Heh, heh... 3rd Wave Ska does kinda sound like High School Marching Bands. This was great Invisible (Can I call you Invisible). Great idea, great view into the minds of my favorite band, and I loved the "Reel Big Deal" pun! All around perfection!

Glad you included the link, else I'd've been lost in re the OS. Anyway, great job. I had to laugh, despite that I was myself a schoolboy bandsman--initially and primarily a trombonist, AAMOF, tho' eventually any brass, as needed--and even marched a mandated semester to keep the concert orchestra seat I abandoned the subsequent semester for after-school employment to fund after-work fun-seeking. Oh, BTW ... my son's own high school late ’70s garage band was named "Big Fish," but they never reached for nor attained the Reel Big-time. :-)

"a giant outline of Chuck Mangione’s hat" ... Funny AND disturbing! 555!

captured the horror of high school bands quite well

Gotta be the first parody to use "sackbut." 15 trombones.

We don't have HS marching bands where I'm from, so some of the references were lost on me....but I kinda got a kick out of this anyway; especially afyer hearing this COOL cover of the a-ha classic. So, fun 5s

Thanks Matthias, Stan, JD, alvin, John and Kristof.

I'm glad you liked it Matty because I know you're into RBF.

Stan, you've mentioned your trombonian past.
Q-What do you call 1000 trombones at the bottom of the ocean ?
A-A good start !

Inviaboy - This needed no "Band Aid". Very clever and original and what Sir John Barry said. Well done!. Your tromboone joke reminds me of a lawyer joke:

Q: What is worse than a bus load of lawyers going over a cliff?
A: That same bus with an empty seat. (pa dum pa dum dump - badda-bing-tisch!)

That was me trying to play the drums.
I never played in a HS band but I can relate to the marching. During one of my mandatory military schools one part that was a requirement in order to graduate, each student was required to march a flight of airmen in close order drill. The test consisted of about 35 mandatory commands inside of a very tight perimeter. A grand total of nealy 200 command which can be repeated within a two minute time period. Being USAF we did not do a lot of marching except in basic training and military schools so this presented to be a challenge for nearly all of us. Marching in formation is one thing. Taking command of a formation is a whole 'nother ball game. Everyone started out with 100 points and everytime you messed up something, points were deducted from your final score. We were also constrained by a tight perimeter and if your flight, while marching strayed across the out of bounds line, major points were deducted. I can remember the instructor saying that this is simply a matter of thinking on your feet

My turn came and I got all my stationary mandatory commands, as many as I could remember out of the way first. I then moved the flight in a marching pattern issuing column left and column right, to the rear and other marching directional change commands.

I was on the right side of the flight that was in column formation two paces from a spot that was between the second guy from the end and the third guy from the end. I decide that it is time to do a flanking movement. I issued a right flank, march command. PANIC - I should have said left because now the entire flight was marching right towards on top of me.

I rememberd one thing, think on your feet. No time to do a flight halt, no time to do a to the rear march and any comand given took two steps to complete where I would have surely made physical contact with someone and it would have probably meant failing the exam. I thought to myself, hey I am the flight commander. I can do what ever I want. I just have to stay in step with the rest. I simply reversed my step and marched backward as the flight passed just inches in front of my eyes. I stepped myself smartly back into the position I needed to be in and continued to march.

I think I wound up with a 97% on the test. The instructor had given me 10 to 15 points for getting myself out of that bad call situation and said that I was the first person he'd ever seen survive something like that. Thanks for listeneing to my war stories.

Holy moley Guy! Your comment is longer than Invisible Boy's parody!!!

I enjoyed this parody, at band camp!

(Aritstry) Having heard the video (??:)), I now appreciate this more than the first time I read it! Wow! Love the in-jokes on the video itself, RBF and the band-mystique. And a big plus for the horn solo! Hey IB (or anyone) check out this band from Chicago, Mucca Pazza: http://www.myspace.com/muccapazza

(Artistry) Still laughing at the imagery of the crew cut mini dreads... and bonus points for mentioning Ides of March.

(Artistry) Well that was...interesting. Well done on this marching masterpiece!

(Artistry) This one is very well written, but I'm still scratching my head at the "Uniforms that look so gay" line. . .never have understood how gay became a word for odd, I've never really adapted to that and (as TCOP can attest to) I tend to read things funny, so don't take it offensively, seeing that word (or similar words) used in situations like this can often strike me odd (I know that you are using it only as a descriptor word that rhymes there--it just always hits me weird, just like how some people use cool as uncool or queer as different, or etc) Other than that well done. . .Reel Big Fish ruined A-Ha's version though--yuck