An Odd Bit Of History.

[byronius]

Ron "The Ghoul" Sweed circa 1972 saying it right out loud on broadcast television. I'd never hear of this fellow until today. But I ran across a link to the wikipedia about the first black-owned television station in the United States (WGPR, an interesting story in itself featuring The Scene, a 'Soul Train' style dance show and some other truly interesting variety shows) and their Detroit broadcast of 'The Ghoul' after Kaiser Broadcasting took him off the air for his politically-charged, popular segments like this one.

He passed away in 2019 but was clearly loved by his diehard lefty fans. The clip above is about Nixon's visit to Russia in May of 1972, and he pulls no punches.

From the wikipedia:

Known for his zany, early-adolescent humor (particularly surrounding his abuse of a rubber frog named "Froggy," his well-known penchant for blowing up model ships and aircraft with firecrackers, and his habitual smearing of Cheez Whiz over everything in sight), late night monster movies were a unique experience for Cleveland viewers in the 1970s. Catch phrases included "zingy-zingy," "Overdey!" and "stay sick, turn blue".

The Ghoul would typically take an unbelievably bad horror movie and dump in sound bites at appropriate moments, using audio clips from novelty records, George Carlin, Firesign Theater and rock albums of the '60s and early '70s. And whenever a character took a drink of something on-screen, The Ghoul would supply a good, loud belch.

Shooting from no-budget studio sets, the Ghoul inserted his own dialogue and sound effects over insufferably bad B movies, blew up food, model cars and figurines with firecrackers, and produced strangely compelling, culturally relevant skits and parodies. The show was destructive and childish enough for little kids, subversive and timely enough for young adults.

The Ghoul was well known enough in the Cleveland and Detroit markets that some of his catch phrases ("Overdey!", "Hey group!", "Scratch glass, turn blue", "Stay sick, climb walls", "Pluck your magic twanger, Froggy!", "Holy Parma", "Amrap" and Froggy's "Hiya gang, hiya hiya hiya!&quot are still widely recognized among the children of the 1970s.

An interesting side element is that the aforementioned rubber toy referred to simply as "Froggy" (and much abused by the Ghoul) was a toy dating from 1948 by a company named Rempel and featured often in comedic skits on the 1955 television show Andy's Gang where he was named Froggy the Gremlin. The Ghoul's oft-uttered catch phrases "Hiya, gang. Hiya, hiya, hiya" and "Pluck your magic twanger, Froggy" originate from that earlier show.

I would have loved this guy in 1972, but I was growing up in Dhahran. Missed his wave altogether until this very day.

Bonus Clip of the opening show for The Scene:

[Layzeebeaver]

1. Met him one time

He did a show at in the Detroit area about 20 years ago - I can't remember the locale.

Afterwards, He and Froggy worked the crowd - shaking hands, posing for photos and meeting EVERY SINGLE PERSON - until there was only a few of us left. He really appreciated and loved his fans.

My dad and I stayed up every Saturday night and watched his performance.

A precursor to MST3K.

[captain queeg]

2. Reminds me of Ghoulardi from Cleveland.

He did that thing with blowing up models with firecrackers. I wasn’t usually allowed to stay up late enough to watch him but my mom loved those cheesy old sci-fi movies that were his mainstay. That and the old horror/monster flicks. I think there were lots of regional shows running the same kind of late night programming. Later it was Big Chuck and Hoolihan.

[byronius]

3. I think his act started as a tribute to Ghoulardi.

And then took on a life of his own. Mentions it in the wiki.