I saw a video on Instagram earlier of US television’s Dan Levy appearing on Claudia Winkleperson’s eponymous chat show, where her and her celebrity guests tried to explain the 1990s phenomenon that was Mr Blobby – a truly harrowing cultural blip, this pink foam character with a bulbous round head and yellow spots was a fixture on Saturday night telly juggernaut Noel’s House Party and wrought carnage with every appearance.

It’s hard to explain the Blobby saturation – there was a number one Christmas single, beaucoup de mercy and at one point a dreadful money grabbing theme park that mercifully tanked almost immediately. Mr Blobby had a life and career of his own – the original plan had been to pop a different celebrity guest in the suit every week, but Blobby quickly gained sentience and ruined that idea.

Of course he appeared on Claudia’s show and scared the crap out of Levy, who hid behind the guest sofa chanting under his breath whatever motto his therapist has given him for moments that surface his deepest traumas.

It reminded me of my own Blobby experience – I did GCSE art at school, and there was a double lesson on a Wednesday afternoon. Mr Clarke would let us have control of the CD player in turn, which in the late 1990s meant all Greenday all the time, until it was my go and I played Mr Blobby’s single on loop for the entire hour and twenty minute lesson.

It was something unpredictable, and in the end was right – I really did have the time of my life. I never did get to use the CD player again, but it was worth it.