147. Soitenly!

147. "The Curly Shuffle" by Jump 'N' the Saddle Band

The beginning of the 1976 television season introduced my 10-year-old cartoon loving brain to Jabberjaw--a shark that talked like Curly on The Three Stooges. I didn't like the storyline of the cartoon that much--a shark that's a drummer for a lame teenage rock band. It actually wasn't that memorable of a show to me, and I don't recall anything that ever happened in any of the episodes. But I loved how Jabberjaw talked like Curly--so much so that I began to imitate Jabberjaw. That's right. In my pre-pubescent mind, I wanted to learn to talk like Jabberjaw, not Curly. So I practiced by repeating the phrases and sounds that Jabberjaw made until I got decent enough at imitating the shark that I could not only make my sisters laugh, but I also could make myself chuckle. Granted, my Jabberjaw repertoire was mostly limited to three sounds: woob-woob, nyuk-nyuk, and ahUUUah! But you can do a lot with just these three sounds. In fact, these three sounds made up about 37% of the shark's dialogue on the show. Don't believe me? Here's a sample.



In this clip, Jabber has about 40 seconds of dialogue. In that time, he had 3 woob-woobs, 6 nyuk-nyuks, and 5 ahUUUahs. The time it takes to make those three sounds varies, but it's about 15 seconds in total. 15/40 = 37.5%

I told ya! I told ya!

Full disclosure--I totally made up the 37% number before I did the dialogue analysis, and I was right on the mark! I guess I must have learned more from Alan Christensen's math classes than how to make girls laugh by sharpening pencils. (Take a full-length pencil, insert into sharpener, crank for about 5 seconds, blow on the pencil tip and check for sharpness, insert and crank again for about 10 seconds, blow again, sharpen for 2 seconds, blow again, sharpen for 2 quick cranks, blow again, return to seat with pencil nub.)

Because I had already mastered the three basic Jabberjaw curly-esque sounds, when the Jump 'N' the Saddle Band released "The Curly Shuffle" in 1983 I made an immediate, strong connection to the song, and I started adding some Curly quotes to my Jabberjaw noises, including "Oh, wise guy!" and "Soitenly!"

The Curly Shuffle hardly ever gets played on the radio anymore, but every now and then when I'm feeling like I want a little pick-me-up, I'll google up an illegal copy on the ol' internet and let the song take me back to a time when all I needed to be happy was a little Jabberjaw noise.

I don't know if there was ever an official video that went with this song, and if there was, I doubt MTV played it. But I do think that it is entertaining to listen to the song while watching clips from The Three Stooges shorts.



By the way, I think most songs would be better if you've got a Stooges movie compilation for the video. For example, Gangnam Style is at least 1000% better with Moe, Larry, and Curly (and Shemp) dancing to it. (I'm sure that Roni and Buzz will back me up on that claim.)




If only I could imitate those dance moves!

The Curly Shuffle isn't the first or last novelty song on the list. But it is the only song that brings out my inner ten-year-old so much that I walk around the house doing Jabberjaw sounds for the rest of the day. Of course, you know what my wife's reaction is to that--AhUUUahUUUahUUUah!