The Pop-Tarts Bowl will have an ‘edible mascot.’ We’ve got some important questions.
Winning players will reportedly celebrate by taking bites of the mascot. Will that hurt him?
![The Pop-Tarts Bowl will debut an edible mascot next month.](https://www.inquirer.com/resizer/x4J8PsvtX6Enp05-VxWk0_K7qnI=/760x507/smart/filters:format(webp)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/pmn/TTOTDC2A2ZFKFLMQSBXKMPRT3M.jpg)
Every year, bowl season gets zanier. The Duke’s Mayo Bowl and its postgame “mayo bath,” the french fry bath after the Idaho Famous Potatoes Bowl, and the Cheez-It Bowl’s Cheez-It themed hotel rooms are just a few of the ways that college bowl games are trying to set themselves apart from the crowd.
Having a bowl-specific mascot is nothing new. But in its first year on the scene, the Pop-Tarts Bowl is changing the game with a new, edible bowl mascot.
According to The Athletic’s Nicole Auerbach, the winner of the bowl game — between an ACC and Big 12 team in Orlando, Fla. on Dec. 28 — will get the opportunity to take a bite out of the mascot in celebration. Literally.
But we still have a few questions ...
Is the mascot sentient?
Most mascots have eyes. Even the ones meant to represent inanimate objects, like the Syracuse Orange, have a face. The Pop-Tart, too, will have a face based on renderings.
Will it scream in peril as it is broken into hundreds of pieces and consumed by the winning team? How much of it is even edible in the first place? Is it like a plant, bearing fruit but continuing to grow?
What would Gritty and the Phanatic taste like?
Let’s face it — if there were two mascots most likely to be cannibals it would be Gritty and the Phanatic.
The Pop-Tarts Bowl photos make the Pop-Tarts Bowl mascot look like a strawberry Pop-Tart. But if you took a bite out of Gritty or the Phanatic, what would they taste like?
In Pop-Tart terms, the closest thing to the Phanatic (in that both of them are green) would be the Apple Jacks Pop-Tart. The only orange Pop-Tart is the Pumpkin Pie Pop-Tart, but that feels too basic for Gritty.
Is there a similarly large toaster mascot?
Pop-Tarts are at their best after they come out of the toaster. The winners of the Pop-Tarts Bowl deserve the best, so they should bring out a comically large toaster for the mascot to make sure it’s hot and ready.
What happens if it rains?
No one wants to eat a soggy Pop-Tart, and Florida’s known for rain. Is there a backup mascot Pop-Tart waiting in the wings in case of a rain delay?