FYF Friend Paul Vitale posted an Underoos ad like the one screen captured above (non-embeddable video here) earlier today, invoking a wave of nostalgia in your author. Underoos were a coveted and, once obtained, treasured clothing situation for me when I was young. I had The Flash set as I recall and could NOT be separated from it for any lengthy period of time. I seriously lusted for the Aquaman set, but - for some reason - was never successful at finding or purchasing it.
The young gay perfectionist in me gave itself away in my distaste for specific Underoos character sets for not seeming "real enough". For example, The HULK set was an object of real scorn as, when worn, you looked nothing like The HULK. How much better would it have been if the shirt had been green and printed to depict The HULK's giant muscles?! Probably would have looked retarded and that's why they didn't do it, but the whole appeal of Underoos to this imaginary superhero was their similarity to their characters' actual superhero costumes. I rejected many a cheap, plastic Halloween costume at Kmart for the same reason ("But MOMMMM! That's not a Green Lantern costume! That's a flimsy suit with Green Lantern printed on the front!").
But I digress...
Today's Underoos have lost much in translation:
Inevitably, someone tried to capitalize on the nostalgic aspect of Underoos (and no, that isn't a link to Ginch Gonch or the myriad other age-inappropriate lines of "enhancers" for gays).
Aquaman Underoos image via
