MR. TROLOLO

Here’s the story of a viral video three decades in the making.

FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE

Eduard Khil (pronounced “Hill”) was a pop singer from St. Petersburg, Russia. Famous there since the 1960s, he was virtually unheard of in the United States until 2009. That’s when a YouTube user posted a video from a 1976 Russian TV show in which Khil lip-syncs to his 1966 hit song “I Am Glad Because I Am Finally Returning Back Home.”

The video is strangely compelling: Wearing a brown polyester suit with a yellow tie, Khil slowly strolls onto an orange-and-yellow soundstage, bouncing in time to the cheesy bossa nova music. He seems almost robotic as he smiles the entire time and waves to nobody in particular. But what makes the song truly unique are the nonsense lyrics Khil sings in his operatic baritone. Sample: “Yayaya-ya-yaya-ya yaya-ya / Oo oo oo oo / ahh EEEE! / Trololololo!”

Khil’s lyricist actually did pen some words to the song; it was about a cowboy from Kentucky longing for his woman (who is at home knitting him some stockings). However, Soviet sensors banned the lyrics for being “offensive,” so Khil decided to record the song with the nonsense words instead.

IT’S A FAD!

Not long after the song was posted online, Khil became known on the Web as “Mr. Trololo,” and his video and its dozens of parodies have amassed (as of 2014) 17 million hits. Even a 2009 clip of Khil watching YouTube parodies of himself (and commenting on them in Russian) got half a million views.

American fans started a Facebook page urging him to come out of retirement and tour again, but he politely declined, saying he had no plans to perform live. However, Khil did post a video response thanking everyone for the renewed interest in a 40-year-old song. He also requested that “all the people of the world” contribute actual lyrics to the song, and “we will all sing together.” Overjoyed by his newfound stardom, Khil told his fans, “Thank you for getting this supply of cheerfulness and optimism while listening to this melody.”

PASSING OF A LEGEND

Sadly, Khil was only able to enjoy his renewed fame for a short time; he suffered a stroke in 2012 and died at the age of 77. While his passing simply made the rounds on entertainment sites in the U.S., in Russia it was a national day of mourning. Even President Vladimir Putin sent the family his condolences: “Eduard Khil was unique in his extraordinary charm and lyricism, constant in his professionalism, vocal culture, and creative taste.” (Uncle John’s challenge: Watch Mr. Trololo online and then try not to sing the melody out loud.)

Why doesn’t the Mona Lisa have eyebrows? Because when Leonardo da Vinci painted her in 1504, shaved eyebrows were a fad in Italy.