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.

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]

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]

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

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.