Joe Isuzu was a fictional spokesman used in a series of television advertisements for Isuzu

Isuzu

, is a Japanese car, commercial vehicle and heavy truck manufacturing company, headquartered in Tokyo. In 2005, Isuzu became the world's largest manufacturer of medium to heavy duty trucks. It has assembly and manufacturing plants in the Japanese city of Fujisawa, as well as in the prefectures...

 cars and trucks. Created by the ad agency Della Femina, Travisano, and Partners

Jerry Della Femina

Jerry Della Femina is an American advertising executive and restaurateur. Starting from a poor Italian background in Brooklyn, he eventually became chairman of Della Femina Travisano & Partners, an agency which he founded with Ron Travisano in the 1960s...

, the segments aired on American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 television in 1986-90, reaching their zenith in 1987 after the character was featured during Super Bowl XXI

Super Bowl XXI

Super Bowl XXI was an American football game played on January 25, 1987 at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California to decide the National Football League champion following the 1986 regular season. The National Football Conference champion New York Giants won their first Super Bowl by defeating...

. Played by actor David Leisure

David Leisure

David Russell Leisure is an American actor best known for his role as Charley Dietz in the sitcom Empty Nest from 1988 to 1995 and fictional automotive "pitch man" Joe Isuzu in a series of North American television commercials for Isuzu from 1986 to 1990, and again from 1999 to 2001.Additional...

 (Empty Nest), Joe Isuzu was a pathological liar who made outrageous and overinflated claims about Isuzu’s cars. (One commercial even cast him as the Boy who Cried Wolf

The Boy Who Cried Wolf

The Boy Who Cried Wolf, is one of Aesop's Fables, numbered 210 in the Perry Index. From it is derived the English idiom 'to cry wolf', meaning to give a false alarm.-The fable and its history:...

.) The campaign was resurrected briefly in 1999 and continued until 2001 to promote several cars such as the Isuzu Axiom.
Famous quotes:

• “You have my word on it.”
• “If I’m lying, may lightning hit my mother.” (“Good luck, Mom!” appears on screen.)
• “It has more seats than the Astrodome!”
• “Hi, I’m Joe Isuzu and I used my new Isuzu pickup truck to carry a 2,000 pound cheeseburger.”
• “The Isuzu Impulse
  Isuzu Impulse
  The Isuzu Piazza is a small sporty 3-door liftback coupé that was manufactured by Isuzu from 1981 to 1992 in two generations...
  
  : faster than a speeding—[catches a bullet in his teeth]—well, you know.”

The character became a fixture in American popular culture. In 1988 Michael Dukakis

Michael Dukakis

Michael Stanley Dukakis served as the 65th and 67th Governor of Massachusetts from 1975–1979 and from 1983–1991, and was the Democratic presidential nominee in 1988. He was born to Greek immigrants in Brookline, Massachusetts, also the birthplace of John F. Kennedy, and was the longest serving...

, in a debate with George H. W. Bush

George H. W. Bush

George Herbert Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 41st President of the United States . He had previously served as the 43rd Vice President of the United States , a congressman, an ambassador, and Director of Central Intelligence.Bush was born in Milton, Massachusetts, to...

 during that year's United States presidential election

United States presidential election, 1988

The United States presidential election of 1988 featured no incumbent president, as President Ronald Reagan was unable to seek re-election after serving the maximum two terms allowed by the Twenty-second Amendment. Reagan's Vice President, George H. W. Bush, won the Republican nomination, while the...

, said, "If Bush keeps it up, he's going to be the Joe Isuzu of American politics."