Eduard Khil, my hero

I absolutely love Eduard Khil, the Trololo guy. If you've never watched the video of him singing the Trololo song (or one of its thousands of mashups and imitations), (a) you're not as geeky as you think you are, and (b) you can watch it here.

Why do I love him so? Is it because of his singing voice (which is, and I am not being sarcastic, terrific, despite his utter lack of grasping the concept of lip-synching)? Is it out of nostalgia for the unbelievable crap the Soviet Union passed off onto its powerless citizens as entertainment? (I travelled a bit in the Soviet Union about 10 years after the Trololo video was recorded, and you would not believe what was foisted onto the people of a once toweringly great artistic culture.) Is it because the song is infectious and lots of fun to sing for oneself?

All these things, and yet something more.

Have a look at the video below, of Khil on a talk show in Russia after the video took off on YouTube. "It's not parodies," says Khil, who has just watched a dozen people taking the piss out of him and his work. "It's love of people. Look how good is the state of all of them. They are full of feeling. I don't think that's a parody. Maybe a little.... But it is benevolent parody. And the rest is just kind people of different nations. They love like us, they educate people like us."

ISN'T HE ABSOLUTELY THE BEST? "Just kind people of different nations." "Look how good is the state of all of them." In other words, how can it be bad that they are having so much fun? And he is clearly thrilled as well as deeply amused to have given them cause for so much joy. (Make sure you watch to the end, where he reprises his international-sensation hit Trololo.)