WTF Was "Up With People"?

[absyntheNsugar]

Could someone explain this phenomonon to me?

[Lefta Dissenter]

1. Explain???

Well, they were sure... well... they were UP!

It's funny you bring them up - we were recently talking about them! Shiny-faced, perky, probably all right-wing as you can get!

I saw them some enormous number of years ago in front of our State Capitol.

[Hong Kong Cavalier]

5. Naah...they couldn't be right-wing...

There were a lot of international students performing in it.
Gaah!! Now you all know I saw them (a long time ago, when I was young) I have to kill you all.

[radwriter0555]

25. Moonie freak happy people cult.

nothing more than that.

[alwynsw]

37. You will be haunted

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=105&topic_id=761949#764688

[Dookus]

2. it was (is?) a singing group

of wholesome, clean cut young adults.

Sort of like the Osmond family, only a lot bigger.

[CanuckAmok]

7. Weren't they secretly part of some death-cult?

I mean, you don't see them around anymore, do you?

Death-cult.

[Bunny]

29. As a matter of fact, my daughter's teacher is an alumnus

of Up With People. They're still out there.....;)

Actually, she's a great teacher and a very nice person.

[CanuckAmok]

32. Sure...for a DEATH-CULT member...

n/t

[Carni]

15. They were Rev Moonish

With Sonny and Sherish costumes!

[leftofthedial]

3. The Osmonds meets the Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts

and tours high school gyms and Baptist churches everywhere.

[NightTrain]

4. Arrrrgh!!! What a painful memory.

Read all about them here; if your stomach can handle it, that is:

http://www.upwithpeople.org/

[KG]

6. Up Yours, People!

:)

[liberalhistorian]

9. LOL!

That's the way I always felt about them, too!

[camero]

12. Hey Liberalhistorian

You feeling better? :hi:

[Rabrrrrrr]

8. I had two of them stay in my house for a week

when they performed in my hometown.

Hehheh - dad signed up to have two at the house (dad's workplace was sponsoring Up With People at the time, so they asked workers there to host kids). Lo and behold - one of 'em was BLACK. Quite a SHOCKER to good ol' dad when he went down to pick his guys up.

I wasn't too worldly at the time - I was in mayhaps 11th grade and we had NO visibly, openly, out gay people in our community - but I think he might also have been gay.

Heh heh.

Oh, Dad, some things were just funnier when you were still with us. But he was a man of honor and integrity, and after the initial shock everything was right as rain.

That was more than 20 years ago, and there's two songs that I STILL CANNOT GET OUT OF MY HEAD. ARGH!!

[nuxvomica]

26. My folks did the same back in the mid-60s

One was a black guy from the South and the other was a Japanese who spoke very little English. My dad had long discussions with the black guy about MLK.

[Rabrrrrrr]

39. That would have been cool!

I had 'em in the 80s, so nothing exciting happening at the time.

Though I suppose we could have spoken about the Civil Rights Movement - the one Reagan was leading. To eliminate them.

[stanwyck]

10. A response to the hippies

to make sure America knew not all the kids were marching in anti-war protests during the Viet Nam war. I saw them (of course, I was VERY young...) at the Illinois State Fair.

[MikeG]

11. About as frigging white bread as you can get.

[Carni]

13. A really VILE thing...

Goony dancing and singing by hideous looking people dressed in garish costumes...I THINK (not sure) this gaggle of goons was created by General Motors marketing people, but I need to refresh my memory with a google search. They were sort of in the tradition of "Godspell"
(I think that was the name of that awful movie? I was young then... so I am not sure! LOL)In any case it was REALLY bad!

[SWPAdem]

14. Believe it or not

"Up with People" WAS the half-time show at Super Bowl X. Wanna see my pictures?

[Armstead]

16. "Up, Up With People...You meet 'em wherever you go.."

That was their theme song. I can't remember any more of the words, but now I can't get that dang tune out of my mind.

[MikeG]

17. Hold it, I'm gonna cack. Urg, Urg. Rowrrf!!!!

[DeposeTheBoyKing]

19. "Up, up with people

You meet 'em wherever you go
Up, up with people
They're the best kind of folks we know!

If more people were for people
More people everywhere
There'd be a lot less people to worry about
And a lot more people to care!"

[Rabrrrrrr]

20. Friends and I, since we were drama guild geeks when UWP came,

rewrote that song:

Up, Up yours people,
We don't want to put on a show!
up, up yours people,
You all know where you can go!

[absyntheNsugar]

23. That makes my head spin

Ooohhh...the pain

[iverglas]

42. "Throw up with people"

... was the rewrite in the late sixties among us 16-yr-old Canadians.

Well, those of us who recognized 'em for what they were -- brainwashed bimbos in the service of USAmerican cultural imperialism, and indirectly the more virulent forms of USAmerican imperialism. Get those kids off the streets, imbue them with self-righteous zeal by praising their public-spiritedness blahblah (the way anti-choice organizations do with the kiddies these days), and prepare them to be the mommies and daddies and cogs in the machine of tomorrow, unlike all us long-haired, pot-smoking, war-protesting freaks.

Yeah, the way to make the world a better place wasn't to stop the war against Vietnam, or question authority in any other way. It was to sing and dance a lot, get many pats on the head and smirk.

Ew.

.

[iverglas]

44. "right-wing hootenannies"

From an interview with Tim Robbins, about his "Bob Roberts" movie character:

http://www.geocities.com/timrobbinspage/interviews/018.html

SM: Is Bob Roberts a musical Mike Milken?

TR: I like to think of Bob as a young George Bush with a guitar.

SM: Do you remember Up with People? In the '60s, they were traveling right-wing hootenannies that got people tapping their toes and clapping their hands to John Birch sentiments.

TR: Bob is definitely an Up with People kind of guy.

Heh.

.

[madrchsod]

18. you need to drink a bottle

of - to wash your mind of the insipid musical song styling of the white bread nation

[burythehatchet]

21. Remember the SouthPark Get Gay With Kids tour of the rain forest?

that was funny

[BlackVelvetElvis]

41. The Simpsons spoofed them

Weren't they called "Hooray for Everything?"
I can't remember if that's right.
Of course Homer was grooving to them.

[Rabrrrrrr]

43. "Ooh - Hooray For Everything! I love those kids!"

[OneBlueSky]

22. in a word: terrible . . .

hokey "singing" group of clean-cut, "All-American" youth who wanted to "teach the world to sing" . . . a favorite of Richard Nixon, which should tell you all you need to know . . .

[fudge stripe cookays]

24. We hosted an UWP'er

And went and saw the show when I was a senior in high school (or freshman in college-- I can't remember)

Her name was Kimberlynn, and as you might imagine, she was very...PERKY.

Because I was so brainwashed at the time, I thought about joining. She stressed all the cool traveling around the world they got to do, which I thought would have been very educational at the time, but for whatever reason, I didn't join up. I have a decent singing voice, and got a B in dance years ago, so I wouldn't have done too bad.

I almost wish I had now. I'm too scared to travel have the places I want to for fear of being American.

[slackmaster]

27. You deserve to be slapped for putting that song in my head

Excuse me while I put on a Ramones CD to clear my non-volatile RAM.

[Hand]

34. Bwahahaha.... It's about to get worse!!!!

"Freedom isn't free,
Freedom isn't free!
You gotta PAY the price,
You gotta SACrifice,
For-Your-Liber-teeeee!"



:evilgrin: :evilgrin: :evilgrin:

[alwynsw]

36. Read this:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=105&topic_id=761949#764688

and remember: I'l be seeing you in the Gungeon. ROFLAMO

[name not needed]

28. super secret govenrment mind control

now you know too much.

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[name not needed]

31. its all grovelbots fault!!!

[bobthedrummer]

30. Another government experiment involving cults perhaps?

There is a hidden history of that-why not with Up with People?

[Emboldened Chimp]

33. My cousin was in Up With People

many years ago. We had one of their albums--on the back cover, they all wore turtleneck sweaters and blazers. It's one of those things the family doesn't like to talk about...

[alwynsw]

35. Up With People Alumnus here

The entire idea was to promote brotherhood and understanding among all people. The opening theme says it all:

"Up,up, with people
You mett 'em wherever you go.

Up, up with people,
They're the bes king of folks we know.

If more people,
Were for people,
All people everywhere,

There'd be a lot less people
To worry about
And a lot mor people to care."

Odd that I remember it after more than 30 years.

It was a good message then. It's a good message now. The group crossed nearly all social, economic, regligious, racial, gender, political, and whatever other lines you can think of.

I really don't understand the freeper labeling. I honestly have not kept up with the program as it exists now.

Edited to add: Now that I've read all the posts I've had a couple of chuckles and have seen a few that make me want to lash out. Guess I'm just too "perky" to lash.

[skippythwndrdog]

38. Dad, you're embarrassing me.

My first post and it's to you for embarrassing me. What's next, the baby pictures?

[Rabrrrrrr]

40. Welcome to DU skippythwndrdog!!

:hi:

[skippythwndrdog]

45. Thanks, Rabrrrrrr