Big Mouth Billy Bass with Alexa: the best smart home gadget of 2018?

Big Mouth Billy Bass with Alexa

The bass is back. That’s right, the most popular gift of 1999, Big Mouth Billy Bass, has returned; and this time it’s smarter with help from Amazon’s Alexa digital assistant.

Gemmy Industries – the company you had no idea was behind the first Big Mouth Billy Bass, and which also makes those hideous blow-up Christmas lawn ornaments – has made Bluetooth connectivity the hallmark feature of Billy’s triumphant return. With this, the talking bass placard can pair with an Amazon Echo speaker for enhanced features.

How could you possibly improve the technological marvel that is Billy Bass, you ask? Well, now the thing can dance to the beat of Amazon Music played through an Echo speaker, for one.

Alexa pairing also allows the doodad to respond to Alexa voice commands, lip syncing the speaker’s responses and reacting to timers, notifications and alarms you've set through Alexa. Oh, and Billy sings his very own song titled Fishin’ Time – whoever owns Don’t Worry, Be Happy must have lawyered up.

Anyway, the new-and-improved Billy Bass was made possible using Amazon’s Alexa Gadgets Toolkit development suite for device makers, and costs $39.99 (about £31, AU$55) on Amazon for pre-order. An expensive gag gift, but a limitless one.

Joe Osborne

Joe Osborne is the Senior Technology Editor at Insider Inc. His role is to leads the technology coverage team for the Business Insider Shopping team, facilitating expert reviews, comprehensive buying guides, snap deals news and more. Previously, Joe was TechRadar's US computing editor, leading reviews of everything from gaming PCs to internal components and accessories. In his spare time, Joe is a renowned Dungeons and Dragons dungeon master – and arguably the nicest man in tech.