The YumYums The Day Things Went Sour Videotape Part 1



The Yum Yums were a line of toys from Hanna Barbera and Halmark. The company that made the dolls also made this promotional, cheesy but fun video. I don't know if this aired on tv or not. I did not own any of the toys as a child and I have no idea how this VHS copy of The Yum Yum's, The Day Things Went Sour, came to materialize in my house.




From what I can gather on the internet, the toys mainly consisted of scented stuffed animals that had a favorite candy. The series lasted about two years.



Characters had cutesy names: Peppermint Kitty, Jellybean Bunny, Cheery Cherry Poodle, Lucky Lemon Drop Lion, Chuckie Chip Bear, Cotton Candy Poodle, Candy Apple Kitty, Jolly Lollipop Lion, Merry Marshmallow Bunny, Teddy Cakes Bear, and Christmas Cookie Bear.


I misplaced my copy of my VHS tape of the Yum Yums many years ago. A year or so ago I searched youtube to see if anyone put up a copy of it. But now, finally, after waiting so long someone was kind enough to put the video up on youtube.com. You can easily find it by searching these keywords, "yum yums the day things went sour".

Theme song lyrics (from what I can make out from the video):

Yum Yums play the whole day through
Making the whole day fun for me and you
They're so sweet and fuzzy too
We all love the Yum Yums

In the fun park, they will play
Candy rides and ??? all day
When you join them, soon you'll say
We all love the Yum Yums

There was another verse in there, but I couldn't make out the what the adults were singing in their too cutesy sing-song, nauseating voices.



In the opening scenes, the Yums Yums are working on the rides of their amusement park, yet to be open to the public. Poor little mousey has all these grape balloons to blow up and time is running out. Luckily, the lion pops some magical lemon seeds and starts to convulse (or as many other people have pointed out, looks like he's poo-poo-ing), and makes a wish.

I think why I was so drawn to this short little cartoon was because the creative use of candy in the Fun Park. For instance, as an '80s child, wouldn't you have loved to:

Water ski on a river of melted strawberry ice cream (presumably)?



Be a gumball in a gumball machine?

Have chocolate chip cookies for windows? (The cat isn't high, I just caught her in an awkward pose)



Rollerskate into a big giant cup of cherry jello, aka cherry flavored pig bones or something like that?



Eat a gigantic ice cream sundae with your friends in the nude while sitting in the ice cream sundae?



Things start out with Goody Grape blowing up balloons for the opening day of the Fun Park. Lion tries to help. He eats a lemon drop (which seems double as a laxative), and makes a wish for all the balloons to blow up.



And all the balloons proceed to blow up. Hardy har har, be careful for what you wish for kids.


While the Yum Yums are preparing for the opening day, a bunch of trolls/rhinos/ogres/elephants/what-have-you ruin their park by squirting frosting on everything, making rides go backwards, turning the bubblegum pink river into diarrhea colored sludge. They also manage to steal the magic tool box.


The lion runs out of magic lemon drops, so he can't wish for the Park to go back to the way it was. But....




Two human friends of the Yum Yums happen to stop by in their moment of need. The boy human pulls out an ancient relic that will help the Yum Yums. The ancient relic can figure out where these trolls/rhinos/ogres/elephants/what-have-you live.




In order for the Yum Yums to open the Fun Park in time, looks like they need to select a few brave candy coated souls to go down to sewers and get their magic toolbox back.

Will they be able to get their magic toolbox back? Will opening day be ruined? Will Lemony Lion accidentally slip into the river of diarrhea colored sludge?



Part 2 coming up next. Sit tight.