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Brits on Telly Get Silly with Oregon Coast Exploding Whale Song | Video

Published 02/23/21 at 7:26 PM PDT
By Oregon Coast Beach Connection staff

Brits on Telly Get Silly with Oregon Coast Exploding Whale Song

(Portland, Oregon) – This isn’t the first time someone has penned a tune goofing on the legendary exploding whale on the central Oregon coast, and it certainly won’t be the last. But it is perhaps the most prominent moment of musical exposure the state’s most famous comedic incident has received.

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With renowned, often strangely-deadpan British comedian Jimmy Carr at the helm, one comedy / game show in Britain featured a wildly wacky tune tune about the whale, written and performed by the Brett Domino Trio. Domino (actually Rob J Madin of Chesterfield) made another appearance on the February 18 edition of 8 Out of Ten Cats Does Countdown, announcing he was working on an entire West End musical about the Exploding Whale. It was one of many lines for laughs, of course, and the perfect setup to this whimsical, truly silly take on what took place in Florence, Oregon in 1970.

One of the trio members interjects the crack: “bits of it went into the car park,” and the audience erupts.

Carr chuckles at the whole intro with his famous laugh, and the song starts off with the riotously funny line “As bad days go, this is off the scale” - that perfect, understated humor the U.K. is known for.

The song goes on: "Nothing can go wrong ---- I'm just strapping a whale to a half-ton bomb --- It'll be like Christmas Day --- Raining beautiful snowflakes of the decomposing carcass of a dead sperm whale."

See the video here: the Exploding Whale bit starts at 31 mins.

You can see it below but you have to physically move the video to the 31-minute mark.

“Cetacean is another word for whale” Domino’s song continues to great laughs.

Not a single use of the original description from KATU’s reporter, which was amusing on its own. This is a fresh take.

Once again, Florence, Oregon has made the international spotlight – at least across the pond.

It’s not the first time Brits have latched onto the tale, either. A small town in England last year used it as a teachable lesson in social distancing dynamics. That included “listen to the experts” and something to the effect of “maybe stay inside instead of going out and doing something ridiculous.”

8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown is itself is a kooky hybrid of two other Brit shows, 8 Out of 10 Cats and another called Countdown.

Marking the anniversary of the Exploding Whale has become a huge thing every year since the ‘90s, and the central Oregon coast town itself got in on the act in recent years. There is now an official Exploding Whale Park in Florence, though it’s about a mile from the actual site. There’s a BnB that’s an Airstream trailer called Exploding Whale Camp in town as well.

See other coverage below:

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Before Exploding Whale, Legend of Oregon Coast's Imploding Whale
 
Also in Florence, if true the man 'was bound to the blubber beyond all bearable boundaries'


Yes, There Is Now an Exploding Whale Park in Florence, Oregon Coast
 It was opened up officially last year as Siuslaw River Beach Access Park, and recently acquired the new name



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