Do you think Dr. Frasier Crane ever listened to Pearl Jam? He lived in Seattle in the ’90s, after all. That’s the premise of a parody clip that went viral on Twitter this week, in which comedian Jon Blair imagines the Fraiser cast as hip (well, sort of) to the local music scene.
Complete with a fuzzy guitar cover of the opening theme “Tossed Salad and Scrambled Eggs” (ripped by RJ Satchithananthan), the video begins with Fraiser announcing his plans to see Pearl Jam, “the great cultural crown jewel of Seattle,” live in concert. This proclamation paves the way for the gang to name-drop the grunge Big Four: Niles is a Soundgarden fan, while Martin mistakes Layne Staley for a woman named Allison (get it?).
Elsewhere, the eldest Crane suggests his son get into Stone Temple Pilots instead, which opens the door to the most on-brand diatribe of the whole clip: An exasperated Frasier rejects the band, explaining that “STP are practically post-grunge and they aren’t even from Seattle!” It’s the type of nitpicking that grunge fans and Fraiser fans alike would recognize.
Of course, no parody sticks completely to the facts, so “Grunge Fraiser” ignores its ’90s timeline a little bit. Daphne (voiced by Jocelyn Geddie) breaks it to Frasier that Pearl Jam are not actually performing that night because “they’ve joined some sort of supergroup,” prompting the psychiatrist to wonder what the hell Temple of the Dog is. In the clip, however, Soundgarden have already released Superunknown, which would put Temple of the Dog about four years in the muscians’ rearview mirror in reality. C’est la vie! Watch the clip below.
If “Grunge Fraiser” has you feeling nostalgic for the sitcom, you’re in luck: Kelsey Grammer is set to return to the beloved character in a reboot for Paramount+ airing this year.
Grunge Frasier pic.twitter.com/ZuuvobmYh7
— Jon Blair (@okjonblair) April 14, 2022