I wonder how many times they uploaded the video to get 'kkk' in the URL

July 22, 2015 11:14 AM

One sousaphone ruins an entire KKK march.
posted by Evilspork (72 comments total)

I saw this yesterday, and it made me happy beyond measure.
posted by sutt at 11:18 AM on July 22, 2015 [1 favorite]

Well done, sousaphone man.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 11:23 AM on July 22, 2015

"this is what stupid looks like"
posted by angrycat at 11:23 AM on July 22, 2015 [2 favorites]

Why does this seem like it would be better if they were riding elephants?
posted by echocollate at 11:24 AM on July 22, 2015 [1 favorite]

For the younguns who will get the Family Guy musical reference, but not the Wagner one...
posted by CynicalKnight at 11:25 AM on July 22, 2015 [6 favorites]

Best use of Die Walküre in a fascism-related tuba protest.
posted by grumpybear69 at 11:25 AM on July 22, 2015 [52 favorites]

This is clearly one step up from Yakety Sax.
posted by monospace at 11:26 AM on July 22, 2015 [6 favorites]

I love this so much. To me it manages to say "your racist ideals are absurd and pathetic and unacceptable" but it says it with humor, rather than rancor.
posted by BigHeartedGuy at 11:27 AM on July 22, 2015 [30 favorites]

Obivously, this not the only thing that should be done to oppose assholes like this, but it is definitely a very welcome addition to the arsenal of choices.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 11:28 AM on July 22, 2015 [6 favorites]

This is amazing. I've always wanted to hire tuba players (including ALL of the members of the tuba family, for those who insist on sousaphone) to follow around groups like this....
posted by MysticMCJ at 11:28 AM on July 22, 2015

Sousaphone players around the country need to make this a thing like the bikers blocking the Westboro loons from picketting military funerals.

Wherever there are racist marches...there will be sousaphones!
posted by T.D. Strange at 11:29 AM on July 22, 2015 [33 favorites]

When the American Nazi Party gave a speech on the capitol steps here in Madison a large group of people in pink bunny costumes crashed the rally.
One of them remarked: "For once we AREN'T the most ridiculous thing in attendance."
posted by Floydd at 11:32 AM on July 22, 2015 [9 favorites]

As a fellow sousaphonist, I hereby award the "A&W Root Beer Song" medal of honour. Sir, may your shoulders ever be lopsided.
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 11:34 AM on July 22, 2015 [38 favorites]

Now that I think about it, flying American and Confederate flags at the same rally runs a severe risk of mutual annihilation and massive pulse of gamma radiation.
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 11:36 AM on July 22, 2015 [7 favorites]

I don't use the word "hero" very often, but this person is the greatest hero in American history. <sup>*

*</sup>Well, after Bree Newsome.
posted by SansPoint at 11:37 AM on July 22, 2015 [16 favorites]

The Imperial March / Darth Vader theme would've worked well too.

Or the Benny Hill theme song.
posted by Liquidwolf at 11:38 AM on July 22, 2015 [4 favorites]

Obivously, this not the only thing that should be done to oppose assholes like this

I am now imagining a Doof Warrior sousaphone truck....
posted by GenjiandProust at 11:42 AM on July 22, 2015 [28 favorites]

i love this just as much as when the kkk marches are hijacked by clowns yelling "WIFE POWER" and "WHITE FLOUR"
posted by nadawi at 11:44 AM on July 22, 2015 [37 favorites]

I am now imagining a Doof Warrior sousaphone truck....

It's hard to keep your embouchure when you're dangling from stretchy cables.
posted by entropone at 11:45 AM on July 22, 2015 [7 favorites]

Or the Benny Hill theme song.

Played at quarter speed, maybe ...
posted by tilde at 11:46 AM on July 22, 2015 [1 favorite]

Why does this seem like it would be better if they were riding elephants?

I was thinking that he should have played "Baby Elephant Walk".
posted by AlonzoMosleyFBI at 11:46 AM on July 22, 2015 [3 favorites]

GenjiandProust -- doofaphone? Can they shoot fire?
posted by nathan_teske at 11:46 AM on July 22, 2015 [1 favorite]

See, I belong to a certain secret society -- I don't believe I gotta mention its name -- and these boys, here, they trampled all over our venerated observances and rituals!
posted by BurntHombre at 11:50 AM on July 22, 2015 [28 favorites]

You know what's a great marching song? John Brown's Body.
posted by Thing at 11:50 AM on July 22, 2015 [13 favorites]

I love how pleased the player looks at the end of the video, because for once the subject of a youtube video a sousaphonist* has absolutely every fucking right to look that pleased. Well done.

*Well, except for Damon "Tuba Gooding Jr." Bryson of The Roots. He has a right to look pleased because he has an awesome nickname and because he is in The motherfucking Roots.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 11:54 AM on July 22, 2015 [3 favorites]

Speaking of Die Walkure, this reminds me of my favorite Wayne's World-related quote:

"I believe we should all live life like Bugs Bunny.

We should have plenty of carrots, a hole in the ground, a mail box with our name written on it, and the freedom to discover our own personal Elmer Fudd.

And when we find that Fudd, we should have the freedom to bug the shit out of him."

Somewhere between the healthy lungs of that tuba player beats the heart of a wascally wabbit, and I salute him.
posted by Strange Interlude at 12:01 PM on July 22, 2015 [4 favorites]

The Imperial March / Darth Vader theme would've worked well too

Peter Gunn (The Blues Brothers Theme) would be appropriate. Illinois Nazis...
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 12:04 PM on July 22, 2015 [1 favorite]

doofaphone? Can they shoot fire?

We can hope (and stare longingly at our workshops).
posted by GenjiandProust at 12:06 PM on July 22, 2015 [1 favorite]

This is clearly one step up from Yakety Sax.

How about Hyuckity Bass?
posted by Strange Interlude at 12:07 PM on July 22, 2015

I am now imagining a Doof Warrior sousaphone truck....

It's hard to keep your embouchure when you're dangling from stretchy cables.

We choose to build a Doof Warrior sousaphone truck in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.
posted by Etrigan at 12:07 PM on July 22, 2015 [23 favorites]

>When the American Nazi Party gave a speech on the capitol steps here in Madison a large group of people in pink bunny costumes crashed the rally.

PLEASE tell me there is video of this... my google-fu is failing me, as the 9th result is this very thread we are on.
posted by MysticMCJ at 12:10 PM on July 22, 2015

Normally I only see that much tuba at Tuba Christmas but this is a good use for it too.
posted by emjaybee at 12:12 PM on July 22, 2015

Or the Benny Hill theme song.

Played at quarter speed, maybe ...

Yeah, "Yakety Tuba" has never been played live to completion, though several tuba players have died in the attempt.

This guy came about as close as possible...
posted by Naberius at 12:17 PM on July 22, 2015 [14 favorites]

I'm not sure I agree 100% that "ruins" is the right word to use here.
posted by RobotHero at 12:18 PM on July 22, 2015 [1 favorite]

This is the best soundtrack to a KKK march of all time. Of all time!
posted by billiebee at 12:21 PM on July 22, 2015 [1 favorite]

Sets a new bar for (counter)protests. I do not think I've been to a single demonstration which would have not been improved with low-end brass.

That said if I had a sousaphone I'd join any group of +3 walkers and not realize, dur, racists til I got down the block...
posted by Ogre Lawless at 12:23 PM on July 22, 2015

doofaphone? Can they shoot fire?

It's a saxophone, but surely if this (seen in action here) exists, a sousaphone-equivalent is just waiting to be brought into this world.
posted by memento maury at 12:32 PM on July 22, 2015

Not so much "ruins" as "beautifully illustrates the obvious absurdity of".
posted by LooseFilter at 12:43 PM on July 22, 2015 [1 favorite]

Watching these various reactions and counter-protests makes me wish there was a Union flag as instantly recognizable, in the Civil War context, as the Confederate battle flag. Something to wave around while someone's playing the sousaphone or yelling "y'all a buncha sore losers!" Maybe the flag of the 20th Maine Regiment would work. Or the 1861 US flag might be distinctive enough.
posted by honestcoyote at 12:45 PM on July 22, 2015 [2 favorites]

I should start bringing a Sad Trombone to anything where there's going to be public speechifyin'.
posted by Hypatia at 12:58 PM on July 22, 2015 [4 favorites]

I spend a lot of time these days around undergraduate and graduate music students, and I can tell you that I have come to realize over the last few years that tubas and sousaphones are this secretly cool instruments, kind of how librarianship used to be a secretly cool profession, way back when. Do not be fooled: you may think sousaphones and low brass are slightly comical, but all these 18 year old players coming into the University? They just have this look about them, this gleam in the eyes.

One day they will have the fame and aura of class that they deserve.
posted by jokeefe at 1:00 PM on July 22, 2015 [4 favorites]

I do not think I've been to a single demonstration which would have not been improved with low-end brass.

It improves the experience immensely! Extra Action Marching Band is a Bay Area group:
Extra Action Marching Band in the December 12, 2011 shutdown of the Port of Oakland
Extra Action Marching Band at Occupy Oakland (performance after a General Assembly)
posted by Lexica at 1:05 PM on July 22, 2015 [2 favorites]

I can't believe this thread has so little love for horns.aiff, the purest brass mockery.
posted by mccarty.tim at 1:12 PM on July 22, 2015

I love this. Next time bring in a kazoo band as well.

(The continual correcting of Tuba to Sousaphone all over the comments is a bit silly. A Sousaphone is a Tuba, the way an upright piano is a piano.)
posted by George_Spiggott at 1:15 PM on July 22, 2015 [1 favorite]

Maybe the flag of the 20th Maine Regiment would work.

I'm sure Major General Joshua Chamberlain, who led the 20th Maine in a bayonet charge in defense of Little Round Top at Gettysburg, would be happy to see it flown.
posted by jgaiser at 1:23 PM on July 22, 2015

This is not good. It will lead to escalation. The other side will bring violins and then this side will bring pianos and then the other side will bring drums and then we will end up in the horrors of an improv jazz war.
posted by I-baLL at 1:24 PM on July 22, 2015 [13 favorites]

I first saw this on Reddit a while ago. Someone there commented something along the lines of, "You have the right to peacably assemble. And someone else has the right to give your assembly soundtrack."

Truth.
posted by QuantumMeruit at 1:32 PM on July 22, 2015 [9 favorites]

I own a sousaphone. I pledge now to keep it well-oiled and always at ready.
posted by sourwookie at 1:35 PM on July 22, 2015 [8 favorites]

>Watching these various reactions and counter-protests makes me wish there was a Union flag as instantly recognizable

Though probably too complicated to do on a wide scale, some kind of long-lasting desecration prop could be interesting. What comes to mind is a Confederate flag shredded into tatters and designed to burn like a fiberglass wick, fueled by a hidden oil reservoir (basically a Tiki torch). Maybe make the flag itself out of a flame-retardant material and run a fiberglass wick along the top edge. Probably would just be a public hazard, but still...
posted by insert.witticism.here at 1:37 PM on July 22, 2015 [1 favorite]

I will see your Yakety Tuba and raise you one Flight of the Bumblebee, suitable for the whacky KKK rally chase scenes.
posted by JohnFromGR at 1:39 PM on July 22, 2015 [1 favorite]

He pulls a harmonica, you pull a banjo; he sends one of his to Berklee, you send one of yours to Juilliard!
posted by Evilspork at 2:01 PM on July 22, 2015 [23 favorites]

Now THIS is trolling. All the shitty manbabbies who think that harassing women on the internet is trolling need to step off and watch this.

It's like, the platonic ideal of trolling. You piss someone off, who may or may not deserve it, for the maximum amount of lulz.

This is quite possibly one of the funniest, and awesomest videos i've ever seen. I'm going to be watching it and laughing my ass off all day.
posted by emptythought at 2:21 PM on July 22, 2015 [14 favorites]

Watching these various reactions and counter-protests makes me wish there was a Union flag as instantly recognizable, in the Civil War context, as the Confederate battle flag.

I think the stars and stripes flag is fairly well recognized in the U.S.
posted by ActingTheGoat at 2:27 PM on July 22, 2015 [5 favorites]

That literally made me laugh until it hurt. The way the Klan idiots just kind of shuffle along, looking so resentful and defeated as they're followed by this gloriously goofy-ass music. Oh, bless you, Sousaphone Hero! (I'm kind of amazed nobody kicked his ass, or at least got up in his face and threatened him. They just seem to accept that they'll have to silently bear this hilarious ridicule, which doesn't exactly seem like the KKK's style.)
posted by Ursula Hitler at 2:31 PM on July 22, 2015

Maybe sales will pick up:

Activision Reports Sluggish Sales For Sousaphone Hero

Sousaphone Hero offers two dozen public-domain marches, including 1893's "The Liberty Bell," 1896's "Stars and Stripes Forever," and 1897's "Entry of the Gladiators." The bulky sousaphone-shaped controller coils around the body, and players wear white spat-like foot coverings fitted with sensors that monitor synchronized marching steps. As with the fret buttons on Guitar Hero's guitar peripheral, the sousaphone controller's three valves are color-coded to match on-screen notes the player must hit.

Players may also choose from 27 different fat-guy characters who can be customized with Alpine hats, epaulets, and a mustache editor with a wide array of options...

"That controller is like 100 pounds even though its [sic] only plastic," wrote mastagamer457, a moderator on one Sousaphone Hero message thread. "I think I screwed up my shoulder pretty bad."
posted by a lungful of dragon at 2:38 PM on July 22, 2015 [7 favorites]

That sousaphone player pierced the armor of false machismo that all such petty tyrants wear. Those klansmen just wanted to get it over with.
posted by double block and bleed at 2:42 PM on July 22, 2015

Bonus points if the march was 5k in length.
posted by kpraslowicz at 2:51 PM on July 22, 2015

I think the stars and stripes flag is fairly well recognized in the U.S.

Of course it is. However, I was looking for something with a clear Civil War context. The current 50 star flag wouldn't have that context.

Another good alternative, especially for counter-KKK protests, would be a flag from one of the black regiments. Something like the one for the First Kansas Colored Infantry.
posted by honestcoyote at 2:53 PM on July 22, 2015

I have a friend who plays bass in a bluegrass band, he's told me a story that is congruent to this video. His band had a wedding and reception gig to play; they got to the venue early, unloaded their gear, tuned up, were just waiting around backstage for things to begin. The wedding coordinator hooked them up with some food from the caterer and walked through the timeline. They had an hour to kill, so, as bands are known to do, they went back to the van to get high. Everybody but the bass player.

The wedding coordinator reappears, in a panic because the bride has *demanded* music be played while the guests are arriving. But the bass player has to stand his ground, because 1) a contract is a contract and they weren't playing an extra hour for free and 2) the rest of the band was currently hotboxing in the tour van anyhow, but he can't come right out and say that, he says they're warming up, which is not stretching the truth one bit. So the wedding coordinator says, "Well, you're here, what can you play?"

"I play an upright bass," he explains. "A bass line by itself sound really bad. I can play the theme to Jaws, The March of the Empire, Pop Goes the Weasel, the Chicken Dance, and the theme song to the A-Team. Anything in there you think might make the bride happy?"
posted by peeedro at 3:11 PM on July 22, 2015 [17 favorites]

Hilarious, nice to take a fat shaming joke from Family Guy and shame someone who deserves it instead.
posted by Drinky Die at 4:32 PM on July 22, 2015

Anti-confederate flag
posted by Tom-B at 5:07 PM on July 22, 2015 [2 favorites]

For my money, he should have played Pink Elephants on Parade.
posted by LN at 5:07 PM on July 22, 2015 [2 favorites]

Now that I think about it, flying American and Confederate flags at the same rally runs a severe risk of mutual annihilation and massive pulse of gamma radiation.

So this one time I went to the weensy rodeo in Efland, NC, a hamlet between Hillsborough and Mebane. It was put on by, I shit you not, the Cowboys for Christ. And at one point they had a rider ride in with the American flag and the sound system was blaring the Battle Hymn of the Republic and everyone was hootin' and hollerin'. And then they brought in another rider with the usual Confederate flag and the sound system blared Dixie and everyone hooted and hollered some more. Ayund THEN they brought in a third rider with the flag of the Cowboys for Christ and the sound system screamed some other thing I don't recall, and there was much rejoicing.

Kind of a weird thing to watch.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 5:40 PM on July 22, 2015 [1 favorite]

This is awesome! I think this guy should just wander around and provide accompaniment to activities of all kinds.

The lady saying things like "stupid is as stupid does" was pretty annoying to me for some reason. It didn't need any commentary.
posted by Fleeno at 6:18 PM on July 22, 2015 [3 favorites]

This man deserves a McArthur genius grant
posted by TheShadowKnows at 6:21 PM on July 22, 2015 [2 favorites]

Hahaha, that's awesome. I used to live in the tall red building in the background, which makes it even funnier.
posted by gemmy at 9:26 PM on July 22, 2015

This is brilliant. Next we should have a trombonist, who has the advantage of being able to use a plunger for that "wah, wah" sound, or even the Spike Jones wet-fart sound, if they know the trick. I used to, but I sold my horn, and they don't do those marches here.
posted by Rich Smorgasbord at 9:39 PM on July 22, 2015

Or the 1861 US flag might be distinctive enough.

The 1863 35-star flag would've been the one that flew over the Confederate surrender.
posted by kirkaracha at 10:56 PM on July 22, 2015 [1 favorite]

This is so perfectly, exactly the response these fart-heads demand. Might even be too much quality for them... Actually, I suppose the best response to ugliness of this order is to juxtapose it with beauty.
posted by From Bklyn at 12:02 AM on July 23, 2015

This is not good. It will lead to escalation. The other side will bring violins and then this side will bring pianos and then the other side will bring drums and then we will end up in the horrors of an improv jazz war.

So, you're saying that escalation will only lead to more sax and violins?
posted by maryr at 12:25 AM on July 23, 2015 [10 favorites]

I think it would be a prudent move for all non-brass-playing counterprotesters to lay in a supply of kazoos for situations like this.

We can't all play the sousaphone, but we can contribute like a hive of farty bees.
posted by cmyk at 1:44 AM on July 23, 2015 [1 favorite]

Emergency Ka-Sax
posted by tilde at 8:12 AM on July 23, 2015