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IcyPeas

(24,205 posts)
61. Comes from Monty Python
Sat Sep 6, 2025, 06:35 AM
Saturday

Toad the Wet Sprocket takes its name from a Monty Python comedy sketch called "Rock Notes",[2][3] in which a journalist delivers a nonsensical music news report:

Rex Stardust, lead electric triangle with Toad the Wet Sprocket, has had to have an elbow removed following their recent successful worldwide tour of Finland. Flamboyant ambidextrous Rex apparently fell off the back of a motorcycle. "Fell off the back of a motorcyclist, most likely," quipped ace drummer Jumbo McClooney on hearing of the accident. Plans are already afoot for a major tour of Iceland.[4]


There was also an extended skit about the fictional Toad the Wet Sprocket on one of Idle's later shows, Rutland Weekend Television (Season 1, Episode 4, "Rutland Weekend Whistle Test&quot . RWT musician and regular cast member Neil Innes, ex-Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band and "The Seventh Python", played keyboards with the fictional band.[5]

As their first gig approached, the band still had not chosen a name. The members facetiously adopted "Toad the Wet Sprocket" because they thought it would be "hilarious". Vocalist Glen Phillips later called it "a joke that went on too long" and, according to their website, "it was probably meant to be temporary at the time."[2][6] The name had been used once before, by a short-lived British blues band of the late 1970s that had appeared on the 1980 Metal for Muthas compilation, although the earlier band had long since split up when Philips and company formed their band.

Eric Idle, the sketch's original performer, reflected on the band's name in a 1999 performance:

I once wrote a sketch about rock musicians, and I was trying to think of a name that would be so silly nobody would ever use it, or dream it could ever be used. So I wrote the words "Toad the Wet Sprocket." And a few years later, I was driving along the freeway in LA, and a song came on the radio, and the DJ said, "that was by Toad the Wet Sprocket," and I nearly drove off the freeway.[7]

Toad the Wet Sprocket - Wikipedia https://share.google/ZuzHt4uKgCtMl7phO

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The two that I wanted to use for this one band. OldBaldy1701E Sep 5 #23
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I vote for "Free Beer" DBoon Sep 5 #46
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Hah, I didn't know that! MLAA Sep 5 #52
It's a funny reference ClimateHawk Saturday #60
Added Naked Lunch to my reading list! MLAA Saturday #62
Good luck! ClimateHawk Sunday #67
Toad the wet sprocket because of how they claimed to make the name JT45242 Sep 5 #27
Comes from Monty Python IcyPeas Saturday #61
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the eternal garage band Skittles Saturday #64
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I remember that name! electric_blue68 Sep 5 #50
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That was different! TFP! OAITW r.2.0 Sep 5 #54
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Ah, 'Bowlin' with Bedrock Barney' Oeditpus Rex Sep 5 #48
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Pirate Song! OAITW r.2.0 Sep 5 #55
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