DOCTOR DEMENTO
Hey, there you are! How the heck are ya? How long has it been, about a month, right? Well then, it must be time for another Odd Review! So this is everybody's buddy, Oddcube, saying: Hello, and welcome to the column!
So I don't know what you've been up to, but I've decided, like, two minutes ago, to become slogan-conscious! So I'm gonna claim that I've spent the last month devising brand new slogans. Here, check this out: "Once you go square, nothing else can compare"! How do ya like that? Is that corn that isn't even ripe yet, or what? Oh wait, I got another one! Whattaya think of this: "Don't be a rube, read Odd Reviews by Oddcube"! Yeah, that sounds appropriately catchy and cheesy, doesn't it? Oh wow...I know, I got no shame--I'm Oddcube! :P
And to make it worse, none of that had anything to do with what I'm gonna talk about today. So I guess I better buckle down and get down to business.
As I said before: welcome to the column! This is where I get to talk about whatever I feel like talking about in whatever one-sided, opinionated, biased, or ill-informed manner I feel like! During all of that, I try to tell you why you should seek out or avoid whatever I'm talking about, and then try to justify it with a schlocky rating that is fairly determined by rolling dice and TOTALLY NOT MADE UP AT ALL (that's my story and I'm stickin' to it)! And so, with no further ado and even less a-don't, let us proceed to this month's totally terrific topic: The Dr. Demento Show!
Dr. Demento, of course, is that wacky DJ who showcases novelty music and comedy skits from yesterday, today, and tomorrow! But in real life, Dr. Demento is mild-mannered DJ, Barret Eugene Hansen. He was the son of an amateur pianist, born in Minneapolis, and went to Reed College in Portland, Oregon, and then went to UCLA and got master's degrees in folklore and ethnomusicology, which totally explains how he knows so much about what he knows so much about! The man's some kind of authority on music in general! He's written articles for Rolling Stone and Hit Parader, and liner notes for all sorts of albums!
But we're not here to talk about his appropriately unusual academic achievements! We're here to talk about something much more fun than that!
The whole thing started innocently enough in 1970 at Pasadena station KPPC-FM, which was an "underground" radio station. As such, there was no definitive format. In other words, the DJs could--and did--play whatever they felt like. So there was a mishmash of musical styles as one DJ might play classical stuff like Mozart, followed by a guy who might play KISS, and then a guy who would play folksy stuff like Peter, Paul & Mary.
During this time, young Barry Hansen, not yet known as Dr. Demento, would (mostly) play rock oldies. But every once in a while he would throw in a novelty record. One of these was an odd little song called "Transfusion" by Nervous Norvus. The song is about a driver who constantly gets into accidents--complete with sound effects--and ends up (rather happily) getting yet another blood transfusion at the hospital. Upon hearing the song, one of his fellow DJs remarked "You must be demented to play that on the radio!" This offhand comment eventually evolved into the name we all know and love: Dr. Demento!
Demented or not, the listeners totally digged it the most! In fact, Hansen noticed that the novelty songs received just as much (and sometimes more) positive feedback from his listeners, and they quickly became requested more than the mainstream music. Hansen took note, and eventually transformed his broadcast into an all novelty and comedy show.
By 1974, Dr. Demento had a two hour syndicated show broadcast on stations from coast-to-coast! Which means we've finally gotten to the fun part: telling you about the show itself!
So, the show starts up with a disjointed chorus announcing "The Doctor is in!", followed immediately by his opening theme: an instrumental version of the song "Pico and Sepulveda". Then, after some obligatory "welcome to the show"-type comments, we are treated to an hour of more-or-less random songs and comedy skits. Some of these are usually listener requests, and most are grouped into small blocks with a common theme. Somewhere in the midst of this hour, there is usually a feature called "The Demented News", made especially for the Dr. Demento show by a guy who goes by the name of "Whimsical Will", who basically talks about whatever he wants accompanied by lines and comments ripped from various recordings to help emphasize and embellish his point. The second hour starts up with a half-hour block devoted to this week's featured theme, like "cartoons", or "cars", or "office humor" or whatever. Then the show wraps up the final half-hour with the "Funny Five Countdown", which is this week's Top Five Most Requested songs.
Of course, this is the typical weekly structure for the show, but there were exceptions to the rule. Sometimes ol' Doctor D. would have a guest, like Mel Brooks, or George Carlin, or a member of Monty Python, or the guys from Spinal Tap. He would also have seasonal shows where the entire show featured the theme. This usually occurred around Halloween and Christmas, due to the enormous amount of material available. And the very last show of the year was always the "Funny Twenty-Five", which, you guessed it, was the top twenty-five requested songs of the year!
So what kind of stuff does he play? Well, like I said, novelty songs and humor... type...stuff. There are tons and tons of songs, some are parodies of mainstream songs, but you'd be surprised how many original non-parody songs there are in the world too! Plus, he showcases lots of comedy skits recorded by Saturday Night Live alumni, Monty Python's Flying Circus, and others. He's had stuff from a lot of big names on his show. Names like Judy Tenuta, Emo Phillips, and Steve Martin to name just a few. Heck, I've heard songs by Bing Crosby on the show! A lot of the stuff he plays is by folks who aren't necessarily nationally recognized, but have an enviable following in their own circle or geographic area. Like who? Well, like the Great Luke Ski, he's a "filk singer" who apparently works a lot of sci-fi conventions. Or, like the Capitol Steps, they do political humor in the form of parody songs out in Washington DC.
Likewise, Dr. Demento managed to expose several older artists and songs to the newer generations. Folks like Benny Bell (with "Shaving Cream"), Haywire Mac ("Ain't We Crazy"), Spike Jones ("Cocktails For Two"), and Tom Lehrer ("Poisoning Pigeons in the Park") received lots of airplay and tons of listener requests during the show's entire run.
But that's not all!
There's more?!
There sure is! In addition to all the professional and semi-professional talent he's played over the years, Dr. Demento has graciously received hundreds and thousands of demo tapes from amateurs from all over! People would send tapes in to the address given for his fan club, the Demento Society, and Dr. D listened to them all and stored them away in his massive musical library, and dig them out to play them on the air! How cool is that? Thanks to this insane but fair practice, he has helped all sorts of people break into the funny business. Most prominent of these, of course, is Weird Al Yankovic! You've GOT to know who he is! He's the guy that does "Eat It" instead of "Beat It" and "Fat" instead of "Bad". He's got a new album out right now, and the lead song is "Perform This Way", a parody of "Born This Way" by Lady Gaga.
The short version is that Dr. Demento was a big part in publicizing many of these artists, and some of them even found a way to try and pay it back! Barnes & Barnes (they sing "Fish Heads") put Dr. D into a couple of their videos, and they even featured him and some of his crew as vocalists on a song called "Gotta Get A Fake ID". An English comedian called Ivor Biggun was so pleased to learn his song "Bras on 45" was so popular on the Dr. Demento Show that Ivor wrote a tribute song called "Let's All Get Demented", which was also insanely popular on the show. And, of course, Weird Al has never forgotten that it was Dr. D who discovered him, and Al has featured the good Doctor in several of his videos, and even his movie "UHF".
Anyway, it was a winning formula that lasted well over thirty years. Sadly though, the radio show's popularity has diminished pretty steadily over the past couple of decades. Losing profitability, it also lost advertisers and syndicated networks. In fact, I am sad to report that as of January of 2011, Dr. Demento is no longer on the radio. But it's not all sad, because he has migrated to the internet!
That's right, folks! You can go to http://www.drdemento.com/ and find info and links to various artists, playlists for nearly EVERY show he's ever aired, and even download individual episodes to listen to! The good Doctor has dutifully concocted a new episode every week for over thirty years (with only very few exceptions), and many of the past shows are also up and available for streaming as well as new ones. And in some ways, it's kinda better, because there's no time limits imposed by a radio schedule, and there's no censorship (yes, he's got some songs that wouldn't have gotten on the radio).
Not only that, but over the years Dr. Demento has put together more than 40 albums, collecting some of the best and funniest tracks for your audio enjoyment! That's right; we're talking serious preposterous-ity for posterity here! Including his series of "Basement Tapes", his three Anniversary Collections, and his "Greatest Novelty CD of All Time"!
So at the end of it, it comes down to: if you like to laugh, then you would totally dig Dr. Demento, so give him a listen-to! Except, of course, I can't just say that, cuz just saying that does NOT promote my flimsy façade of an actual-factual review column. So to uphold that particular preposterous pretext, I've actually got to assign a phony-baloney rating here.
To do that, I shall once again employ the invaluable assistance of my o-so-treasured D&D percentage dice! In case ya don't know it, percentage dice are two ten-sided dice. One stands for the ones place, and the other stands for the tens place. Together, you roll them to randomly determine a number from zero-one (I'd rather spend eternity eating shards of broken glass), to double-zero, which actually means one hundred (total mega-super-epic-WIN)! So I'll just give my totally fair and unbiased dice a roll just like that...
...and roll an 86! There, see? I told ya it was well worth checking out! But hey, that's only one idiot's opinion, and you don't have to take it! There is another option! What's the other option? I hear you cry. Why, to check it out for yourself, duh!
Hey, whilst we're on the subject...what is YOUR favorite funny song? "The Purple People Eater" by Sheb Wooley? "Gitarzan" by Ray Stevens? "The Tennessee Bird Walk" by Blanchard and Morgan? Feel free to be sociable and share your song in the comments below! After all, I need SOMEthing to do to keep myself occupied until next month, and time for the next Odd Review! Be there and be square, cuz this is your buddy, Oddcube, saying sayonara senors and senoritas!
-----Your Buddy, Oddcube
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