Sir Winston Churchill on rationing, the Burton factory, and a rumoured Marmite sale. Two questions Britain should ask before the deal closes, in his voice.
Pop Culture References
Marmite in TV, film, music, and literature: cultural references, internet memes, and appearances in popular media.
Category: Pop Culture References | View all articles
An imagined Mnemonicon interview with Winston Churchill on Marmite, rationing, and the rumoured sale
An imagined Mnemonicon panel with Shakespeare's cast: Romeo and Juliet, the Macbeths, and Richard III, each given a jar of Marmite
A Shakespeare panel: Romeo and Juliet on the balcony, the Macbeths in the kitchen the night before the murder, and Richard III soliloquising on toast at his coronation.
An imagined Mnemonicon interview with William Shakespeare on Marmite, the humours, a jar set before Falstaff at the Boar's Head, and a sonnet for the jar
William Shakespeare on Marmite as choler in a jar. Falstaff seizes it at the Boar's Head and declares it sack made flesh. Closes on the Bard's sonnet for the jar.
Marmite in British popular culture: the verb, the meme, and the brand-name shorthand
It is hard to think of another food brand that became a word in normal British English. Hoover, in its day. Tippex. That is most of the list. Marmite is in it. If you describe a film, a politician, a footballer or a piece of new architecture as "a bit Marmite", everyone in the room nods.
An Australian satirical paper says Marmite is better than Vegemite
The Betoota Advocate, the Australian satirical paper, has published a piece called Why Marmite Is Better Than Vegemite But Not Better Than Easy Clicks On Your Website . The title is doing the entire job, but it is worth reading the rest because it is also funny.
A Marlborough boutique has painted itself in Marmite stripes
Isabella Wookey, who runs Willow & Wolf on the high street in Marlborough, Wiltshire, has painted the front of her shop in broad stripes. The stripes are a slightly pinker brown than the proper Marmite yellow-and-oxblood, but the reference is instant. Walk past it and you think, jar.
Marmite is one of the longest-running memes on the internet
Bartle Bogle Hegarty wrote "Love it or hate it" for Marmite in 1996. Twenty-nine years later, half the internet is still using it. That is the kind of longevity ad agencies dream of and almost never achieve. The reason it travelled is that it does not actually sell Marmite.
The Marmite jar has flat sides, which is not news
Last week, the internet collectively discovered that the Marmite jar has flat sides, and you can lay it on its side, and this makes it easier to scrape out the last bits. Greg James called it life-changing on Radio 1. The clip went around TikTok. The Marmite press office got a small flurry of calls.
Marmite board games: every official board game licensed with the yeast extract jar
Marmite, over the years, has produced or licensed three actual board and card games for the home market. None of them is going to make it onto the BoardGameGeek top hundred, but all three exist, and all three are genuinely on-brand in a way most licensed games are not.
Someone made Rodin's The Kiss out of 420 jars of Marmite
This is one of my favourite genuine Marmite stories.
