Chances are that you have spelled this incredible punk rock reimagined version band’s name wrong once, twice, or thrice, but Me First and the Gimme Gimmes, the greatest cover band in the world not named The Spazmatics, have been delivering their fun brand of punk since 1995 with a revolving cast of misfit characters from such bands as Lagwagon, NOFX, No Use for a Name, and Michelle Branch, and doesn’t seem to be slowing down any time soon, despite the fact that vocalist Spike Slawson is the only consistent live member. That sentence was quite a mouthful, but that’s how we do it! Anyway, we ranked the Gimmes’ six full-length studio albums below and no EPs, live records, B-sides records or compilations are listed because feelings aren’t facts.
6. Are We Not Men? We Are Diva! (2014)
Me First and the Gimme Gimmes honestly don’t have a bad LP, but one had to be listed in the dreaded stinker position, so their sixth and latest record “Are We Not Men? We Are Diva!” despite having their best album title, is right here. Fun fact: MFATGG sometimes provide sizable Easter Eggs/Shiny Menorahs in the form of a punk intro from bands like they do on “Are We Not Men? We Are Diva” including T.S.O.L., The Dead Boys, The Buzzcocks, and The Dave Matthews Band just before they start the actual song that they are covering, and said parts are uber DELICIOUS, we tell ya! It’s been nearly a decade since this fantastic album came out, so let’s hear it for the boy(s), let’s give the boy a hand!
Play it again: Paula Adbul’s “Straight Up”
Skip it: Donna Summer’s “On the Radio”
5. Love Their Country (2006)
Even if you’re one of those derivative humans who spouts cliched garbage like, “I like all genres of music but hip-hop and country,” every chance that you get, there is still PLENTY to love about, uhh, “Love Their Country,” and Me First and the Gimme Gimmes showcase grit, diversity, melodic sensibilities, and straw hats on all twelve tracks of their fifth full-length studio LP here. Classic country and western songs from The (Dixie) Chicks, Garth Brooks, Kenny Rogers, and Ja Rule get the Gimme Gimmes’ treatment, and introduce such hits to a captive audience that, like we mentioned earlier, would have never had such open minds towards prior. Fun fact: “Love Their Country” is the band’s shortest, and thus, most digestible album, so take twenty-five minutes and twenty-eight seconds of your crappy day and inhale this one right this very moment.
Play it again: Willie Nelson’s “On the Road Again”
Skip it: Johnny Lee’s “Lookin’ for Love”
4. Blow in the Wind (2001)
Me First and the Gimme Gimmes’ third full-length effort and first non-’90s LP features the band’s sterling takes on classic 1960s hits like Cat Stevens’ “Wild World,” Dusty Springfield’s “I Only Want to Be with You,” The Beatles’ “All My Loving,” and Salt-N-Pepa’s “None of Your Business.” The band kicked off the 21st century (digital boy) in style and each of the lucky thirteen tracks. Fun fact: 2001 was also an underrated year for MFATGG’s label Fat Wreck Chords with other releases from Rise Against (“The Unraveling”), MxPx (“The Renaissance EP”), Mad Caddies (“Rock the Plank”), and the soundtrack from “The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.” Funner fact: The band’s version of The Beach Boys’ “Sloop John B” from “Blow in the Wind” was featured twelve years later in Dr. Suess’ children’s classic “The Wolf of Wall Street.”
Play it again: Barry Mann and The Halos’ “Who Put the Bomp (in the Bomp, Bomp, Bomp)
Skip it: Scott McKenzie’s “San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair)”
3. Have a Ball (1997)
We bet you so much more than a rock that you didn’t think that Me First and the Gimme Gimmes would last much longer than their debut effort “Have a Ball” but we also surmise that you thought that Title Fight would be at Fall Out Boy’s heights by now. To this day, “Have a Ball” remains their best selling record, and with perfect covers like Paul Simon’s “Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard,” Billy Joel’s “Uptown Girl,” John Denver’s “Leaving on a Jet Plane,” and Morbid Angel’s “Lord of All Fevers & Plague,” can you blame the punk rock public? Not one tin soldier can! Shout outs to the OG Me First and the Gimme Gimmes lineup: Spike Slawson on vocals, Chris Shiflettt on lead guitar, Joey Cape on rhythm guitar, Fat Mike on bass, and Dave Raun on drums!
Play it again: Loggins & Messina’s “Danny’s Song”
Skip it: James Taylor’s “Fire and Rain”
2. Take a Break (2003)
Oh girl, we are still very confused as to why this is the lone LP in the band’s six-record collection to NOT have a Wikipedia page, but we hope that this silver medal ranking here ensures one STAT. Depending on the day of the week, this could switch positions with the yet-to-be-mentioned gold medal effort, but today, “Take a Break” loses by a hair. If both you and Elenore are upset about this, don’t fret, our pets, as it is the first of two no “skip it” track efforts to be mentioned here. Seal, Stevie Wonder, Prince, and Rival Schools get the MFATGG treatment here and each vocal/harmony is showcased brilliantly with a much, much faster BPM… Now let’s please move on, as we saved the best for last!
Play it again: “Where Do Broken Hearts Go”-”Natural Woman”
Skip it: “Where Do Fixed Lungs Go”-”Plastic Man”
1. Are a Drag (1999)
Please riddle us this, what’s more punk rock than a freaking musical? Don’t cry for us Argentina OR answer that. Anyway, long, long before MFATGG stalwart Fat Mike’s punk rock musical “Home Street Home” was released, Me First and the Gimme Gimmes’ sophomore LP “Are a Drag” provided that the band was not capable of a sophomore slump, and the band blazed through its second shortest album with a one-twelve punch of effervescent Broadway and film splendor from such musicals as “A Chorus Line,” “Porgy and Bess,” “The Phantom of the Opera,” “Schindler’s List,” and the like. Your prom night will forever be soaked with menstrual blood from someone’s thighs if you have yet to spin this record, and we implore you to sing along, in any season rain or shine, with the body electric now or TOMORROW.
Play it again: Are a drag
Skip it: Is two pleasure
The Etch-a-Sketch was a pathetic toy that makes for an even more pathetic vessel for a serial killer. Even if it’s possessed, it’s going to be hard to feel in danger when the serial killer has to spend thirty minutes meticulously crafting the rounded edge on the D in ‘DIE’ to threaten you. Not to mention it had to start over after we shook it a bunch. You’ll be fine.
I know what you’re thinking: under the cold, calculated control of a serial killer an old-school metal slinky could slash your throat, and a plastic one could at least wrap you up and strangle you like a boa constrictor. Fortunately it can only go downstairs, so we just walked up a couple flights and it was pretty harmless.
Ah, Nerf footballs—everybody had one growing up, and for some reason they all had a bite taken out of them. The serial killer had a pretty tough time trying to bludgeon us to death with this pillowy polyurethane plaything, so as long as you can resist the urge to chomp down on the soft foam and choke on a piece of the toy, you’ll be ok.
Even when possessed by a serial killer, these toys are completely harmless. My Little Pony fans on the other hand…just stay away from the Brony conventions.
The Play-Doh Killer tried their best to dispatch us, but it was kind of difficult to tell what murder weapon they were trying to create. We think the killer was trying to fashion themselves into a shiv, but all the colors got mushed together and it turned this nasty green-brown color that looked like baby vomit. Not to mention it got all crusty, and there was a bunch of hair stuck in it — honestly, it was more gross than threatening.
Fun fact: every Troll doll actually does contain the wayward soul of a person who died under tragic circumstances, but statistically it’s unlikely that that person was also a serial killer. You’re more likely to get a Troll possessed by a trucker that nodded off at the wheel, or an old guy that fell in the shower. That old guy watched a lot of InfoWars though, so watch out for that.
Everyone has at least one Beanie Baby buried in their attic, and how much danger you’re in depends on the kind of Beanie Baby that gets possessed. Is it something benign like Chocolate the Moose or Flash the Dolphin? The serial killer is limited in the damage it can inflict. But God help you if you had one of those limited edition Henry Kissinger Beanie Babies.
Lizzie Borden took an axe, she gave her mother forty whacks, when she saw what she had done, she gave her father forty-one. Lucky for you, Polly Pocket is less than an inch tall so it’ll be more of a papercut, but ouch.
Imagine a serial killer stalking you that could assume the shape of anything. It could be your car waiting to run you down, or you could get mauled by what you thought was your beloved dog. Not to mention the original Megatron was an actual gun, and—oh, it turned into a…cassette tape player? Well that’s underwhelming. We’re just gonna list this one on eBay and let the ‘Soundwave Slaughterer’ be someone else’s problem.
That’s weird, did Mom forget to put this knock-off lightsaber under the Christmas tree? Honestly this toy sucks hard — it vibrates pretty fast at a couple different speeds, but nothing that could saw your head off or anything. You’d be fine if a serial killer possessed it, although for some reason we do feel a bit queasy while holding it.
In the classic John Carpenter film ‘Christine,’ a sentient 1958 Plymouth Fury goes on a bloody rampage, killing a half-dozen people before finally being crushed into a cube in a junkyard. That’s pretty much how it went down with the Power Wheels, except this thing had ¼ horsepower and performed about as well as a Cybertruck when trying to overcome even the most modest of obstacles.
Trust us, we thought Tickle Me Elmo would be higher on the list too, but once you get past the maniacal laughter this fuzzy red serial killer is all chuckle and no bite. It tried relentlessly to wrap his furry little hands around our necks, but it lacked the grip strength to cut off the oxygen and in the end, well — it just kinda tickled.
If your family was too broke to afford a Gameboy like ours, these hunks of shit got you through a ton of road trips. Today there’s got to be millions of these things piled up in landfills across the country, slowly poisoning the groundwater with their plastic and electronic components. A few decades from now they’ll probably end up killing thousands, but you’ll already be dead at the hands of a superior toy by then.
You’d assume GI Joe’s military training would turn them into a lethal killing machine in the hands of a serial killer, but think of all the horrible ways we destroyed GI Joe growing up. These poor bastards were battered, beaten, melted, and blown up with fireworks in the line of duty. To them, you’re the serial killer hunting the serial killer, like the show Dexter. Honestly you’d be in more danger at the US Army enlisting table at your local community college.
With their softer, rounded edges, these things aren’t even close to as lethal as Lego, but still more dangerous than that shitty Duplo.
These neon-tipped foam darts aren’t going to do much unless you brandish the neon orange toy in front of a cop and they mistake it for a real gun, but honestly the same could be said for a wallet, keys, cellphone, headphones, a ham sandwich — anything really. Point is, we’d take our chances with the toy gun possessed by the serial killer.
It’s going to take a while for all five Power Rangers to transform, summon their Zords, and then combine into the Megazord and murder us. So while we wait, what was up with the Dragonzord? Tommy summoned it by playing a dagger that he played like a flute. But he couldn’t blow air through the helmet, so does it work more like a keytar?
Hold up, so the serial killer possesses the Ouija board, and then summons other ghosts to jump us and not do the dirty work itself? Kill us yourselves, you coward.
The only thing more embarrassing than being murdered by a possessed Yo-Yo was being asked on stage at an Elementary School assembly in the 90s featuring a full-time professional Yo-Yo champion who needed your cheers to summon the strength to land The Flying Trapeze through the power of Christ. That said, the ‘Flaying Trapeze’ would be a pretty sick name for a horror movie kill.
Time to crank open this unassuming novelty cube, I sure hope it doesn’t contain a surprise that might fatally exacerbate a preexisting health condition! Let’s see, no family history of heart disease? No asthma? Not even stress-induced eczema flare-ups? Well then, the soul of Jack the Ripper will just have to try again in 50 years when your failing body is a little more receptive to fatal scares, because this toy only has one trick up its stupid box.
It’s a cliche for a reason: dads love socks. So why not personalize your stylish pops with his initials? This custom-made gesture will make your dad squint at the letters, say “What does this say?”, then say “Got it” when you tell him it’s his initials. That’s the most conversation you’ve had all holiday!
This classic Kentucky spirit has a rich, mature taste, perfect for your dad after a long day shoveling snow. Watch his eyes light up – and by “light up,” we mean “look at the bottle for one full minute, start to say something which causes everyone else in the room to lean forward expectantly, then close his mouth and put the whiskey on the back porch because ‘there’s not enough room in the fridge.'”
How about American Prometheus, the inspiration for Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, a film your dad started snoring in during the big bomb test scene? Bird and Sherwin’s definitive text on a key figure in American history will be sure to sit dusty on his bedside table on top of other books you’ve given him.
Is your dad a wizard on the grill, or a Food Network fanatic? Then treat him to cooking classes from a local chef. Fun and practical, this interactive gift will keep your papa busy and your mama fed for years to come. That is if the chef guy ever does classes other than Wednesdays. Your dad’s busy Wednesday nights. That’s when he plays cards with his college friends. And that’s all he’ll say when he sees this gift. And that’s fine!!!!!!!!!!
There’s a rad collection of vinyl in the basement, but no way to listen to them! Give your father the gift of music and the bridging between past and present with a hi-tech, hi-fi USB record player. Not only will this play your dad’s retro Chicago records with onboard speakers, but he can digitize and play them all on a phone or mp3 player! First, you’ll have to remind him he has a record collection. Then, you’ll have to remind him his smartphone can play music. Then, you’ll have to explain that you spent “this much money” because you’ve always felt like you bonded over music. Then he’ll ask “What music?” and you’ll say “The record collection” and you’ll be stuck in that temporal loop until it’s time to fly back home. Isn’t technology cool?
Grasped from the hand of corrupt King Ludencior and cleansed by the beautiful Druid of the Lake, the Righteous Cup of Aldimore grants whoever drinks from it the gift of Healing Magick. Your dad will love listening to this long explanation of lore as he stares at the gift, and you’ll love him going “Huh” before putting it on the table without a coaster and folding his arms for the rest of Christmas.
You’ve known you’re pregnant for two months, but you’ve been waiting to surprise your family for the holidays. You hand a plain-looking folder to your mom; when she opens it, she screams and cries. You hand the sonogram to your sister; she hugs you and tells you she’s proud of you. Here it comes. The moment of truth. Your dad takes the document, the proof of life, the promise that his family name will carry on for generations after him. His eyes scan up and down. He nods, clears his throat, and says, “Alright.” He then places the sonogram next to a printedout gift card to Dick’s Sporting Goods.
Fuck it, who cares.
It’s hard to believe that career criminals could be thwarted by something so easily avoided by the installation of a “Caution” sign. And yet, as we see in the films, these The Wet Bandits are not averse to slip-sliding Dick Van Dyke style over every slick surface they come across. Someone really should replace that sign already.
There’s a chance they’d test the ladder mildly before trying to climb it only to end up crashing down comically into a bunch of Micro Machines or firecrackers or some such shit. Easily avoidable, which is how we know they’ll crash down comically right into it.
There’s really not much to this one. Spring goes back, then pops out, then someone gets hit in the dick so hard it nearly detaches. Maybe Harry has an okay chance at dodging the boxing glove, but you know Marv is right behind him ready to bear the full brunt of a spring-loaded fist to the testicles.
A ceiling fan with a bunch of tasers tied to the blades that just keep spinning around and around and around and around. All a person has to do to get past it is to simply not walk directly under it – something that both bandits are likely to do near immediately upon encountering the taser fan.
Though they may seem a simple obstacle, nets are a frustrating nuisance to even competent criminals. Toss one of these over Harry and Marv and they’ll get so entangled they’ll end up strangled in their own wet banditry.
We’re guessing this would require a whole lot of string to make them all fire at the same time. And also, we dunno, clamps? Like to keep the t-shirt cannons in place. Whatever, it was enough to kill Maude Flanders so it’s definitely enough to at least knock these jokers off a roof or something.
This one isn’t a trap. Fuck, it isn’t even “Home Alone” canon. Its only job is to make you a full, delicious breakfast through the magic of Rube Goldbergian madness. And after the Wet Bandits take it on they’ll both come away from it with half of their faces missing. That’s the kind of bunglers we’re dealing with here.
Stepping on a Lego with your bare feet is absolute hell. Stepping on a Lego and then having a hundred other Legos explode two feet under your taint – fuck, just lay down and die already dude.
We already know these guys can’t keep it together against even a single tarantula. So a ’90s-era McDonald’s PlayPlace filled with the most venomous snakes on earth is gonna leave these bozos in absolute shreds.
It throws coconuts. Quite hard actually. It would put a normal man in a coma but for the Wet Bandits there’s no need to even attempt to dodge it – and don’t worry, they weren’t gonna try anyway.
An augmentation of the classic paint can on a string that swings down the stairs and smashes you in the face, this time you light the Molotov before you swing it down and soak the goons at the bottom of the stairs with fire. Yep, they’re dead.
Sometimes, simpler is better. The piece of wood with a rusty nail in it is a classic of DIY violence. And somehow these idiots fall victim to it every time. Terrible.
There’s a thought experiment that goes that if you put a cat in a box with a vial of poison set to break at a predetermined yet unknown time then you must assume that, without looking in the box, the cat currently exists in two states of being – alive and dead. It remains that way until you open the box and collapse the experiment. And now if that explanation seems at all confusing to you, then how confusing do you think it’s going to seem if you put the two fuckwits who couldn’t figure out how to dodge a BB gun in that box instead.
Fall through the trapdoor and into a world of pain. Considering that neither Harry nor Marv ever even seem to think about where they’re about to set their feet down, we are confident they would not be able to avoid the fall. And after that, it’s just a matter of which lethal bit of the contraption takes them out. We still hope it’s the cobras though.
