ONE HIT WONDERLAND: "Flagpole Sitta" by Harvey Danger

Came here to check that someone made the connection. Peep Show might be my favourite 'sitcom' of all time.

It's okay. That's how I first heard it too and I had no idea what the song was called then. For some reason a lot of songs Todd covers on OHW show up on Al's polkas.

As soon as I saw this video in my YouTube feed, I knew I had to watch. I love this song and i'm a big nerd when it comes to one hit wonders from the 90's. Your video is very well done as usual, and after watching your video I became a patron of your channel. Keep up the good content!

Hah! Glad I'm not the only one who air drums to that opening.

"Run it up the flagpole and see if anybody salutes" is a catchphrase or slang phrase that was popular in the 50s/60s. I hear it in old Stan Freberg routines.

Maura Burns

Excellent work, Todd. This song is so vividly part of my psyche (it is the voice of an ironic Seattle college kid, after all, and when it came out I was a Seattle college kid who aspired to irony) that I wasn't sure I could really analyze it, but you added a layer of appreciation for me. :-)

James R.

This is the first time I've ever heard (or heard of) "Private Helicopter" but "Sad Sweetheart of the Rodeo" got plenty of airplay on my local alt rock station.

Josh Liller

I thought the flagpole line was a reference to beloved early 90s Nickelodeon show "Salute Your Shorts."

Josh Liller

And just like that my mind goes straight to Weird Al's Polka Power.

Bennett Billard

Okay, how did this NOT get onto a Tony Hawk's Pro Skater soundtrack?

Bennett Billard

FINALLY!!!! This is my favorite One Hit Wonder of the 90's!

Karen Wilson

They sound more like Sloan to me, especially Sloan from the "Good in everyone" era.

Greg Walters

This is actually something I remember playing a lot on MTV back when you know Total Request Live was kind of just really starting up and this song got on a lot and yeah like a lot of other people this is an episode of OHW I always wanted Todd to do. I kind of admit though for years I kind of wanted it to open up with a Nostalgia Critic cameo where he tried doing a mind fuck with Todd asking what the hell was happening with Doug pointing out that's "the mind fuck song" referencing to some of his old episodes but... yeah that obviously isn't going to happen now but that doesn't mean this still wasn't a great episode. And yeah as awesome as the song is I get these guys being the "we never thought this would catch on and made no attempt to be famous afterwards" kind of story which honestly can be interesting from time to time especially with like how underground these guys are if someone could find them to do a school report on. Though hey even if they have broken apart and don't record anymore they still have this one awesome song which is one of the best in terms of pure great songs you've covered. Hell there's even a lot of good AMVs of this song on youtube like seriously check out the Arrested Development Flagpole Sitta video. That's awesome.

Neo Ultra Mike

Todd, I'm surprised that you didn't mention that the title "Flagpole Sitta" was inspired by a line in the Marx Brothers film "Animal Crackers". Not the first time that their films inspired rock bands (*cough Queen's "A Night at the Opera" and "A Day at the Races" albums).

Emily Malek

I hate to admit it, but I only know this song from one of the Weird Al polka tracks.

Matthew

Hey Todd, here's another OHW from 1998 that would make for a great episode:<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EIhSnaqou0I" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EIhSnaqou0I</a>

LifeIsStrange

I didn't know Seth Rogen was in a rock band

You managed to bring up Kurt Cobain, Smash Mouth, Barenaked Ladies and Radiohead all in one video, and I don't know if that catered directly to anyone's music tastes but mine but I thank you for it.

Nowhere Girl

This is a weird one for me, because the first time I heard of this band was when a song of theirs was released as DLC for Rock Band way back in 2008 - and it wasn't this one. It was "Cream and Bastards Rise" off their last album. "Flagpole Sitta" did eventually get a DLC release as well - eight years later, in late 2016. This is still more than we got for Midnight Oil, mind you. Their only song available for the game is "Power and the Passion", and not to talk down that song, but "Beds Are Burning" is a bit more famous in Europe and the US. So yeah, this was all news to me. I knew absolutely nothing about this band going into this video. I guess watching this must have felt a bit like making the Loreena McKennitt episode felt for Todd. This was completely unknown ground for me, because unlike their contemporaries Marcy Playground, they didn't cross over to Europe in the slightest.

Timur Hahn

OHW on Marcy Playground next?

This song will always be "The Peep Show Theme" to me (not that that's a bad thing).

Katherine Jennings

Yeah, that's where I first heard it. Now though I associate it more with being the theme song for Peep Show.

Katherine Jennings

Private Helicopter sounds like a concept the Barenaked Ladies would be fond of. In fact, this band reminds me a lot of the Barenaked Ladies for some reason.

Ellie

Ugh do not remind me of Fallout Boy, I always despised their smug lyrics so much and I got real sick of seeing Pete Wentz's face everywhere(I remember his cringe-inducing appearance on One Tree Hill).

LifeIsStrange

The Dandy Warhols aren't a one-hit wonder. They're either a no-hit wonder (no US Top 40 pop hits) or at least a two hit wonder ("Bohemian" and "We Used to Be Friends" were both well-known in other pop-culture contexts, and did well on Alt-Rock or UK charts, but no real mainstream recognition in the US).

Joe G

I always feel terrible for laughing at "they cut off my legs now I'm an amputee goddamn you," bc like you said it's juuust on the other side of too harsh, but goddamn that delivery is perfect.

A. M.

Yeah half of the OHW's Todd covers are songs i've never heard of before.

LifeIsStrange

I honestly can't remember ever hearing this song on the radio even once, maybe I did and I just don't remember it.

LifeIsStrange

Before watching, I thought I'd never heard it. Then after the intro drums realized I still remembered every word! Liked their cover song too, though I'd not thought of either in decades. Good video!

Cristina Youngren

You're taunting me by throwing "Bitch" in there aren't you?

Josh Spicer

Yet another OHW i've never heard of. BTW Cobain hated Smells Like Teen Spirit, I can see why.

LifeIsStrange

I'm surprised this song made it onto the first Now album in America, considering how anti-commercial they were. That said, Radiohead's "Karma Police" was also on Now 1.

Jacqueline Sailer

I got recommended this band by Spotify, they seemed good, and this was their later albums. Wine Women and Song is a banger imo

Sam Scott

I believed in Harvey Danger. :( I bought all their albums. Great review.

Jae Krehbiel

I mostly know this song for the time the Nostalgia Critic used it for the mindfuck segment in his review of "Tom &amp; Jerry: The Movie".

Thomas Carmody

So I always thought the line "Run it up the flagpole and see who salutes" was, like, raising up your underwear. Y'know, Salute Your Shorts?

Jonathan P

Surprised that the Dandy Warhols (another one hit wonder) didn't come up as a point of comparison. "Bohemian Like You" was an even later alt rock song, released in 2000. (though it's more of a Nirvana-Weezer splice)

Michael Furey

So stoked for this one! This song is still always showing up on my nostalgia playlists

t o r t

Much better!

Every once in a while, you'll open a video about how something is so famous that everybody in the world knows it, and I'll have literally never heard of it before.

Gordon Stearns

Been waiting for this one a loooonnggg time, yes!!!! Hope you do "You Get What You Give" by New Radicals soon, another of my 1998 third grade favorites.

MPG1989

Audio sounds good! Glad you got this fixed so quickly.

waywardlaser

Oh man this is one of my most anticipated episodes ever. This is one of the first songs I learned on guitar.

Isaac Jackson