The Arrogant Worms came together in 1991 to do a few spots on campus radio stationCFRC in Kingston, Ontario, and quickly moved to doing spots on CBC Radio, particularly on Jack Farr's The Radio Show. Since 1992 the troupe has released fifteen CDs. Their most recent album, The First Farewell Album, was released in November 2016. The Worms have toured in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Each album consists mostly of independent tracks paying homage, always humorously, to different genres and topics. Two exceptions are the 1997 Live Bait and 2003 Semi-Conducted CDs, which are live albums, comprising collections of their best songs. Semi-Conducted is performed with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra. Rock, folk, ballads, country, and children's music all have been genres parodied by the Worms. When not spoofing a particular style of music, the Worms' material pokes fun at various aspects of daily life in Canada with songs like "Canada's Really Big", "Me Like Hockey", "We are the Beaver", "I Am Not American", and "Proud to Be Canadian". They have also recorded music videos for three songs: "Big Fat Road Manager", "Carrot Juice Is Murder", and "The River ". The first two of these are included on the Three Worms and an Orchestra DVD.
Get Stupid! is a book released in February 2005 that was written by one of the Arrogant Worms, Trevor Strong. It teaches the "Ignorance IS Bliss Method". It contains three parts:
"The IQ Test", which tests how ignorant you really are.
"The Seven Steps to Bliss", which teaches you how to find happiness through ignorance.
"Simplifying the World", which teaches you how to deal with the problems of the world after you have become ignorant. It contains information about everything, including art, gardening, health, and recipes.
Misattribution
The Arrogant Worms are frequently miscredited as having written and/or recorded songs such as "The White House Burned " and "The Toronto Song" as well as Vito Petroccitto Jr's recording of "The Assumption Song". Other frequent misattributions, according to their official website, include "Cows With Guns" by Dana Lyons and "Wayne Gretzky Rocks" by The Pursuit of Happiness. This has occasionally led to fans requesting these songs during encores of their live shows. On a similar note, the Captain Tractor cover version of the Worms' "The Last Saskatchewan Pirate" is often simply credited to the Arrogant Worms themselves, or Captain Tractor is credited with having written the song.
