You Can't Do That on Television is indeed where it started. Back when it was a local Canadian show before it was picked up by Nickelodeon. The producers of YCDTOTV had done similar "Laugh-In" flavored kids shows in other countries that also regularly featured water/pie humor, but green slime was a new element in this latest venture since they wanted something even messier than a pie in the face.
The first slime scene didn't have anything to do with saying "I don't know" but rather took place in the "dungeon" set which was where a principal had a kid chained up for detention and warned him before leaving him on his own that whatever you do, don't pull on those chains. Of course the kid does and instantly gets slimed.
The "I don't know" trigger started as a running gag where someone would ask someone else a couple questions starting with an easier one such as "What's the name of the river that..." and then following up with an impossible to answer question like "And how many fish are in it?" leading them to admit "I don't know" and their then getting slimed. Soon this evolved into someone getting slimed whenever they said "I don't know"
When Nickelodeon picked up YCDTOTV in 1981, this became the network's runaway hit and the show mostly associated with it. The rest is history - Nick would soon incorporate green slime into its promos and other shows.
Note all this mainly applied in the Americas, Nickelodeon wasn't available in the UK till satellite TV got going in 1989 - back in 81 TISWAS was still going strong and available nationally, so we didn't have the green slime tradition or the "I don't know" trigger, but we did have a decade of wet and messy TV. TISWAS itself ended in 82 or 83 but we then had a whole series of early evening weekday shows with gunge instead, and then by the end of the decade Noel Edmunds' various gungey Saturday evening shows started up.
Gunging people seems to have been a big thing on TV on both sides of the pond in the 80s, and also in Japan, did anywhere else have major gunge shows at the time?
phoenixazpieguy said: You Can't Do That on Television is indeed where it started. Back when it was a local Canadian show before it was picked up by Nickelodeon. The producers of YCDTOTV had done similar "Laugh-In" flavored kids shows in other countries that also regularly featured water/pie humor, but green slime was a new element in this latest venture since they wanted something even messier than a pie in the face.
The first slime scene didn't have anything to do with saying "I don't know" but rather took place in the "dungeon" set which was where a principal had a kid chained up for detention and warned him before leaving him on his own that whatever you do, don't pull on those chains. Of course the kid does and instantly gets slimed.
The "I don't know" trigger started as a running gag where someone would ask someone else a couple questions starting with an easier one such as "What's the name of the river that..." and then following up with an impossible to answer question like "And how many fish are in it?" leading them to admit "I don't know" and their then getting slimed. Soon this evolved into someone getting slimed whenever they said "I don't know"
When Nickelodeon picked up YCDTOTV in 1981, this became the network's runaway hit and the show mostly associated with it. The rest is history - Nick would soon incorporate green slime into its promos and other shows.
To add on to this, the phrase "I don't know" was chosen because as a kid, it's embarrassing to be asked a question in front of the class and that be your response. The green slime was, in essence, a physical representation of that embarrassment.
As an adult, I can say that in the corporate world, that doesn't go away.
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