If you owned a desktop PC in the nineties, then you must remember weepuls. Your friend’s mom might have even had one on the dash of her ‘99 Honda Accord. They were lovable little critters; pom-poms with googly-eyes, antennae, and flat, adhesive feet. Costumed in a variety of smile-provoking themes and colors - with cowboy hats, sunglasses, suits, dog ears, or wings - weepuls were used as a customizable promotional tools for pharmaceuticals and local real estate agents alike. They were also used as a bargaining chip, a notable bottom-tier prize of the millennial generation’s Elementary School magazine drives. Those, and Tootsie Roll banks.
 
The first Weepul was created in 1971 by Oklahoma City toy company, Bipo Inc. The story of the weepul, which I’m sure during its heyday was a multi-million dollar useless-crap empire,  isn’t all that notable, so I’ll spare you the boring details. Something that did catch my attention though was that these cotton ball creatures led a fascinating second life in the Netherlands, under the oh-so similar name, wuppies. The summer of 1981 was Dutch wuppie madness and apparently everyone had to have one. And interestingly enough, much of that can be attributed to a bizarre man named Vader Abraham, who wrote an entire record about them.
 

 
Never without with his iconic bowler hat and thick gray beard, Vader (Father) Abraham from Holland is the singer of such chart-topping Dutch Schlager hits like “Het kleine café aan de haven” and his right-wing populist banger (yep), “Den Uyl is in den olie.” Just from the photos alone, you know Vader is a total tripper. His website celebrates 128 gold and platinum records, but you know back in the day this dude probably partied pretty hard.
 
In 1977, Vader Abraham was asked to write a promotional song for The Smurfs (then big in the Netherlands). The serenading crooner, with his brooding baritone and twisted looks, Vader Abraham wrote the smash hit ‘T Smurfenlied (“The Smurf Song”) - a call and response duet with his chippy little blue friends. And of course, you know what happened next. People fucking loved it. So, he spent the next few years promoting himself as keeper of The Smurfs. He wrote several albums’ worth of Smurfs tunes, and you guessed it, every song sounds the exact same.
 

 
High off the successes of Smurf-mania, but seeing that his glory was quickly fading, Vader Abraham shed his skin as the Smurfs guy and rebranded - as the wuppies guy. His weepul tribute album saw the little throwaway toys as nearly life-sized, animated and singing a high-pitched tune to accompany the Vader’s powerful ballads. Once more, the music sparked a craze that was equally as massive as it was a trading tool for free child labor.
 
Vader Abraham was legit, though. He is still making music in a post-Gateway PC era - just like they are still making weepuls.
 
Watch some of Vader Abraham’s wackiest, most psychedelic videos below:
 

Wij zijn de wuppies, or “We are the Wuppies”
 

Vader Abraham hat sieben wuppies
 

Schlumpfenlied (“The Smurf Song”). Live performance on German Television, 1980
 

Smurfs-in-Space cover of “You’re the One that I Want”
 

Smurfenbier
 

Previously on Dangerous Minds:
Are the Smurfs Communist Nazis?
German Schlager: Cindy and Bert Sing “Paranoid”