Tuesday, May 6, 2014

Toon Rock: Jabberjaw (Running Underwater)(1998?)

In the late 90's, when Cartoon Network actually knew what they were doing, the network commissioned a series of music videos, most of which used footage from some of the series in their library (i.e. Magilla Gorilla, Dexter's Laboratory, Jetsons), but others were fan-made videos, the fans being CN staffers, obviously, using new material.

Some of the videos used songs recorded by familiar artists, such as They Might Be Giants, Devo, and Shonen Knife. Some genius decided to match Sugar Ray's hit, "When It's Over", to a montage from the remake of George of the Jungle. Two songs by Soul Coughing were also used, one with footage from The Flintstones ("Circles"), and the other attached to a Betty Boop excerpt.

Here, though, is Pain, an otherwise little known band, with "Jabberjaw (Running Underwater)". Biff appears to be emerging from the cover of a lunchbox.....



Sorry, but the idea of a shark with a nose ring is just so wrong. Had this been made, say, when the network launched in 1992, when grunge was in, it might've worked.

4 comments:

Nick Moose said...

Grunge? This whole video is obviously inspired by the ska-punk sound and look that was totally IN right around when this video premiered. Trust me, a lot of us listened to Ska punk-the best of us still do.

hobbyfan said...

Oh, like No Doubt, then. Ok, that makes sense, Nick. Thanks.

magicdog said...

I still enjoy this short. Believe it or not the premise would still work.

Picture it:

Fast forward about 100 or so years in the future - and Man has created underwater colonies. A group of musicians are bored with the current state of music (Britney Spears is on a constant loop to torture prisoners) and decide to look into the past for inspiration. They ultimately come up with the ska-punk sound and try to emulate the fashions. Bubbles of course goes back a little too far and dresses like a 50s bobby soxer!

They play all over the colonies and perhaps get involved in all sorts of intrigue (perhaps as their are colonies, perhaps a revolt for independence is brewing with the empire on dryland!) and come out on top.

Jabber could still be Jabber - an experiment/breeding program to create friendly undersea pets.

hobbyfan said...

Hmmmmm. Sounds interesting, although today, I'd rather use Justin Bieber music, since Bieber is suddenly no longer popular in some circles.