Last year, we witnessed wacky Napoleon Dynamite get down to the funky music of Jamiroquai. Not since Pee-Wee Herman’s TequilaDance have we been this much enthralled by a sissy strutting his stuff on stage. It’s probably the dream of all dweebs to gain fame through their unique style of dance (remember Patrick Dempsey in Can’t Buy Me Love?). Some shun fame altogether, however. Gary Brolsma, who gained notoriety for his hilarious Numa Numa vidcap, has become an “unwilling and embarrassed Web celebrity.”
A lesser-known nerdy dance routine from 2004 that deserves a second look is found in the Kings of Convenience video for “I’d Rather Dance With You.” Erlend Oye’s performance eclipses that of Napoleon Dynamite in my opinion. From the Royal Tenenbaum nod in the beginning, to the silly dance lesson in the middle, to the recital as denouement, the song and dance number expresses endearingly the sweet revenge of a geeky dancer.
From the land that gave us Björk comes LazyTown, a new kids series dedicated to promoting physical fitness. It debuted this past Monday on Nick Jr., perhaps to coincide with the Olympics. The show is the brainchild of professional athlete and aerobic champion Magnus Scheving, who also stars as Sportacus, a jock superhero. His sidekick is Stephanie, a perky eight-year old, who I thought at first was a Japanese pop star with her crazy pink hair and pink outfit. Lazy Town is a mix of live action, CGI and puppetry and stylistically is reminiscent of Pee-Wee’s Playhouse. And with its techno-pop tunes, it appears like an over-extended Aqua Barbie Girl music video.
One other kiddie show that promotes physical activity is Boohbah on PBS. If you thought Teletubbies was weird, this one is just plain out of this world. From what I remember in one episode, it had non-speaking, phallic-like beings whirling in a dervish fashion. And soon after that, they take off into ethereal heights like out-of-body souls entering the astral plane. Let’s wait and see if Jerry Falwell has a cow over this.
