A pot of stew, and some Ripple.
Only vaguely do I remember Fred Sanford invoking ‘Ripple’ – long before I understood the reference, much less the gags. He’d say things like…
…and it got a canned laugh every time.
Well, it turns out that Ripple was a real wine. Er – “wine”.
It came in several flavors, including ‘pear‘, and ‘red‘.
Ripple had truly memorable ad campaigns, such as:
So, credit to bumwine.com for clueing me in on the details about “the national wine of Watts“, and reminding me of the subtle genius of Redd Foxx.
In honor of both, I offer this quickie sound collage. It includes some dialog about Ripple (vs. “fancy wine”), and a slightly remixed version of the Sanford & Son Theme. Listen to it, and watch ^that eye. Enjoy!
(PS – In real life, Redd Foxx was significantly less ghetto.)
I swear to you, until this posting I thought Ripple was some kind of slang.
In a sense, he made it into slang. Or lore. Or even metaphor. Until Foxx, Ripple was just one of many “bum wines”. He plucked it from obscurity and made it into a classic in-joke. We, the uninitiated, are just now getting it/ruining it with cheap analysis 40 years later.