Jacket potatoes are flourishing right now

Why am I only just discovering this online movement?

Despite being an elder millennial, I am a chronically online one and therefore, usually, have my finger on the pulse, so to speak.

However, one corner of the Internet completely passed me by and it’s only now, thanks to the added publicity of Grammy-nominated artist, Teddy Swims, that I’m realising just how big jacket potatoes have become.

As someone who gets 85% of their daily information from TikTok, I was, of course, aware of the guy with the pink mohawk who serves jacket potatoes out his van.

However, I was never tempted to venture any further into his world of hot fillings… until last week.

Maybe it was the one before, but either way, I was served a video from Spudman aka Ben Newman and I actually watched the whole thing.

This time he wasn’t serving jacket potatoes, but explaining that despite his popularity, Tamworth council were moving his pitch without his consent.

Any whiff of a drama, albeit local council level and I’m like Eamonn Holmes when someone mentions Philip Schofield.

I started scrolling through Spudman’s videos. If you haven’t seen, he essentially films POV style serving customers.

This is the part that always lost me. What’s interesting about watching someone order a jacket potato?

Well…

First of all, it’s not just jacket potatoes. His customers bring bags of crisps, usually Chilli Heatwave Doritos, but I have also seen Walker’s Sensations pop up on quite a few occasions.

Side note, I wonder if someone has tallied up the brands and flavours, because that is some data I would be interested in crunching.

In Spudman world, this is called a “Bring Your Own Bag” and I swear a little bit of dribble came out, watching this foil bag being filled with various hot fillings and topped with cheese.

@spudarmy2 Byobs 2 Freebies! #spudman #spudarmy #byob #freebie

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If the BYOB wasn’t enough, Spudman also has a UNO card policy.

Now, I’ve only seen this once, but from what I witnessed, if the customer presents an UNO reverse card upon receiving their amply filled jacket potato/Frankenstein Doritos, it means they get their meal for free.

Not only that, but Spudman regularly gives customers their orders for free anyway.

What I still didn’t realise at this point, was that I had barely scratched the surface of the online world of Jackie Ps.

My FYP quickly caught on and I was being served nothing but potatoes wrapped in foil. However, It took me a while to realise that not all the JP content I was getting, was coming from Spudman.

Turns out there are multiple jacket potato vans going viral on TikTok (it’s all very confusing, I won’t lie) and to make it even harder, they all go by some form of ‘spud’.

So far, I think I’ve identified SpudBros and SpudLad, but do let me know if there’s any I’ve missed off and dare I say, I have no idea who came first.

Subconsciously, my brain must have known I needed to school myself on this content, because post Brit Awards, US singer Teddy Swims, took his publicity tour straight to the Spudman (the one with the pink mohawk) and his #SpudArmy.

Just imagine, that American guy with the crazy nail art, who sings about losing control over you, serves you your lunchtime JP from a van in Staffordshire.

I remember the days where magazine covers where used as promotion…

@bbqboy29@Teddy Swims serving up some spuds 🥔 #celebrity #spudman #teddyswims #teddyspud #fyp #viral_video

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Not to mention, because I’ve been so lax on this hype, I didn’t realise that Teddy Swims isn’t even the first celebrity to want in on the Jacket Potato clout. The bloody Jonas Brothers teamed up with the SpudBros.

I can’t emphasise this enough, people, not just celebrities, are travelling from around the country, even outside the UK, to buy a Jacket Potato from a van in Tamworth.

I don’t know whether to be incredibly proud of our culture and it being so wholeheartedly embraced or to worry that people making this pilgrimage, especially outsiders, will inevitably be disappointed in discovering a Jackie P is the culinary equivalent of beans on toast.

Given the right context and scenario, it can be the best thing you’ve eaten, but I worry about the Spudman aftermath.

Where are they going to eat it? It’s a van, it doesn’t have seating. It’s cold outside. Can it still be a home comfort if the latter part is missing?

I need to add these to my list of unanswered questions about jacket potatoes new virality. Has it dethroned pickles? Quite possibly, I think.

One thing I will say for sure is, I wouldn’t be mad if someone in the South Croydon area wanted to get in on the spud action…