The Backstory Behind Bubbles' Glasses
Christopher Ramos Bubbles is known for his thick-lensed glasses, but what’s the story behind them? Here’s how his signature Trailer Park Boys look came to be.
What is the backstory behind the iconic glasses worn by Bubbles in Trailer Park Boys? Mike Clattenburg’s cult comedy Trailer Park Boys is one of the funniest shows to come out of Canada in recent memory, and its longevity is a testament to that. After enjoying an initial seven-season run on Showcase during the early to mid-2000s, the series was revived by Netflix in 2014 for a further five seasons and has also spawned three feature-length movies and an animated spin-off.
Trailer Park Boys - which is based on Cluttenburg’s 1999 film of the same name - is a mockumentary-style series that documents the misadventures of the eccentric residents who live at the fictional Sunnyvale Trailer Park in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. It follows a trio of friends who try to make a living through various petty criminal schemes: rum-and-coke guzzling ringleader Julian (John Paul Tremblay), fast-talking stoner Ricky (Robb Wells) and lovable oddball Bubbles (Mike Smith).
Bubbles soon became Trailer Park Boys’ breakout character and has a fanbase – including Guns N’ Roses frontman Axl Rose, who is such a big Bubbles fan he took Mike Smith on tour with him. The character is known for his broad Maritime accent and being the voice of reason among his friends, alongside his love of cats and pearl snap shirts. However, it’s the thick-lensed glasses Bubbles always wears in Trailer Park Boys that are his most defining feature – but how did the fan-favorite character’s signature eyewear come to be? Interestingly, the story behind Bubbles’ coke-bottle glasses is tied to the very creation of the character himself.
According to Sharp Magazine’s oral history of the show, Clattenburg and Smith are long-time friends and first worked together when the former hired the latter to do sound for the 1999 Trailer Park Boys movie which the character of Bubbles wasn’t a part of. As Clattenburg was in the process of shopping a Trailer Park Boys show to networks, he stopped by Smith’s house who donned a pair of thick-lensed glasses (bought by his then-girlfriend at a Texas estate sale for 50 cents) and began impersonating the character that would eventually become Bubbles.
Clattenburg was so impressed he incorporated the character of Bubbles into his Trailer Park Boys show pitch – and so the fan-favorite was born. It’s fair to say that without those glasses, Bubbles might not even exist but wearing them hasn’t necessarily been easy for Mike Smith who reported suffering from pounding headaches when he first started filming the show. Thankfully, Smith told The Big Issue that he’s used to Bubbles’ Trailer Park Boys glasses these days and stated that “my brain turns off my eye pain somehow.” Followers of the show can catch Smith playing Bubbles in the prison-set spin-off Trailer Park Boys: Jail which premiered on SwearNet (a streaming network created by Smith, Tremblay and Wells) in early 2021.
