Big Mouth Billy Bass is an

animatronic Animatronics refers to mechatronic puppets. They are a modern variant of the automaton and are often used for the portrayal of characters in films and in theme park attractions. It is a multidisciplinary field integrating puppetry, anatomy a ...

singing

prop A prop, formally known as (theatrical) property, is an object used on stage or screen by actors during a performance or screen production. In practical terms, a prop is considered to be anything movable or portable on a stage or a set, distinc ...

, representing a

largemouth bass The largemouth bass (''Micropterus salmoides'') is a carnivorous freshwater gamefish in the Centrarchidae ( sunfish) family, a species of black bass native to the eastern and central United States, southeastern Canada and northern Mexico, ...

, invented by Gemmy Industries on December 16, 1998; sold beginning January 1, 1999; and popular in the early 2000s.

Gemmy Industries

Gemmy (IPA : ) is an American novelty manufacturing company, best known for its animatronic and inflatable characters. It is currently headquartered in

Coppell, Texas Coppell ( ) is a city in the northwest corner of Dallas County in the U.S. state of Texas. It is a suburb of Dallas and a bedroom community in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. Its population was 42,983 at the 2020 census. A small area in t ...

. Founded in 1984, the company originally began producing ballpoint pens. Gemmy eventually ventured into novelty manufacturing, and in 2000, it achieved marketing success with the Big Mouth Billy Bass. Following that success, the company began predominantly making animatronic figures focused on the Christmas and Halloween seasons. The company distributes product internationally, especially to the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and ...

Design and features

The fish is made of latex rubber with an internal plastic mechanical skeleton. At first glance, the product appears to be a

mounted Mount is often used as part of the name of specific mountains, e.g. Mount Everest. Mount or Mounts may also refer to: Places * Mount, Cornwall, a village in Warleggan parish, England * Mount, Perranzabuloe, a hamlet in Perranzabuloe parish, Co ...

game fish Game fish, sport fish or quarry refer to popular fish pursued by recreational anglers, and can be freshwater or saltwater fish. Game fish can be eaten after being caught, or released after capture. Some game fish are also targeted commercial ...

. The item was conceived by a Gemmy Industries product development vice president following his visit to a Bass Pro Shop. The mounted fish turns its head towards a person, wiggles its tail on the trophy plaque, and sings cover songs, such as "

Don't Worry, Be Happy "Don't Worry, Be Happy" is a 1988 song by American musician Bobby McFerrin, released as the first single from his fourth album, '' Simple Pleasures'' (1988). It was the first ''a cappella'' song to reach number-one on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 c ...

" (1988) by

Bobby McFerrin Robert Keith McFerrin Jr. (born March 11, 1950) is an American folk and jazz singer. He is known for his vocal techniques, such as singing fluidly but with quick and considerable jumps in pitch—for example, sustaining a melody while also rap ...

; and " Take Me To The River" (1974) by

Al Green Albert Leornes Greene (born April 13, 1946), better known as Al Green, is an American singer, songwriter, pastor and record producer best known for recording a series of soul hit singles in the early 1970s, including " Take Me to the River", ...

. Green claims he received more royalties from Big Mouth Billy Bass than from any other recordings of the song. The singing mechanism was originally activated by a motion sensor and was designed to startle a passerby. Eventually, a button was added to activate it. There have been many variants of Big Mouth Billy Bass produced by Gemmy. These use different types of game fish and aquatic animals. Variants include: Travis the Singing

Trout Trout are species of freshwater fish belonging to the genera '' Oncorhynchus'', '' Salmo'' and '' Salvelinus'', all of the subfamily Salmoninae of the family Salmonidae. The word ''trout'' is also used as part of the name of some non-salm ...

, Cool

Catfish Catfish (or catfishes; order Siluriformes or Nematognathi) are a diverse group of ray-finned fish. Named for their prominent barbels, which resemble a cat's whiskers, catfish range in size and behavior from the three largest species alive, ...

, Rocky The Singing

Lobster Lobsters are a family (Nephropidae, synonym Homaridae) of marine crustaceans. They have long bodies with muscular tails and live in crevices or burrows on the sea floor. Three of their five pairs of legs have claws, including the first pair, ...

, and Lucky The Lobster.

Spin-offs and other versions

The concept was later adapted into a large mounted

deer Deer or true deer are hoofed ruminant mammals forming the family Cervidae. The two main groups of deer are the Cervinae, including the muntjac, the elk (wapiti), the red deer, and the fallow deer; and the Capreolinae, including the re ...

head, known as "Buck – the Animated Trophy" (voiced by

Clint Ford Clint Ford (born January 27, 1976) is an American screenwriter, actor, voice-over artist, and novelist. He is best known for his portrayal as the Klingon M'ven, of the Great House of Martok, in the video game, Star Trek Online. He is also k ...

), as well as a medium-sized mounted

bear Bears are carnivoran mammals of the family Ursidae. They are classified as caniforms, or doglike carnivorans. Although only eight species of bears are extant, they are widespread, appearing in a wide variety of habitats throughout the No ...

head. On December 7, 1999, a special holiday version of the Big Mouth Billy Bass was released. The fish had a

Santa hat A Santa suit is a suit worn by a person portraying the legendary character Santa Claus. The modern American version of the suit can be attributed to the work of Thomas Nast for '' Harper's Weekly'' magazine, although it is often incorrectly tho ...

on his head and a ribbon with a sleigh bell on his tail. An anniversary edition followed in 2014. In 2018, Gemmy Industries partnered with

Amazon Amazon most often refers to: * Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek mythology * Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin * Amazon River, in South America * Amazon (company), an American multinational technolog ...

to create an

Amazon Alexa Amazon Alexa, also known simply as Alexa, is a virtual assistant technology largely based on a Polish speech synthesiser named Ivona, bought by Amazon in 2013. It was first used in the Amazon Echo smart speaker and the Echo Dot, Echo Studio ...

-enabled version of the animatronic. This variant pairs with any

Amazon Echo Amazon Echo, often shortened to Echo, is an American brand of smart speakers developed by Amazon. Echo devices connect to the voice-controlled intelligent personal assistant service '' Alexa'', which will respond when a user says "Alexa". Users ...

device through

Bluetooth Bluetooth is a short-range wireless technology standard that is used for exchanging data between fixed and mobile devices over short distances and building personal area networks (PANs). In the most widely used mode, transmission power is limi ...

and will move its mouth when responding to Alexa commands. It also shakes its tail when playing music through

Amazon Music Amazon Music (previously Amazon MP3) is a music streaming platform and online music store operated by Amazon. Launched in public beta on September 25, 2007, in January 2008 it became the first music store to sell music without digital rights ...

but does not lip sync to songs. When not connected to an Alexa device, the fish sings an original song titled "Fishin' Time" when its red button is pushed. A remake of the original Big Mouth Billy Bass was released in 2021. This new version cut "

Don't Worry Be Happy "Don't Worry, Be Happy" is a 1988 song by American musician Bobby McFerrin, released as the first single from his fourth album, '' Simple Pleasures'' (1988). It was the first ''a cappella'' song to reach number-one on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 c ...

" by

for

Luke Bryan Thomas Luther "Luke" Bryan (born July 17, 1976) is an American country singer, songwriter, and television personality. He began his music career writing songs for Travis Tritt and Billy Currington before signing with Capitol Nashville in 2007. ...

's 2015 " Huntin', Fishin' and Lovin' Every Day" in addition to the

Talking Heads Talking Heads were an American rock band formed in 1975 in New York City and active until 1991.Talki ...

1978 iteration of " Take Me to the River". In late-2021, TikTok user Kevin Heckart hacked a Big Mouth Billy Bass to not only lip-sync to any voice track or song, but to also dance via head and tail movements to whatever song is played through any smart speaker connections. Heckart later made a similar hack to the Cool Catfish and Frankie the Fish by the same company along with Loftus International’s Tommy Trout as well as an orange Chinese Big Mouth Billy Bass 15th Anniversary Edition knockoff in mid-2022, all of them synced to an Amazon Alexa playing Nathan Evans's cover of The Wellerman.

In popular culture

It was reported that

Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until her death in 2022. She was queen regnant of 32 sovereign states durin ...

had a Big Mouth Billy Bass displayed on the grand piano of

Balmoral Castle Balmoral Castle () is a large estate house in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, and a residence of the British royal family. It is near the village of Crathie, west of Ballater and west of Aberdeen. The estate and its original castle were bought f ...

. The Netflix drama ''

The Crown The Crown is the state in all its aspects within the jurisprudence of the Commonwealth realms and their subdivisions (such as the Crown Dependencies, overseas territories, provinces, or states). Legally ill-defined, the term has differ ...

'' incorrectly depicts Prince Andrew giving it to her as a birthday present in 1997. The success of the Big Mouth Billy Bass has led to a number of

pop culture Pop or POP may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music * Pop music, a musical genre Artists * POP, a Japanese idol group now known as Gang Parade * Pop!, a UK pop group * Pop! featuring Angie Hart, an Australian band Albums * ''Pop'' ...

appearances, including product placements. Some of the device's notable appearances include ''

The Simpsons ''The Simpsons'' is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical depiction of American life, epitomized by the Simpson family, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, ...

'', ''

Family Guy ''Family Guy'' is an American animated sitcom originally conceived and created by Seth MacFarlane for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The show centers around the Griffins, a dysfunctional family consisting of parents Peter and Lois; their ch ...

'', ''

The Sopranos ''The Sopranos'' is an American crime drama television series created by David Chase. The story revolves around Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini), a New Jersey-based Italian-American mobster, portraying his difficulties as he tries to balance ...

,'' ''

WALL-E ''WALL-E'' (stylized with an interpunct as ''WALL·E'') is a 2008 American computer-animated science fiction film produced by Pixar Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures. It was directed and co-written by Andrew Stanton, pro ...

, ''and ''

The Act of Killing ''The Act of Killing'' ( id, Jagal, meaning "Butcher") is a 2012 documentary film about individuals who participated in the Indonesian mass killings of 1965–1966. The film is directed by Joshua Oppenheimer and co-directed by Christine Cynn and ...

''.

References

External links

* {{Commons category-inline, Big Mouth Billy Bass Toy brands 1990s fads and trends 2000s fads and trends Novelty items Animatronic robots Toy animals Products introduced in 1999