Obituary

Trololo was a 1976 Soviet TV performance by singer Eduard Khil, who improvised a cheerful melody to the word 'la' because the actual lyrics had been censored. In 2010, someone uploaded the clip and the internet discovered a man who could make pure nonsense sound like profound optimism. 'Trolololololo' became a global sound, remixed into everything, and Khil himself — who had no idea he was famous — was tracked down, embraced the fame, and was still singing 'la la la' at awards shows years later. He died in 2012. The joke survived the man, which is what the best jokes do.

Born

2010

Died

2012

Cause of death

Died of a song with no words

Last sighting

A Soviet TV archive, 2012

Resting place

Section Z, Row 14 — the ancestral plot

Category

audio