Bazooka is a brand of bubble gum.

It was first marketed shortly after World War II in the U.S. by the Topps

Topps

The Topps Company, Inc., manufactures chewing gum, candy and collectibles. Based in New York, New York, Topps is best known as a leading producer of baseball cards, football cards, basketball cards, hockey cards and other sports and non-sports themed trading cards.-Company history:Topps itself was...

 Company of Brooklyn, New York. The gum was packaged in a patriotic

Patriotism

Patriotism is a devotion to one's country, excluding differences caused by the dependencies of the term's meaning upon context, geography and philosophy...

 red, white, and blue color scheme. Beginning in 1953, Topps changed the packaging to include small comic strip

Comic strip

A comic strip is a sequence of drawings arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions....

s with the gum, featuring the character "Bazooka Joe

Bazooka Joe

Bazooka Joe is a comic strip character, featured on small comics included inside individually-wrapped pieces of Bazooka bubblegum. He wears a black eyepatch, lending him a distinctive appearance...

". There are 50 different "Bazooka Joe" comic-strip wrappers to collect. Also on the comic strip is an offer for a premium

Premium (marketing)

Premiums are promotional items—toys, collectables, souvenirs and household products—that are linked to a product, and often require box tops, tokens or proofs of purchase to acquire. The consumer generally has to pay at least the shipping and handling costs to receive the premium...

 and a fortune

Prophecy

Prophecy is a process in which one or more messages that have been communicated to a prophet are then communicated to others. Such messages typically involve divine inspiration, interpretation, or revelation of conditioned events to come as well as testimonies or repeated revelations that the...

. Older Bazooka comic strips were larger in size, and older strips are no longer available. The product has been virtually unchanged in over 50 years.

The Topps company expanded the flavors, making them Original, Strawberry Shake, Cherry Berry, Watermelon Whirl, and Grape Rage. The Strawberry flavor is packaged in a pink and white wrapper and the Grape in a purple and white wrapper. Bazooka gum can also be found in a sugar free variety with the standard bubble gum flavor and a "Flavor Blasts" variety, claimed to have longer lasting, more intense taste. Bazooka gum comes in 2 different sizes.

Bazooka bubblegum is sold in many countries, often with Bazooka Joe comic strips translated into the local language. Bazooka gum is sold in Canada with cartoons in both English and French, depending upon the city. In Israel, manufactured under license to Elite

Strauss-Elite

Strauss Group Ltd. formerly known as Strauss-Elite , is a food products manufacturer in Israel. It is the shared trademark of two companies - Strauss and Elite, that merged in 2004...

, the cartoons are written in Hebrew. The gum was also sold in Yugoslavia

Yugoslavia

Yugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....

 and later in Slovenia

Slovenia

Slovenia , officially the Republic of Slovenia , is a country in Central and Southeastern Europe touching the Alps and bordering the Mediterranean. Slovenia borders Italy to the west, Croatia to the south and east, Hungary to the northeast, and Austria to the north, and also has a small portion of...

until the local licensee allowed their license to expire in 2006.

In May 2009 it was announced that the Bazooka Joe comic was to be adapted into a Hollywood movie.