The Snuggie Pub Crawl and Other Blanket with Sleeves Pop Culture Phenomena

When I wrote my first blog post about the Snuggie Blanket with Sleeves in September 2008, I never suspected that this strange-looking product and its beyond stupid TV commercial would become such a pop culture phenomenon.

The latest trend in the Snuggie craze is the “Snuggie pub crawl.” A Snuggie pub crawl consists of a group of people bar-hopping while all wearing Snuggies. The San Francisco Chronicle reported on a recent Snuggie pubcrawl in their story “Warming to the cult of Snuggie.” Here is a video about that event:

Looks like they got some real intellectual firepower there.

There is even a website, www.Snuggie PubCrawls.com, which lists upcoming events. The creator of that website also put up the Snuggie fans sites, Snuggie Sightings and SnuggieBook.com, which bills itself as “The Social Network with Sleeves.” (By the way, the Web design on the aforementioned Snuggie sites makes MySpace look like the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.)

When I first saw the Snuggie commercial, I thought the strangest thing about the ad was that it actually encouraged people to wear it in public. Now with the Snuggie pub crawls lots of people are wearing the Snuggie publicly. But of course they do so in packs for their own protection. Try wearing the Snuggie in public by yourself and there is still a good chance you will get the snot beaten out of you.

Don’t confuse these urban hipsters wearing Snuggies at bars with some unsophisticated Minnesota soccer mom who buys a Snuggie to keep warm. The pub crawlers are wearing their Snuggies ironically, don’cha know.

The SF Chronicle story quotes one observer as saying, “I think they need more colors besides blue…It needs more diversity.” Apparently, the attendees didn’t know that there are now Designer Snuggies—available in zebra, leopard, and camel prints—for sale at www.DesignerSnuggie.com. But then again, don’t Snuggie wearers want to look like medieval monks?

In other Snuggie pop culture news, here two recent Pickles comic strips:

This Snuggie will undoubtedly make an appearance on “I Love 2008” or “I Love 2009” when VH1 comes out with its inevitable, “I Love the 2000s” series.

1975 had the Pet Rock.

1981 had the Rubik’s Cube.

Denizens of 2009, put on your Snuggies!