The Shmenge Brother's Last Polka

When people talk about mockumentaries it's hard not to mention the greatness of Spinal Tap or any of Christopher Guest's movies. Before those movies came out there was a little mockumentary that's pretty much been lost in time and all stems from a popular SCTV skit from the early '80s. SCTV, if you're not familiar, was kind of a Canadian version of Saturday Night Live that started in the mid '70s and ran into the mid '80s. It starred a few unknown comics at the time time including Eugene Levy, John Candy, Rick Moranis, Joe Flaherty, and Catherine O'Hara to name a few. The movie Strange Brew is based on characters from the show. Another movie made based on SCTV sketches was the Shmenge Brother's Last Polka. The Shmenge Brothers, played by John Candy and Eugene Levy, was about two brothers who rose from poverty and obscurity to become the world's most popular polka band. The Beatles of the polka world if you will. The Shmenge's were born and raised in the city of Leutonia, Czechoslavakia and gained international success while living in Edmonton, Canada playing their own brand of Shmenge Polka. In 1985 SCTV produced a made for TV movie starring Stan & Yosh Shmenge and the rest is polka history.