A light chuckle from this morning’s funnies, courtesy of 9 Chickweed Lane. Though I think accordions are something all our visitors can agree on. (Thanks David!)

Let’s face it — certain aspects of polka culture are ripe for parody. And when it comes to polka parodies, nobody did it better than SCTV’s Shmenge Brothers.

Hailing from the mythical country of Leutonia (”on the dark side of the Balkans”), Stan and Yosh Shmenge (portrayed by Eugene Levy and John Candy) came to America and conquered the polka charts before their abrupt retirement in 1984. Along with their band, the Happy Wanderers, they appeared frequently on SCTV playing everything from covers of new-wave hits to original tunes like “There’s Rhythm In My Lederhosen.”

Shmenge-mania reached its height with The Last Polka, a 1985 HBO “mockumentary” about the duo’s final concert. If you haven’t seen it, it’s basically the polka version of Spinal Tap. Unfortunately, it isn’t available on DVD, but you can now watch the whole thing on YouTube (albeit divided into seven parts). Watch the first eight minutes and sing along to the Shmenge Brothers classic, “Cabbage Rolls and Coffee”:

Accordion Santas
uploaded by tierra95What do you call it when hundreds of crazy Santas — often fueled by “high octane egg nog” — roam the streets en masse, spreading holiday cheer? It’s not anarchy; it’s Santarchy, an annual tradition that’s grown to include gatherings from Berlin to Tokyo, and numerous places in-between.

The Santas invaded San Francisco on Saturday and, while my suit didn’t make it back from the cleaners in time, I was happy to see these accordion-toting Santas in attendance. Jingle Bells Polka, anyone?

From this morning’s paper: a character in Ballard Street decides to take up the accordion. (Thanks, David.)

As he celebrates his 47th birthday today — one day after the 40th anniversary of his first accordion lesson — Weird Al Yankovic is enjoying the biggest commercial and critical success of his career. His new album, Straight Outta Lynwood, debuted at #10 on the Billboard album chart and the first single, “White and Nerdy”, has climbed as high as #9 on the singles chart. It’s the first time that Al has cracked the Top 10 in either chart.

Weird Al’s recent resurgence has also garnered critical appraisals of his role in popular culture. In the Village Voice last week, Jonathan Zwickel called Al a genius, noting that he has “always been out of fashion, which, if pop culture has taught us anything, makes him permanently in fashion.” Meanwhile, in Slate, Sam Anderson referred to Al as a “troubadork” whose “quintessential joke is to transfer the bravado and intensity of rap (or rock, or punk) into the mouth of some iconically unhip figure.” High praise for the author of “My Bologna”…

I’ve covered my Guitar Hero addiction here before, but I had to post this. I just picked up the Guitar Hero 2 demo and my jaw dropped as this flashed across one of the loading screens:

Is it a nod to the Accordion Hero parody from earlier this year? Or have the makers of Guitar Hero finally realized there’s a vast, untapped market for accordion-related video games? After all, if they’ve made a Godfather game, can Accordion Hero really be that far behind?

You and I know that accordion playing is the key to a happy, healthy life and the admiration of your peers. But how do we convey that message to the youth of America?

Fortunately, there’s In Tune With Fun — a 1950s comic about learning to play the accordion. In it, we follow the story of young Tom, who sees the “Young People’s Accordion Band” perform and decides he wants to be just as happy and popular as those other accordion-playing kids. With the encouragement of his parents, a lot of practice, and many afternoons spent listening to Ernie Felice records, Tom becomes a self-assured young man and a sought-after accordionist. Women want to date him! Men want to be him!

It’s an inspiring tale, with a message that still resonates today. Take it from Tom: “You’ve never really had fun until you start taking accordion lessons.”

[Found via J-Walk Blog]

Today Weird Al released his 12th studio ALbum, Straight Outta Lynwood, featuring parodies of Chamillionaire, Green Day, Usher, R. Kelly and (best of all) Taylor Hicks! The DualDisc also includes six animated videos, a behind-the-scenes featurette on the making of the album and even karaoke mixes with optional on-screen lyrics. (And, for those who were wondering, there is a 27 on the cover).

My review: 5 stars, baby! Okay, I am biased. Weird Al is one of my favorite musicians ever. I am continually impressed with his breadth of experience spanning multiple genres. Some of my personal favorite songs are “White and Nerdy” (watch the video on Al’s Myspace), “Polkarama!” (any song that starts with “The Chicken Dance” and ends with “Gold Digger” is a favorite in my book) and “Do I Creep You Out” (I love Taylor Hicks but even he might agree that song was asking for it).

I also love the additional videos. Some of my favorite animators worked on them, including John Kricfalusi, Bill Plympton and Robot Chicken. The behind-the-scenes featurette is also really fun. In it, you’ll see Al playing his accordion (a red Hohner 72 bass with 5 treble switches) as well as a toy piano, vibraslap, bass harmonica and a watermelon! That guy has mad skillz.

If you like Weird Al, I think you will be pleasantly surprised with this album. Click here to buy the CD.

As a matter of fact, Garfield, polka-karaoke night sounds awesome. I’ll bring the accordion, you bring the Lil’ Wally records. (Thanks, Micah.)

With his 12th album due out next month, let’s take a stroll down memory lane and watch Weird Al Yankovic’s first television appearance from way back on April 21, 1981. Armed with only his accordion, his trademark curly hair, and a ridiculously loud pair of pants, he performed his Queen parody “Another One Rides the Bus” on The Tomorrow Show with Tom Snyder. Longtime collaborator Jon “Bermuda” Schwartz pitched in by playing Al’s accordion case as a drum.

[Found via Videobomb]