For the past few years, Scott Aukerman has hosted the oft-forgotten British pop singer Martin Sheffield-Lickley on the Comedy Bang! Bang! podcast. Sheffield-Lickley is a sad, washed-up new wave singer who endlessly reworks the lyrics to ABC’s “The Look Of Love” to fit whatever tragedy or humiliation he recently endured. It’s always a highlight of the show.
Unfortunately, because visual podcasts never took off—this is one of a thousand tragedies that has occurred as a result of the failure of visual podcasts—we’ve rarely been able to see him in action. That ends today. Comedy writers Nick Ciarelli and Brad Evans unearthed a commercial for Sir Lickley’s many hit songs, packaged in one collection. [Full disclosure: The author of this post worked with Brad Evans when he was an editor at Splitsider]
“Love Gym,” “Love Jail,” and “Love Police”—they’re all here. This is a treasure trove of hits for Lickley heads ready to eat at the “Restaraunt Of Love,” where there are only tables for two and the waiters kiss you and you eat perfume. Speaking with The A.V. Club over Twitter, Ciarelli and Evans seem overjoyed to share this collection with the world. “We’re just glad someone managed to dig this up so now a whole new generation can enjoy Sir Lickley’s music,” said Ciarelli. The video, as Evans explains, is a sensory experience. Evans said, “They played this commercial so much on cable in the ’90s that I still had the whole thing memorized.”
All joking a salad, fans of The Other Two, Bajillion Dollar Properties, and Carl’s Jr. commercials will likely recognize Martin Sheffield-Lickley as Drew Tarver, a CBB regular and one of the best comedians around. Tarver frequently works with Evans and Ciarelli, who have written many Tarver-related Comedy Bang! Bang! bits, including fellow music act Memphis Kansas Breeze. They were also the ones behind that #MovesLikeBloomberg viral video that was apparently believable enough to be taken seriously. Previously, Ciarelli shared the complete works (as of May 2019) of Martin Sheffield-Lickley on Twitter, including the song “For My Son, Simon”—Lickley’s masterpiece in this writer’s opinion. You can check them all out on his Twitter and have the songs stuck in your head all weekend.