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Jill

Я оченÑŒ Ñ€ад, ведÑŒ я, наконец, возвÑ€ащаюсь домой

Mark Frauenfelder at 12:58 pm Mon, Mar 1, 2010

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Nothing I can say here will make this any better. (Thanks Jim and Steve!)

Mark Frauenfelder is the founder of Boing Boing and the editor-in-chief of MAKE and Cool Tools. Twitter: @frauenfelder. Come and hear Mark speak at the ALA conference in Chicago on July 1.

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Eurovision 2013: An American in London

The technology that links taxonomy and Star Trek

  • Lucifer

    You gotta figure that’s how you get songs to be deemed acceptable and not offensive to Communist party doctrine.

  • dbarak

    1. The Cyrillic title translates to “I’m very glad because I’m finally back home.”

    2. In a strange coincidence, I saw that guy dressed up in a pirate suit in Pirates of the Caribbean yesterday at Disneyland.

  • Anonymous

    There needs to be a sitcom where this dude is married to NK Robot Traffic Lady. Sort of an I Love Lucy behind the Iron Curtain.

  • Teller

    Enhanced Interrogation, Level 4.

  • Undertoad

    I hereby endorse this product for those who are high.

    • Anonymous

      i highly know what your talkin about!

  • pjcamp

    My brain hurts.

  • Anonymous

    In reverse Clockwork Orange speak, the title would be “I am very rad”

  • Tom Hale

    I watched All of it – what do I win?

    I know exactly what happened here – The show had 3 minutes left and were out of performers – they got Bob, the guy that sweeps up after the show to come in and sing his beautiful sweeping song. It was a hit! He zoomed to the top of the local charts, became famous locally, even starring in 3 episodes of CHIPs.

    I always wondered what ever happened to Bob – him and Rodney Allen Rippy.

  • kaiza

    Pretty sure he is singing LOLOLOLOLOL for a fair portion of this.

    The Carrameldansen mashup/mix is a good antidote, although I wish the lip syncing was matched better.

  • Anonymous

    Couldn’t understand the lyrics.

    Could someone translate, please?

  • Antinous / Moderator

    You’ve hit bottom when live humans live in the uncanny valley.

  • Uncle Geo

    Finally. A song to displace that insipid “Tomorrow” song that wouldn’t leave my head.

  • Anonymous

    I, for one, welcome our poorly lip-synching robotic overlords!

    “Future Voices” Captcha for the win!

  • Anonymous

    Anyone know if he is single?

  • Gutierrez

    Do you guys know of any international copyright on this song I would have to worry about to use this song? This would be absolutely killer as intro and outro music to a podcast I’m putting together.

    Don’t ask my why, but this song makes my day Mark.

    • Yamara

      Gutierrez, if my Wikipedia-fu holds true, artistic works made in the Soviet Union before its collapse are in the public domain, worldwide. The little “1976″ in the lower left corner would indicate that this work fits the timeframe.

      But caution: IANAL.

  • NickHS

    Ah – it all becomes clear at last!

    This is obviously where Bob Downe got the idea for his act – and his hairdo… it had been worrying me for years

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2R7YkBwKVY

  • jm

    That’s the best Supermarionation I’ve ever seen!

    And to think the pop stars of today could NEVER do that…well, not without Autotune.

  • Wingo

    This is seriously one of the greatest videos I have ever seen. Like, for real this time.

  • BomberWaterfallSandwich

    “Let’s give a big hand to Comrade Yuri Tupolev! Thank you Yuri, that was terrific!
    “Next up on The Glorious People’s Variety Hour of Honor…”

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-nviaWnxwo

  • Uncle Geo

    Oh, God; there are others!

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyAKBuU72p4&feature=player_embedded

    • LeSinge

      Uncle Geo’s link makes me wonder if this is a way for the Soviet Union to make “American” music without using English. Don’t these songs sound American and the phonemes they’re using sound like (American) English?

      Let’s roll out the other Boing Boing links to fake English-language songs!

  • Marcel

    I have seen the future of Rickrolling.

    • damon

      Marcel! I LOL’d.

  • oasisob1

    Hey I know I’m late to the game, but, my Russian Instructor informs me that what you hear and what you see are not connected. The original video featured actual lyrics, The Trololo song originally features lyrics, about a cowboy riding a horse to his farm, “Я скачу по прерии на своем жеребце, мустанге таком-то, а моя любимая Мэри за тысячу миль отсюда вяжет для меня чулок”. He did this vocalizing thing over the video for use in some TV program, because for some inexplicable Soviet reason, they either could not, or desired not to use the lyrics.

    Weird.

  • Someone else called Mart

    … and that makes my new ringtone…

  • Anonymous

    I watched the whole thing… I couldn’t help myself.

  • IronEdithKidd

    It’s somehow reassuring that the 70′s were equally beige and brown in the Soviet Union as they were in the United States. This easily could have been featured on Lawrence Welk in the same year.

  • rationalist

    Oh ho ho ho ho, ho ho ho, ho ho ho, la la la, Mm Mm mm mmmm.

  • dbarak

    Who wrote the lyrics?

    • misterfricative

      Who wrote the lyrics? Heck, I think I did!

      Or it might have been Mr Bean.

      Also, if Malcolm McDowell hadn’t been available, this guy would have been an awesome choice to play Alex in Clockwork Orange.

  • Deadmeat

    That’s WAY more weird when you don’t notice you have 2 YouTube windows open a couple of seconds apart of that same video, and then the simultaneous but delayed playback of the music starts giving you flashbacks.

    Especially when you’ve never even tried LSD.

  • bbbaldie

    Notice the date? Maybe disco wasn’t so bad after all…

  • License Farm

    How did they get a camera down to the gates of Hell?

    “Покиньте все упование, вас который регистрирует здесь.”

  • Anonymous

    It’s Data’s new job as a lounge singer!

  • Axx

    Ahh! My Ch’i is centered.

  • timA

    Peter Serafinowicz is gonna love this – somebody Tweet him immediately.

  • Anonymous

    It is amazing how far the Soviets got in robotics. Too bad they couldn’t get them to speak.

  • Anonymous

    From Russian Wikipedia:
    Hill’s manner of execution is unique and easily recognizable, characterized by charm, consistently excellent-sounding bright, resonant, lyrical baritone, powerful charge of optimism and humor. Onstage Hill keeps himself very confidently, primly, accompanying his singing with light dance moves and effective gesticulation.

  • cycleogical

    You vulgarians clearly cant grasp the profundity of a Soviet operatic scat mime performance.

  • BdgBill

    This is what happens when you OD on ecstasy and Botox at the same time.

  • Anonymous

    and now for the hi-nrgy dance remix!

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQ_MzlfiLKc

  • Anonymous

    If they’d used this guy at Guantanamo we wouldn’t have wasted years trying to waterboard confessions out of people.

  • webmonkees

    It’s like some time warp.. there’s more with the same song:
    Russian Ricky Ricardo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyAKBuU72p4 it makes any less sense.

  • semiotix

    “Я очень рад, ведь я, наконец, возвращаюсь домой”

    Why you little… my mother was a SAINT!

  • Felton

    The incongruous yodel/spin halfway through is just icing on an already deliciously bizarre cake.

  • drdarz

    this is called an Ostrovskii composition and you sing it in vokaliz, meaning without words. It was performed by the singer Muslim Magomaev in the film “The Blue Spark”

  • MadRat

    I never realized that J. R. “Bob” Dobbs took time out from his busy Sub Genius schedule to be a singer in the Soviet Union. But come to think of it, that makes perfect sense. (Geese, I’m showing my age.)

  • Trent Hawkins

    Hey! It’s all over the Colbert Report now

  • erzatsen

    ha
    been seeing this around the intartubes for a week or so now.
    first found it over at Metzger’s.
    already working out how to use it in a burlesque act.

    and, as suggested above, get it open in 2-5 windows with a little lag in between.
    *magical*

  • Anonymous

    Where can I get an mp3 of this? I must have it for my alarm clock in the morning.

  • Anonymous

    Open this video playing in several windows with reasonable time offset.

    The syncopation is fricking amazing.

  • 110rdr33f4

    Wow. Thanks, Mark. Uncanny valley, indeed!

  • Anonymous

    He looks like he was created by the same make-up team that did the original Planet Of The Apes!

    Talk about your “Uncanny Valley”!

  • Anonymous

    Lo lo lo lo lo lo lo lo lo lo lo, kind of like the Soviet idea of American variety programs of the 60s and 70s, but with a song that wasn’t a song. Awesome.

  • sixohsix

    Instant dub remix.

    http://bit.ly/cH1tLQ

  • thanatomaton

    Rrrrrrrringtone!

  • Anonymous

    welcome to the soundtrack of my childhood. it’s a wonder I did not become a serial killer

  • Anonymous

    I’ve often wondered how singers remember all the words to songs. That was very impressive. I wonder how it would sound in English.

  • Anonymous

    Boys and girls,

    We have found the newest Rick-Rolling meme. Go forth and spread its message.

  • MarkM

    Wow, someone already made both “uncanny valley”
    and Enzyte references; clearly, i was late to the thread.

  • dannotdan

    So Tim Burton really is making that Lawrence Welk biopic, then?

  • Anonymous

    o great now i’ve got THAT tune stuck in my head

  • Ted8305

    Russian Enzyte man is очень freaking рад.

  • cinemajay

    Now that I’ve watched it I can’t get the tune out of my head. The only problem is, it’s not even a tune I can hum!!!

  • Boba Fett Diop

    Бля!

  • BadassTheo

    For those of you haters saying he’s lip syncing, allow me to educate you: He’s using a technique that’s common in barbershop quartets and other small harmonizing groups. You’ll notice his pitch is clean- no vibrato (the wavy pulsating sound you hear when a cartoon zooms in on a big-chested opera singer’s uvula). If you’re singing in a small group and you want to have a bell-like sound, you need to sing right on the pitch, not waving up and down a quarter note or so.

    The sound comes from the soft palette- the squishy spot far back on the roof of your mouth. It lets you sing while holding pretty much any face. That’s why his mouth isn’t moving.

    And why do I know this? My high school choir teacher (who looks alarmingly like our comrade here) taught us the technique. If there are any choir geeks out there, you know how gratifying it is to completely harmonize like this. Really quite a rush.

    And this video… well… just so totally amazing.

  • Dual

    Rare footage: Al Gore subs for an animatronic entertainment character at the World’s Fair: NYC 1964.

  • dawgSibl

    lip-synching + no lyrics = frozen howdy-doody smile. dig that crazy brass section! this is the russian bobby darin.

  • Anonymous

    Not sure about anyone else’s pets but this song made my pup pass out in seconds. which was shortly followed by whimpering nightmares.

  • skabob

    This makes me think that in some bunker, somewhere, there was a Russian George C. Scott-a-like watching Lawrence Welk or Grand Ole Opry, and screaming “We can’t have a yodel-gap, sir!”

  • dawgSibl

    red-bull might give you wings, but this guy has put a spring in my step all day. thank you too-tight-wig dude.

  • cjp

    After the crap coming out of the Russian media today about Canadians purportedly drugging the Russian food supply at the Olympics, I’m so pleased to see this video. Let’s roll it continually on the CBC during the next winter games in Russia.

  • Antinous / Moderator

    I thought that I would develop some immunity, but it’s actually more upsetting on the second viewing.

  • Roy Trumbull

    Russian Rap.

  • Anonymous

    HAAHHAHA he has a page.

    trololololololololololo.com/

  • cstatman

    looks like the Kurgan from Highlander. Except Clancy Brown is probably a better singer

  • chairface

    Allow me to open a vortex into the howling chaos for you.

    http://bit.ly/9ZaKxa

    • chgoliz

      I don’t know whether to throw myself at you or run you over with a T-95 battle tank!!

    • Talia

      wow. Everything I was just going to say was cancelled out by the pure evilness of your post :P

  • misterfricative

    I just realized — it’s Michael York! That’s who it is!

  • Anonymous

    Censorship was so bad, the only thing permitted on TV were department store mannequins lip syncing to someone humming schlage music from ten years before. Wow.

  • slideguy

    This may be the best thing on Youtube.

  • hagbard

    фальшивка!

  • freshacconci

    The Brits are already way ahead of us

    http://www.zazzle.ca/eduard+hil+gifts

    Been grooving to this for over a week at Dangerous Minds.

  • Anonymous

    Is this the Russian Andy Kaufman?

  • Anonymous

    This is what the whole hip world would be watching on Saturday night if the Soviets had won the Cold War…..

  • ill lich

    Бля indeed!

  • FredicvsMaximvs

    Nothing you can say will make my head un-explode. What a trippy / frightening / cool video!
    Like IronEdithKidd (#29), I’m glad that we weren’t the only ones totally out of our minds in the ’70s. ;-D

  • Jennypen

    NOTHING beats Pardon Me by Maxine Swaby. It’s the greatest video ever made. I’m not even going to link to it, because you won’t believe it until you see it for yourself. Pardon Me… I didn’t want to go…

    • randomcat

      No. This video is “pardon me,” squared.

  • freshacconci

    Still going strong, btw. And gathering the village children

    http://www.peoples.ru/art/music/national/hil/hil_38_01_08.shtml

  • timquinn

    Even his teeth match the background.

    In the Soviet Union the music sings you.

  • http://brazilbrat.blogspot.com/ James Smith João Pessoa, Brazil

    I like the way the suit color and the hairpiece matched so well. Surely that was not easy to do?

  • IWood

    I dropped acid specifically to watch this again.

    And now I know the answer to everything.

    EVERYTHING.

    Mallomar time, ‘scuse me.

  • Anonymous

    This is not Russian Andy Kaufman, this is Russian Frank Sinatra, simply very funny

  • Anonymous

    Thank you, thank you, thank you so much for this!

  • hisdevineshadow

    And just think, the guy who actually recorded the audio was considered not photogenic enough to appear on camera!

  • InsertFingerHere

    Wow.. I didn’t think this weed was that strong.. my mind is blown.

  • Anonymous

    Badasstheo…

    He is lip syncing… maybe he used the “technique” you mention in the original recording but of course he’s lip syncing it for the video recording….

  • Anonymous

    Эдуард, сам сказал, что весь этот стёб над ним и над “клипом” и все пародии появились просто от любви, от любви к музыке. Добрые люди поют добрые песни.

    EN short: Eduard saw about trololo parodies “Kind people sing kind songs”

  • Robert

    I call it… the Аристократы!

  • Anonymous

    THIS is what robotic traffic cops watch in their off hours.

  • gregux

    It’s like a community theater production of “Oklahoma” where the guy playing Curly blanks and has to fake his way through. Painful to watch, but fascinating.

  • Greg323

    I can’t decide who he looks more like the Enzyte guy or Diedrich Bader from the Drew Carey Show.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diedrich_Bader

    Either way, they’re both dead ringers for him. And both could have carried off an imitation, no problem…

  • GrymRpr

    Mr. Beans Dad?

  • emo hex

    To Chairface and IWood,
    This is exactly why I never did acid again.
    Thank you

  • davechua

    In Russia, song sings you.

  • Anonymous

    I,for one.welcome our new toe-tapping Auton overlords.

  • Baron Karza

    My new favorite happy song! Does it remind anyone else of the Beat Farmers’ “Hubba Hubba Hubba” unbeatable cheer? Happy Happy! Joy! Joy!

    • Anonymous

      YES!! xD

  • Anonymous

    Somebody needs to send this to Craig Ferguson. It’d make a great preshow musical number.

  • Anonymous

    Genuinely brilliant. After the first few bars, I expected it to settle down into something altogether more predictable and plausible. But no. Like a Battenburg cake made of marzipan all the way through.
    Thank you!

  • Anonymous

    He is just happy that Canada won!

  • legion

    Wasn’t this guy a villain in one of the Roger Moore-James Bond movies?

  • JoshP

    I don’t know what scares me more, that this exists or that around 1:50 or so I started getting into it. I even had a little jazz hand action by the end. That is the insipid nature of communism…

  • Anonymous

    Hey. I was having a fairly stinky day, and was looking for something to make me laugh. This did it, so thanks. Pure Python.

  • Anonymous

    You see, this is why they lost the Cold War.

  • Antinous / Moderator

    I CAN’T STOP SINGING IT!

  • Anonymous

    Quite swingin/Ko3mik ;)

  • Anonymous

    He looks like Data from Star Trek, don’t you think? … or that’s just me..

  • gollux

    And for some reason, I remember this song or something like it from my childhood. Yet another Youtube video

  • Anonymous

    I demand a literal music video of this guy.

  • Super Nate

    Look at this Я очень рад, ведь я, наконец, возвращаюсь домой! Just look at it!

  • JIMWICh

    Right after I sent this to Mark a week and a half ago I started a fan page on Facebook. It’s growing pretty fast. Come join your comrades at the Fans of Eduard Hill fan page:

    http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/pages/Fans-of-Eduard-Hill/319576151996?ref=ts

  • M.Whittier

    He and his wig both seem to be enjoying Their Moment, immensely.

  • Alex

    MOAR!!!!!

    http://www.yooouuutuuube.com/v/?rows=18&cols=18&id=oavMtUWDBTM&startZoom=1

  • Anonymous

    “I’m so glad, because I’m finally coming home,” would be the proper translation (in my opinion). Yes, Russians are crazy.

  • Anonymous

    Thats just a bit amazing. Never have i seen anything so weird.

  • chops

    Be wary comrade! He will lull you into a trance with his captivating eyes and his repetitive song
    …and then hack you to pieces with a scythe!

    (had to be s scythe didn’t it?)

  • Anonymous

    Supermarionettevision! ™

  • Anonymous

    Can’t be Dave Foley. He would have been 9 when this was made. The resemblance, though.

    DNA sample time.

  • Anonymous

    I just noticed there is a year in the bottom left corner – 1978. Somehow I think this is an important piece of information. Maybe he is the guy that solves mystery in LOST. :)

    • gATO

      Anon, the Internet moves faster than any of us:

      LoLoLoLoLost

  • Anonymous

    By the way, this video was captured from russian retro-channel Vremya (Time). More videos here http://www.youtube.com/user/digitaltvfamily and here http://www.1tvrus.com/video/?tag=last&cloud=14

  • Anonymous

    Bravo!

  • slideguy

    I should have known you were behind this, Jim

  • graphicsman

    I watched for 2 full minutes before deciding for sure he was lip-synching. That being decided, HOW DOES HE KEEP THE LYRICS STRAIGHT?! It’s a good job. The “laughing” at the 2 minute mark gave it away. no lung action. It’s all in the lungs, baby. Just ask Britney.

  • yupgiboy

    Absolute goddamn frikkin’ brilliance.

    • Sarchasm

      I can’t understand this; it’s in Russian. Someone please translate!

  • Afterthought

    Perhaps Communism does work after all…

  • Anonymous

    La la la laaaaaaa, la lalalala laaaaaaaaa!

  • Anonymous

    i am so glad, yes, i am upon finally returning(?) home.

  • igpajo

    Man I so wanted him to walk into the pole at 2:37.
    Wish it would have just been 3 minutes of that trippy psychedelic fade in from the very beginning

  • PolishQ

    Oh god, it’s the Enzyte man!

  • Anonymous

    it’s good to be alive and witness the end of western culture. goin on my pod

  • mindysan33

    Wha…?

  • randomcat

    Whiskey tango foxtrot, over.

    The guy isn’t even singing, he’s… sort of… lipsynching. I don’t think I’ve ever heard of a real person creating an “uncanny valley” feeling before, but I think we can say it’s been done.

  • K2nReno

    Oh, Internet, I love you.

  • klikkonthis

    Why do I have the feeling that this isn’t the guy’s real face, but some kind of a wig-mask combo…

  • 8bitpixel

    How much do you like this video?

    Enough to watch it stretched out to almost 10 minutes? My not funny, but surreal, take on this. AAAahhhhheeeeiiiii!!!!:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUF6fVdIw5c

  • Anonymous

    the mp3 is here

    The proper name of the song is Эдуард Хиль “Вокализ”

    http://a-ostrovskyi.narod.ru/vok.mp3

  • Doran

    Truly, the awesomeness of Eduard Hil is boundless.

  • Anonymous

    The titles translates “I am very glad because I am finally going home.”

    Yeah, I’m glad you’re leaving too, terrifying frozen-face dude!

  • Anonymous

    Don’t be hatin’. I think that’s my dad, dudes. He was on the Comrade Lawrenceik Velkanic Show, back in 1969, before being shot for singing while in the hearing of the Kremlin.
    For reals. I miss my daddy’s singing me to sleep. At least he PRETENDED to sing to me.

  • kettledog

    Man I need that hairpiece, just awesome.

  • Enormo

    The motions he makes with his hands and the patterned metal structures he walks around enhance the sounds that come from his mouth.

  • dawud

    Google Translate gives the Russian Youtube title of this as: “I am very glad, because I’m finally back home” – sorry if I spoiled the amusement factor for anyone. The style is odd yet amusing…

  • Anonymous

    He’s no Heino.