What is the origin of the phrase "Good shit, Maynard"?

jrae...

If I recall correctly, this was a phrase in a food commercial,
similar to "Mikey likes it!", which came earlier on, in the 70s,
The phrase, of course, was originally "Good stuff, Maynard!".

I vaguely remember this because, like many kids, I eagerly 
adopted such phrases for use in conversation with friends,
and remember being pleased when Mikey was overshadowed by
Maynard. I don't remember the product at all.


Aha! I was about to post this as a comment when it occurred
to me to do a search. Sure enough, it was in a commercial
for Malt-O-Meal, noted on the InThe80s website:

"Malt-O-Meal
 A little boy has an imaginary friend named 'Maynard.' The
 boy's father persuades the kid to try Malt-O-Meal by telling
 the imaginary friend' 'Good Stuff, Maynard.'"
http://www.inthe80s.com/tvcommercials/m.shtml

Everything2.com has an over-imaginative analysis of the same
commercial:
http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1516244

"Life Cereal
 'Hey, Mikey likes it!!' a 70s leftover for the 80s."
http://www.inthe80s.com/tvcommercials/l.shtml

sublime1-ga


Additional information may be found from an exploration of
the links resulting from the Google searches outlined below.

Searches done, via Google:

"good stuff, Maynard"
://www.google.com/search?q=%22good+stuff%2C+Maynard%22

"Mikey likes it" site:www.inthe80s.com
://www.google.com/search?q=%22Mikey+likes+it%22+site%3Awww.inthe80s.com

This answer is really good shit, Maynard! My husband and I spent a
combined hour looking for this and never thought to search on "good
stuff". Isn't it funny how  we use these phrases for so long we all
forget where they came from? Thanks for the gumball, Mickey!

Never heard of it.  Must be regional within U.S., not generally American.

Sublime probably has the very origin of the expression, but when did
the "stuff" become "roughage"?

I expect that it may relate to the songs of Maynard James Keenan of
"Tool", who adopted the name Maynard, (original James Herbert Keenan)
and the slang of his fans.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maynard_James_Keenan

http://finegamedesign.com/writing/burning_man_2001.html
Scroll down past the second photo.

IF you want to see the text of the song Aenima, scroll down to no. 13
on this site if you want to avoid the scatology in between:
http://toolshed.down.net/lyrics/aenimamaster.html

The actual phrase does not occur in the song.

jrae...

Thanks very much for the rating and the tip!

sublime1-ga

Weird.  My first thought was Dobey Gillis.  Wasn't Maynard G. Krebs
(sp?) the "hippie" or its predecessor on this show?  Seems natural,
then, for "Good Shit/Stuff, Maynard" to be referring to him.  I'm not
contesting the answer, though.  Just a thought.

J.

This is fascinating. Great work, Sublime 1! You are aptly named.