Gummy Candy is Weird

I'm just chewing on some amazingly good Haribo gummy bears, and I got to ruminating on who came up with this weird ass food. I mean, candy? Makes sense. Gummies? Sure, why not. But who made the leap from chewing gum and such, to bears and worms made of dextrose (and other, harder to spell, things)?

When are bears and worms ever grouped together? What do they have in common that other animals are missing? And how were they chosen? I'm picturing a bunch of Willy Wonkas sitting around an edible conference table, gnawing on their seats, thinking aloud. "I like bears," says the challenged boy in the corner. "Well I like worms," a staffer plays along. Then, smushing a gummy gavel on the table, the CEO says, "bears and worms, then. Dogs or cats? Let's not get outlandish. And we'll make rats, but they have to be jumbo and only sold around halloween."

And that was that. Gummy goodness was poured into molds in the shape of bears and worms only, for the rest of eternity. Which is, coincidentally, exactly as long as I'll have them resting inside my digestive tract. That's how I see it, at least. It feels like the bears disagree, or maybe they're just having some kind of clear and yellow vs. red and green civil war in my belly. oh sweet, sweet pain.