Meaning
A couch potato is someone who spend a lot of their time watching tv or playing video games. Couch potatoes are considered lazy. They don’t leave their house much and rarely exercise. In my research I found a synonymous phrase, sofa spud, that I’ve never heard before. Couch and sofa both refer to the type of furniture. A spud is an uncommon synonym for potato.
Example: Don’t be a couch potato. Let’s go out and play!
Origin
Since the phrase, couch potato, refers to people to habitually watch TV, we know that it is not an old phrase. The interesting thing about this phrase is that we know the exact day that it was first said and written. On July 15th, 1976, Tom Lacino (some sources call him Iacino) called his friend on the phone. His friend’s girlfriend answered the phone. Lacino asked, “Hey, is the couch potato there?” He had not thought of the phrase before, but it made everyone laugh. Another friend, Robert Armstrong learned about the phrase and asked Lacino if he could borrow it.
Lacino and Armstrong were part of a group called, the “Boob Tubers.” The boob tube is an older phrase referring to a television. The group was created in response to a health-craze in their area. The group’s main goal was to watch TV and eat junk food. The Boob Tubers changed their name to the Couch Potatoes. In 1979, the group decided to put a float in the Doo Dah Parade. Instead of creating an interesting or beautiful float, they just had a few couches pointing at a TV. They called it, “The Couch Potatoes.”
The event was covered by the LA Times. On December 28th, 1979, couch potato first appeared in an article written by Sam Kaplan. He just mentioned the name of the float but it became a popular phrase. Armstrong had trademarked the phrase in 1979 but it became so ubiquitous that he could no longer claim it as his own.
Couch potato is still a popular phrase to call someone lazy. Instead of just a TV, people can also be obsessed with YouTube, Netflix, and other forms of entertainment that can be consumed at home. Are you a couch potato? What do you like to watch?
Bonus:
I am unsure if the originator of the phrase was named Lacino or Iacino. Most sources say Lacino, but Bon Appetit interviewed him and referred to him as Iacino. He was not a lazy person and was only part of the Couch Potato (Boob Tubers) group because he came up with he phrase. He is an inventor. Lacino claims that he designed and built the Photobubble, an air-filled, externally-lit filming and photography studio. However, the Photobubble’s website says that Roman Coppola invented it in 2003. It has been used by such large companies as Chevrolet, Toyota, Glee, Intel, Ford, BMW, and Fox.
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