Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain was identified for having a great humorousness. He granted “Bizarre Al” Yankovic permission to parody “Smells Like Teen Spirit” after solely 5 seconds of debate, as soon as tried to pitch a music to the makers of Ren & Stimpy and was reportedly a “large” fan of Canadian sketch comedy icons The Youngsters within the Corridor.
So when Nirvana got here to Toronto in November 1993 (taking part in a hockey area, fittingly), Cobain invited the troupe to “hang around backstage.” Scott Thompson and Cobain hit it off, and exchanged telephone numbers, with the hope of getting collectively once more a while sooner or later.
The next yr, the Youngsters launched into their very own tour. Once they arrived in Winnipeg, Thompson lastly resolved to name Cobain after getting a reminder from Kevin McDonald. The group was planning on inviting Cobain to their Seattle present. “He was on our visitor listing,“ McDonald recalled in 2008.
When he bought again to his lodge room, Thompson switched on the TV, flipping the channel to MuchMusic (the Canadian equal of MTV). With Cobain’s quantity in a single hand, and the telephone receiver within the different, as he was about to make the decision, Thompson heard the information that “a physique’s been present in Kurt Cobain’s home,” and instantly thought “he’s fucking useless.” McDonald’s response, then again, was: “Kurt Cobain discovered a physique in his home?! Poor Kurt!”
When the Youngsters within the Corridor made it to Seattle a number of days later, their arrival coincided with the general public vigil being held in Cobain’s honor. Clearly this tragedy had a giant impact on the comedians. Bruce McCulloch even recorded a spoken phrase music, “Vigil” all about how he didn’t attend the occasion, and opted to remain in his room as a result of he wasn’t within the temper “to see stunning 17-year-old kids in dreadlocks, white hippies celebrating darkish loss of life.”
Cobain even made an look within the (nearly) remaining season of The Youngsters within the Corridor, within the type of a childhood photograph of the singer. The image was despatched to Thompson by Nirvana’s administration, and he opted to incorporate it within the remaining Buddy Cole sketch, through which Buddy units fireplace to his personal bar. As Thompson later defined, “I all the time felt KITH had been like Nirvana when it comes to comedy to our technology so I needed us to die collectively.”
CBC
CBC
Cobain’s fandom might have additionally been shared by the producer of Nirvana’s In Utero, the late Steve Albini, who later labored with Shadowy Males on a Shadowy Planet, the Toronto group that carried out the Youngsters within the Corridor theme music. The unlikely pairing took place after Albini despatched the band a fan letter, and even informed a music journalist throughout an interview, “I would cost Depeche Mode $1 million, however I’d do Shadowy Males on a Shadowy Planet free of charge.”
Regardless of all of this love for The Youngsters within the Corridor, we sadly by no means bought a Nirvana cowl of “The Daves I do know.”
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