The Shmenge Brothers were a fictional polka

Polka

The polka is a Central European dance and also a genre of dance music familiar throughout Europe and the Americas. It originated in the middle of the 19th century in Bohemia...

 duo who, along with their band The Happy Wanderers, featured on the SCTV

Second City Television

Second City Television is a Canadian television sketch comedy show offshoot from Toronto's The Second City troupe that ran between 1976 and 1984.- Premise :...

 television comedy program in 1982-1983. They were played by John Candy

John Candy

John Franklin Candy was a Canadian actor and comedian. He rose to fame as a member of the Toronto branch of The Second City and its related Second City Television series, and through his appearances in comedy films such as Stripes, Splash, Cool Runnings, The Great Outdoors, Spaceballs, and Uncle...

 as clarinetist Yosh Shmenge and Eugene Levy

Eugene Levy

Eugene Levy, CM is a Canadian actor, comedian, television director, producer, musician, and writer. He is known for his work in Canadian television series, American movies, and television movies. He is the only actor to have appeared in all eight of the American Pie films, as Noah Levenstein...

 as accordionist Stan Shmenge. Candy based the characters on Czechoslovakia

Czechoslovakia

Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...

n-born Edmonton

Edmonton

Edmonton is the capital of the Canadian province of Alberta and is the province's second-largest city. Edmonton is located on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Capital Region, which is surrounded by the central region of the province.The city and its census...

-based polka cable show host Gaby Haas.

Much of the oblique humor comes from the subtle but consistent disparity in the brothers' pronunciation of "Shmenge". Together they played polka for an aging eastern-European immigrant audience, who typically dined on cabbage rolls and coffee (provided by the fictional Mrs. Vilve Yachke). Many of their songs were cover versions of popular songs in the tradition of "Weird Al" Yankovic

"Weird Al" Yankovic

Alfred Matthew "Weird Al" Yankovic is an American singer-songwriter, music producer, accordionist, actor, comedian, writer, satirist, and parodist. Yankovic is known for his humorous songs that make light of popular culture and that often parody specific songs by contemporary musical acts...

, such as "Wishing (If I Had a Photograph of You)

Wishing (If I Had A Photograph Of You)

"Wishing " is a 1982 New Wave song by A Flock of Seagulls, appearing as the opening performance on their second album Listen. Its wistful, bleak lyrics on separation are built on a driving rhythm backed by a heavy Wall of Sound-styled layer of synthesizer padding...

" (A Flock of Seagulls

A Flock of Seagulls

A Flock of Seagulls are an English New Wave band originally formed by brothers Michael "Mike" Score and Alister "Ali" James Score , with Frank Maudsley , Michael Kuby , H.J...

) and "Billie Jean

Billie Jean

"Billie Jean" is a dance-pop/R&B song by American recording artist Michael Jackson. It was written, composed, and co-produced by Jackson, and produced by Quincy Jones from the singer's sixth album, Thriller . Originally disliked by Jones, the track was almost removed from the album after he and...

" (Michael Jackson

Michael Jackson

Michael Joseph Jackson was an American recording artist, entertainer, and businessman. Referred to as the King of Pop, or by his initials MJ, Jackson is recognized as the most successful entertainer of all time by Guinness World Records...

). The duo also performed original songs, such as "There's Rhythm In My Lederhosen," and "Mama Cook Me Cabbage Rolls," and "The Cabbage Rolls and Coffee Polka."

The brothers were immigrants from the fictional country of Leutonia. The country is modelled after Lithuania

Lithuania

Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...

(Lit. "Lietuva") and celebrates its Christmas with a symbolic egg, a feast of "falutniks", and the "exchanging of the socks". The Happy Wanderers got their start in Leutonian vaudeville

Vaudeville

Vaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...

 playing the gelkis (an instrument, like the glass harmonica, made of glass jars, but played by smashing rather than sliding a finger along the wet rim), and took up polka during wartime.

The Shmenge Brothers were the subjects of the 1984 mockumentary

Mockumentary

A mockumentary , is a type of film or television show in which fictitious events are presented in documentary format. These productions are often used to analyze or comment on current events and issues by using a fictitious setting, or to parody the documentary form itself...

 The Last Polka

The Last Polka

The Last Polka is a 1985 comedy television film, and one of the first Mockumentaries. It was written by and starred John Candy and Eugene Levy, and directed by John Blanchard....

. To promote The Last Polka, on February 26, 1985 the Shmenges guested on Late Night with David Letterman

Late Night with David Letterman

Late Night with David Letterman is a nightly hour-long comedy talk show on NBC that was created and hosted by David Letterman. It premiered in 1982 as the first incarnation of the Late Night franchise and went off the air in 1993, after Letterman left NBC and moved to Late Show on CBS. Late Night...

 where they performed "Cabbage Rolls and Coffee Polka", which included a sing-along with the audience. Their appearance in the 1986 Comic Relief release was their last performance.

Leutonia