Like many a kid in the 60s, American comics opened me up to a new world of product in the ads; “Tootsie Rolls”, Charles Atlas ads, and best of all, the multi-ad pages of joke toys and novelties. I had no idea how to buy things using post from America, let alone the UK, and my parents were not about to help me. So this was a world I could only look through the window at. Eventually, I had enough cash in hand and was in a sufficient shabby British seaside resort to be able to arm myself with a variety of these exotic items. The whoopee cushion distended the sofa so you couldn’t sneak it under auntie at a party, the x-ray glasses were definitely ineffective, and my dad gave me a bollocking when I successfully pranked him with the black-face soap. I just wasn’t cut out as a Beadle.
I am sure you people have amusing additions to this theme. (For all of us with a trash-aesthetic, the article is excellent, too.)