Code — Bazooka Joe

In 2020, Topps revived the brand with "Bazooka Nation." The gum is still pink, the jokes are still terrible... and the code is back .

So the next time you see a dusty box of Bazooka at a retro candy store, buy it. Don't chew the gum (seriously, it’s like chewing a candle). Just look at the comic. Find that little box. And remember a time when a secret code only required a piece of gum, a dream, and a complete disregard for dental hygiene. bazooka joe code

But for 60 years, it was .

Depending on the decade, the printing plant, or the alignment of the stars at Topps Company headquarters, the icons meant different things. In the 1950s, a "sailboat" might be the letter S. In the 1970s, it might be a period. In 2020, Topps revived the brand with "Bazooka Nation

You read the adventures of Bazooka Joe and his gang (Mort, Herman, and the perpetually eyepatched "Jersey" Joe). But you weren't just there for the jokes. You were there for the . Don't chew the gum (seriously, it’s like chewing a candle)

If you grew up anywhere between the 1950s and the early 2000s, the ritual was sacred. You peeled back the waxy paper of a piece of Bazooka bubble gum, popped the stale, pink brick into your mouth, and then—carefully—flattened the crinkled comic strip against your thigh.

Tucked inside every comic, between the bad puns and the offer for a "Secret Agent Decoder Ring," was a box. Inside that box was a . And next to that fortune was a squiggly line of gibberish.