ONE HIT WONDERLAND: "Timothy" by The Buoys

Loved thid episode gave me a good laugh when I needed it most. Thanks Todd

Considering current events, it might be a good time for a One Hit Wonderland on "Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye" by Steam.

Kristopher Bluth

No joke, I watched this video and then had a nightmare about cannibalism. Todd, I made it through all of October's spooky YouTube content without blinking but THIS SONG is what lodged in my subconscious. Congratulations.

Stormy K.

Early 2000's I was working in an electronic restoration company. When someone had a fire or similar disaster, we came in and cleaned up their electronics at the request of their insurance company. One of my first jobs was moving a bunch of music equipment back to the one guy's apartment with the crew. The guy whose apartment was in the fire told us he'd been in the band that recorded "Timothy", and that *he* was, in fact, the guy who'd written the song, not that one big-name guy everyone always says wrote it. (I don't recall if he named names, but I *do* recall there was some bitterness about the subject.) I wonder how eager he would've been to say that during the time people were asking if the song was about the three miners trapped near his hometown...

I have never heard the song Timothy, but once "Give Up Your Guns" started playing I was like "Oh hey! I know THAT song."

“BOO GO BACK TO EATING PEOPLE”- Todd Nathanson, 2020

Erik Danielson

That or people really hate Timothy.

Anthony Hansen

I know this is going to sound fake, but I had to come post this comment - somehow I missed this had shown up on Patreon, and I saw it on YouTube just now. At the exact moment that the video reached the guy getting rescued but having a full stomach and I was realizing with horror what had happened, YouTube served up a midroll ad for Applebee's. It was so perfectly, horribly funny that I was sure Todd did it on purpose somehow, and at first I was waiting for him to make a reference to the Applebee's ad later in the video, but I eventually realized there's almost certainly no way he'd have that level of control. I laughed a long time about that one - thanks for this video, Todd, and thanks to the YouTube Fates I guess for the added layer of entertainment. :-)

James R.

now I know what Royce da 5’9 sampled in...give up your guns! Thought that sounded familiar

Never heard nor heard of this song before now, but I love the beat.

Josh Liller

This is probably the first one-hit wonder that I've never heard of that I'm excited to now have in my life.

Meghan Weber

Man, mining seems to be kind of a shit job if popular music is to be believed.

MJS

I'd take old "Wall of Sound" overproduction over modern "Overcompression" any day. It actually sounds better in mono which is probably how many kids heard it back in the day on their transistors

Larry

This song needs to be in the next Guardians of the Galaxy movie

This was a good video to watch while eating lunch.

Nigel G

Listening to this gives me the same stomach-turning feeling as when an ex used to make me listen to Nick Cave's Murder Ballads. At least this song is upbeat, I guess?

Cara Ferraro

The Eels did a great cover of it

Never heard of this song before, i'm shocked it wasn't on VH1's 50 Most Awesomely Bad Songs ever list. Thank you for introducing me to Dakota, such an underrated band.

RedBedroomRecords

Wilkes-Barre, PA was mentioned in the book "50 Worst Places to Live in America" mostly because it's infamous for being a favorite place for the mob to dump bodies.

RedBedroomRecords

at least half of the songs covered on OHW are ones i've never heard of.

RedBedroomRecords

"Timothy, the miner that eats like a meal" was inspired too.

Weirdest song... cannibal regret

Stream "Sixteen Tons". Bona fide classic. Heh. Bone-a fide.

Colton Moore

"I'm trying to be upbeat and I have to talk about a fucking miner getting eaten!" - Casey Kasem

Mr. Morrison

Would have been better if it were Howard because fuck that movie.

GeddyLeeRoth

There's a sea shanty or two that's similar. A few sailor are trapped in a life boat and have to draw lots to see who dies to save the others. Though, that would actually involve killing your fellow sailor to drain the water from their liver or eyes. Because remember kids: you'll die of thirst long before you die of hunger.

I'll bet money the YouTube algorithm is kinder to the cannibal ballad than the f*** my p**** song.

Joe G

Well I can safely say this is the first One Hit Wonderland episode that made me sick at my stomach.

Tanner McGuire

Somehow I was not previously familiar with this song but I will never forget it now. Great episode! Can't wait to share it with my dad when it goes live on YouTube, he always enjoys when you cover older stuff that he knows.

Vanessa Picard

"And after I listened to 'Heartlight' five times, the tumor was GONE and the doctors said they never saw such a rapid blah blah blah." (Forgive me if that's not word for word, but I'm too lazy to walk over to the bookshelf and check.)

Kristopher Bluth

Rupert Holmes also wrote the very entertaining novel Where The Truth Lies (Skip the awful film version.) He has a FAR more interesting career than "The Pina Colada Song" would probably lead most people to believe.

Kristopher Bluth

These OHW videos are always like a Snapple bottle; even if I don’t like the song that’s being covered, at least I learn something once I’ve popped the top off

Cameron Kirkpatrick

I assume they went with Timothy because Richard Parker wasn’t as catchy a name.

Meaghan

It reminds me a lot of "Six Miners" by Sam Kelly and the Lost Boys, a (British traditional) folk tune which seems to have roots in an old song, though the lyrics have altered with time, which has a similar theme in its refrain: "six miners went to the mountain, but only one came back". Not sure it's explicitly cannibalistic though!

Georgie Rowe

The Dutch must REALLY love "Give Up Your Guns" since it somehow has MORE THAN 4 TIMES the streams of "Timothy" on Spotify!

Jasper Phua

Timothy was totally a Mule! And that Mississippi mosquito flag was totally a "typo"! Sarcasm aside, I can't help but compare this song to "Blue Sky Mine" by Midnight Oil, which Todd talked about in the OHW on them. Like, at least that song had the political point of highlighting how terrible the job of being a miner is, and how mistreated they are. "Timothy" doesn't even seem aware that that's a point it could've made, but just didn't.

JasSpy

"Timothy himself was probably delicious" I choked on my drink. Thanks Todd

Stephanie Martin

I remember when my mom told me when my dad told her the meaning of this song years ago. All I remembered was 'cannibal song that is the title of a guy's name' and this has to be the one. Also Pennsylvania is my state so that makes a lot of sense.

LightningZBolt

Can I just say, I'm totally in favor of putting perverse and disgusting shit in a pop hit.

Max Eliaser

Great talk as always, though I'm surprised you didn't touch on Joel Robinson's Timothy-was-a-duck theory. I might still have a white label Scepter promo 45 with the original recording on one side and a "revised lyric" version ("feeling as fine as we could be" replaces the full-stomach line) on the flip in my collection.

Highlight of my week is a new Todd video :) My only suggestion is that Jerry-Kelly album art pic is so low res, like a 6 kb jpg that I think its kind of jarringly unuseable, totally illegible unless the video screen is small.

Taylor Abrahamse

I like upbeat music with dark lyrics just fine, but somehow in this song’s case it doesn’t feel like the jolly music is providing an ironic contrast to the grusome subject matter, it just feels like the artist doesn’t understand tone. Kinda like The Night Chicago Died in that regard.

the purple shaman

There are some people who remember “Him” because it also was mentioned in that Bad Songs book. Anyway, great review!

And I also like the song that autoplays after it on Spotify! Time to become a full on The Buoys stan

Nowhere Girl

I like overblown production so this is actually really doing it for me

Nowhere Girl

Nightmare fuel, Todd.

SJ

Great episode, although I'm pretty sure "Barre" in Wilkes-Barre is pronounced like Barry

shocked that Penis, colada that is wasn't a line in Guardians of the Galaxy

Nowhere Girl

I second this. Bonkers doesn’t even begin to describe the follow-up for that one.

the purple shaman

Speaking of Dave Barry's Bad Songs, has there been any clamor for "In The Year 2525"? Could maybe even be spooktacular. It was also number ONE for a mind boggling SIX WEEKS and had a bonkers followup.

Russet Burbank

I mentally bluescreened when you referred to OHW's "early years." Early years?! I remember when you started it. How could that possibly be years ago?

Alina

I haven't read Dave Barry's Book Of Bad Songs in years but I read it so much as a kid that I have certain passages memorized verbatim. That and Dave Barry's Gift Guide To End All Gift Guides were the height of comedy to child me (and parts of the latter still make me laugh when I think about them - the entry on "Cow Parts" is viscerally horrifying.)

Anthony Hansen

If you like pina coladas/getting caught in a mine

Home Theater of Cruelty

Jesus christ what the fuck

Elijah Stolyar

According to Joel Robinson, it's a well known fact that Timothy is about a duck.

Saint Rocket

I didn't recognize this until you started playing it and. Oh. THIS song.

Crow

I love Magnetic fields and NMH.

Creamer

This is a first. A song you've covered on OHW that I've never heard before. Dayumn!

GeddyLeeRoth