by The Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything’s first of many appearances was in a Silly Song that I have yet to purchase DVD for! This silly song is the first time that we get introduced to Larry, Pa Grape and Mr. Lunt as pirates. In this first appearance of the pirates, Pa Grape actually has a skull and cross bones on his hat. Since Big Idea had a lot of negative feedback over that, it changed to a smiley face in The Ultimate Silly Song Countdown and a game of Tic-Tac-Toe in Jonah and from there on out.
This gang started out as a gag and a tag line: “and I’ve never been to Boston in the Fall.” Mike Nawrocki said that he and some college friends talked about never being to Boston in the fall as some kind of link to the Red Sox or something of that nature, so they just came up with piratey or pseudo-piratey things for these pirates to say they had not done– since they don’t do anything.
This grew into the pirates taking over The Ultimate Silly Song Countdown and then they were cast as the B story of Jonah. This allowed Phil Vischer– the voice of Pa Grape and Mr. Lunt– and Mike Nawrocki– the voice of Larry– to be able to have a lot of ad lib sessions! If you want a laugh, watch Jonah with the commentary track set to Larry and Mr. Lunt– it’s a trip!
The pirates were also fortunate enough to record a CD with them singing all sorts of pirately songs and including all types of gags, including things about going bowling.
In any case, the pirates are continuing in their piratey ways in the upcoming Gideon: Tuba Warrior DVD and the next feature length motion picture from DVD.
These pirates that don’t do anything certainly have done a lot and will continue to do a lot for Big Idea as long as there’s not too much work involved.
