Couch potato

Clay said in a comment on yesterday’s post that he wants to work telebobo into a conversation one day, and I started wondering how to say couch potato in Spanish. Apparently, telebobo means couch potato somewhere– in your country, perhaps? It makes me think of the expression the boob tube, a phrase I’ve always wanted to say but that sounds so dated. Who says boob anymore for dummy? I’ve never called a TV an idiot box either. How do Spanish speakers insult their televisions? Caja tonta and caja boba are two options I’m seeing.

Couch potato is such a great phrase when you think about it. Why potato? What did he ever do? Fortunately, this manna-like food doesn’t seem to have suffered too badly for the unfortunate association with television junkies. I just learned the phrase mouse potato–one who regularly wastes an inordinate amount of time on the computer–and I’m equally smitten. I’ve never met a potato I didn’t like, after all. Too much couch or mouse potatoing, though, and you’ll be a buñuelo con patas.

How do you say couch potato in Spanish? It looks like they don’t have anything anywhere near as fun as couch potato, at least not universally. Teleadicto seemed to be the only thing close. Anyone know anything better? Of course, the couch potato par excellence is Homer Simpson. If you’re in a pinch, I’m sure you could always convey the idea of a couch potato by mimicking Homer, leaning back, and pretending to flip through channels with an air remote. I happened to learn the Colombian verb canalear for this very action just the other day; other ways to say to flip through TV channels include hacer zapping, zapear, and simply cambiar de canal.