Channel series "Mystery Science Theater 3000" (MST3K).
Dub Narcotic Sound System's album Sideways Soul (recorded with Jon Spencer Blues Explosion) contains a song entitled "Fudgy the Whale," ostensibly one of sixteen Olympia, Washington-based dances, all named within the song.
In early episodes of Damages, main character Ellen celebrates her birthday with a Fudgie the Whale cake: "Nobody sing, because we all know Ellen hates singing!" "But I love Fudgie the Whale!"
Andy Bernard, a character on the show The Office, requested a Fudgie the Whale cake for the group birthday celebration in the "Survivor Man" episode.
Musical Comedy Artist Parry Gripp released a song titled "Fudgie the Whale".
According to his wife Beth Stern, radio host Howard Stern considers Fudgie the Whale his favorite Carvel product. She discussed this with Jimmy Fallon during an appearance on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.
Dana Snyder and Ken plume spend most of an episode of the KenPDSnydcast episode 42 discussing Tom Carvel and his creations including Fudgie the Whale and Cookiepuss
In the anime Sgt. Frog (Keroro Gunsou), the submarine of the titular character is called Fudgie the Sub (a play on Fudgie the Whale), in the form of an Orca.
In Archer Season Three, Episode Seven, "Drift Problem," Archer references Fudgie the Whale while speaking about his birthday cake.
In 2015, Fudgie the Whale was included in an episode of Looking in season 2, episode 3: "Looking Top to Bottom."
For the 2015 Halloween Homestar Runner cartoon, The Cheat dressed up as Fudgie the Whale.
As a Grid of Death punishment Charlie was forced to eat an entire Fudgie the Whale cake by himself during the December 11th, 2015 episode of The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz. The crew claimed the cake was suspiciously small and dubbed it "Fudgie the Dolphin".
On HBO's Last Week Tonight, John Oliver mentioned Fudgie the Whale in his segregation segment. October 30, 2016.
There is a popular camp "repeat after me" style song based on Fudgie the Whale.