''Is it...silent?'' ''Well, there's a percussion track''

#991; The Chipmunks, and What Came After

  — December 23rd, 2013

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It wasn’t until my mid-twenties that I realized the Chipmunks (which I had always known as cartoon characters from my childhood) were actually, as pop-cultural entities, much older — dating back to their eponymous novelty Christmas record in 1958 or, arguably, the “Witch Doctor” song all the way back in 1952. There was a short-lived cartoon in 1961, but the Saturday-morning cartoon that I and people of my generation are most familiar with didn’t come around until more than 20 years later (1982-1990).

The audio trick that creator Ross Bagdasarian used to create the sound of the Chipmunks’ voices was so simple, and the resulting songs so popular in the late 50s and early 60s, that I figured they must have spawned some knockoffs. Sure enough — enjoy the squeaky sounds of:

The Nutty Squirrels (singing “Uh Oh”)
The Grasshoppers (singing “Shortnin’ Bread”) (More info)
The Three Happy Crickets (“We Wish You a Merry Christmas”)
Woody Woodchuck’s Christmas Sing Song (info only)
Sing Along with the Busy Beavers (album download)
BONUS LINK: The Happy Hamsters sing “Ghostbustin'”, a few decades later. Full album here.

Buy a Print

Playtest BOLTED with me!

March 23, 2025 by David Malki !

The pre-order campaign for the new Wondermark game Bolted is going strong on Backerkit! You can pledge to reserve your copy now, if you haven’t already!

Would you like to play the game with me personally? Above are the time slots for VIRTUAL PLAYTESTING SESSIONS in the coming week,

You can sign up for a slot here: picktime.com/wondermark

I’ve had a lot of fun playtesting the game with folks over the past few weeks! Each session is a tiny bit different, as I tweak various rules and cards.

It’s also a lot of fun to meet people and chat! And uniformly, players have had fun — or so they’ve claimed. And why would they lie???

Hope to see you there!

[ Claim your copy of BOLTED on Backerkit ]


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