# Lawrence Welk. Yuk!
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lawrence-welk-yuk/540423
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [May 23, 2010, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lawrence-welk-yuk/540423 "2010-05-23T02:13:10Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)
#### Post date: [May 23, 2010, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lawrence-welk-yuk/540423/1 "2010-05-23T02:13:10Z")
Lawrence Welk is in re-runs on PBS. It’s on right now. I’m trying.
I hated that show as a kid and, it seems, I hate it now.
I could, at least, Sing Along With Mitch. Usually.
Now I gotta go turn on some ZZ Top to purge my poor old soul. 😃
Peace,
mangeorge, a sharp dressed man.
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### Author:  [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)
#### Post date: [May 23, 2010, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lawrence-welk-yuk/540423/2 "2010-05-23T02:21:07Z")
The Bubbles
They do nothing!
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### Author:  [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)
#### Post date: [May 23, 2010, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lawrence-welk-yuk/540423/3 "2010-05-23T02:26:50Z")
Who can say no to ["I love a parade!](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhCVmFc8jy8)
[On bicycles!](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3J8AG1YHa8A&feature=related)
[Ghost Riders in the Sky](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMdS9ExnW-w&feature=related)
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### Author:  [@K364](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/K364)
#### Post date: [May 23, 2010, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lawrence-welk-yuk/540423/4 "2010-05-23T02:36:55Z")
LW always had top-notch musicians. Unfortunately, their talent was usually wasted accompanying kitschy singers and dancers with poor arrangements.
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### Author:  [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)
#### Post date: [May 23, 2010, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lawrence-welk-yuk/540423/5 "2010-05-23T02:41:38Z")
[Lawrence Welk presents Planet Rock](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_ngYkndfjw)
(I kid… I kid because I love)
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### Author:  [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)
#### Post date: [May 23, 2010, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lawrence-welk-yuk/540423/6 "2010-05-23T02:44:15Z")
I kinda like this [modern spiritual](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ye3ecDYxOkg).
🆒
😃
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### Author:  [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)
#### Post date: [May 23, 2010, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lawrence-welk-yuk/540423/7 "2010-05-23T02:51:08Z")
At the time, I looked at the dancers and musicians and saw college kids with the squarest hair and clothes imaginable. Didn’t they know there was a revolution going on? Long hair, groovy clothes, rock n roll music, dope? Looking back, though, they were attractive kids making a living at their art, on television, and probably got all the Free Love they could handle when the cameras weren’t rolling. They knew what they were doing.
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### Author:  [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)
#### Post date: [May 23, 2010, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lawrence-welk-yuk/540423/8 "2010-05-23T03:13:09Z")
Yup, pure dreck. Hated it then, hate it now, a learning to hate PBS for providing airtime for such crap.
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### Author:  [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)
#### Post date: [May 23, 2010, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lawrence-welk-yuk/540423/9 "2010-05-23T03:56:33Z")
This is how clueless the guy was: we went to see Benny Golson (old time jazz sax musician) a couple of weeks ago. He played a number called “Take The ‘A’ Train”, which is a very well-known jazz piece by Billy Strahorn, who Golson knew, and he told us all the story of how the piece came to be written.
So he tells us he’s at his momma’s home and she’s a Welk watcher. Welk comes on to introduce a number: "Now I know you’re all goina lika this nexta number. It’s a jazz composition called “Take A Train”.
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### Author:  [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)
#### Post date: [May 23, 2010, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lawrence-welk-yuk/540423/10 "2010-05-23T04:15:06Z")
> [@K364](#):
>
> LW always had top-notch musicians. Unfortunately, their talent was usually wasted accompanying kitschy singers and dancers with poor arrangements.
I begged my (widowed) mom for guitar lessons when I was about twelve. I got the accordian. Thanks to [_this_ guy,](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=osaxRtRK9rI) I think.
He was good though. So many musicians are. So many arraingers aren’t.
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### Author:  [@KRC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KRC)
#### Post date: [May 23, 2010, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lawrence-welk-yuk/540423/11 "2010-05-23T04:37:32Z")
Ok, whoever posted that “One Toke Over the Line” link, you owe me, because I did the face plant so hard that I’m one cerebral hemmorhage over the line.
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### Author:  [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)
#### Post date: [May 23, 2010, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lawrence-welk-yuk/540423/12 "2010-05-23T04:42:24Z")
Sometimes I wondered if ol’ Larry was quite a few tokes over the line.
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### Author:  [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)
#### Post date: [May 23, 2010, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lawrence-welk-yuk/540423/13 "2010-05-23T04:47:51Z")
There is no way to overstate this [clip](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0_MPSc7VN4)’s awesomeness. I mean gayness.
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### Author:  [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)
#### Post date: [May 23, 2010, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lawrence-welk-yuk/540423/14 "2010-05-23T04:53:52Z")
> [@lissener](#):
>
> There is no way to overstate this [clip](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0_MPSc7VN4)’s awesomeness. I mean gayness.
OMG. It’t shows like this that allow me to understand why Chines guys go nuts with cleavers in public schools.
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### Author:  [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)
#### Post date: [May 23, 2010, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lawrence-welk-yuk/540423/15 "2010-05-23T05:06:56Z")
> [@K364](#):
>
> LW always had top-notch musicians. Unfortunately, their talent was usually wasted accompanying kitschy singers and dancers with poor arrangements.
My problem with Lawrence Welk, and it took me a while to figure this out, is that there’s great technique, but no passion. For God’s sake, put some energy, or effort, or sweat, or some part of yourself into your art. If you can smile all the way through every song, and finish with not a hair out of place, then you’re just not trying hard enough.
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### Author:  [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)
#### Post date: [May 23, 2010, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lawrence-welk-yuk/540423/16 "2010-05-23T05:07:07Z")
Is there a clip of him firing [this performer](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_Lon) on air?
> [@](#):
>
> Welk employed many musicians and singers, which were known in the press as his Musical Family. These singers were bound by an unofficial set of morals (artistic and personal) dictated by Welk, and if he believed the audience did not find them wholesome enough, they would be fired. Former Champagne Lady Alice Lon was fired in 1959 for crossing her legs on a desk. Welk, on-air, told the audience that he did not tolerate such “cheesecake” on his show. After he fired Lon on-camera, thousands of letters filled the ABC mailroom, demanding an apology, and that she be rehired. Welk tried to get Lon back but she refused.[6]
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### Author:  [@Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Attack_from_the_3rd_dimension)
#### Post date: [May 23, 2010, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lawrence-welk-yuk/540423/17 "2010-05-23T05:24:04Z")
Only the strongest can watch Welk. It is a show for warriors.
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### Author:  [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)
#### Post date: [May 23, 2010, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lawrence-welk-yuk/540423/18 "2010-05-23T05:36:12Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#):
>
> My problem with Lawrence Welk, and it took me a while to figure this out, is that there’s great technique, but no passion. For God’s sake, put some energy, or effort, or sweat, or some part of yourself into your art. If you can smile all the way through every song, and finish with not a hair out of place, then you’re just not trying hard enough.
What are you going on about. The heat just rolls off the screen in [waves](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49z2IcxHcy0&feature=related). Waves I tells ya.
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### Author:  [@DChord568](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DChord568)
#### Post date: [May 23, 2010, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lawrence-welk-yuk/540423/19 "2010-05-23T05:44:01Z")
Bah! All you snide critics obviously have never seen [this](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i48BP1PUoFI) Lawrence Welk performance.
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### Author:  [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)
#### Post date: [May 23, 2010, 5:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lawrence-welk-yuk/540423/20 "2010-05-23T05:56:50Z")
Lawrence Welk has been such a fat target for so long that he hasn’t been worth taking shots at for years. His reputation as an old-fashioned cornball was already well-known when [Stan Freberg recorded this parody](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0TSDcPW2Kk)50 years ago.
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