davidn: (skull)
[personal profile] davidn
I haven't seriously disturbed people with anything I grew up with in Britain for a while - here's something to keep us going.


This, naturally, was just our version of The Muppets. Of course it wasn't - it was a programme called Spitting Image that satirized the prominent figures of the 80s and early 90s, such as Margaret Thatcher and the rest of the cabinet, through distinctively hideous puppet caricatures. This famous section made fun of summer holiday hits with its increasingly demented dance instructions, such as "casserole your gran" and "behead an Eskimo". Ironically but somehow inevitably, it reached number 1 in summer 1986.

It was actually directly parodying a song called (nonsensically) Agadoo by Black Lace, the two "wet gits" mentioned at the beginning. This song was absolutely everywhere when I was in primary school, but I had never seen the video until recently - now I can see exactly what I was missing out on. Just open it and be flabbergasted from about two seconds in - somehow we had a talent for producing mesmerizingly godawful music videos like these (or is it just a long "This is what happens if you take drugs" advert, I'm not sure). I can't decide if my favourite part is the banana playing the trumpet (despite not being blessed with a mouth!) or the coconut throwing his drumstick in the air only for it to just bonk off his sunglasses.

Date: 2013-02-15 03:17 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ravenworks.livejournal.com
I feel like parodying Agadoo is… somewhat missing the point of parody.

Date: 2013-02-15 04:28 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] xaq.livejournal.com
... ... ...

Not even remotely the "Chicken Song" I thought this was going to be...

BTW, if you wake up one morning and your vital organs scattered around your bedroom in a rough estimation of the constellation Orion, just know 2 things: It was me, and you totally deserved it.

Date: 2013-02-15 06:48 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] terrana.livejournal.com
Video is, ironically, blocked in the UK. I remember the song, though!

♪ Hold a chickenpigeon in the air... ♫

Date: 2013-02-15 04:47 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] e-to-the-ipi.livejournal.com
Given that the Muppet Show was made in the UK (commissioned by Lew Grade!) and first broadcast on ITV, aren't the muppets technically our version of the muppets?

Date: 2013-02-16 10:28 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] marcobiagi.livejournal.com
By pure coincidence one of the people behind that show is currently running for Parliament.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/shortcuts/2013/feb/13/satirist-john-ofarrell-mp-eastleigh

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