Uni sightings/references [WAS: Who would have guessed?]

General
1

> My kids saw “The Grinch” this weekend. They told me that a lot of the “Whos”
> in Whoville ride unicycles!

I haven’t seen The Grinch, but this mention (along with watching Seinfeld the
other night) reminded me of various rather tangential sightings of / references
to unicycles possible within more general popular culture.

The Seinfeld episode in question is the one where Elaine (I’ll be brief here)
meets three friends who are the “opposite” of her usual three - George, Kramer
and Jerry.When Elaine visits the “opposite-to-Jerry” character, he has a uni
hanging on the wall of his apartment, in the spot where Jerry always has a
bicycle (though he never cycled in any episode).

Another reference I like is in The Simpsons when Homer asks Bart why he quit the
guitar. Bart says “because I wasn’t good at it right away”. Homer consoles him
with: “That’s all right… if something’s hard to do, it’s not worth doing. You
just stick that guitar in the closet next to your karate outfit, your unicycle
and your short-wave radio and we’ll go inside and watch TV.”

This is quite an old episode, but I only noticed this reference after I started
to ride (of course!) And it has a double resonance for me because musician is my
profession (although it’s been a few years since I was mastering the musical
equivalent of the free mount).

Continuing my Simpsons theme, of course, Krusty the Clown has been depicted
riding a uni, as has one of the tigers from that
Gunter-and-Ernst-white-tiger-Las-Vegas-act (apparently a parody of an
actual act).

I’m wondering what other uni references in movies, TV, etc., spring to mind. In
the background, or characters riding, mentions… chip in!

Ads and pix on non-uni-related websites are already de-riggeur for mentions
here, it seems.

It’d be great for someone to make a list (if there isn’t one already). If if
were on a website, it would practically “write itself” if provision for e-mail
additions/submissions were provided.

Oh, BTW, I do sometimes get around to doing things other than watch
re-runs :slight_smile:

Regards,

dude (a.k.a. Cazz)

P.S. After a few months in the “wilderness” (serious injury-related) I’m pleased
to report that I have recently been working on idling + juggling (just 3
ball cascade) and it is progressing quite nicely.

2

RE: Uni Sighting, etc.

Hi all–

My kids and I watched a program on the local PBS station (Redding, CA) this
weekend called Blast!–apparently a combination brass band and dance troupe.
Perhaps this is a phenomenon I should be familiar with, but it was new to me,
anyway. At any rate, there was one number that featured a unicyclist playing the
trombone, racing across the stage and into the audience. It was quite
entertaining, and worth watching even without the uni. It was put on as part of
the seemingly-neverending pledge drive the station is doing, so may appear on
other local PBS stations at some point.

On another note, at Thanksgiving my sister-in-law told me about a half-time
performance at a recent Portland (Oregon) Trailblazers basketball game featuring
a unicycle troupe from Kelso, Washington. Anybody have any info on this uni
club? I used to teach English at Kelso High School in the late
80s/early 90s, and knew of no unicycle clubs at that time. If anybody knows
these folks, I’d appreciate hearing from you–maybe a familiar name
will pop up.

Peter

Peter Kittle Department of English CSU, Chico Chico CA 95929-0830 ph:
530/898-5305 fax: 530/898-4450 email: pkittle@csuchico.edu www:
http://www.csuchico.edu/~pkittle