It is definitely Fred's idea. Check out his "Documentary Now" series with Bill Hader. The episode "Gentle and Soft: The Story of the Blue Jean Committee" expands on this sketch. It's brilliant. Also, the "Kunuk of the North" episode is one of the best/funniest things you'll ever watch :)
Seriously perfect. Bobby is underrated! I was specifically looking in the comments to find names to search for a gif of that part 😂 so thanks for that.
I remember watching this sketch with my parents back when this sketch came out when I was 13, and I looked up to my mom partway through and said, "Mom, this sounds like the music YOU listen to!" completely unironically. My Dad choked on his drink in his chair.
Just imagine the years of nausea we endured in the 70’s when this insipid nonsense was on the radio every day. Still have a callous on my radio push button finger from changing the station when America, Seals and Crofts or Christopher Cross came on.
SO true. His music sketches are always great, and he can write in so many different genres. I still rewatch the punk band at the wedding skit just to hear Fist Fight!
Having been a nusician in the Western Massachusetts music scene, I am in awe of how perfectly they nailed reality. I swear Ive been on the bill with these guys 😂 The only thing they missed was Eric Suhr getting a piece of their merch sales after. Even the audience was spot on
It’s because of this reason that if a local band asks me at least a week ahead, and I’m free, I’ll run sound for the show for cheap. However, if expected to do work beyond mixing, I will charge accordingly.
i was gonna comment that there is a strong lou reed element at moments and figured people would think I'm nuts. I guess some of us know whats going on after all!
The Documentary Now! episode with the Blue Jean Committee is by far my favorite one. It's funny, I never realized Fred must have come up with the idea as an SNL skit. Anyone who hasn't seen the show should check it out
There is an interview somewhere with Bill Hader when he tools on the Eagles and Don Henley. Tough guys who sing wimpy songs. "If you don't hit the high notes on Take it to the Limit I am gonna break your effing face"!!
This sketch is absolutely perfect. It's not even really making fun of anything. It's just people vibing to a pretty decent song and yet it hits a certain comedic snare, I can't really explain it.
I live in western mass and every time i leave to go anywhere, the second i get back to Franklin county I breathe a huge sigh of relief over how much easier it is to have a high quality of life with everything you need close by, no traffic, no hoards of people acting like the seagulls in finding nemo, affordable housing and a wide variety of locally produced food from small ethical farms. They're making fun of me and i like it.
Andy Samberg at the very end breaking the 4th wall to the home audience with the glass of milk....professors 100 years from now will be holding debates as to the significance of what it means
I'm surprised the two gumpy old men weren't there too, stuffed in a booth at the back of the bar, bitchin about the band. Lol The Muppets rocked and I'm so glad they were in my era.
I have no idea what the joke is supposed to be here, if anything... and yet, this is one of my favorite sketches. Love when Florence Welch and the Muppets show up and everyone's just grooving, such a chill, fun vibe to end the episode.
Fred said on a podcast recently that the "joke" here is when lyrics are way too detailed and specific. What a wonderfully odd theme for a skit. Really catchy tune also. My kids and I will occasionally sing the chorus in front of my wife just to plant that ear worm and drive her crazy.
A very local band in flyover country, singing an absurdly detailed song about very local happenings, and the audience that grooves along to it exponentially. I'd say contextual comedy, mainly. And of course the band really pulls it off.
@@nataliazkontekstu its a great show. each episode parodies a different documentary or documentary style/theme, and its by armisen, hader, meyers, and mulaney (though not all of them are actually in episodes). you should definitely check it out!
If having this song in my everyday Spotify playlist and unironcally listening to it because it makes me feel good is wrong, I don't ever want to be right!
what I like about this sketch is how feel good local gigs can be because you're all from the same town. Very communal. Also, even if a band wasn't that great but they still got signed or started touring they'd get behind them just because they're locals.
Not sure if this could even be considered a sketch, but I'd sure as hell listen to it if they made an actual album, or at least a full-length song, lol
You can always tell when Fred was involved in a sketch because he never minds cutting out the jokes if it means he can show off his song writing skills.
with the appearance of the muppets at the end, this feels like a band that they meet while travelling across the country that they bring with them to perform on the muppet show
So ten or more years later I find this and my son had a bad fall off a ladder..messed up his ankle real bad..I go to his house to help him with his life and I show him this on my phone..he laughed his ass off. Best day ever and we got thru such a horrible time and I only pray life gets back to better cuz the whole world went so nuts
The Blue Jean Committee's tour is limited to Alabama, Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Indiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, and West Virginia -- the only other states whose name has the right number of syllables to substitute into this song's chorus.
Which came first, Massachusetts Afternoon or Overnight Lows by Peter Wolf on the Midnight Souvenirs record? Both feature gloriously specific talk- thrus.
I went to school in Noho. That's supposed to be Pearl Street Night Club. It's closed now, but the last shot of the outside of the building is what it looked like. I remember waiting in line at night to go see Built to Spill. Amazed that SNL peeps captured so accurately the vibe of a small quirky town.
