ITASCA, IL—Bruce Palmer, a writer and editor for Nestle's "Laffy
Taffy" line of joke-bearing fruit-flavored chews, holds Topps
Bazooka gum and its line of complimentary comic art in sneering
contempt, he revealed Monday. "Don't get me wrong: In the Golden
Age of the 1970s and 1980s, Bazooka Joe was amazing—a big
influence on me," the 43-year-old Palmer said. "But when Topps
went all corporate, and the P.C. suits made them dump [sombrero-
clad mischief-maker] Pesty, it all went downhill." Palmer went
on to dismiss Bazooka as "a stain on the proud literary genre of
candy-wrapper humor."