Euell "Ever eat a pine tree? Many parts are edible" Gibbons.
He died shortly after making the Grape Nuts commercial that made him famous. The joke was that he choked on a pine cone.
That was almost forty years ago. This makes me feel really, really old all of a sudden.
You’re not the only one. I remember Funny ‘n Glare (Sonny and Cher, for those of you who never read Mad Magazine) did a short spoof of his GrapeNuts commercial that had him repeating the “You ever et a pine cone?” line in it.
Euell Gibbons picnic = find a shady spot and eat it.