I was pleased to see the *NY Times *gave him a nice obit today–but they never mentioned Trololo Cat, the very best of the parodies!
I think it was more than that. It’s just so bizarre on so many levels. That strange dark yellow background which kinda picks up his tie and teeth and eyes, and that black wavy thing; the stiff way he moves around with that creepy smile, the obvious lip-synching, but the catchiness of the melody, the laughing part, the yodeling part… it’s like a dream sequence in a David Lynch movie.
I came across it pretty early when it hit and posted it to FB (with a comment to the effect of: “in case anyone’s dreams were starting to feel too normal”), and I got many comments that understood exactly what I meant.
And it’s so compelling. I just kept coming back to it, and humming it. It’s truly one of the special memes that stand out above the others.
And then, some time later, the guy’s name comes out, and some context, and then some new videos surface with the man himself, Eduard Khil, watching the video itself. He seems so joyful and entertained by this incredible phenomenon that he could have never imagined. He seemed so instantly likable.
I gotta say, it’s a strange thought that I could feel sad upon hearing of the death of someone from a surreal, creepy music video from the 70s that went viral, but there ya go.
S’trewth. I’ve had the damn thing stuck in my head for three days now.
It goes beyond ordinary levels of bizarre. It’s almost like a Jim Carrey skit. Imagine Fire Marshall Bill. Carrey would certainly never have heard of Eduard Khil before the World Wide Web, but if Khil had never existed, Carrey would have had to have invented him.
This made me think of something else. I don’t know how old you are, but I’m old enough to remember the Cold War when it was still a “thing”. Growing up, due to subtle (and some not-so-subtle) American propaganda I, and probably most of my contemporaries, had a pretty specific idea of what “they” were like over there in the USSR. And seeing that video just flew in the face of everything we “knew”. I think Yakov Smirnov was the closest most of us had come to seeing what was “ordinary” in the Soviet Union, until we saw this video.
I don’t want to hijack the thread but I could write pages on that subject. (I’m 36 BTW, so my formative years were certainly under the influence). A few years ago I had the opportunity to spend a week in St. Petersburg. I can’t tell you the feeling I had when I looked down from the windows of the plane and first saw buildings and thought “holy crap, I’m in Russia!”. That week I met friends I’m still in touch with, and fell in love. I haven’t been back since, but Russia no longer feels other-worldly to me at all.
Before that though, I watched Kin Dza Dza which probably had the effect on me you’re describing about the Eduard Khil video.
(actually, re-reading your post, I’m wondering exactly what idea of the “ordinary” Soviet Union you got from this video because I’d be surprised if any of the Russians I know would not find this video almost as bizarre as I do).
46 here - the USSR didn’t collapse until 7 years after I finished high school. Reagan’s first term spanned my high school years, and like many of my peers, I felt nuclear war with the USSR was, if not inevitable, pretty likely.
Not the content of the video itself, but just the idea that, “Hey, they had cheesy television variety shows … just like us!”
I always wondered about the yodeling, if that was some older russian folksong or something. Nice to actually find out what it is about. I am actually glad he managed to see how his video went viral.