Classic Roots Choice #17

There have been a number of walk-on songs which were gray areas as to whether they deserved a blog post. For instance, Mike Meyers was on Friday night's show and the Roots played the "Halloween" theme (Mike Meyers/Halloween, yeah).

But the guest after Mike Meyers made it a "no brainer". Matt Lucas, of Little Britain fame was on to promote "Alice in Wonderland". For him, The Roots played "The Peanut Song" (unofficial title).

If you haven't seen heard it on the youtubes, it goes a little something like this:

Yes, it's just that stupid. That is one hot backing track.

It's possible they "cheated" and just did a youtube search for possible songs. But if not, I am extremely impressed. I'm a fan of "Little Britain" and, by extension, Matt Lucas, and I was only barely aware of this clip so if they genuinely knew about it, my hat is off to them... again.

Saved By The Bell: OUT. California Dreams: IN.

It's officially been over a year since Jimmy Fallon began hosting "Late Night" and for most of that time his dream has been to finally reunite the cast of "Saved By The Bell". He has failed and admitted defeat. But now, his new dream is to reunite the cast of the NBC Saturday morning show "California Dreams".

The attempt was not without controversy and not without a shirtless dude. Also, with the "California Dreams" reunion, I expected a great time at the beach... sans Mr. Belding... Let's watch...

Can I make a suggestion? The next show reunion needs to be, absolutely HAS TO BE the NBC Saturday morning show "Hang Time". Make it happen.

"SKEEZAS DISSIN' HOMEY SCRUBS!"

"CHICKEN HEEEAAAAADD!!!!!!!!"

Cranberry Saaaucccce

President and CEO of Toyota Akio Toyoda apologizes to the American people and David Letterman. But it raises more questions than it answers.

The video is not embeddable but you can see it here.

LATE - Episode II

I don't know if you've been watching the new drama "Late" but you should be. Jimmy Fallon stars in this nail-biter about a group of strangers whose elevator crashes on a strange and deserted floor. The first episode was kind of so-so but this second episode has me hooked.

We Are the World War II

The comments in my original post on "We are the World" parodies reminded me of Conan's own version. Unlike other benefit songs which help out people in Haiti or people in Africa, etc., Conan decided to go another direction: why limit yourself to just one cause or even just one region ... or even just one species? How about making a song that helps out people and animals with general problems in a general way?

This is from the earlier days when Carl "Oldie" Olsen was still around/alive. Now, HE'S a big star who I was surprised to see.

I believe that next internet meme may be the Sting facepalm.

We Are the World?... Really?

The cold open to this week's SNL pokes fun at the new "We Are the World". I actually haven't even seen the new one. I didn't even know it was released.

Like I said, I haven't seen the new one, so I don't know if the parody is accurate but I'm thinking it is. It isn't so much that there was a lack of effort or that stars just don't care about charity, it's that there aren't any stars anymore. Sounds weird to say, sounds like a stupid "things aren't like the old days", but think about it, who's the modern day equivalent of Michael Jackson? Who are the people that if you got them all in a room you would say, "I can't believe they got all these big names in one room, this is unbelievable!". Puff Daddy? Eminem? Black Eyed Peas? HA! At the moment I can't think of any group of modern-day pop musicians that would impress me.

Back in the day, SNL spoofed the original "celebrity cause anthem" trend by doing a pro-free-range chicken song called "Set the Chickens Free". There was one while after that that sought to explain the Whitewater scandal. Those were classics. I hope someone gets them on the internet sometime.