A New Kids on the Block reunion?

What happened

Conflicting rumors about a New Kids on the Block reunion, which stemmed from an article that appeared in People.com on Saturday, have been circulating on the Internet over the past few days. Danny Wood, a member of the highly successful boy band that disbanded in 1994, refuted the claims on his Myspace page, but some critics are pointing to renewed activity on the band’s official website—including the posting of a new song—as evidence that the reunion is on.

What the commentators said

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“On Monday, New Kid on the Block Danny Wood threw cold water on the rumor that the band would reunite,” said Dan Kois and Lane Brown in New York Magazine’s Vulture blog, but it “turns out he was lying.” Now on the “group’s redesigned official Website, there’s streaming audio of a new NKOTB track and video, which explicitly teases a reunion but stops just short of telling us where to enter our credit-card numbers.” Stop toying with us! “When you said you’d be loving us forever, was that a lie too, Danny? Was it?!”

“First the Eagles, then the Spice Girls, and now” this—the “granddaddy of all reunions,” said Allison Williams in the New York Metro. “Since their ‘Hangin’ Tough’ heyday” in the early ’90s, the “not-so-new anymore Kids” have veered off into “acting, producing, singing on Broadway and developing real estate.” We’re not sure “whether the reunion will involve a tour, new album or just a group campaign to bring back stone-washed denim.”

Actually, the New Kid’s current plans probably were “inspired by the ultra-profitable reunion of the Spice Girls,” said ABCNews.com. Some critics “questioned if anyone wanted to see aging former teen idols headed toward their ’40s singing saccharine, sweet love songs,” but apparently a lot of people did—the Spice Girls’ entire concert tour was sold-out.

And the New Kids' "timeless hits like ‘Hangin’ Tough’ and ‘Step by Step’ are still loved by millions of NKOTB fans,” said the blog The Celebrity Café, “many of whom weren’t even born in the 1980s when those songs were released.”

Well, the New Kids haven’t announced a date yet for their “comeback,” said Annette Hyde in the blog Heckler Spray, “but we’re sure it’ll be nicely timed with the coming of the Apocalypse.” And if it does happen, we can probably look forward to somewhat “wrinkly, slightly saggy, muscle tone free flesh” on display. But what will they call themselves for this reunion? “Old Men at the Doctor Getting Their Prostate Checked, or Old Men on the Bankruptcy List?”