The Red Army Choir goes South

Once upon a time, in a far away, cold northern land, there was a huge army that served the communist overlords. They were known as the "Red Army" or the "Soviet Army". Americans used to think that someday, the Red Army was going to invade the United States. When I was in elementary school, they used to do drills where we'd all have to duck under our desks. This was supposed to be helpful for when the Russians dropped a nuclear bomb on our school, though in retrospect it probably wouldn't have done any good. We also used to read scary stories about Russians cutting up American flags and then teaching all the children that freedom was bad. I think they were trying to train us up as future guerilla fighters, just in case.

Anyway, back in those glorious days, the Russians had a massive men's choir called the Red Army Choir. That's not actually what the choir was called. The full name was "Дважды Краснознамённый ордена Красной Звезды академический ансамбль песни и пляски Советской армии имени А.В.Александрова" which means "the Academic Ensemble of Song and Dance of the Soviet Army, Bearer of Two Orders of the Red Banner and the Order of the Red Star named after Alexandrov." Anyway, they would sing the Soviet anthem and a lot of other patriotic, communist songs for the purpose of inspiring the plebeian masses.

Anyway, it turns out that the Soviet Union kind of sort of collapsed, and singing patriotic songs about it fell out of favor. But that still leaves you with a perfectly good choir who now have a lot of free time on their hands. So what should they do about it?

Enter the Leningrad Cowboys. They're a Finnish rock band who have enormous hair and ridiculous sunglasses, and who thought it would be just hilarious to ... frankly, words fail me. You're just going to have to watch it.

The Leningrad Cowboys and The Red Army Choir singing "Sweet Home Alabama"

Truly, reality is often stranger than fiction.