Bill Manspeaker
It’s not unusual for people in show business to adopt a catchier name. Norma Jeane Mortenson became Marilyn Monroe. Brian Warner became Marilyn Manson. What’s rarer is when fame leads to an established act ditching one name for another mid-stream, as happened to the comedy rock band Green Jellÿ.
They started out back in 1981 as Green Jellö, DIY troupers from greater Buffalo, New York singing ditties about ice cream and poo on their shoe. Then in 1993 something truly strange happened: Green Jellö became sensations with a screaming mock heavy-metal rendition of the children’s story, “Three Little Pigs.” The claymation video touting the band’s “Cereal Killer Soundtrack” album ran riot on MTV, and rock radio gleefully put the single on blast next to Guns N’ Roses and Nirvana.
While 13-year-olds across the nation were pleased by this development, Kraft Foods — the corporate parent of mass-market dessert staple Jell-O — most assuredly was not. Facing cease-and-desist demands from Kraft’s big bad wolf lawyers, Green Jellö moved a couple of vowels over to the not-so-trademarked Green Jellÿ (and in true metal fashion kept the umlaut).
Safe from further brand litigation, the band has carried on satirically. Green Jellÿ’s latest LP, “Garbage Band Kids,” landed in 2021 as a time capsule of what pre-teen boys found hilarious in the ’80s. The album name and artwork pay homage to the gross-out Garbage Pail Kids trading card franchise. Parody song king Weird Al Yankovic makes a cameo. The music — poking fun at SpongeBob Squarepants and punk rock, among other fat targets — is the sonic equivalent of Cracked and Mad magazine spoofs.
“Garbage Band Kids” also upholds the enduring credo of singer, founder and sole permanent member Bill Manspeaker that Green Jellÿ be forever known as the world’s worst band. A crusade for awfulness that saw them gonged off The Gong Show in under 30 seconds in 1988 will have a room full of sweaty moshers knowingly or unknowingly in on the joke here in 2024.
Green Jellÿ, on their “Three Little Pigs” 30th Anniversary Tour, perform 8pm Saturday, January 13 at Respectable Street in West Palm Beach. greenjellÿ.com ~ David Rolland
