Of course, I’m playing Trombone Champ. If I hadn’t been told at some point in my life that I was born in a hospital like a regular baby, I’d believe that I was born in a circus among a family of clowns. The silliness of this game was made for me.
If you haven’t seen it in the news lately (which would honestly shock me), Trombone Champ is a rhythm game made by Holy Wow, a studio well known for making very funny typing games.
In Trombone Champ, the goal is simple: You must become the Trombone Champ by playing the trombone. Using your mouse to move up and down the scale and your keyboard to blow, you must play a variety of songs on the trombone to earn toots, which is a vital currency you need to become the Trombone Champ.
So I’m a little late to the Trombone Champ world, I know. When I first saw it, I was intrigued but busy. Alas, it wasn’t until my younger sister walked into the home office while I was working and said something along the lines of, “Have you played the trombone game? Do you have it? Can I play it?”. This sparked the decision to purchase.
From there, my sister and I took turns sitting in the Big Office Chair to stumble our way through track after track of public domain goodness. My sister was a master at Tchaikovsky’s Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy, while I excelled at the Holy Wow original track, Baboons! We both laughed our baboon-like butts off to reveal normal, human butts. It was hilarious and healing.
Eventually, my sister got bored and left the room, but I wasn’t done. I had more tromboning to do, I needed to improve as a tromboner. So I played every song that I hadn’t played yet. And then my dad walked in.
My father has been playing the trumpet for the vast majority of his life. The jazz trumpet, the reggae trumpet, the funky trumpet, you name it. I would consider him to be a Trumpet Champ in his own right. He has also dabbled in the trombone.
Let me tell ya, he came into the office right as I was starting to play Hava Nagila, a Jewish folk song traditionally played at celebrations such as weddings. Now, I wouldn’t say that a sloppy-tromboning goy like myself would be seen performing at any bat mitzvah any time soon, but I think I did a pretty good job on this one.
My dad was enthralled. At first, he just watched. Then, he laughed. And then, he howled. This was some of the funniest shit my dad has ever seen in his life. Watching his second-youngest child hastily toot through one of the first modern Jewish folk songs in the Hebrew language was a thrill ride like no other.
If this telling of my experience has shown you anything, I hope that it’s made it clear that Trombone Champ is not only a hell of a lot of fun, but something that can bring people together in its hilarity. I highly recommend you play Trombone Champ, but in particular, I recommend you play it with friends or family. It’s a ride.
Leave a Reply