The Frantics

I took the title of my dirty words post from a Canadian sketch comedy group I have loved since high school. They're called The Frantics, and they absolutely rule.

I first heard a sketch of theirs called "Last Will and Temperament" (colloquially known as "Mister Muldoon's Will") on Dr. Demento in 9th grade, and drove my parents crazy by quoting it all the time, adding "and one for Jenny and the Wimp" to every possible conversation.

I only owned one of their albums, which though titled Boot to the Head sadly didn't contain the Mr. Muldoon's Will sketch (they make up for it with sketches like Ti Kwan Leep, Making up Dirty Words, and Driving Chicks Mad) and I played it so much I actually wore it out. (I later discovered that it is on a few Dr. Demento albums, and is also on Frantic Times, but back then, I only had it on a cassette tape that my friend made by recording KMET one night.)

The Frantics played a major part in my eventual decision to write sketch comedy and perform Improv because I would spend hours listening to that record, laughing my ass off, and thought, "Man, this must be so much fun to do; I'd like to do this one day.")¹

The Frantics' official website is awesome. They have YouTube videos of some classic performances, audio from Frantic Times Radio, and one of the sketches from Boot to the Head, A Piece of Pie (mild language, put earmuffs on the kids.) You can also buy all of their albums, including Boot to the Head. I bought myself a CD copy last year, and I thought it held up really well . . . but you damn kids today will have a very hard time understanding who Mrs. G. is, and why they wrote a song about her.

¹Major influences of mine as I got older and pushed me past the tipping point were the British Whose Line is it Anyway? and MST3K, both of which I came across in my early 20s.