My favorite band is Camper Van Beethoven. And I’ve long been a nostalgist for The Comedy Channel, particular early-season MST3K, The Higgins Boys and Gruber, and Rich Hall’s Onion World. Rich Hall had a weird influence on me and my pal Clay growing up. We’d both get Sniglet page-a-day calendars, for instance. Also: Rich Hall was a big Camper Van Beethoven fan.
Last night I saw the Family Guy episode where they hunt for the origin of dirty jokes. (Stay tuned for more on this one.) There’s a bit where they talk about who heard the joke from whom, which gets them to an R.E.O. Speedwagon “Heard It From A Friend” joke. It reminded me of a story I heard about Camper Van Beethoven back when they were opening for R.E.M. on the Pageant tour, I think it was. CVB pissed their elders off, reportedly, because they kept putting R.E.O. Speedwagon stickers on their equipment.
This is exactly why I love Camper Van Beethoven. They’re a punk band that decided instead to sound like a eastern-European ska band. They were smart brats at a time when I enjoyed being a smart brat.
Also, they were on Onion World once, I’ll always remember. The Internet couldn’t possibly have a clip of it, though, could it?
Best part is Greg Lisher (who, it only now occurs to me, looks a lot like my friend Chris Farrell) singing along to the words at the beginning.