Music / Green Jellÿ

The Punk Rock Puppet Show.

"Got nothing to do on a Friday night
(GREEN JELLO SUXX!)
Ain't got no talent but that's alright
(GREEN JELLO SUXX!)
We're the worst, the worst in the land
(GREEN JELLO SUXX!)
But c'mon! You gotta give us a hand
(GREEN JELLO SUXX!)"

— "Green Jello Theme Song"

Green Jellÿ is a comedy/punk/metal band started in 1981 by an eccentric individual named Bill Manspeaker. They were originally named Green Jello, until they were sued by Kraft Foods in 1992. ^note they still get referred to as Green Jello, with the joke that a Y with an umlaut is pronounced like an "O". You may remember them by their 1992 hit single "Three Little Pigs", a somewhat... interesting take on the well-known nursery rhyme. Although they started back in the early '80s, they reached their peak in the early-mid '90s with their albums Cereal Killer (1991) and 333 (1994), before disappearing forever...

...or at least that's what everyone thought, because they never fully disbanded, and in the 2000s they began touring again. Their latest album, Musick To Insult Your Intelligence By, was released in 2009, although it had been recorded in 1995. The band is currently working on an upcoming fifth album titled Green Jellö Nursery Crimes.

They are known for being intentionally cheesy, calling themselves "the worst band in the world" and using the slogan "GREEN JELLO SUXX!!", as well as incorporating homemade puppets and weird characters on their stage shows. They've had loads and loads of lineup changes, with frontman Bill Manspeaker being the only constant member since the beginning.

Discography:

• Let It Be (EP, 1984)

• Triple Live Möther Gööse at Budokan (1989)

• Cereal Killer (1992 video album, re-released in audio-only format the following year as Cereal Killer Soundtrack)

• 333 (1994)

• Musick To Insult Your Intelligence By (2009, recorded in 1995)

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Tropes To Insult Your Intelligence By:

• The '90s: Their peak period was from 1991 to 1995.

• Album Intro Track: Triple Live Mother Goose has "Circus Circus".
  • "Green Jell-Ö Theme Song" on Let It Be. Later subverted when in was rerecorded for Cereal Killer, as it appears as the last track on that album.

• Cover Version:
  • Gary Glitter's "I'm the Leader of the Gang (I Am)", featuring Hulk Hogan.
  • They also covered Steppenwolf's "Born to Be Wild" in 1995 for a movie of the same name.

• Dream Spying: In the music video for "Orange Krunch", the titular monster is stalking a man in his dreams for no apparent reason.

• Epic Rocking: Both "Anthem" and the Cereal Killer version of "Three Little Pigs" are roughly 6 minutes long. The latter was 7 minutes long on Triple Live Mother Goose, and "Eat Satan's Ham" from that same album is 7:39.
• Fractured Fairy Tale: "Three Little Pigs" sets the story in the modern day, and ends with the third pig calling 911 on the wolf, who is taken out by Rambo.

• Genre Roulette: The 333 album. It contains, among others, Deathrock ("Carnage Rules", "Fixation"), Thrash Metal ("Orange Krunch"), Noise Rock ("Fight"), a rock ballad (Anthem), and a B-52's style parody ("Slave Boy").
  • Triple Live Mother Goose and Cereal Killer also qualify, albeit to a lesser extent, as they mostly jump between punk and metal. The former includes the circus-esque intro "Circus Circus" as well as the funk rock of "Whip Me Teenage Babe" and the Doom Metal number "Eat Satan's Ham, while the latter has the classic rock tune "Electric Harley House of Love", a techno version of "Whip Me Teenage Babe" titled "House Me Teenage Rave", and "Tripping on XTC", which starts as Funk Rock and then becomes Stoner Rock.

• Heävy Mëtal Ümlaut: The band's name (both before and after the name change) as well as Triple Live Möther Gööse at Budokan.

• I Am the Band: The band is Bill Manspeaker and a revolving door of others.

• Instrumentals:
  • "Food Fight" (excluding the "FOOOOOOOOD FIIIIIIIIIIIIGHT!" scream at the beginning).
  • On Let It Be there's "Icrog", and the semi-instrumentals "Hill Hill" (which contains wordless vocals) and "The Ice Cream Song" (which has some spoken vocals at the beginning).

• Intercourse with You: Taken to the extreme in "House Me Teenage Rave"/"Whip Me Teenage Babe".

• Large Ham: Bill Manspeaker tends to start a song by screaming its title (notable examples include "Rock N Roll Pumpkihn", "Obey the Cowgod" and "Carnage Rules").
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: At the end of "Three Little Pigs" the lyrics reference the stop-motion music video:
  And the moral of the story is
  A band with no talent can easily amuse
  Idiots with a stupid puppet show

• Long Runner: They formed in 1981 and have never disbanded, though they were rather inactive in the second half of the '90s. Bill Manspeaker has been the band's face since the beginning.
  • Co-founder Joe "Dunderhed" Cannizaro also deserves a mention for being in the band from their inception until the hiatus.

• Metal Band Mascot: A strange, slimy-looking skull with crossbones, with its tongue sticking out and a single eyeball popping out of one of its eyesockets◊.

• Miniscule Rocking: "Icrog" from Let It Be lasts for ONE. FRIGGING. SECOND. The Triple Live Mother Goose version adds a spoken introduction extending it to one minute, however.
  • Other examples: "You're Gone" (1:44), "Nightmare on Sesame Street" (1:41), "Food Fight" (1:17)... and every song on Let It Be.

• Mundane Made Awesome: "FOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD FIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGHT!"

• Musical Squares: Let it Be is a parody of The Beatles' album of the same name, replacing the Beatles' faces with Green Jelly members and a bedsheet.

• New Sound Album: They started as a noisy punk band, with Triple Live Mother Goose they became more metal-oriented, Cereal Killer was a bit more eclectic and 333 was an all-out Genre Roulette.

• One-Word Title: "Anthem", "Fight", "Fixation", "Jump", "Jerk", "Icrog".

• Rearrange the Song: "Whip Me Teenage Babe", originally a funk rock song, was reworked into "House Me Teenage Rave", a techno track, for Cereal Killer.
  • Most of the songs in Triple Live Mother Goose were revamped for Cereal Killer. "I've Got Poo Poo on My Shoe" from Let It Be was also revamped for Cereal Killer under the name "Misadventures of Shitman", while "Icrog", also from Let It Be, was redone for Triple Live Mother Goose.

• Revolving Door Band: The number of lineup changes they've had is so big, there isn't even a complete list of members. The classic lineup included Maynard James Keenan (under the stage name "Billy Bob") and Danny Carey.

• Self-Deprecation: As their motto says, GREEN JELLO SUXX!
  "And the moral of the story is that bands with no talent can easily amuse idiots with a stupid puppet show."

• Song Parody: "Anarchy in Bedrock" (obvious parody of "Anarchy in the UK").
  • There's also a parody of disco hit "The Hustle" in Let It Be called "(Do the) Howie".

• Stage Names: All of the members use them, for example Bill Manspeaker is "Moronic Dicktator".

• Three Chords and the Truth: They play mostly power chords in all their songs,mostly due to their claims of lack of musical ability.

• Toilet Humor: "Misadventures of Shitman"

• Word Salad Title: Triple Live Möther Gööse at Budokan

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