When Head Ned and his bandmates came up with the concept for Okilly Dokilly – the world's first (and so far only) Ned Flanders-themed metal band – they all just naturally assumed there wouldn't be much of a market for the brand of foolishness they had in mind and it would "just be something fun for us to do at local clubs in Phoenix."

Five years later, Ned is calling from the Okilly Dokilly tour van – or Ned Vanders, as they call it – two days after watching himself and his friends in their matching green sweaters and mustaches, rocking "The Simpsons," which rolled the band's video for "White Wine Spritzer" over the closing credits of Sunday's episode, "I'm Just a Girl Who Can't Say D'oh."

They were in Chicago, set to play a club called Reggie's Music Joint, when the episode aired.

Okilly Dokilly debuted on 'Simpsons,' then played a sold-out show

"But I managed to set an alarm for myself on my phone," he says. "I was in our trailer kind of shoveling boxes, trying to pull T-shirts, and I was like 'It's on!' so I popped it open on my phone and we kind of huddled together in the trailer, just experiencing this. And then we went and played and got to announce it to a sold-out show in Chicago. That was really cool to play that show with everyone so hyped about it."

The premise for Okilly Dokilly is as simple as it surreal.

In addition to naming themselves for the character's catch phrase, they've taken names that end in Ned and adopted a Flanders-esque style — green sweaters, pink polo shirts, glasses and mustaches – while basing their lyrics on actual quotes from the character on whom their entire aesthetic is based.

"We weren’t really in a hurry to make it all happen," Ned recalls of their early attempts to get this off the ground. "We kind of took our time. We were like 'Oh, we should do some press photos. Oh, but you’re working today. And I’m gonna be out of town for a bit.' We took some press photos and three months later recorded a little demo and then three months later posted it online and told some of our friends, 'This is the thing we’ve been kind of doing and talking about.'"

That was August 2015, the same month they went viral, earning articles in Entertainment Weekly and the Independent after an interview in Rip It Up, an Australian publication, got the ball rolling. This is all before they'd even played a show.

They've done a lot of shows since then.

RELATED: Phoenix-based Ned Flanders-themed band now owns internet

When the Fox call came, 'I was blown away'

They were on tour, in fact, in February, when Fox reached out about airing their video on the show that inspired the band.

As Ned recalls, "Most of the band was in our hotel room. I kind of woke up in the van and checked my phone and saw an email from Fox and just a snippet of what it said. And that was better than a cup of coffee. I was awake and had a lot of things to process. I was blown away. I kind of had to pocket that for a second just to process it. But yeah, the fact that it aired and that information spread to everyone, we're just very, very pleased Neds."

Sunday's episode led to a story on Rolling Stone's website, where showrunner Al Jean is quoted as saying, “We saw the video and knew they had to be on the show. We do not endorse their message of indiscriminate drinking of white wine spritzers.”

Ned says, "That’s the most excited I’ve ever been to be un-endorsed or un-supported in anything."

It's not the first time Jean has weighed in on the band.

As Ned recalls, "When we kind of went viral when we first released the idea of the band, somebody did tweet Al, and he responded with something like, 'They’re okilly dokilly to me, although I’m not sure Ned would approve of all that chin hair.'"

Their drummer, he says, had a beard at the time.

The making of 'White Wine Spritzer'

The "White Wine Spritzer" video, was "super fun to make," Ned says.

"It was about a 19-hour day. We woke up, got on the road at 9 a.m., built the set all day, set everything up, nightfall hit, we started shooting, destroyed everything, burned a couch. And by the time we wrapped up and got home, it was 6 a.m. the next morning. We were super burnt out, but just super happy with how the video turned out. And the fact that it landed on 'The Simpsons' was just, I don’t know, very incredible."

After all, he says, he grew up on "The Simpsons."

"Animated shows were all I watched until I was basically an adult and far beyond that, just because there’s so many great ones," Ned says. "And 'The Simpsons' has always been one of my favorite shows. In writing for our new record, I kind of took it upon myself to sit down and watch the first 10 seasons. It was a really excellent excuse to watch the first 10 seasons, but I was doing it also to kind of gather Ned quotes for the new record."

What to know about Okilly Dokilly's new record

That new record is "Howdilly Twodilly," which was released on March 29. It includes such nu-Nedal classics as "Fokilly Dokilly," "Reneducation," "I Can't, It's a Geo" and "When the Comet Gets Here."

That last one, Ned says, was inspired by an episode where a comet is due to hit Springfield and the original Ned is the only one with a bomb shelter.

"He ends up inviting Homer in but then the whole town shows up and Homer invites the whole town in and they kick Ned out," he says. "There are so many great lines in there that were just very good song fodder and the episode itself is really great, but Ned says to Rod, as he’s being kicked out of the bomb shelter, 'Rod, I might go mad with fear out there. So shoot daddy if he tries to get back in.' And he hands him a shotgun shell as he goes out. When you’re turning Ned quotes into metal songs, that was just ... I was very excited to see that."

Their friends and family have been reaching out, congratulating them since Sunday.

"When we first started," Ned recalls, "we had difficulty explaining the idea to people. Some people would get it and some people would be like, 'Uhhh, I don’t know what you mean or what you’re doing.' It took the pictures and the music to truly explain it."

His family is very supportive, he says.

"My dad’s quote he tells everybody, which is just the perfect dad joke for any dad of Okilly Dokilly, is: 'Most people want their children to turn out great or successful. I’m just glad my kid turned out okilly dokilly."

Flanders would love it.

Reach the reporter at ed.masley@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-4495. Follow him on Twitter @EdMasley.

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