The possessed and the damned gather over cheese dip

A 1969 Velveeta ad:

Ingrid Superstar is obviously possessed, perhaps as a consequence of the entire company of the damned dipping into her chafing dish.

With a little lesson in pronouncing Spanish, and of course a celebration of the processed cheese product Velveeta, which has been beguiling the unwary with its silky smoothness since 1918.

Plus the inventively crude sexual slang dip into s.o.’s chafing dish.

(Hat tip to Betsy Herrington.)

Earlier on this blog, a 10/13/13 posting “More dipspreads”, with “classic Texas style queso” (meaning chile con queso) made with a block of Velveeta.

On Velveeta from Wikipedia:

Velveeta is a brand name for a processed cheese product that tastes like an American cheese, with a softer and smoother texture than cheese. As a result, when melted, it keeps a fully integrated and evenly clump-free liquid texture. It was invented in 1918 by Emil Frey of the Monroe Cheese Company in Monroe, New York. In 1923, The Velveeta Cheese Company was incorporated as a separate company, and sold to Kraft Foods in 1927.

The product was advertised as a nutritious health food. In the 1930s, Velveeta became the first cheese product to gain the American Medical Association’s seal of approval. It was reformulated in 1953 as a “cheese spread”, but as of 2002 Velveeta must be labeled in the United States as a “Pasteurized Prepared Cheese Product” because it doesn’t contain any cheese [instead, it contains “milk protein concentrate”].

… Velveeta is one possible base for queso dip or chile con queso, which can also contain tomatoes and green chilies.

Other uses for Velveeta include grilled cheese sandwiches and macaroni and cheese sauce

Then the colorful sexual slang dip into s.o.’s chafing dish, with metaphorical dip into ‘insert a penis (or penis substitute) in’ and metaphorical chafing dish ‘sexcavity’. Not well attested, possibly even a creative invention by the ad agency.

Tales of folks driven mad or zombified by chile con queso appear to be mostly folklore, though possibly originating in scurrilous anti-Zapatista propaganda; it might not be accidental that Emiliano Zapata was assassinated in 1919, not long after Velveeta appeared.

Of the acting career of Ingrid Superstar, little remains beyond a few ad spots from the 1950s and 60s, in all of which she plays a deranged housewife unable to resist the seductions of ordinary household products. “Ingrid Superstar” is an obvious stage name; she might have been an illegitimate daughter of Ingmar Bergman. She died young, under mysterious circumstances; some maintain that (Pancho) Villa killed the Superstar (using radio waves, according to one source).  In any case, the Mexican Revolution is elaborately entwined with the Velveeta story.

Velveeta Mexico!

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