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Jožin z bažin (originally 1977) is a song by Czech musician and comedian Ivan Mládek, and is among his best known songs. He even called it the "National Anthem" of his TV show "Countryshow". In January 2008, the song became popular in Poland, winning several radio hitlists. It is also popular in Hungary, Austria and Russia, sporting a cult following on blogs, and several versions of various translations. The song is a surreal tale of a mysterious man-eating monster living in the swamps (Jožin z bažin, Joey from the swamps). In the song, the monster is eventually defeated with the use of a cropduster. A Polish cabaret called Kabaret pod Wyrwigroszem created a parody of "Jožin z bažin", entitled "Donald marzy" ('Donald dreams'), about the Polish prime minister, Donald Tusk. The Russian band Мурзилки International, made a Russian parody under the title "Путин едет в Пикалёво" ("Putin goes to Pikalyovo"), about Russia's former prime minister and current president, Vladimir Putin. There is a Serbian version of the song: "Medo Brundo" - Brundo the Bear. There are also several parodies of the song in Lithuanian, which are mainly about the country's most nefarious politicians and about the unpopular prime minister Andrius Kubilius. The Ivan Mládek Banjo Band created a Polish version of "Jožin z bažin". The nearest equivalent musical style in English is that of the Wurzels.
Story
The song is a parody on medieval tales, where a brave knight rescues a remote kingdom terrorized by a horrible monster, marries the princess, and receives half the kingdom as a reward. A man driving through the Czech region of Moravia in a Škoda 100 finds a village terrorized by a monster named Jožin, who eats mainly tourists from Prague. The chairman of the local collective farm (Czech: JZD) promises half of the JZD, and his daughter's hand in marriage, if the man defeats the monster. The man asks for a cropduster plane, the only known weapon against the monster, catches Jožin, and then decides to just sell him to a zoo.