This is another song that has become one of my jams in a fairly short time period. Even though I’ve only become aware of this one a couple of weeks ago, it was actually released in 2011 (fashionably late to the party again. Typical of my nature as an Aquarius). I first discovered this song when the artist performed it live on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, and because I first heard it around the same time that I saw the Gravity Falls episode “Wierdmageddon, Part 2” with Mabel Land, that’s kind of what I associate with my personal imagery for the song. I always imagine a little girl who’s wrapped up in her own imagination that she envisions herself in a surreal fantasy world of her own creation inhabited by her toys and such where she of course rules supreme. Anyway, enjoy “It” by Christine and the Queens.
Month December 2015
2 Funny: Behind the Music – Electric Mayhem
ABC’s new series The Muppets put me in the mood to showcase some of my favorite Muppet characters, Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem.
Rock on!
While doing the research for this entry, I discovered some interesting bits o’ trivia: did you know that band leader Dr. Teeth was modeled after both Dr. John and Elton John? (His unique mode of ‘speechifying’ was directly patterned after Dr. John.) And that he received his signature gold tooth from a voodoo priestess in Tupelo, Mississippi? Did you know that bassist Floyd Pepper’s name and costume are a direct reference to the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band? Did you know that lead guitarist Janice was originally conceived as a male character, and her large lips were originally meant to be a caricature of Mick Jagger’s, and that she’s a literal flower child, as her mother’s name is Daisy? Did you know that drummer Animal may have been partially inspired by Keith Moon, The Who’s wild drummer? Did you know that saxophone player Zoot is 50 years old, once lived in a phone booth for 3 months and only owns 1 pair of pants? (None of this comes up in the video; I’m just showing off my geek-level trivial knowledge.)
Today’s 2 Funny is an early skit from season 1 of Robot Chicken, with the band being chronicled on VH-1’s Behind the Music. Like many RC sketches, it tends to get a tad dark in places, but unlike a lot of the current RC outings, it doesn’t overdo it and is genuinely funny for the most part. Here’s “Behind the Music – Electric Mayhem”.
-Funny stuff, but one minor nitpick: why no mention or appearance of Lips, the trumpet player who joined the band in The Muppet Show‘s 5th and final season and has been with the Mayhem ever since?
Come on, the guy blows a mean horn and talks like Louis Armstrong. That’s gotta be worth a mention at least.
Nerdvana: “Love Plus One” by Haircut 100
Today’s Nerdvana is a selection from the early 1980’s band Haircut 100, who had a very brief and tumultuous career (the band only produced 2 albums and the lead singer was only present for the first). I used to see the video for this particular track on TBS’s Night Tracks a lot (Night Tracks was basically TBS’s mini-MTV clone block, back when the ‘M’ in MTV stood for Music, rather than Mediocre), and it continues to be one of my favorite 80’s pop tunes.
Because of the video, I always think of tropical islands and exotic rain forests whenever I hear this song. Remember Wild Cartoon Kingdom from last year? This would be a fitting opening theme for that if it were a show. Plus, I just really like the title. Enjoy “Love Plus One”.
Ad Nausea/Talkin’Nerdy: Lego Star Wars Road Trip Commercial
All of the hype surrounding the imminent premiere of Star Wars: The Force Awakens caused me to remember this ad from a year or two ago. This is the 2nd (I believe) spot from LEGO’s “Build Together” campaign with the father/son road trip (because apparently, mothers and daughters don’t bond, play with Legos or go on road trips. So LEGO is strictly a guy thing now? Wuuuuut?). Anyways, this particular spot focuses on the Star Wars franchise. Check it out:
Yes, that’s George Lowe as the announcer there, and that’s awesome. Despite this, however, I have a couple of nitpicks about this ad. Yeah, I know that I shouldn’t be over thinking a toy commercial, but the fact that Darth Vader is there and not being the bad guy is nothing short of bizarro. Darth Vader is the dark lord of the Sith and Luke Skywalker, Chewbacca and the droids (but not Princess Leia, because girls are icky and they’d contaminate the RV with their cooties) are part of the rebel alliance determined to bring down the empire. They wouldn’t be hanging out as such. Again, yeah, I know this is just a toy commercial and as such, nothing that happens in it is in any way canon to the movie universe, but Darth Vader hanging out with the rest of the Star Wars crew like he’s just one of the gang is just weird. It’d be like seeing the Shredder chillaxing with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or He-Man and Skeletor hanging out and acting like bros; it’s just plain odd.
As for the commercial’s punchline where the kid asks his father if they can keep Chewbacca as a pet…
“I won’t even dignify that joke with my analysis!”
Toons & Tunes: Dueling Wabbit Themes
Warner Brothers’ latest animated outing, Wabbit – A Looney Tunes Production, which currently airs simultaneously on both Boomerang and Cartoon Network, isn’t perfect, but it’s pretty decent overall, especially since the show is much welcome return to form for it’s star, the wascally wabbit Bugs Bunny himself. Ol’ Bugsy is back to being an energetic, wise-ass trickster and troublemaker again, rather than his much more restrained self from The Looney Tunes Show. In Wabbit, Bugs takes on every manner of foe from tiny peg-shaped ninjas to giant irascible painters to a feisty King of the Jungle to the Tooth Fairy. The art and drawing style takes some getting used to (Yosemite Sam in particular looks like he jumped off the Spumco drawing board) and some of the stories work better than others (the shorts in which Bugs interacts with Bigfoot tend to irritate more than amuse) but overall the hyper-kinetic pace and the non-stop barrage of gags keep things entertaining, and with the promise of more Looney Tunes stars to appear on the show, including Porky Pig and a “totally nuts” Daffy Duck, Wabbit looks to be a winner.
However, the series has already performed a bizarre oddity: it suddenly and without warning switched its’ opening and closing theme music from this jazzy score:
To this more Bluegrass-ey number:
“I’m a -pickin!” “And I’m a-grinnin’!”
This is not a complaint, mind you; both themes are OK (I admit to liking the first one a little more, but that’s probably because by this time I’ve grown more accustomed to it). I don’t mind the change necessarily, it’s just that there was nothing wrong with first theme and the switch just seemed to come from out of nowhere, like the sudden shift from Power Rangers Zeo to Power Rangers Turbo. Weird, right?
“That seemed unnecessary.”
Twin Images 
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