Artists Paul Velick and Francis Shishim joined forces in 1975 to create the personae of "Bob & Bob." As Bob & Bob they engaged in performances such as the following:
A piece called Oh great, now what? consisted of eating lavish meals at expensive restaurants in Beverly Hills, then "discovering" they were broke, saying "Oh great, now what?" and being thrown out.
Released in 1971, this album taught you how to cook crepes. Unfortunately I can't find any audio clips of it online. From the album cover:
You'll be amazed at how easy it is. In this very authoritative, informative and thoroughly entertaining album, Chef Claude takes you on a most delightful musical, educational and palate-pleasing tour of the world of crêpes. He teaches you — in record time — a simple, fool-proof technique for making these delicate, paper-thin pancakes.
Some more info from the Louisville Courier-Journal (Dec 27, 1978):
1971: Rhode Island legislator Bernard C. Gladstone proposed that every male "over the age of puberty" would be taxed $2 for every act of intercourse they engaged in. However, "only acts of sexual intercourse occurring in Rhode Island, either by residents or tourists, could be taxed."
The Select-A-Size mirror, invented by Milton Doolittle, had a knob you could turn to make yourself look slimmer or fatter. As explained in the 1976 Canadian patent:
A mirror has an upper portion which is held in flat condition by being secured in the upper portion of a vertically extending frame. The integral lower portion of the mirror is flexible, and its curvature is variable about a vertical axis, so that by varying the curvature of the lower portion, there is provided an image of the appearance of a person's body after a weight loss, the upper flat portion reflection a true reflection of the person's face, which would change comparatively little, if at all, after a weight loss. The curvature of the mirror lower portion is varied by rotation of a knob threadedly engaging a screw that moves a lever connected to the mirror. The mirror is supported on a stand or a wall support by a vertically movable member in a hollow tube at the back of the mirror, so that it may be vertically adjusted to reflect the face of people of different heights in the flat portion of the mirror.
1974: Seabee Leon L. Louie explained that the reason he hit his commanding officer in the face with a chocolate cream pie was to boost the morale of his battalion. However, the Navy failed to see the humor in what he had done and court-martialed him.
Comedian Soupy Sales testified in Louie's defense, arguing that hitting someone in the face with a cream pie is comedy, not assault. Nevertheless, a jury of five officers found Louie guilty, though they gave him the lighter sentence of demotion, restriction to base, and a fine — rather than a dishonorable discharge.
Randy Newman's strange hit song from 1977 consisted, at least in part, of "a prejudiced attack on short people" (as Wikipedia puts it).
Two stations in Boston refused to play the song because of a flood of calls and letters from listeners who thought it was insensitive. The 5-foot-7 station manager of both stations explained that children might begin to see themselves as "creepy little folks." . . .
Then there are those fans who, understanding their favorite artist's genius, have interpreted the song as being a satire on short-sighted people — spiritual midgets, you might say.
Paul Di Filippo
Paul has been paid to put weird ideas into fictional form for over thirty years, in his career as a noted science fiction writer. He has recently begun blogging on many curious topics with three fellow writers at The Inferior 4+1.