A couch potato is a person who spends most of their free time sitting or lying on a couch. This stereotype often refers to a lazy and overweight person who watches a great deal of television. Generally speaking, the term refers to a lifestyle in which children or adults do not get enough physical activity.

The actual term "couch potato" was first coined in 1976 by Tom Iacino, a friend of American underground comics artist Robert Armstrong. In the early-1980s, he registered the term as a trademark with the United States government; he also co-authored a book with Jack Mingo, called The Official Couch Potato Handbook, which delves into the lives of couch potatoes.^[1][2]

The term eventually entered common American vocabulary, generally defining one who unceasingly watches television. The phrase was entered into the Oxford English Dictionary in 1993.^{[citation needed]}

Some studies have said that the "couch potato lifestyle" is a serious health hazard to its practitioners;^[3] in the United Kingdom, a plan of the Prime Minister's Strategy Unit tried attempts "to combat the couch potato culture" to "[improving the U.K.'s] international sporting performance."^[4]

Studies presented at the 2003 meeting of the American College of Sports Medicine suggested that there could be a genetic basis for the "couch potato lifestyle".^[5]

Research suggests that being a couch potato could make a person a decade older biologically than someone who is physically active.^[6]

• Various activities have been designed for the couch potato, including a type of investment portfolio ("Couch Potato Portfolio")^[7] and fantasy football leagues.
• Greyhound dogs, who are well-known for their sprinting ability but otherwise require little exercise, are sometimes called "forty-five mile per hour couch potatoes" by adoption and rescue agencies.^[8]
• Music artist "Weird Al" Yankovic's song "Couch Potato" (a parody of "Lose Yourself" by Eminem) describes him watching hours upon hours of television, "until [his] legs are numb, [his] eyes bloodshot."
• The phrase has coined the spin-off mouse potato (or sometimes computer potato), meaning one who spends too much time in front of a computer.
• In the comedy movie Stay Tuned (1992), Roy Knable (John Ritter) was a couch potato who was sucked into a television world by an emissary from hell (Jeffrey Jones).
• Couch Potatoes was the name of a game show hosted by Double Dare host Marc Summers.
• Couch Potato was a Sunday morning kids TV show aired on the ABC in Australia in the 1990s.