Tonight is my birthday, and I thought I’d use the thread for one of my favorite bits of pop culture ephemera. As you all remember, the Animaniacs live in the water tower on the Warner Brothers studio lot. When the show premiered in 1993, someone had a brilliant idea: get a custom balloon made of Yakko, and have him perch on the real water tower! And so…
Alas, Yakko’s reign atop the water tower was short-lived. Bob Daly, head of Warner Brothers at the time, was not informed of the promotion beforehand and ordered Yakko removed, because he thought the balloon looked too much like a certain rival mouse. The balloon sat atop the water tower for less than a day, and while it was believed that Yakko was to be used at other promotional events that never happened.
But, that’s not the end of the story. Surprisingly (these balloons are not known for their longevity), Yakko resurfaced along with previously unused matching Wakko and Dot baloons…at Burning Man in 2008.
