June 7  is National Donut Day. Gee, it sure doesn’t seem like it’s been a whole year since the last one. That’s because it hasn’t been. Donuts are so delicious, there are two National Donut Days. (The other is November 5.)

One of the very few ways in which California is inferior to the East Coast, in my opinion, is that there are no Dunkin’ Donuts. (The other is the lack of good bagels). Dunkin’ Donuts announced it will open stores in Southern California in 2015, but that doesn’t help us folks in the San Francisco Bay Area.

In the 1980s and 1990s, a popular series of Dunkin’ Donuts commercials featured Fred the Baker, who rose early in the morning, bleary-eyed, muttering “Time to make the donuts…” Fred, played by Michael Vale, has his own Wikipedia page.

Below, Fred the Baker goes undercover in drag to check out the competition at the local supermarket bakery. The bakery workers seem stunned as he approaches them in his wig and large flowered dress and tries clumsily to mask his mustache with his finger. One of them even drops something, she is so shocked. Let me just say that in San Francisco, no one would bat an eye at this.

Dunkin’ Donuts commercial (1980s)

Related articles

• Friday Is National Donut Day – Here’s Where To Get One For Free (businessinsider.com)
• Don’t be jelly: Finding the ideal donut ratio (eatocracy.cnn.com)