Tornado Hunters (found Silly Song segment of VeggieTales direct-to-video series; 2011)

Title card.

Status: Found

Date found: 19 Oct 2024

Found by: The Ultimate Unofficial VeggieTales Channel!

Silly Songs with Larry is a segment in the hit children's series, VeggieTales. All the songs are incredibly easy to find, however, one remained lost for over a decade. This Silly Song was called Tornado Hunters, and it starred Larry the Cucumber, Jimmy Gourd and Mr. Nezzer, who are on the hunt for tornadoes.

Background

The origins of the song date back to an incident when series creators Phil Vischer and Mike Nawrocki were attending Bible college in the mid 1980s. Despite tornado warnings in the area requiring everyone to take shelter, Phil and Mike ran out into the storm throwing toilet paper rolls into the air to locate the tornadoes and catch them with garbage bags. Dubbing themselves "tornado hunters", they wrote a short theme song that they would sing while hunting.

Tornado hunters are we, are we!

Tornado hunters are we!

We catch tornadoes in our bags and throw them into trees.

To trees, to trees!

We throw them into trees.

We catch tornadoes in our bags and throw them into trees.

A slightly modified and extended version of the song they sung was eventually made into a Silly Song over 25 years later, and was to appear in the 2011 episode "Princess and the Popstar" to fit with the Midwestern theme of the episode. However, around the time the episode was being finalized, a massive tornado outbreak affected the Midwestern U.S. Despite being fully rendered, the song was scrapped at the last minute out of respect for the victims. It was replaced with the song Astonishing Wigs.

Not long after, they planned to include it in the 2012 episode "Robin Good and His Not-So-Merry Men", though it was scrapped yet again. What took its place was the song Bubble Rap, which previously debuted in the song compilation "If I Sang a Silly Song...".

Availability

For the longest time, the only proof of this Silly Song's existence was in an error on the DVD of "Robin Good and His Not-So-Merry Men", where it was accidentally shown in the chapter selection instead of Bubble Rap.

On January 7, 2024, a color script, strongly resembling the setting shown in the existing footage, was discovered on Marc Camelbeke's website, suggesting it was likely created for the Silly Song.

On March 11, 2024, Phil Vischer revealed a portion of the lyrics in an interview.

On October 19, 2024, The Ultimate Unofficial VeggieTales Channel! uploaded the full song to YouTube, which was sent to him from an anonymous source.

Gallery

Videos

Full song.

Interview with Phil Vischer, where he sings a section of the song (1:00:49).

Concept Art

• 

  Color script for the Silly Song.

See Also

• Bob & Larry Family Fun (lost content of VeggieTales DVD; 2003)
• Dove Awards: Bob and Larry segments (partially found footage from award show; 1996-1997)
• Duke and the Great Pie War (found online VeggieTales game; 2005)
• GRAFx Studios (partially found production material; 1989-1993)
• He is That Hero (found extended version of "LarryBoy: The Cartoon Adventures" theme song; early 2000s)
• Jonah; a VeggieTales Movie (partially found deleted content of animated film; 2002)
• Khalil and the Big Gulp (lost cancelled promotional children's book based on "Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie"; 2003)
• Mr. Cuke's Screen Test (found "VeggieTales" animation test; 1991)
• Os Amigos Vegetais (partially found "VeggieTales" Brazilian spin-off TV series; 2005)
• Silly Songs with Larry Musical E-Card (lost animated e-card; 2001)
• Take 38 (found VeggieTales promotional short; 1992)
• The Bob & Larry Movie (lost production material of cancelled "VeggieTales" animated film; 2005)
• VeggieTales (lost radio adaptation of CGI animated series; 2006)
• VeggieTales (found NBC TV version of CGI animated series; 2006)
• VeggieTales (non-existent alternate joke endings to episodes of Christian children’s animated series; late 1990s-early 2000s)
• VeggieTales (partially found radio interview discs from Christian animated children's series; late 1990s-2000s)
• VeggieTales.com (partially found series of online games from website; 2011-2013)
• VeggieTales at Dollywood/Silver Dollar City (partially found live shows based on animated series; 2002-2008)
• VeggieTales Dance Party (lost material of scrapped mobile app; 2014)
• VeggieTales Live! (partially found live shows based on animated series; 2002-2015)
• VeggieTales/Nashville Predators (partially lost VeggieTales hockey pumpers; 2012)
• VeggieTales: Special Edition (found magazines based on animated series; 2004-2006)
• VeggieTales: Whale-Watching Party (partially found event kit based on animated movie; 2002)
• VeggieTales "Where's God When I'm S-Scared?" (found original version of animated series episode; 1993)
• VeggieTown Values (found series of VBS videos; 1998-2001)
• Was He a Boy Like Me? (lost VeggieTales animated music video; 2006)

External Links

• A BigIdea Wikia article on Robin Good and His Not-So-Merry Men, which contains info about the Silly Song. (See Goofs).
• Title card on Mike Sofka's portfolio.