“There aren’t enough ukuleles on this blog.” A thought that you, dear reader, have no doubt encountered while wending your way ‘twixt the fertile Shinypixel gardens. The recent feature on an earnest web engineer extolling the virtues of a styling language may even have prompted it.
It indeed prompted me to dredge back through the last decade, to seek out a couple of US comedians from the turn of the millennium whose twangy comedic pop tickled fresh-faced Uni youngster Rik back in 2002. The Ukes of Hazzard caused a minor Internet sensation with their unique take on traditional relationship problems; their trick – singing wonkily atop the enthusiastic rattling of ukeleles – surpassed the desired randomness quotas of early web users and Warwick students alike.
The video sealed the deal. Produced on a shoestring, with reams of digital production and a whole lot of love, it’s been viewed over 2 million times, which for something predating the YouTube generation by such a long chalk is quite an achievement:
The Ukes of Hazzard – Gay Boyfriend
Those were the days.
As a bizarre footnote, a UK CD single release popped up sometime around the death of pop music in 2004. Autotuned and cruelly stripped of folksy instrumentation, its cookie-cutter bubblegum pop faded quickly out of the dying charts and into obscurity. I picked up a copy in Oxfam on Portobello Road – I’m not overly surprised that no-one bought it.
(I’m out of ukelele-based anecdotes now. I promise.)
