This Boot Was Made for Fonk-n Jam Fan, 1979

This promotional item was distributed at concerts and other appearances in support of the 1979 Bootsy’s Rubber Band album, This Boot Was Made for Fonk-n. A hand fan made from a plastic knife handle and a small card with album cover art by P-Funk illustrator Overton Loyd, the premise was inspired by the album’s lead single “Jam Fan (Hot),” which contained the lyrics: “Blow dry me, baby/You want me to be cool/But I'm not/You need a fan…” As Bootsy tells it, the idea to produce the Jam Fan came from a fan of the human kind, who tossed their own homemade version of the cooling device onstage at a show. “I was like ‘Man, check this out,” Bootsy recalls. “And it went right with the record. It was all about: Let’s mass produce this for the audience. And that’s what we did. We’d throw ‘em out [into the crowd.]”Bootsy places the Jam Fan firmly within the legacy of the outside-the-box promotional items which helped build the P-Funk mythology, from the cartoons which aired before concerts in the