Video Hangover: Whale - "Hobo Humpin' Slobo Babe"
Every week, we dig in the archives for videos that we find noteworthy, memorable, or just unbelievably stupid. And then, we break 'em down for you. Why Video Hangover? Because when you watch as many videos as we do, you're going to feel it afterwards.
"Hobo Humpin' Slobo Babe"
Whale, 1993
Imagine Björk as the lead singer of a Swedish 311 cover band, and you have some idea of what's going on here.
At least the name of the band makes sense
Given that "Hobo Humpin' Slobo Babe" was one of those "we-recorded-it-as-a-joke-but-it-went-to-number-fifteen" kind of deals, it's not surprising that this video leaves us with many questions. Who are all the topless boys? Why are they wearing tinfoil boxers? What's with all the choking? Why is everybody so angry and/or not wearing pants? Are trampolines fun? Does that man's moustache have a name?
Unfortunately, we have an exact definition for "hobo humpin'"
Cia Berg, we're not quite sure what slobo means, but here are some other terms we will use to describe you: coy, playful, braces-wearing, armpit-licking, trashy, Courtney Love-like, sexy, picky, girlish, sorta-scaring-the-hell-out-of-us-with-your-gigantic-white-underpants.
Not that there's anything wrong with that
All of the homoerotic cavorting in this video really made us rethink this entire era. Maybe we were in a different frame of mind back then, but the early '90s didn't seem like a great time for gender-bending. Aside from The Crying Game, anyway, and even that was a big secret. Then we re-watched this, and this, and this, and we remembered that yeah, the early '90s were pretty gay.
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Posted at 1:51 PM in Video, Video Hangover
i remember this video oh so well. lollipops, braces, and trampoline maneuvers performed in a dress. what else does a young boy need in a video??
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Whale's "We Care" album was pretty great, even if it hasn't dated terribly well. This video might be silly, but it ain't *that* bad.
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I remember the shit out of this and can honestly say that it sucked so hard that I haven't thought about it *at all* in what... 14 years? Talk about a blast from the past. Er... a really distant popping sound from the past...
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if you didn't masterbate at least 3 times to that hot little piece o' braces in this video back in 1993, you are no indie rock muso by any means.
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Come to Butthead
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I bought the single back then. Half a lifetime ago, for chrissakes. I wonder if she still has braces.
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I still love this band. I bought every album, EP & single I could find of theirs. "We Care" is still great. The b-sides for "All Disco Dance..." were all way better than that album, though.
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Also, if you think she was hot in that one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElHE9ODfbLQ
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Oh shit! I just found this. For those that love bouncy boobs:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aq4apgYriXE
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The song title refers to a woman who sleeps with men below her station - "slobo" is a corruption of the term "Sloane," a British term for a well-off bird. "Hobo humpin'" is self-explanatory.
It's embarrassing that I remember that.
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My Christ, I think I half remember this,
I became a man after watching this video back when i was nine.
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To us Northern/Western Europeans born before, say, '86, this is one of the most memorable music videos of the nineties. I guarantee you, everybody who got MTV Europe back then remembers this.
And yes, you're misremembering the 90s.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=vYT2aWavXlc
http://youtube.com/watch?v=Q3pqM8RUJxo
Just two examples off the top of my head. :)
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To us Northern/Western Europeans born before, say, '86, this is one of the most memorable music videos of the nineties. I guarantee you, everybody who got MTV Europe back then remembers this.
And yes, you're misremembering the 90s.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=vYT2aWavXlc
http://youtube.com/watch?v=Q3pqM8RUJxo
Just two examples off the top of my head. :)
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so this song is about a rich girl who goes out with broke guys,
and the beat/girl's part of the song reminds me of golddigger, about a girl who only sleeps with rich guys.
:|
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I'm so happy you posted this! I used to love this video! I found the cd single in a thrift shop a couple years ago. Glad I found it and bought it!
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This video is orders of magnitude greater than 99% of the drek that passes for music videos today. It features a hot, carnally miscreant chick in braces, a babydoll dress and combat boots with overt and otherwise direct implications of sexually dieviant behavior set to a catchy tune. FANTASTIC! This as compared to an oiled up, crooked hat wearing thug who cant spell "rekid kontrackt", bouncing and grunting to stolen melodies and lyrics in gawdy gold jewlery that Liberace' wouldnt wear, in front of a BMW with a trunk full of hair straigtening products while disease ridden, implant infested, inner city, free clinic going, baby abandoning social services cases in spandex shake their sticky looking, over inflated, high mileage butts at the camera. YAY Whale!
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