Cocoa Puffs is a brand of chocolate-flavored puffed grain breakfast cereal manufactured by General Mills. They are small "puff" spheres that have been flavored with chocolate. Essentially, General Mills took their popular Kix cereal and added chocolate flavoring to it. Kix cereal is produced at the same factories as Cocoa Puffs, but differs in both density and circumference. Its mascot is Sonny the Cuckoo Bird, whose catchphrase is "cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs". Sonny was originally dark brown but has since become orange. He wore a striped pink and white shirt, but this has been removed since 1994. On several occasions, Cocoa Puffs boxes have stated that they are made with real Hershey's chocolate. Cocoa Puffs are sold in Latin America and Canada under the Nesquik brand thanks to a partnership between Nestlé and General Mills; Nestlé and Hershey are major competitors in the chocolate business. A cereal bar of Cocoa Puffs has also been made. A layer of dried, sweetened condensed milk is added to the bottom of it, so that the purchaser is given the impression that it may be substituted for a bowl of milk and cereal.
"Cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs" is sometimes used as slang for "insane", as in the trial of Susan Polk, who was convicted in 2006 for murdering her husband. During the trial, her youngest son Adam, under cross-examination by the defense, called Polk "bonkers" and "cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs." Furthermore, Richard Nixon was known to enjoy a heaping bowl of Cocoa Puffs every morning. In Hawaii, some bakeries make "coco puffs", which are mini or small cream puffs filled with chocolate cream and topped with German chocolate frosting w/o the nuts & coconut. These are often known as "nixon" puffs, due to the former president's daily bowl of cereal. It is also referred to locally as chantilly topping. One bakery that is famous for their coco puffs is Liliha Bakery on Oahu.
Cultural references
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- Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs: A Low Culture Manifesto is a book by Chuck Klosterman.
- In music, becoming mainstream with rapper Nelly's song "Country Grammar", the term "Cocoa Puffs" refers to lightly sprinkling Cocaine over Marijuana, which is typically smoked through a pipe. "Cocoa" refers to Cocaine; "Puffs" refers to the act of smoking the mix.
- In the television show Family Guy, the titular character, Peter Griffin, tries out for a Cocoa Puffs commercial for the part of Sonny the Cuckoo Bird. When he is trying to read his lines, he says, in full costume, "I'm ca-ca for Cuckoo Puffs!" The director of the commercial says, "No, dammit! Take 26!" in an extremely frustrated fashion.
- Throughout the course of three episodes, Stephen Colbert of The Colbert Report unsuccessfully invited Senator Joe Lieberman onto his show by offering him, among other things, a bowl of Cocoa Puffs.
- In the Black Eyed Peas song "My Humps" they say "Mix milk with my cocoa puff".
- In the Drawn Together episode "Foxxy vs. the Board of Education", Sonny the Cuckoo Bird appears in the hospital with a variety of other cartoon character. He is insane and in a straitjacket, saying, "Someone give me some f****ing puffs!" in the manner of a drug addict.
- In the song "Carpal Tunnel Tomb Torker" By Buckethead on the album "Bucketheadland 2", somebody yells "I'm Cocoa For Cuckoo Puffs!" at the beginning of the song.
- In the Game Final Fantasy IX(9) a Moogle says "I'm Kupo for Kupo Nuts" which seems to be a reference to the saying "I'm Cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs".
