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You Never Know How, or When, the World Will Use Your Art
A story about Monty Python, Toad the Wet Sprocket, and the importance of shipping your work
What do the legendary ’70s British comedy troupe Monty Python and the ’90s American rock band Toad the Wet Sprocket have in common? Weird names, for one. But how the latter got its weird name has a lot to do with the former. And it’s a great example of how, when we put creative work out into the world, we just never know how or when it’s going to inspire someone.
There was no shortage of strange band names in the 1990s — probably because the rockers in the prior decades took all the good ones. Which is how rock radio in the ’90s came to be dominated by bands with names like Crash Test Dummies, Smashing Pumpkins and Veruca Salt.
For my money, though, no band from that era had a more bizarre name than Toad the Wet Sprocket, a moniker both absurdist and vaguely discomforting. When their 1991 song “Walk on the Ocean” came on the SiriusXM “Lithium” channel recently, curiosity got the better of me and I went down the internet rabbit hole to see how the band got its name.
What I learned is surprising, inspiring — and hilarious. In a 1975 skit on Monty Python’s BBC comedy show, performer Eric Idle did a bit about a fictitious band…
