Nickelodeon’s slime started with Canada’s You Can’t Do That On Television

Alanis Morissette as a cast member of the local Ottawa show "You Can't Do That On Television." SunMediaArchive

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If thoughts of slime and the United States have risen together in your mind recently, know they learned it from the best.

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The pop-culture-permeating green slime of Nickelodeon, which blasts out of NFL games animated for kids, drops on the host of each year’s Kids Choice Awards and was sold as Gak in the ’90s, was an invention of You Can’t Do That On Television.

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That children’s show, the first to be created without any intent of serving as educational programming, in turn is an invention of Canada.

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Does that mean the repulsive product is now subject to dollar-for-dollar tariffs?

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Whatever the last sentence made you feel, say anything but “I don’t know!” — that’s the phrase that triggered a disgusting drenching on the show, which debuted Feb. 3, 1979.

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The very first sliming took place on that episode, as part of a skit, according to Nickelodeon lore. The first instance of a character getting slimed for expressing ignorance was aired March 17 of the same year (St. Patrick’s Day, to be specific).

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The so-called closely guarded recipe for slime was a tool Nickelodeon leaned on as a plot or subplot in some episodes, with kids trying to figure out what it was, but the actual mixture went through a few iterations, using green gelatin powder and flour (presumably with a liquid with a name we’ll get to), then oatmeal, and shampoo to help it wash out, and finally just cottage cheese and food colouring.

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Slime was introduced to several other shows, in a range of colours including red, yellow and orange, and even black and white.

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It was thrown around on game shows such as Double Dare and BrainSurge, exploded for a time from a geyser at Nickelodeon Studios in Orlando, and is still hurled at stars in promos for the network.

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The solution to slime, it would seem to a curious viewer, would be to trigger the show’s other aerial threat — a thorough soaking after saying “wet” or “water.” A bottle of the Green Slime Shampoo would have helped, too.

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Clever cast members tried to avoid their fates with French or Spanish versions of the word. They left the set as saturated as ever.

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The show that helped launch the career of the pre-Morissette Alanis didn’t need sticky substances to make its mark. References to YCDTOTV abound across pop culture. Stop-motion toy-based satirizer Robot Chicken feasts on the series repeatedly, making use of slime, the locker room gag skit and other gags.

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Saturday Night Live, Family Guy and NewsRadio (remember NewsRadio?!) have also got in on the joke at one point or another.

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