Teaser // The Beach Boys: THE JOKERMEN 100 — Side B

Summary

Jokermen Podcast: The Beach Boys—THE JOKERMEN 100: Side B (Teaser)

Date: May 7, 2026
Hosts: Jokermen (Host and Co-host)
Episode Theme:
This episode serves as a teaser for the Jokermen’s ranked countdown of the top Beach Boys songs. The focus here is on #20 (“Kokomo”) and #19 (“Ding Dang”)—two of the band’s most notorious, divisive, and mythic late-career entries—and the radically evolving critical and cultural perceptions surrounding each. The hosts discuss their selection rationale, generational taste wars, the Beach Boys' reputation, and what makes lowbrow and “bimbo-fied” music meaningful, with freewheeling cultural references, irreverent banter, and philosophical asides.

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Main Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Placement and Reappraisal of “Kokomo” (#20)

• Initial Controversy:

  • The hosts debate whether “Kokomo” deserves to be even higher in their ranking, acknowledging its checkered critical past as a symbol of the Beach Boys’ supposed creative decline in the late 1980s.
    • Host: “I think 20 is plenty high.” [00:00]
    • Co-host: “Maybe we should…for the sake of symbols and ecstatic truth, have it be in the top 10.” [00:51]
  • They joke about deliberately putting the song at #1 for the sake of provocation, referencing an earlier list where Lou Reed’s “Junior Dad” was given top spot.
    • Host: “We should have had Kokomo number one.” [01:05]
    • Co-host: “Our number one is not one people will expect.” [01:11]

• Kokomo’s Cultural Rehabilitation:

  • They recognize that “Kokomo” being in the top 20 might be surprising to some, but argue that the world has moved on from dismissing the song as “bad.”
    • Co-host: “It might be a shock to some people that it’s even in the conversation, but they would be wrong… the world has moved on from pretending that Kokomo is bad.” [01:28]
  • The hosts position “Kokomo” as emblematic of what makes the Beach Boys fun, pushing back against the generational narrative that equates late-period “corny” music with creative failure.
    • Host: “It’s a Gen X type thing to be like, oh, Kokomo, that sucks…That’s when the Beach Boys got corny and lame. As if they haven’t been corny and lame since 1962.” [01:43]

2. The Value of “Corny” Pop and Bimbo-fication

• “Kokomo” is praised as a fully “bimbo-fied” artifact, satisfying true mass appetite rather than underground taste, and the hosts compare its reception to similar divides over bands like Steely Dan.

  • Co-host: “Kokomo is not them becoming corny and lame—it’s the Beach Boys becoming bimbo-fied… everybody was on board for Kokomo. It wasn’t until later.” [02:23]

• They compare the critical resistance to “Kokomo” and Steely Dan to Steve Albini’s famously negative stance on slick jazz-pop:

  • Host: “I think it’s a little bit like the Steve Albini Steely Dan thing…” [02:50]
  • Co-host: “When Steve Albini says that, it comes from a place of earnest, sincere belief that there are further horizons to be explored in music…” [03:17]

3. Time, Taste, and Musical “Culture Wars”

• The hosts note that distance from the original cultural context of a song allows for a more genuine appreciation—audiences can now enjoy “Kokomo” without participating in 1980s era music “battles.”

  • Host: “We’re fortunate enough to be able to listen to this music divorced of context… the battle has been fought…the winners won, the losers lost. It’s over. You can just take it for what it is.” [04:06]

• They relate this to contemporary music, recognizing their own biases against artists like Justin Bieber and Frank Ocean.

  • Host: “I bring baggage to the Justin Bieber listening experience…everything in every bone in my body was…antithetical.” [05:00]
  • Co-host: “Now Justin Bieber is Frank Ocean…for many people.” [04:56]

• The cycle of taste and generational ridicule is highlighted:

  • Host: “The same way Steve Albini couldn’t get over it with Steely Dan, I’m sure many people couldn’t get over it with Kokomo. Boy, imagine being Mark E. Smith and listening to Kokomo in 1989.” [05:34]
  • Anecdote: The hosts reference Mark E. Smith (of The Fall) being antagonistic toward Mumford & Sons, illustrating the endless loop of generational taste clashes. [06:00–06:04]

4. Brief Song Breakdown: “Kokomo” and “Ding Dang” (#19)

• Musical Joy in “Kokomo”:

  • The hosts agree: “Kokomo is a great song, and there’s no use in denying it. Beautiful music.” [06:09–06:16]
  • They playfully sing the chorus together. [06:18–06:25]

• Ding Dang’s Mystical Minimalism:

  • Conversation quickly transitions to #19, “Ding Dang,” described as a “shortening bread” type of song, relating to another Beach Boys goof-off classic.
  • Host: “It’s shortening bread, you could say is Ding Dang too…Ding Dang is as a shorter song and as ostensibly an original composition.” [06:31–06:48]
  • Co-host: “It is an example of…a thought form in Brian’s heart and mind that exists outside of him briefly…he actually brought out something from his dreams and made it sort of real…it represents the infinity of feeling for Brian Wilson, which is… the infinity of feeling of the human being.” [06:58–07:48]
  • They liken the song to the famous “St. Elsewhere” snow globe TV ending—the universe shrunk to a single drop.
    • Host: “Ding Dang is that snow globe. The whole entirety of reality, even beyond real…all five dimensions.” [07:59–08:12]
    • Co-host: “Ding Dang is that, but it turns out just to be a drop of consciousness condensation on a bottle of milk in the fridge.” [08:12–08:19]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “I think that’s kind of the fun of this whole project…you had to buy into this shit from day one with cuckoo clock and county fair and ten little indians. Kokomo is really not asking too much more of you.”
  — Host [01:43–02:23]

• “Kokomo is not them becoming corny and lame. It’s the Beach Boys becoming bimbo-fied in a way that money is telling the story of…the world wanted that.”
  — Co-host [02:23]

• “We’re fortunate enough to be able to listen to this music divorced of context… the battle has been fought. The winners won, the losers lost. It’s over. You can just take it for what it is.”
  — Host [04:06]

• “Ding Dang…is a thought form in Brian’s heart and mind that exists outside of him briefly… it represents the infinity of feeling for Brian Wilson, which is…the infinity of feeling of the human being.”
  — Co-host [06:58–07:48]

• “Ding Dang is that snow globe. The whole entirety of reality, even beyond real. All five dimensions. That’s Ding Dang.”
  — Host [07:59–08:12]

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 00:51–02:23: “Kokomo” ranking debate and generational attitudes
• 02:23–04:06: “Bimbo-fication,” Steely Dan, and Steve Albini comparison
• 04:06–05:34: On listening “divorced of context,” generational bias, and culture wars
• 06:09–06:25: Emphatic affirmation and chorus of “Kokomo”
• 06:28–08:24: Philosophical riff on “Ding Dang” as mystical micro-song

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Tone & Style

Reflecting their irreverent, hyper-literate, and playful podcast style, the hosts toggle between high-concept analysis, tongue-in-cheek defenses of pop kitsch, and affable ribbing. They freely reference indie lore, generational divides, and Beach Boys myth, anchoring every point in casual, comically overblown language and a shared affection for the subject.

Bottom Line:
Even the Beach Boys’ silliest late-career pop moments—like “Kokomo” and “Ding Dang”—are meaningful windows into the history of musical taste, the shifting winds of critical consensus, and the bottomless emotional range of Brian Wilson and his band of legends.

Transcript

[Host]

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[Co-host]

I did have the feeling of like, maybe like old contrarian me being like, maybe we should. Maybe we should for the sake of symbols and ecstatic truth, have it be in the top 10.

[Host]

We should have. Yeah. The same way that we had Junior dad number one on the loo list, we should have had Kokomo number one on the Beach Boys.

[Co-host]

Well, I think after we end up doing something like that, I think that our number one is not one people will expect.

[Host]

It's a non traditional choice. Yes. But I think it's a much more worthy choice than Kokomo.

[Co-host]

Number 20 is good for Kokomo.

[Host]

Plenty high for Kokomo.

[Co-host]

That's plenty high. But it's also you. You know, it might be a shock to some people that it's even in the conversation, but they would be wrong. I mean, although I think the world has moved on from pretending that Kokomo is bad.

[Host]

Yeah. I think it's sort of a Gen X type thing to be like, oh, Kokomo, that sucks. That freaking sucks. That's when the Beach Boys got corny and lame. That's when the Beach Boys became corny. As if they haven't been corny and lame since 1962. But I think that's kind of the fun of this whole project. And a list like this where like, you know, you, you had, you had to buy into this shit, you know, from day one with cuckoo clock and county fair and 10 little Indians. And so like, Kokomo is really not asking too much more of you 30 years after the fact.

[Co-host]

On the contrary, Kokomo is not them becoming corny and lame. It's the Beach Boys becoming bimbo fied in like a way that money is telling the story of like, the world wanted that, you know, like everybody was on board for Kokomo. It wasn't until later. And I'm sure at the time certain people were like, I'm be. I'm too good for this. But a little bit. It's the same thing with Steely Dan.

[Host]

Like, exactly. I was gonna. Just gonna say, I think it's a little bit like the Steve Albini Steely Dan thing where like, if you're Steve ALBINI and it's 1980 and everyone is listening to Gaucho and it's like, here's these fucking phony ass white boys from the east coast who are trying to make perfect jazz music with a computer. And this is what's popular on the charts. I understand you just hating that with every fiber of your being.

[Co-host]

You have to. And of course not to get into that conversation too much anymore. But when Steve Albini says that, it's like it comes from a place of earnest, sincere belief that there are further horizons to be explored in music that are not so slick and seemingly marketable, but are more invested in a kind of purity of curiosity and expressive vision. You know, he's. He's more about like, well, we know we can do that. Yeah. What else can we do? Of course, that's a bit limited in retrospect, a viewpoint, but you're allowed to say that when you're responsible for some of the other indirectly or directly, like some of the other greatest music ever recorded in the, in the rock genre,

[Host]

we're fortunate enough to be able to listen to this music divorced of context, you know, And I think that's really what it is about. And like, it's not part of the contemporary culture war. You are not a participant in this. The battle has been fought. The winners won, the losers lost. It's over. You can just take it for what it is. And we don't get to do that with our contemporary music. I'm sure there's shit today that comes out that is good or could be considered good, that I'm just like the whole Justin Bieber at Coachella thing, where everyone was going apeshit over him watching YouTube videos on the main stage or whatever. I don't get it, but whatever, man. I guess someone.

[Co-host]

That's the Frank Ocean that we have now. I don't even like Frank Ocean. I never got on that train. But you did.

[Host]

Yeah, Frank Ocean's great anyways.

[Co-host]

But now Justin Bieber is Frank Ocean. Let's not go too far for many people.

[Host]

Yeah. So, like, I bring baggage to the Justin Bieber listening experience, you know, because I grew up, you know, when Baby came out I was 20 and I was listening to Ariel Pink and Waves and Girls and, like, everything in every bone in my body was, like, you know, antithetical to the Justin Bieber whole thing. And so, like. But that battle has been fought and I lost. And, you know, everyone else won or whatever. Ariel Pink lost, too, but, like, I still kind of can't get over that. And so I think that the same way Steve Albini couldn't get over it with Steely Dan, I'm sure many people couldn't get over it with Kokomo. Boy, imagine being Marky Smith and listening to Kokomo in 1989.

[Co-host]

Well, I think Markie Smith probably felt the way people feel about Kokomo. Certain people. I think he felt that about, like,

[Host]

most pretty much anything. Someone just surfaced that quote recently about him, like, throwing a bottle at Mumford.

[Co-host]

Yeah.

[Host]

So good.

[Co-host]

The sons of Mumford.

[Host]

The sons of Mumford. That's right.

[Co-host]

That's good.

[Host]

Anyways, Kokomo is a great song, and there's no use in denying it. Beautiful music.

[Co-host]

Beautiful music.

[Host]

Aruba, Jamaica Ooh, I want to take

[Co-host]

ya Bermuda, Bahamas Come on, pretty mama

[Host]

come on, pretty mama 19. Ding dang,

[Co-host]

this is shortening bread. 2.

[Host]

It's shortening bread, you could say is Ding dang too.

[Co-host]

Well, one came first and it's shortened in bread.

[Host]

Well, but the Beach Boys version. Ding ding came.

[Co-host]

I'm saying that there's no Ding ding without shortening bread.

[Host]

Sure, I'll take. I'll take either. But I think Ding Dang is as a shorter song and as ostensibly an original composition.

[Co-host]

Well, it is an original, and it's. It is. It is an example of, like, a. A thought form in Brian's heart and mind that, like, exists outside of him briefly. It's like he conjured the. The philosopher's stone when he made this. Like, he actually, like, brought out something from his dreams and made it sort of real by putting. By making the song. Because you. You get, like, a very short snippet. This song is very short, under a minute. But what it represents is. It represents the infinity of feeling for Brian Wilson, which is to say, you know, the infinity of feeling of the human being.

[Host]

It's the. What is it? It's St. Elsewhere, right? Where they, like, zoom out of the whole universe, and then it turns out to just be, like, a tear in the eye of, like, a disabled child or something like that.

[Co-host]

It's a snow globe.

[Host]

A snow globe. Yeah, whatever. Ding dang is that. Ding dang is that snow globe. The whole entirety of reality, even beyond real. All four dimensions. All five dimensions. That's Ding dang.

[Co-host]

Yeah. Ding dang is that. But it turns out just to be a drop of consciousness condensation on a bottle of milk in the fridge.

[Host]

Yeah, that he's drinking over the city.

[Co-host]

He's about to chug.

[Host]

Oh, man. Ding dang. Don't think there's anything else to say there.