srah blah blah

Twinkies and ding-dongs won't do

Last week I followed a link in Dooce's links blog to a YouTubed video by New Kids on the Block. I mostly missed the New Kids train back in the late 80s. I was busy, as is my wont, listening to oldies and musicals instead of The Hip Trendy New Music The Kids Are Listening to. I did not have New Kids dolls or a New Kids sleeping bag or a New Kids Trapper Keeper. I was aware of them, and knew the tunes of their songs and all, but I didn't have <old man voice>the cable teevee</old man voice> to watch music videos, I didn't buy a modern music tape until I was in 6th grade¹, and I was for some reason afraid of listening to the pop music stations on the radio in case a swear word came on (seriously!).

Once I started middle school, I discovered Weird Al Yankovic, the main musical influence of my early teen years. This means that there are lots of Weird Al parodies out there that I know better than the original song. One of these is:

The first one was a sweet one
Second one was a blast
Soon I finished off the bag, ate 'em up real fast
You can see 'em in my teeth
Tell it when I talk
Had so many my pancreas just went into shock
- Weird Al Yankovic, "The White Stuff"

After Dooce pointed me to the video for "Step By Step" I continued through the New Kids video oeuvre until I found the video for "The Right Stuff". It's somehow shocking to my brain every time they get to that part in the song and the word "pancreas" doesn't come up. It's THERE in the SONG... isn't it?

New Kids on the Block videos are like a time machine back to a terrible terrible part of our history. Witness the mullets, the hats, the vests, the pegged pants... and the bizarre cowboy jig they do for the first time at approximately 1:22.

What IS that dance? Was that dance ever cool?

srah - Friday, 6 October 2006 - 10:35 PM
Tags: middle school, music, new kids on the block, video, weird al yankovic