Do you know your Bazooka Joe trivia? Try this quiz

It was 1953 when the first kid plunked down a penny, unwrapped a square piece of sweet, pink Bazooka bubble gum, and met Bazooka Joe and his comic friends. That's five decades of bubble blowers mailing in for premiums, groaning at corny puns and wondering how Mort breathes with that turtleneck over his mouth. Over the years their gang has changed a little. It received some post-1950s updates with characters like Metaldude, Zena and A.J. Joe rolled down the cuffs of his jeans and hopped a skateboard. Mort kept the sweater but grew a crop of new orange hair.

The Topps company has reworked Bazooka's packaging to celebrate Joe's anniversary, updating the lettering replacing the traditional words of wisdom with "Sorry not a winner." Don't worry, this isn't your fortune, it's part of a $50,000 instant-win game running until July 15, 2004. To learn more, see www.bazookajoe.com.

To see if you know your Bazooka Joe trivia, try this simple quiz.

1. Joe lost his eye
a. When Mort hit him with marble from a slingshot
b. In a skateboard accident
c. He didn't

2. Bazooka gum was named after
a. An armor-piercing weapon from WWII
b. A musical instrument
c. The company chairman's wife.

3. Which is not a Bazooka flavor?
a. Root beer
b. Coffee
c. Lemon

4. The cartoonists who created Bazooka Joe and his friends also worked on
a. Donald Duck
b. Underdog
c. Superman

5. All the pieces of Bazooka gum ever sold would line up to reach
a. To the moon and back
b. Twice around the Earth
c. To the dentist's office.

Answers:

1. c. According to the company, Bazooka Joe's eye patch is nothing more than a fashion statement. He just wanted to look interesting.

2. b. Both the gum and the weapon were named after the instrument Bob Burns created in the 1930s from two gas pipes and a funnel.

3. None are. Currently, Bazooka comes in original, strawberry and grape.

4. c. Cartoonists Woody Gelman and Ben Soloman also worked on early versions of Superman and Popeye.

5. a. Lined end to end, the pieces would reach to the moon and back.