Lime Jello
Lime Jello, a fannish catchphrase, recalls an incident at Discon II in 1974. Shortly before the Worldcon, Joe Haldeman confided (probably jokingly) that the sexiest thing in the world was a bathtub full of lime Jell-O. Hearing this, friends (?) scoured every supermarket in town for packets of lime gelatin. One day at the convention, Joe was kept away from his hotel room until his tub was filled with green goo and two unclad femmefen.
The con's daily newsletter, The Daily Discard, reported: "Joe Haldeman is working on a new fantasy involving a bathtub full of lime jello. I wouldn't call it exactly sword & sorcery. More like horn and lust. When last seen, he was doing research on the subject in a darkened room."
Since then, "Lime Jello" has been a fannish byword for everything sexy, erotic or kinky, and can often provoke a laugh for no reason at all. A few filksongs were written about the incident. Pat Cadigan worked a reference to it into a Hallmark greeting card when she worked for the company. Larry Tucker based a memorable scene in Faans on it.
In the first segment of the 3-part animated episode, "Brainwashed," of Pinky and the Brain, the title characters bathe in green gelatinous cylinders and Pinky says, "There's nothing like a relaxing lime gelatin bath to refresh the senses." This seems like an allusion to the topic.
See also: Chocolate Moose.
| Fanhistory | 1974 |
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