The Wiggles! Yes you heard me, THE WIGGLES!

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As seen and heard here. So the deal is that these four Australian guys hit open a brilliant idea that goes like this (or so I like to think):

"Damn, we make pretty good catchy little power-pop songs here in our college band as we study to be teachers of young kids, and it certainly helps that some of us already have had band experience before we met here at university. We could keep being a band but there are eight million bands like us in the world, actually."

"I've got it! Forget trying to be a conventional rock band of any sort, let's just be a kid's band, develop a show and concept over time that's like the Monkees meets Pee-Wee on more cocaine but less hallucinogens and become a rite of passage for god knows how many children here and around the world, thanks not only to our wacky ways but our characters like Dorothy the Dinosaur and Captain Feathersword!"

And thus. I only just heard about them this past weekend thanks to my friends' daughter's birthday -- she's two and is already prime Wiggle demographic (a good slew of her gifts were all officially Wiggly). We ended up watching part of the DVDs that were given as gifts as well, and you know, it really does work as described and intended. A lot of the songs ARE very Monkees-like in terms of power-pop singalonga/instrumentation but aimed at a young audience (maybe the Bugaloos are a better comparison?), they clearly know what they're doing and there's enough goofy stuff going on that you avoid creeping Barneydom bastardry.

Also, Jeff of the foursome regularly falls asleep and they have to wake him up. I like this as a character trait/gimmick.

So who here knows about them, in Australia or anywhere else, due to kids they know or early Saturday mornings in front of the TV or their own disreputable pasts in the early nineties? (They're apparently touring America as I type.)

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 4 August 2003 23:39 (twenty-two years ago)

Hit open? Hit UPON. Thank you, continue onward.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 4 August 2003 23:39 (twenty-two years ago)

Ned, the Wiggles are not only huge in Australia; you cannot be a parent and not have at least one of their records.

Have you detected the ska influence? They used to be a ska band called The Cockroaches.

Also - I have remixed The Wiggles. It was my proudest moment.

― colin s barrow (colin s barrow), Monday, 4 August 2003 23:42 (twenty-two years ago)

Ah! The ska thing makes PERFECT sense, very good call. Remixing them! Tell more, plz.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 4 August 2003 23:48 (twenty-two years ago)

I know more than I ever wanted to about them (WAKE UP JEFF!)

D-o-r-o-t-h-y the Dinosaur is my favorite.

― luna (luna.c), Monday, 4 August 2003 23:49 (twenty-two years ago)

I figured Luna would know! If Nickalicious knows as well then I won't be surprised in the damn slightest.

I like that dinosaur I do. We saw bits of the Wiggles movie and she was sad because it seemed that nobody remembered her birthday, aw. But then the magician stole the magic wand!

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 4 August 2003 23:51 (twenty-two years ago)

Ah, the Wiggles. One of them tried to pull my ex-flatmate's girlfriend once. She declined (and he wiggled away, one presumes).

They're everywhere. But not in England. Yet. We've got The Tweenies, and (What's The Story In) Balamory, and The Hoobs, who are fucking brilliant...we don't need no Wiggly nonsense.

― CharlieNo4 (Charlie), Monday, 4 August 2003 23:56 (twenty-two years ago)

One of them tried to pull my ex-flatmate's girlfriend once. She declined (and he wiggled away, one presumes).

I like this because it fits in with my view of what they must be like off-camera -- not on drugs, but definitely like a good drink and partying.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 4 August 2003 23:59 (twenty-two years ago)

One of them lives not far away from me - I see him shopping!!! Kids ask them, "Are you real?"

The remix -it's on The Wiggles Movie Album, track 23 or something - right at the end. It's a medley. It's unmistakable, becuase it's a happy hardcore track based loosely around "Can You Point Your Finger And Do The Twist". I have heard it makes little kids cry. My daughter calls it 'de silly song' and doesn't believe me when I say I did it -'naah, your just twicking me!!!'

My favourite Wiggles song? "Everybody Clap". Also, "Fruit Salad" is a fave.

― colin s barrow (colin s barrow), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

yummy, yummy.

― luna (luna.c), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 00:01 (twenty-two years ago)

'naah, your just twicking me!!!'

This new slang expression (to me) fills my heart with love.

I like the song with the 'take a bow' bit in it because whenever that line came along the above mentioned friends' daughter Emma would stop her happy dancing and indeed take a bow. It was a lovely thing. :-)

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 00:03 (twenty-two years ago)

the Cockroaches were sooooo not ska. they had some not-bad songs..

― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 00:04 (twenty-two years ago)

'naah, your just twicking me!!!'
This new slang expression (to me) fills my heart with love.

Funny, when I read that I immediately thought, "T-shirt!".

The Wiggles going 'appy 'ardkore is one of the scariest thoughts I've had in a while.

Now The Hoobs feat. Mike Skinner, *that*'d be something.

― CharlieNo4 (Charlie), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 00:07 (twenty-two years ago)

-- Ned Raggett (ne...), August 5th, 2003.

Yes, Ned, that's 'Everybody Clap' - and that's why I like it too. A little three year old taking a bow is the sweetest sight on earth.

― colin s barrow (colin s barrow), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 00:20 (twenty-two years ago)

but do they rap?

― Tad (llamasfur), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 00:21 (twenty-two years ago)

No - they do haowever cover a Brian Wilson tune, "Marching Along' I think it's called.

― colin s barrow (colin s barrow), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 00:24 (twenty-two years ago)

Inescapable, tho thankfully (?) our 2 yr old has not yet discovered them. Hi-5 thread next, Ned??

― Bill E (bill_e), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 00:41 (twenty-two years ago)

The Hoobs are rocktastic, as Charlie said. How about them? Look out, it's a hoobledangler! Ahhhaaa! Ohhhohho!!!

― colin s barrow (colin s barrow), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 00:46 (twenty-two years ago)

Hi-5 thread next, Ned??

Shitters, you beat me to it.

― CharlieNo4 (Charlie), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 00:49 (twenty-two years ago)

a friend says he finds the remix a little strange but his 4 year old totally rocks to it colin!

also i heard they are to run the wiggles as a kind of franchise deal. so soon there will be german wiggles, japanese wiggles, whatever. i nominate ned as the californian dorothy!!

― gaz (gaz), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 00:50 (twenty-two years ago)

Dude, how fantastic!

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 00:51 (twenty-two years ago)

Japanese Wiggles and German Wiggles = must see.

― colin s barrow (colin s barrow), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 00:53 (twenty-two years ago)

There's a toddler living upstairs so I know all too well about the Wiggles.

― rosemary (rosemary), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 00:53 (twenty-two years ago)

Regulars on our VCR (we have a 3-year-old). What I like best about them is they're a great antidote to Sesame Street/Barney -- instead of what are obviously big-budget productions with every i dotted and t crossed, you've got four guys in different-colored t-shirts up there in front of these competely cheesy sets and badly costumed characters, and it all works. The DIY aesthetic wins again. . .

― Jeff Wright, Tuesday, 5 August 2003 01:28 (twenty-two years ago)

Now that America has discovered our favourite sons, watch their budgets skyrocket.

― colin s barrow (colin s barrow), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 01:47 (twenty-two years ago)

They're not as good as Ned makes them out to be. They're less obnoxious than B*rn*y, but only just.

It may be noted that my two-year-old has indeed destroyed my sense of humor, but i don't think so. Destroy Dorothy the Dinosaur. Destroy Captain Feathersword.

De-stroy. Kill all Wiggles.

― Matt Maxwell (Matt M.), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 03:25 (twenty-two years ago)

Captain Feathersword suffers from unipolar(manic) affective disorder, without a doubt.

― colin s barrow (colin s barrow), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 03:40 (twenty-two years ago)

i get the impression all the extra characters are like relatives of the wiggles. capt fs is obviously anthony's unipolar half-brother.

― gaz (gaz), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 04:03 (twenty-two years ago)

four months pass...

C30

"get ready to wiggle"
"where's jeff"
"romp bomp a stomp"
"hot potato"
"capt. feathersword"
"the monkey dance"
"wags the dog, he likes to tango" ("he calls it 'rango'")

my brother in law is learning guitar so he asked me to teach him all my nephews' favorite wiggles songs, it was fun.

― gygax! (gygax!), Monday, 29 December 2003 07:01 (twenty-one years ago)

also when the wiggles toured the usa a few months ago, one of the wiggles (not jeff... maybe anthony) stayed down under and had a proxy tour-ready replacement.

― gygax! (gygax!), Monday, 29 December 2003 07:07 (twenty-one years ago)

I used to dance with my neice to them, she'd wobble about in front of the TV to Hot Potato etc. It'd drive me insane, I could never have kids haha. Hi-5 is even worse. Ravers dancing for kids? What in the world etc.

― Trayce (trayce), Monday, 29 December 2003 07:24 (twenty-one years ago)

I never heard of them until a few days ago when I saw several of their videos prominently displayed near the counter at the drugstore. They looked really creepy.

― jaymc (jaymc), Monday, 29 December 2003 15:15 (twenty-one years ago)

one year passes...

WIGGLES

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Saturday, 19 February 2005 14:37 (twenty years ago)

A friend and I concocted an idea in about 1994,the height of'Appy 'Ardcore in Australia, that we were going to start a kiddy techno act called Fun City (demographic: 3-7 yr olds) and blow The Wiggles off the map. It never happened. *sigh*

― thee music mole, Saturday, 19 February 2005 22:44 (twenty years ago)

The Wiggles? The Woggles are where it's at.

― Ken L (Ken L), Saturday, 19 February 2005 23:47 (twenty years ago)

architecture in helsinki are the new wiggles. i saw it with mine own eyes

― shine headlights on me (electricsound), Sunday, 20 February 2005 22:56 (twenty years ago)

AiH aren't quite as colour-coordinated though.

they should do a split EP!

― haitch (haitch), Sunday, 20 February 2005 23:07 (twenty years ago)

Architecture in Helsinki ft. Dorothy the Dinosaur, "Wake Up Jeff!" (Colin S. Barrow metal techno remix)

― haitch (haitch), Sunday, 20 February 2005 23:14 (twenty years ago)

Wake up Jeff
Everybody's winsome

― thee music mole, Monday, 21 February 2005 11:40 (twenty years ago)

AIH are playing a freebie on the lawn at Sydney Uni next Thursday arvo/eve, I dare you to stage invade in a skivvy and, um, frenetically bang out some metal techno beats on the side of their tuba

(I chatted to Murray Wiggle at the Midnight Oil secret show the other week)

― kit brash (kit brash), Tuesday, 22 February 2005 12:22 (twenty years ago)

two weeks pass...

He's on Spicks & Specks RIGHT NOW!

― kit brash (kit brash), Wednesday, 9 March 2005 09:38 (twenty years ago)

anecdotes about Jaymz Hetfield rawking out to a Captain Feathersword cover of Enter Sandman, and seeing Bon Scott's cock as a teenager

― kit brash (kit brash), Wednesday, 9 March 2005 10:01 (twenty years ago)

They have a song called "Wobbly Camel" set to the tune of "Should I Stay or Should I Go"!

― jocelyn (Jocelyn), Wednesday, 9 March 2005 13:45 (twenty years ago)

and they dance around in Saddam masks.

― Chris 'The Nuts' V (Chris V), Wednesday, 9 March 2005 14:29 (twenty years ago)

eight months pass...

WAKE UP THREAD!!!

The Wiggles "finally" hit the UK full-on...

― CharlieNo4 (Charlie), Monday, 5 December 2005 07:33 (nineteen years ago)

All Europe is at their feet.

― moley, Monday, 5 December 2005 07:55 (nineteen years ago)

i've gone off them.

― mullygrubbr (bulbs), Monday, 5 December 2005 08:08 (nineteen years ago)

Thanks to Nick Jr Hannah is already a huge Wiggles fan. Now she wants a Wiggles guitar for Xmas.

― Amity Wong (noodle vague), Monday, 5 December 2005 08:29 (nineteen years ago)

All the U.S. is about the Fatt

― dali madison's nut (donut), Monday, 5 December 2005 08:32 (nineteen years ago)

the us is 2 months ahead of the rest of the world

― mullygrubbr (bulbs), Monday, 5 December 2005 08:33 (nineteen years ago)

three years pass...

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDHSbrPZH4A&feature=related

― moley, Thursday, 29 January 2009 05:38 (sixteen years ago)

Sailing Around the World! Actually in my itunes library so that I have kids music to appease the nieces with when I'm stuck babysitting them. It's an interesting concept album, at least.

― lyra, Thursday, 29 January 2009 22:10 (sixteen years ago)

― Sarah Jessica Parkour (Batty), Thursday, 29 January 2009 22:11 (sixteen years ago)

There's a Wiggles version of "Brown Girl in the Ring" featuring a bunch of white children dancing in a ring around an OCTOPUS. I mean, it's almost like they're pointedly being dicks about this.

― nabisco, Thursday, 29 January 2009 22:22 (sixteen years ago)

"Brown Girl in the ring
sha la la la la
Brown Girl in the ring
sha la la la la la
Brown Girl in the ring
sha la la la la
we're pointedly being dicks about this
YES WE ARE!"

― Mark G, Thursday, 29 January 2009 23:00 (sixteen years ago)

three years pass...

Schemes!

http://gawker.com/5911293/three-of-the-wiggles-are-quitting-the-band-amid-accusations-of-machiavellian-scheming

― Ned Raggett, Friday, 18 May 2012 14:31 (thirteen years ago)

At first I thought the new girl Wiggle was the girl Anthony was allegedly getting with, but this person appears to be new. But that or some other article claimed that Murry hadn't been touring with the group overseas, but he was totally there (here) last year, though Jeff was in the hospital getting a pacemaker put in.

All I know is that Sam got screwed. My kids are young enough that they don't know the first yellow Wiggle, but they love Sam.

― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 18 May 2012 16:21 (thirteen years ago)

It's funny, my little girl loves almost any kind of children's show dreck but she doesn't like the Wiggles at all. One time their show came on after one of her cartoons and she said "Ugh, why is this on?"

― Respectfully, Tyrese Gibson (Nicole), Friday, 18 May 2012 16:34 (thirteen years ago)

seven years pass...

best band ever tbh

― a struggle to make meat-snacking fit (bizarro gazzara), Tuesday, 31 March 2020 18:35 (five years ago)

The original lineup played two benefit shows (for adults) in January, and Greg had a heart attack partway through the first.

― Dollarmite Is My Name (sic), Tuesday, 31 March 2020 19:26 (five years ago)

figured one of them got coronavirus when this was bumped

― frogbs, Tuesday, 31 March 2020 19:27 (five years ago)

Funny, just listening to the Guilty Feminist people talking about them.

― Stevolende, Tuesday, 31 March 2020 19:29 (five years ago)

The original lineup played two benefit shows (for adults) in January, and Greg had a heart attack partway through the first.

wtf, get well soon greg

― a struggle to make meat-snacking fit (bizarro gazzara), Tuesday, 31 March 2020 19:37 (five years ago)

figured one of them got coronavirus when this was bumped

the wiggles are too good and pure to get coronavirus, how dare u

― a struggle to make meat-snacking fit (bizarro gazzara), Tuesday, 31 March 2020 19:38 (five years ago)

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