Morning Funnies was a fruit-flavored breakfast cereal

Breakfast cereal

A breakfast cereal is a food made from processed grains that is often, but not always, eaten with the first meal of the day. It is often eaten cold, usually mixed with milk , water, or yogurt, and sometimes fruit but sometimes eaten dry. Some cereals, such as oatmeal, may be served hot as porridge...

 produced by Ralston Cereals

Ralcorp

Ralcorp Holdings is a manufacturer of various food products, including breakfast cereal, cookies, crackers, chocolate, snack foods, mayonnaise, pasta and peanut butter. The company is based in St. Louis, Missouri. The majority of the items Ralcorp makes are private label, store brand products. It...

 in 1988 and 1989. The name of the cereal was based on the assortment of newspaper comic strip

Comic strip

A comic strip is a sequence of drawings arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions....

s featured on the box. Innovative packaging allowed the back flap of the box to be opened revealing additional comic strips, different on each edition of the cereal box. Poor sales and negative consumer reaction led to the cereal being discontinued in 1989.

Morning Funnies was just one of several Ralston cereals based on licensed characters introduced in 1988 and 1989. Others included Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Cereal

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles food tie-ins

During the height of their popularity the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles had a vast number of food tie-ins ranging from inevitable to obscure, many of which have become very rare, with some fans looking for the food packages to many of these items.*Ninja Turtles Cereal: Easily described as lightly...

, Breakfast With Barbie

Barbie

Barbie is a fashion doll manufactured by the American toy-company Mattel, Inc. and launched in March 1959. American businesswoman Ruth Handler is credited with the creation of the doll using a German doll called Bild Lilli as her inspiration....

, the video-game themed Nintendo Cereal System

Nintendo Cereal System

Nintendo Cereal System was a breakfast cereal produced by Ralston Cereals in 1988. The name of the cereal was based on the Nintendo Entertainment System, and promoted two of the most popular games for the NES: Super Mario Bros. and The Legend of Zelda...

, and a Batman

Batman

Batman is a fictional character created by the artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger. A comic book superhero, Batman first appeared in Detective Comics #27 , and since then has appeared primarily in publications by DC Comics...

 cereal based on the 1989 film

Batman (1989 film)

Batman is a 1989 superhero film based on the DC Comics character of the same name, directed by Tim Burton. The film stars Michael Keaton in the title role, as well as Jack Nicholson, Kim Basinger, Robert Wuhl and Jack Palance...

.

Appearance

The cereal, made with four grains and heavily sweetened, was brightly colored and shaped like smiling faces but not any specific comic strip character.

The front cover of each 14-ounce box featured an assortment of popular newspaper comic strip characters in colorful squares arranged to resemble panels in "the funnies" (a shortening of "the funny papers", a colloquial term for the comics pages in newspapers). Each front cover also prominently displayed which of nine numbered "collector's edition" cereal boxes it was. The comic strips displayed were unique to each edition of the box.

The back of the box featured a pair of large Sunday comics

Sunday comics

Sunday comics is the commonly accepted term for the full-color comic strip section carried in most American newspapers. Many newspaper readers called this section the Sunday funnies, the funny papers or simply the funnies....

-style comic strips and instructions on how to open the back flap to reveal more comics. The entire back of the box opened to reveal a "fifth panel" with six more color comics inside for a total of eight strips per box. This flap structure was described as "an original packaging concept" for breakfast cereal. In 1988, Ralston won an award for "innovative packaging" for the Morning Funnies fifth panel design.

Most of the comics characters and strips on Morning Funnies were reproduced under license from the King Features Syndicate

King Features Syndicate

King Features Syndicate, a print syndication company owned by The Hearst Corporation, distributes about 150 comic strips, newspaper columns, editorial cartoons, puzzles and games to nearly 5000 newspapers worldwide...

. The comic strips in the rotation included Dennis the Menace

Dennis the Menace (U.S.)

Dennis the Menace is a daily syndicated newspaper comic strip originally created, written and illustrated by Hank Ketcham. It debuted on March 12, 1951 in 16 newspapers and was originally distributed by Post-Hall Syndicate...

by Hank Ketcham

Hank Ketcham

Henry King "Hank" Ketcham was an American cartoonist who created the Dennis the Menace comic strip, writing and drawing it from 1951 to 1994, when he retired from drawing the daily page and took up painting full time in his studio at his home. He received the Reuben Award for the strip in 1953...

, Beetle Bailey

Beetle Bailey

Beetle Bailey is an American comic strip set in a fictional United States Army military post, created by cartoonist Mort Walker. It is among the oldest comic strips still being produced by the original creator...

by Mort Walker

Mort Walker

Addison Morton Walker , popularly known as Mort Walker, is an American comic artist best known for creating the newspaper comic strips Beetle Bailey in 1950 and Hi and Lois in 1954. He has signed Addison to some of his strips.Born in El Dorado, Kansas, he grew up in Kansas City, Missouri...

, Hägar the Horrible

Hägar the Horrible

Hägar the Horrible is the title and main character of an American comic strip created by cartoonist Dik Browne , and syndicated by King Features Syndicate. It first appeared in February 1973, and was an immediate success. Since Browne's retirement in 1988 , his son Chris Browne has continued the...

by Dik Browne, Hi and Lois

Hi and Lois

Hi and Lois is a comic strip about a suburban family. Created by Mort Walker and illustrated by Dik Browne, it debuted on October 18, 1954, distributed by King Features Syndicate.-Characters:...

by Walker and Browne, The Family Circus

The Family Circus

The Family Circus is a syndicated comic strip created by cartoonist Bil Keane and currently written, inked, and colored by his son, Jeff Keane. The strip generally uses a single captioned panel with a round border, hence the original name of the series, which was changed following objections from...

by Bil Keane

Bil Keane

William Aloysius Keane , better known as Bil Keane, was an American cartoonist. He is most notable for his work on the long-running newspaper comic The Family Circus, which began its run in 1960 and continues in syndication, drawn by his son Jeff Keane.-Biography:Born in Philadelphia,...

, Tiger

Tiger (comic strip)

Tiger is an American comic strip created by cartoonist Bud Blake. Launched May 3, 1965, the popular, long running strip about a group of suburban boyhood pals was distributed by King Features Syndicate to 400 newspapers worldwide at its peak....

by Bud Blake

Bud Blake

Julian Blake , better known as Bud Blake, was an American cartoonist who created the popular, long running comic strip Tiger, about a group of suburban boyhood pals. Distributed by King Features Syndicate, Tiger began May 3, 1965...

, Luann

Luann (comic strip)

Luann is a syndicated newspaper comic strip distributed by United Features Syndicate since 17 March 1985. Luann is written and drawn by Greg Evans, who won the 2003 Reuben Award as Cartoonist of the Year....

by Greg Evans, Marvin by Tom Armstrong, Funky Winkerbean

Funky Winkerbean

Funky Winkerbean is a comic strip created by high school teacher Tom Batiuk , which debuted on March 27, 1972.The strip is centered on Westview High School and initially focused on several of its students: the title character, Funky Winkerbean, Crazy Harry Klinghorn, Barry Balderman, Bull Bushka,...

by Tom Batiuk

Tom Batiuk

Tom Batiuk is an American comic strip creator. His best-known comic strip is Funky Winkerbean.Batiuk attended Kent State University, from which he graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts, majoring in painting. He went on to teach art in junior high school...

, and What a Guy!

What a Guy!

What a Guy! is an American comic strip created by Bill Hoest and Bunny Hoest, the team responsible for The Lockhorns and Agatha Crumm. It began in March 1987, just over a year before Hoest's death in 1988....

by Bill Hoest

Bill Hoest

Bill Hoest was an American cartoonist best known as the creator of the gag panel series, The Lockhorns, distributed by King Features Syndicate to 500 newspapers in 23 countries, and Laugh Parade for Parade...

 and John Reiner

John Reiner

John Reiner is a cartoonist who collaborates with writer Bunny Hoest on three cartoon series: The Lockhorns, syndicated by King Features, and Laugh Parade and Howard Huge ....

.

Some editions of the box also included a subscription offer for Young American, described as "America's newspaper for kids".

Reception

A consumer panel for the Wilmington Morning Star found Morning Funnies to be "overly sweet" with a "strong sweet smell" but noted the cereal's large size made it "a great snack eaten dry". The panel moderator opined, "if you prefer good taste to gimmicks, you might want to stay away from this technicolor treat."

A survey of children's breakfast cereals published in May 1991 by Vegetarian Times found Morning Funnies to be one of the "10 worst kids' cereals, based on sugar content" with its 14 grams per serving ranking only behind Kellogg

Kellogg Company

Kellogg Company , is a producer of cereal and convenience foods, including cookies, crackers, toaster pastries, cereal bars, fruit-flavored snacks, frozen waffles, and vegetarian foods...

's Honey Smacks

Honey Smacks

Honey Smacks is a sweetened puffed wheat breakfast cereal made by Kellogg's.-Naming:Introduced in 1953, the cereal has undergone several name changes. It started out as Sugar Smacks. In the 1980s, it was renamed Honey Smacks...

on the list.

While the packaging for the cereal was innovative, the comics themselves did not all appeal to the very young children to whom the cereal was marketed. Also, with only nine box variations in the year or so the cereal was produced, frequent buyers of Morning Funnies would see the same comic strips over and over.