The History of The Garbage Pail Kids: From Parody to Pop Culture 

I became a candy dealer at school to finance my Garbage Pail Kids collection. It was surprisingly lucrative!

I had all the cards and saw the movie in theaters. I'm 43 n still love em

Let me get this straight, a man rips a woman from her prized possession which she made herself, leaving her penniless. With her ideas of doll babies, makes a fortune. This fraud, sues someone else because their cards are taking money away from their products that isn't theirs in the first place.

im 42. New Wave Dave was my fave.

I loved these cards as a kid! They were big in the 1980's.

Ahh yes. Garbage pail kids, Masters of the universe, GI Joe, Atari, Colecovision we're great memories for me as a kid. I miss it dearly

I still have my 📦 box full of 1986 Garbagepailkids cards.Wish they had a 80s cards convention.

My mom was more pissed about finding my shoe box full of GPK than finding my stack of penthouse magazines lol

Having these cards back then, was the first signs of edginess.. you’re defying the “law”. Lol I had all of them.. great times.

One of the best parts of my childhood. ..and still gotem

My mother actually got me the cards in 1985 I. Was 8. Those are some of the dopest cards

7:35 Muppet Babies rocked.

GPK: The Movie is a blight upon the soul. I'm ashamed to say I saw it in the theatre first day of release. I'm even MORE ashamed that I currently own the DVD. What have I done with my life..

My uncle worked at a print factory that made Wacky Packages/Garbage Pail Kids/lots of other stickers and he would bring me full sheets of stickers. He also once brought me a whole garbage bag full of glow sticks. I guess they made those, too.

I still buy them whenever I see them in stores. Always loved these growing up in the 80's.

Garbage Pail Kids was a meme before memes were cool.

i still wanna meet a parent that thought these were terrible. my brother and i got alot of them. and my mom thought that many were funny. she didnt collect any. but thought many were funny and laughed at em. im very happy that i had a mom that didnt freak out over every little thing in life.

I like the “they live” flash reference.

GarbagePail Kids. Monsters in my Pocket. Battle Beasts . Bogglins. Mad Scientist. He man . teenage mutant ninja turtles. Transformers and GoBots. Mask. Godamn i loved my childhood. Love your channel

They were an international hit too. They were massive at my UK school, kids would carry round collections like bricks.

I can still hear my mom's voice berating - "those cards are gross." Man I loved being an 80s kid.

I didn't know about court case. The ruling against them seems a bit odd. Parodies, by definition, don't exist without the source material. Weird Al always says he's legally allowed to parody any song he wants, but out of respect he asks for the artist's permission. And that's a direct line of one song to another song. This is a doll to a trading card. Oh, well. It's the 80s. I guess that explains it.

What an incredible introduction. Those analogies painted a vivid picture and for a moment I remembered what it felt like to have a pack of garbage pail kids in my hand as a 10 year old. I DID feel rebelious and like I was carrying around something as dangerous as a pack of smokes. Well done.

I collected them in grade school and for an art assignment we had to draw ourselves as a Garbage Pail Kid. I was "Junk food Josh" and had mine displayed beside the Principal's office just inside the front entrance of our school for everyone to see. Canada is way cooler... we scoff at controversy, then apologize for scoffing.

'A pack of smokes rolled up in their sleeve ready to throw down in a switchblade fight' IM DYIN! 😂😂😂

First series GPK were the best! Hardest set to complete back in 4th grade.

I wanted these cards so bad when I was a kid, all I could get was the SH***Y duplicates that older siblings had and didn't want LOL, good times.

I distinctly remember the intense parental hatred of these cards. Between Motley Crue, and Garbage Pail kids, the world was going to end. Devilish.

These cards were the first in-joke between my friends and I, that we knew none of our parents or teachers would 'get'. In a sense, it was the very first stab at understanding what it was to be independent. Even though we were all still way too young to suddenly start living off on our own, goopy garbage pale in hand.

42 and this brings back memories. I remember going to the mall and my dad buying a few packs for me in 1985. Later in my 30s when I had some money I bought Adam Bomb, Blasted Billy, Nasty Nick and Evil Eddie in PSA 9 glossy. All of them have jumped up in value.

These cards are some of the best memories of my childhood! I had wonderful summers trading them with my friends. And my mom got into them with me and my sisters and literally drove us to 7-11 one night at midnight, just to buy like 3 boxes of series three unopened. I sold my collection some years after. And my mom is now passed on. But those memories were special. When they rereleased in the early 2000’s I started collecting again. And have never stopped since! I now have a large enough collection to start a small museum on them literally! And when we cleaned out my moms house when she passed away, I found some GPK cards and merchandise there she still had and it too is in my collection now!

OMG, I'm 6 years old again

I still collect them. Reacquiring my collection started slow but it's been picking up. I'm forever addicted to GPK. I love the originals but the newer series and various theme cards are great. I recently added the Stranger Kids, Oh the Horror-ible, and Chrome series 1 & 2 sets to my collection. There's also some interesting spin-off cards out there that I've been learning about and getting ahold of.

Meltin' Elton here! :) I remember some characters having THREE names instead of just 2. My card, for example, Meltin' ELTON also had Crystal GAIL and Ig LOU. Same for Incomplete PETE / Puzzled PAUL / REESE Pieces. I'm sure there were plenty of other cards with 3 names.

Enjoying these nostalgic videos. I'm 45, so I'm getting reminded of a lot of what we played with and watched.

When I was was about 11, I had a bunch of random cards and didn't really know what to do with them. So, I decided to peel all the stickers and proceed to place them on the wall in my bathtub. Needless to say, my mom was pissed at my redecoration, but they stayed there for a few years. True story!

Why your channel doesn’t have over 200k I’ll never understand, amazing work!

You’ve been killing it with great content. Keep it up!

Great vid Dan! I had no idea that they had so many series? I remember getting the first couple series and after the movie came out they just died off. They had product out there a lot longer than I thought.

I loved GPC. My friend’s mom hated them, didn’t know he had a stash of em, and she literally kicked me out of their house because I told her I had some GPC at home. Never saw the movie. Also, I dig this host dude. Did a great job. Want to see more! And finally, shout-out to Joe Simko, a recent GPC artist who’s also done art for my boys GWAR!

0:28 EEEEEEK!!! OMFG MAN!! These pretty much some up my childhood.... loved these guys they were fricking awesome. I'm 45 now but if I COULD round them all up n buy them all over again. I totally would.... Happy happy joyful days!! Sigh... aaawwww the nostalgia!! 🥰🥰🥰😍😍😍😍😍💖💖💖💖💖

More than anything, these cards are what warped my sense of humor and refined my love of really stupid puns. And I will always be thankful to their creators for that.

It was a wild time when Garbage Pail Kids hit our school. I remember doing someone's homework in return for a fistful of trading cards. I never got my own name. Gooey Hughie was the closest match. :-(

And I never thought as a kid I would be part of their continuance as an adult. The next series will be out in September. Great video. Anyone that wants an even more in depth history with interviews with most of the people talked about here should check out the 30 Years of Garbage documentary.

Art Spiegelman really pushed for these line of cards, as they taught children a valuable lesson that people take for granted now: do not blindly follow fads. Now you could say that GPK were a fad themselves, but the message still kind of worked. Kids brought up in this era became a little more savvy when it came to corporate advertising. By the time the 90s rolled around advertisers decided to appeal to the anti-corporate and anti-authoritarian mindset of the kids in that era, and that "tude" lasted pretty much the entire decade... so if you have any fond memories of 90s 'tude products you have GPK to thank.

I had that movie, AND Harry and the Hendersons on the same VHS tape. I watched them both HEAVILY as a kid. Still love em both!😅

My faaaaaaavorite. Had tons of 'em.

This was cool, very entertaining. Thanks for posting!

I got collecting because of my Grandmother MAMA, she bought the cards at the gas stations i was young like 3 maybe now i still collected to this day. Great video

Man I loved these cards.... i wanted a two hour documentary but all you could find was 10 min worth of info... we need mooooore!

Solid "They Live" Easter egg, bravo!

Thanks for this. I still have quite a few of series 1 and 2.

I remember collecting all the wacky packages stickers. I filled up the picture book you could purchase, that contained themed drawings on the pages designed to compliment the stickers.

Easily one of your best videos gentlemen. The Garbage Pail Kids deserve some more modern day love.

I still have mount crushmore post card and a Russ Puss post card and 2 decks still not opened. These were great

Back in 2000 or so, Diamond Comics Distributors got their hands on sealed GPK boxes. Naturally, I had my comic book guy order some for me. By that point, they were already 15 years old. The gum, which shattered if you so much as had negative thoughts, did not taste good.

The factory I used to live across the street from used to print out the stickers for Tops. I had a giant roll of Garbage Pail Kids stickers as well as the then WWF stickers featuring Hulk Hogan, The Macho Man, Roddy Piper etc, before they were cut up and put into individual wrappers that would sell in the candy stores.

was that a frame of a "They Live" alien face?

When I was a little kid I didn't even think of Cabbage Patch Kids when I thought of Garbage Pail Kids.

Great video! Thank you. I am still surprised to find only one Melissa card in all of the GPK series made, Meltin' Melissa. It's kinda fun tho too only having one. This is such a fun series to collect. I used to love walking to the store with a quarter as a kids to pick up a pack. Today I get the same feeling when I am going to the store to pick some GPK cards up or ordering the old cards online.

Everyone should check out the awesome GPK book that was released a few years back. Only series 1-5 is featured sadly, but a very nice little volume.

Awesome. Very funny, especially the down with authority bit

Loved this... Brought back memories....

I still have complete Uk sets of series 2 & 3 and 100's from other series! The nostalgia i have for these are up there with any Video game or Toy in any of my collections!

Digging your channel, looking forward to digging into more!

I LOVE THIS!!! MEMORIES, ESPECIALLY ON THE BANNING OF THE CARDS IN SCHOOL !!!

I'm glad you did this video on garbage pail kids

Great memories. Good review!

I had tons of them things, anyone remember how crappy the gum was? Still trying to forget. Lol

who remembers feeling a certain way when you would see them actually peeled and stuck to something?

Thank you for the video!

Love this guy!!💪🏼💪🏼

I love and collect GPK, and I'll tell you, they are *not* cheap anymore lol My favorite things are the non card items; bouncy balls, pencil toppers, Halloween costumes, balloons, etc. They are a really fun collectible with an awesome community to boot! I even have a tattoo and those who recognize it look so happy " oh I loved those!" I heard one person say they were the first art works they were ever interested in, and they are art for sure. Thanks for the great video!!

Love this video I still have a card binder full of them that my little sister and I collected.

My mom was cool with GPK until our pastor gave a sermon about them in church! I remember kids wouldn’t even play at recess during series 2, they’d just huddle in small groups looking at each other’s cards on the blacktop! Limit of 4 packs per customer at 7-11 with a huge line of parents and kids every morning before school!

When I was a kid these cards use to scare the shit out of me and the garbage pale kids movie really creeped me out. I literally hated them.

This channel is awesome. I’m not a toy collector but I still find myself binging on this channel. I guess I just like a well put together bit of RU-vid 👍

Hahaha, loved the 'They Live' glitch.

An amazing property that I still love and collect. Topps has totally returned to that Cabbage Patch look with the last part of the ANS series, BNS series and the themed series. Long live the rebellion!

I love this ❤️🤗 thank you. I loved collecting these also I was a big fan of scratch n sniff puffed stickers! Ahhhh, the 80’s ❤️

The product that introduced a generation of kids to the Spencers Gifts store at the mall. Spencer's was an adult gag / gift store, filled with office pranks, fake doggy doo, adult board games, etc. When Garbage Pail cards came out, they were considered too "raunchy" by a lot of toy stores to sell to kids, so Spencers saw an opportunity to sell them. With a sudden massive influx of younger demographic showing up to their stores, they had to quickly shuffle adult-oriented inventory to the back of the store and try to keep an eye on kids wandering around towards the back. In the mall in the 80's, a young kid was mostly interested in the arcade, toy store, and maybe the book store if you were into D&D (book stores often had some small section of RPG's). But, when Garbage Pail kids came out, you quickly added Spencers to the list of stores you made through rounds through. I was a latch-key kid growing up, so got comfortable being on my own early on. I'd ask my parents to drop me off at the mall on a Saturday, and spend my $10 allowance hitting the arcade, getting some lunch, then hitting the toy store and spencers for a couple of hours to buy trinket junk like garbage pail kid cards, and window shop for stuff I really wanted to ask for for my birthday or christmas. I was like 12yo then. Parents didn't give it a second thought dropping me off to wander the mall by myself or with a friend. The mall was filled with young kids and teens. Nobody worried about child abduction. I think back on that and realize how innocent yet crazy it was.

As a testament of their uniqueness I collected them as a kid in the early 90s in Argentina where I've never seen the Cabagge toys and found out they were a parody just now, watching this video! I could have testified in court for Topps!

My siblings and I got gifted a box of stickers of these things. Loved them and found them funny!

really enjoying these History of episodes, esp this one. Loved Garbage Pail Kids and i remember them being banned at my school What about Micro Machines next or army ants lol

I Loved the heck out of them...👍

I still have the complete series 1,2 and 3 from when I was a kid... LOL... will probably give them to my son when he is old enough to appreciate the humor

Garbage Pail Kids were the absolute dog's bollocks when I was in primary school. Every kid I went to school with was crazy for the buggers. Everyone had one they didn't have and one they wanted rid of, so lots of swapping went on. They were collectible, affordable, gross and grown-ups hated them. Perfect!

I collected these in the 80's and when i saw them again for the first time in 2003 i did a double take. I couldn't believe Topps started making them again, to be honest the new ones are just as cool as the old ones, a lot them still have that artistic touch to them that made me love them .

I was obsessed with these cards. Me and my friends collected all of them. We would set around at lunch and make fun of the teachers who never caught on to what we where doing. Even after are school band them we keeped bringing them. I put several on my locker and my trapper keeper. Those where good days. Being a kid in the eighties and nineties was fucking awesome.

Thanks for the info, man!!

My grandmother used to buy the cards for me . Amazing memories

Still have my collection and actively adding as new series come out

Was obsessed with gpk in the late 80s. I remember most corner stores would sell them back then,they were that popular. I'll never forget the days of buying them with friends and comparing and trading cards. Still have tons of them somewhere in the basement

Spring of 1986! I had 2 big stacks of GPK! My friends & I were obsessed! ❤️'d them 😜 Growing up in the 80's was the BEST!!

that intro is the most accurate description of garbage pail kids ever. teachers threw away thousands of these. in elementary school after mine and a friends were thrown in the trash....we went dumpster diving at the school to get them back and found hundreds more. garbage pail kids was punk for children.

I loved these card/stickers! I collected up to series 8.

The animated series aired in my country (Trinidad & Tobago) !

Atleast garbage pale kids have their own live action movie.

I loved those cards so much. I guess my parents were a little more lenient though because they stuck em all over the fridge

I had the cards too. I LOVED these things!!