Old Things That Are New To Me — Dieter

SprocketsSomehow today I was reminded of one of the weirdest characters on SNL — Dieter. You might remember those “Sprockets” sketches Mike Myers did where he played the late 70s, early 80s Kraftwerk-inspired, monkey touching, post-industrial German tv host.

There was something about that character that was always hilarious to me, even when I had no idea what it was spoofing. Thinking back, it’s odd how popular that character was for a time, mostly because that early Euro-electronic movement was always relatively unknown to the mainstream… especially in the States during the early ’90s when the sketches aired on SNL.

Anyway, I came across this video on the ol’ YouTubes, one I hadn’t seen, which looks to be the first appearance of Dieter, before the Sprockets sketches. It might be my new favourite because of all the strange references to art college in Stuttgart, S&M\monkey touching culture and the duo’s ambiguous relationship. The whole thing seems really ahead of its time.

Take a look here. (Apparently you cannot embed this video b\c NBC or whomever think that embedding videos is stealing. In this case it is more like unearthing a long forgotten classic for people…it’s free advertising people!)