10 THINGS I LEARNED THE HARD WAY ABOUT MONSTER BOBBY & THE PIPETTES AT THE NORTH STAR THE OTHER NIGHT THAT I CAN’T TELL MY MOM By Tiffany Yoon
Monster Bobby is Scottish slang for a particularly large male member.
Monster Bobby is terrified of dogs and he also hates automobiles. Although, I somehow managed to convince him to get into my car and cart him around Philadelphia for a grand tour. We did end up strolling up and down the Benjamin Franklin Parkway though, which he seemed to prefer to my deathtrap of a vehicle.
Monster Bobby has almost no sense of smell. This is probably a result of him, as he puts it, “smoking like a chimney.”
Last time in Philadelphia, the Pipettes had a different drummer, Joe Lean. I distinctly remember this because he
found a box of “Joe’s O’s” at Trader Joe’s on Market and we made some jokes about it. He kept repeating, “Joe’s O’s … Oy, look. It’s Joe’s O’s”. You probably had to be there. Since then, Joe’s left the band to start his own ting , Joe Lean & Thee Jing Jang Jong. They will be on the BBC with Zane Lowe this week.
Monster Bobby was offered the chance to join MENSA when he was at school but didn’t want to pay the subscription fees.
The yellow sweater vest tanks that Monster Bobby and the rest of the Cassettes wear during live performances were made by Jon and Seb (bass and keys)’s mum. Each vest is adorned with their initials.
Monster Bobby steals most of his best jokes from Steve Martin stand-up records and Woody Allen films, and has an improbably large collection of Dr. Who videos.
Monster Bobby’s favorite dish is Pho, the Vietnamese noodle broth soup. “More than any other food in the world,” he says.
- Monster Bobby used to put up posters for the Socialist Alliance Party in London. He read Marx and Engels at the age of 12, and says it was the closest thing he and his family had to a religion when he was growing up.
- Monster Bobby likes to tell people that he met the Pipettes at a karaoke bar in the Stoke-on-Trent. You probably have to be British to catch the joke in there. “It’s kind of like how you Americans make fun of New Jersey,” he explains. TEXT BY TIFFANY YOON