TMBG.....Barnes and Barnes......Ween. The Oneness.

duos, who used to play along with tapes to fill out their sound, but eventually got full bands instead, who have novelty written in huge letters across their faces, but who have turned their act into quite successful careers nonetheless.

i admire them both a lot for their business savvy as well as for their music. ween had one album, pure guava, that changed my world, which is one more then tmbg had, though they each have plenty of great songs to go along with plenty of duds.

Barnes & Barnes had Will Robinson.

Oh, and George Smith is right.
Bill Mumy (the guy who played "Lennier" on Babylon 5 and "Will Robinson" on Lost in Space) was one of the two main members of Barnes and Barnes.

I'm surprised more people don't link these bands together - Ween and TMBG really do have a lot in common (Ween are really just TMBG on copious amounts of drugs), and B&B sound an awful lot like their early records, but a lot wackier (but arguably more sinister than Ween!)

The Pod doesn't really sound like anything TMBG ever did.

yeah the parallel seems like a pretty reductive "most bands are not very silly, these silly bands are so alike" kind of thing.

ween has way more in common with like butthole surfers or dead milkmen IMO

naah, I disagree with that - there are early TMBG demos that have the same sound as The Pod. it's more than "they're silly", because B&B is the only band I'd describe as "silly". Ween & TMBG - both have a 2-man core, both started very young, both recorded with drum machines, both hopped all over the place genre-wise, both later got a full band and "normalized" a bit, etc.

http://mrsgrapevine.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/07/krisskross2.jpg

it completely blows my mind to think that the kids in Kriss Kross are now in their mid-30s

ween has way more in common with like butthole surfers or dead milkmen IMO

yes and no. very early ween had a fair amount in common w the butthole surfers. less so as they went along. i'd agree though that the dead milkmen do seem to belong in this set. and camper van beethoven? sparks? barenaked ladies? there are a lot of bands that share the white & nerdy "zany-brainy comedy rock" leanings that connect the acts mentioned in the OP.

Sparks def fits cuz of the brother-duo + rotating cast thing

as mentioned 7 years ago:

The connections are as follows:
- Two vaguely nerdy white college-rocker looking kids "rocking out"
- doing insanely catchy "novelty" tunes, usually with very surreal lyrics.
- Odd tastes in instrumentation (such as toy instruments) or in mixing genres (like polka+shoegazer or LA Hardcore+Big Band Swing)

That's pretty much the connection I made there. I don't really see Sparks in that list. They're certainly very clever and obviously an incredible band but they do have their own sound - you pretty much know what to expect on a Sparks album. Also, they've never creeped me out.

Damn dudes. B&B is one weird-ass band

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6EwDXwZ998

Steve Perry appears on this album (what the??) but not on this track. I'm wondering why Barnes and Barnes seem to have no following whatsoever these days. When you get down to it the Ween bros. or the Johns seemed like basically normal dudes with some strange impulses - B&B seem like they're actively fucked up

This is the one TMBG song that reminds me of Ween
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abwpt7sRnPY
Though it's mainly down to the vocals.

That was my first thought upon hearing that one too - sounds like an outtake from Pure Guava. I dig that tune a lot.

They both now have songs called Tick. The similarities are endless