Prepare yourself to go back in time.
The newest song from actor-comedian-musician Jon Lajoie captures the anticipation, excitement and beauty of Hulk Hogan’s famous bodyslam of Andre the Giant at WrestleMania III, reintroducing people to a vivid memory from childhood.
The song, entitled “Hulk Hogan Slammed Andre the Giant,” overflows with creativity and a sense of importance. The match is re-created with old-school LJN wrestling figures, which sounds lighthearted but serves to add a nostalgic touch to a superb music video.
“I’d always joke that it wasn’t possible, even with drugs and alcohol and magic mushrooms, to feel the exhilaration I did at my grandmother’s watching Hulk Hogan slam Andre the Giant,” says Lajoie. “It’s an iconic moment. As a child, I was so emotionally available. That idea is the heart of it. I miss having access to that kind of joy.”
This song is an ode to a window in my childhood when the world felt simple, and unfettered & unfiltered joy was still easily accessible. A time when Hulk Hogan defeating Andre the Giant meant that everything was going to be okay for ever & ever. New Wolfie’s Just Fine album 6/16 pic.twitter.com/qnziIOf1Hz
— Official Jon Lajoie (@jonlajoiecomedy) May 18, 2023
Lajoie—who played Taco on the FX sitcom The League—is known for his humor but is a multifaceted performer. He has serious layers to his craft, which is especially visible here as a songwriter-composer. This song is part of his upcoming Everyone Is Dead Except Us album under his “Wolfie’s Just Fine” moniker. Wrestling fans have found the “Hulk Hogan Slammed Andre the Giant” song to be nostalgic, harkening memories from an earlier time in life when the axis of their world seemingly revolved around family, school days and trips to visit grandparents.
“It’s one of the most joyous moments of my life, and it’s totally serious,” says Lajoie. “But it’s also completely not. So the goal was to capture that.”
When Lajoie and his brothers visited their grandmother, they were treated to the World Wrestling Federation on cable television. That was a legitimate game-changer, much different from WWF’s Maple Leaf Wrestling he watched at home in Montreal.
“Maple Leaf Wrestling was on Saturdays at noon, and that’s all we had,” says Lajoie, 42. “Once in a while, we’d get a big match, like the Rougeaus against Demolition, and we’d lose our minds. So going to grandma’s was special for a lot of reasons. We got to stay up late, we’d get to watch wrestling. When Hulk Hogan wrestled Andre the Giant, at least in our eyes, it was the two best in the world.”
The song explores the full range of human emotions. It is a chance to smile, laugh, reminisce and, perhaps, even become a little misty-eyed. Lajoie relived his childhood in this video, showcasing his vast array of talent as an artist.
The album unexpectedly began after the death of his father in early 2022, starting with the idea of rerecording a song he had recorded for his father 20 years before. But he kept writing songs, and the album came alive.
“Initially, this song was a collection of memories,” says Lajoie, who started writing the lyrics in early 2022. “No matter what I thought, I kept going back to Hulk Hogan slamming Andre the Giant. I started with the guitar in hand, found the chorus early on, then it was all about how to best get into the story. I questioned the ‘We went over to grandma’s house because we don’t have cable TV’ lyric. My wife told me to keep it, and she was right—it’s all true.
“It felt natural to retell this story, but it’s so specific and I never had an expectation to connect with so many people. They say to write what you know, and I don’t want to take myself too seriously even when I’m writing personal music. That’s how we got here.”
Lajoie surrounded himself with people that further elevated his work, particularly with producer Jordan Lehning and codirector Justin Slade McClain.
“The producer I worked with on this record is Jordan Lehning, and his string arrangements are incredible,” says Lajoie. “That production is a big part of why it’s emotional as it is. I had the idea for the video, and my friend—Justin Slade McClain—was the director of photography and production designer, and he codirected it with me. He was a big piece of this.”
Courtesy of Jon Lajoie
A unique element of the video is the inclusion of the LJN wrestling figures. The oversized toys remain a hot commodity decades after the line was discontinued, and Lajoie relished the chance to finally complete his collection.
“It’s been such pure joy to collect vintage toys for the video—it’s been a healthy spoonful of the type of joy I don’t have access to anymore,” says Lajoie, who started collecting LJNs last December—mostly through his brother but also with collector groups on Facebook—and he found a company on eBay that refurbished old LJN rings. “The LJN figurines, to this day, that’s what a toy is to me. We had some of them as kids, but not every single one. My brother remained a hardcore wrestling fan. Now he has pretty much the whole collection, and he generously lent me most of them. And it’s crazy. I can’t remember what happened last week, but when I held the Honky Tonk Man LJN, I remembered that my cousin David had him. I remember wanting Demolition Ax. How the hell do we remember this stuff?
“I only had the Andre figure with the long hair. I considered using that one in the video for accuracy because the black-strap one didn’t come out until after 1987, but I couldn’t. The iconic visual is Hogan and Andre in the single strap. But the ones who could point out those inconsistencies can take solace in knowing this video was made for them.”
Fortunately, no LJNs were harmed in the filming of this video. Lajoie ensured the collectibles were returned to his brother in pristine condition, though there were a few close calls during the scene where Hogan slams Andre.
“My mom and my nephews are in the video,” says Lajoie. “My mom is playing her mom as the grandma, and my nephews are playing me and my brother Jason—my other brother, Jeremy, and his wife, who are the parents of my nephews, were also there. That was a really beautiful layer to all of this. When my nephew was slamming Andre, which he was doing perfectly, I knew my brother was wondering, What is he doing to my Andre? That was super rare and expensive, and so were the Hart Foundation [figures]. As a proud Canadian, we needed them.”
Lajoie’s lyrics are genuine and real, embracing the wrestling community but refusing to have fun at its expense. There is a reverence, respect and gratitude layered into the video about the people who populated his childhood. The final image, with all the wrestlers standing proudly in the ring, is a familiar sight to those who grew up as wrestling fans, one that pulls at the heartstrings of grown men and women.
“We had to treat this with seriousness and utmost sincerity,” says Lajoie. “It was the same challenge in the video with the toys reenacting the match. The North Star was trying to make grown men cry.”
Justin Barrasso can be reached at JBarrasso@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter @JustinBarrasso.
