#chumbawamba

D/S Monthly Round-Up

Howdy, pard’ners! Here’s what we rustled up on D/S this month!

• Eminem sounded like he was actually having…fun?
  
• Tag Team rapped about the Addams Family.
  
• Cromagnon invented black metal before Black Sabbath invented metal.
  
• Chumbawamba popped up in a Dick Tracy strip.
  
• Yosuke Yamashita played a burning piano.
  
• Dave “Baby” Cortez riffed on “Shortenin’ Bread.”
  
• Shonen Knife covered The Carpenters.
  
• We boogied to spooky organ music.

- TWG

MEDIUM WELL

(Music and Other Media)

Chumbawamba in Dick Tracy

Apparently there’s a member of Dick Tracy’s rogues gallery who goes by Blackjack, dresses like a ‘30s gangster, and uses Chumbawamba’s novelty hit “Tubthumping” to soundtrack all of his robberies. No, I don’t know what to do with that information either.

According to the Dick Tracy Wiki, Blackjack does this to control the timing of his robberies. Okay, I get that. You know you gotta be behind the teller’s desk by the first chorus, out the door by the bridge, etc. That makes sense. I used to time my morning showers much the same way back in high school.

But why “Tubthumping?” It certainly doesn’t fit with Blackjack’s Depression-era bank robber aesthetic. Nor was it in the cultural zeitgeist during his creation: Blackjack first appeared in 2012, more than a decade after the song’s release. The closest guess I have is that since Blackjack occasionally adopts the practice of purposefully robbing banks with unethical business practices, he was a Chumbawamba tru-fan who really vibed with their anti-capitalist message and chose the song to add a intertextual layer to his low rent Robin Hood-ing.

Or maybe it’s just random nonsense.

-TWG

What a week, friends! But I made it (& if you’re reading this-you survived too! High five! )!