Who Remembers The Galloping Gourmet?

https://www.theretrosite.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/00duxe.mp4

Before cooking shows became calm, polished, and perfect, there was Graham Kerr, The Galloping Gourmet. He didn’t just walk onto the set, he practically burst in, full of energy, jokes, charm, and enough butter and wine to make every 1970s kitchen feel fancy. His show became a hit in the late 1960s and early 1970s, long before Food Network made TV chefs everyday celebrities.

In this clip, he’s doing what we would now call a kitchen “hack,” showing how to clarify butter with the help of a Dixie Cup, which also happened to be the advertiser. Back then, that kind of thing didn’t feel like a forced product placement. It was just part of the show, part cooking lesson, part commercial, and all entertainment. And somehow, Graham Kerr made even melted butter seem like a performance.

Dixie Riddle Cups

Question: If an athlete gets athletes foot, what do astronauts get?

Answer: Missile Toe!

This was one of the many jokes feature on the Dixie Riddle Cups introduced in 1970. From a family of seven there wasn’t a lot of extra money for “luxuries” like disposable cups but it was one our family enjoyed. Growing up in the 70’s a come back line if you told a joke like this was “What? Did you read that on a Dixie Riddle Cup?

The Riddle Cups became popular, the cups were brightly colored and had a series of jokes that sadly repeated in the box of cups, usually containing one hundred cups. Dixie then introduced a full line of Riddle Plates and Riddle Bowls. Paper dishes were too much of a luxury for our family so I don’t recall these nor the Knock Knock Riddle Cups. By 1978 the novelty wore off and Dixie discontinued printing them.

In 1997 Dixie revitalized the cups with a contest for kids to submit their own jokes. If selected they would be printed on the cups with the child’s name, hometown and they would win a $1,000 savings bond. Dixie capitalized on this even more by having America’s favorite “Riddler,” actor Frank Gorshin who played the Riddler in the 1960’s TV show Batman.

Exit mobile version