Trekkies Are Freaking Out Over CAUCASIAN Lieutenant Uhura & Black Sulu

The role of Lieutenant Nyota Uhura, a beautiful and talented bridge crew-person of African descent was originally played by the iconic Nichelle Nichols in Star Trek. She’s made countless appearances in the franchise as the character.

It’s hard to imagine that Lt Uhura could be portrayed as a Caucasian woman but here we have it. Wrap your heads around it. It also seems that the role of Sulu is depicted as a Black or perhaps South Asian.

In 1975, Peter Pan, a long-time children’s record publisher, created eleven Star Trek stories. These took the form of both 7 and 12 inch vinyl records and often with a read along comic book.

Presumably, a Black voice actor was not hired to play Uhura. Rather than have a White voice actor perform a Black character, they simply depicted the character as White instead. The ethnicity of the voice actor playing Sulu, however, is unclear. None of the original TV series actors did voices for these recordings. With these unexpected changes, it get’s a bit uncanny. You might think we’ve been zapped over to an alternate universe.

The story on the actual record is charming or course. We won’t spoil it for you.

If you liked this episode, check out the CHDanhauser YouTube Channel . They uploaded several of these about two years ago. I’ve checked out a few and they are all pretty good. I can only assume that none of these are considered official cannon.

But who is FREAKING OUT about this? Well nobody. That was just a click-bait headline. Nobody should be freaked out by this.

“Not The Not Song” by Kit And Kaboodle Because It Really Is Opposite Day

Today is National Opposite Day and this might be the perfect song for the Occasion. We think this live version from 1997 is best but Kit And Kaboodle recorded it again for a studio album.

In English, negation works like multiplication. Two negatives equal a positive. Three equals a negative again. This song is about “nothing but not”. Count the negations. Are they really singing about nothing? What is NOT nothing? Is that automatically something?

Also it is important to remember that an argument is not just contradiction. Or is it?

How I Accidentally Attended The Release Party for “Sandwiches” by Detroit Grand Pubahs back in Y2k

I am still trying to confirm all the details but this is what I believe to be true at the moment.

Sometime back in the year 2000, I was 25 years old and very much enjoyed going to nightclubs. I had previously visited the now legendary nightclub in Hamtramck Michigan called The Motor and I liked the place.

I don’t remember why I decided to go there again that particular night. I think I was just bored of the other places that I frequented at the time. I went alone.

When I got there, it looked like a party was wrapping up. The song was on the speakers. I had never heard it before. I didn’t know anything about Detroit Grand Pubahs.

There was a table with a large club-sub sandwich. Most of it had been eaten. I’m talking about the kind you might get at a work lunch. Something like this photo.

I had no idea what was going on exactly. It was not until much later when I encountered the song online that I pieced together that I might have inadvertently attended its release party!

The song ended up on the dance music charts in both the US and UK. Then they made the goofy video you see at the top of this blog.

The track makes use of a pitch-shift effect on the vocals that produces a chipmunk-like voice. For that reason alone it made it to rotation here at FunHouse Radio.

The 12 inch single cover
12 in single label
CD “maxi” single

“Who Put The Pecker on The Snowman?” by FreddyB

Who decided that a Snowman should have arms? Why a nose? Is he going to smell something? Why a mouth? Is he going to sing to us? I personally don’t see why a snowman should go without a penis. It’s just another body part.

Some snow-people might have a preference for one gender or the other. We shouldn’t give them a hard time just because they are a little different. I am kind of mad that I didn’t think of this when I was a kid. I could have got a lot of the neighborhood kids to laugh.

“Xmas At K-mart” by Root Boy Slim & The Sex Change Band With The Rootettes

This wacky track was first released as a single in 1978. I first heard it on a 1996 Christmas Music Compilation from Rhino Records called Just Can’t Get Enough: New Wave Xmas. When it’s not Christmas, we also play “Boogie Till You Puke” on the live stream. Root Boy Slim was a strange dude.

But what about K-Mart? If you are older than 30 you may remember a discount retailer called K-Mart. They were headquartered in the Detroit Area until a merger Sears corporation in Chicago.

Back in the 60s, 70s, & 80s, K-Mart was a great place to shop for Christmas gifts. I always enjoyed going there as a kid. The music on the PA and all the merchandise was exciting.

They had small cafeterias to get sandwiches, pretzels, soda, pie, gelatin or coffee. It was however very nasty that people smoked cigarettes indoors. There were disposable ashtrays everywhere.

Winter 1974

“Santa Lost a Ho” by The Christmas Jug Band – An Hilarious Original Holiday Skiffle

We’ve been sleeping on this one folks. I checked the notes. The Christmas Jug Band released the album that contains this track all the way back in 2002. Amazing. I first heard the song only a year ago. How did this stay under the radar for so long!?

The band has been around since the 1970s and the first album Mistletoe Jam, was released in 1987. They are still an act today releasing new material and playing live shows. The majority of their songs are original compositions in the Skiffle genre. Their CDs are fun and collectible.

“Eat It” by Weird Al Yankovic – Music Video Gets 4K Scan & Remaster – It’s EPIC – No Wonder Michael Jackson Did a Parody Called “Beat It”

Thanksgiving doesn’t have enough songs to mark the occasion. We’ve decided this year that Weird Al’s “Eat It” should be officially canonized as an unofficial Thanksgiving song.

Here we have a stunning 4K scan and remaster. The audio, on the other hand, suffers from some destructive remastering. We’ll take the first press of the LP over that any day.

The owner of the video has disabled third-party embedding but you can watch it on youtube. It’s 4K so put it on full screen! The levels seem off though. You might need to adjust brightness.

That thing about “Beat It” was just a joke. It’s a reference to the Al’s new movie Weird. If you haven’t seen it, it’s free on the Roku Channel. Go see it!

“The Turkey Song” by Adam Sandler on Saturday Night Live

This is pretty much the best we can do as a nation when it comes to writing songs for our weird Thanksgiving holiday. For some reason we just don’t have that many.

Sandler recorded this again and released it on an album but the original 1992 performance on SNL is the one everyone remembers the fondest.