Steelers fans, Broncos fans, Packers fans might tick you off when they bash the Browns. They might hound you about last year’s five wins and 11 losses. And they probably chuckle during the preseason when you bark “This is the year.”
But one thing they can’t say about the Dawgs is that they have lousy fans — because you are the best. Even if it means having to occasionally retreat with your tail between your legs.
One loyal group of fans, who make up the Laughter League in Cleveland, filmed a parody of the Les Misérables song One Day More. The humorous video, named One Year More, was posted on YouTube over the weekend at www.youtube.com/watch?v=jznkzX9bI0M.
This year is a new beginning
Raise the flags in the Muni Lot!
Bring all the beer that you can bring
We’ll drink the beer that you bring
There’s a new season for the winning
There’s a Super Bowl to be won
Actors in the video sing, take a shot at the hated ex-Bronco quarterback John Elway, and gulp beer.
Joe Kenderes, who wrote the parody, is portrayed as a Browns fan who has moved to Green Bay Packers territory — something that he knows a lot about, since he recently relocated to southern Wisconsin.
“Anyone within a 200-mile radius of Green Bay are Packers fans. But they win. It’s so easy for them to be fans,” Kenderes said Thursday. “We work for it.”
By Thursday afternoon, the video had nearly 17,000 views and was gaining momentum.
“We thought it would just be [viewed] by our family and friends,” Kenderes said.
The theater group, which holds shows at Cleveland’s Blank Canvas Theatre, performed the parody during a show in the spring, shortly after the movie Les Misérables won three Oscars.
It was so well received that artistic director Pat Ciamacco decided to turn it into a video and post it on YouTube at the start of football season.
“I almost didn’t send [the lyrics] to the group because we are actors first and singers second,” Kenderes said, laughing. “We wondered if we would even be able to perform this, but we did it anyway.”
The Laughter League, formed eight years ago, is made up of just seven guys, so they called on friends to help with the four-minute video.
“I’m a huge Browns fan. That’s where the heart is,” Ciamacco said. “Yeah, it’s hard as a Browns fan, but I think that’s where the video struck home and why people are loving it,” he said.
“You could easily make a video that just tears the Browns apart and says how much they suck. There’s hints and little jokes about it. But at heart, it’s [about] how much we love the Browns.”
After Zak Gilbert, Browns director of communications, watched the video on Thursday, he simply said, “We love the passion and creativity of our fans. It’s unmatched anywhere in this league.”
By the way: Cleveland plays Green Bay on Oct. 20. With any luck, Kenderes will have found his local Browns Backers bar by then.
Kim Hone-McMahan can be reached at 330-996-3742 or kmcmahan@thebeaconjournal.com.