OMG! It’s like, totally really happening! So many people have been waiting for years and years for the NKOTB reunion. The reunion was on April 4, 2008, but the performance happened on the Today show on May 16, 2008. And though we don’t really see what the big deal is, many of our friends, wives, fiances, etc. are absolutely crazy about them. They could ace a quiz about them, in fact. These guys DO look rather suave in their old age, we must say. Get your money ready now, ladies, New Kids On The Block are embarking on a world tour.
Here’s video from the big reunion on April 4, 2008:
Here’s video of New Kids On The Block performing a medley of their hits on the Today Show on May 16, 2008
(1:56:51 PM) Jamie Bousquet: because there’s so many people and they’re such a diverse group, poker nights at the VFW are ripe with songspeak and “that’s what she said”
(1:57:12 PM) Matt Larsen: you should introduce them to the concept of songspeak then
(2:01:18 PM) Jamie Bousquet: I don’t think this crowd is gonna go for that
(2:01:36 PM) Matt Larsen: no can do?
Getting ready to leave for the big road trip from Massachusetts to Lancaster, PA we stopped by Cumberland Farms so Jo could get some chocolate milk and water for the trip. While she was inside and I was in the car with our daughter Quinn, I had my window open. A guy wearing a baseball cap and jeans (very Joe Schmo looking) was getting into a pickup truck parked nearby and sang, “Strangers in my pants” to the tune of Strangers In The Night by Frank Sinatra. One of the most random songspeaks I’ve ever experienced.
In anything where you need to go from just a beginner to a pro, you need a montage. This tidbit of wisdom comes from possibly the greatest action / puppet flick I’ve seen, Team America: World Police.
The two dorks who created South Park, Matt Parker and Trey Stone, annoyed about what they considered to be the U.S. tendency to want to “police the world”, made this satirical move about a group of militants trying to destroy a plot by Kim Jong-il to deploy weapons of mass destruction (WMDs). Rather than make an animated feature, they somehow decided to make an action movie using a cast of marionettes.
The music is particularly awesome, featuring songs like America, Fuck Yeah, and Freedom Isn’t Free, but my favorite is probably the Rocky-inspired Montage. Here’s a clip of it (a treat especially for those who are trying to learn Spanish!).
Also, it’s pretty awesome that these hooligans are so talented as musicians. Their band, DVDA performs a lot of the music in their various productions.
To be fair, this is TVspeak and not really songspeak, but songspeak is large enough to encompass all of pop culture. One of our favorite pop culturecatch phrases is “that’s what she said”. It’s pretty low class humor, but it’s awesome. I believe it originated on Wayne’s World, but it has become exceedingly prominent on The Office as one of Michael Scott’s favorite sayings.
We use it quite frequently, and we’ve found that poker night is ripe with opportunities to use this gem. Here are some memorable examples of things that have been said preceding our usage:
“I had a small pair”
“Sometimes you just have to shove it in”
“It only looks big because it’s all red”
“I’ve got the nuts”
“You’re big” (in reference to the blind)
“I’ve got a dirty stack”
There are so many more times we’ve said it in so many more situations, but you get the idea. And here is a wonderful montage from The Office of some classic moments:
Kristen and I recently borrowed the Freaks and Geeks dvds from Jamie and Jo. It is just plain oss. This Judd Apatow produced show starred people like Jason Segel, Seth Rogen, James Franco, Busy Phillips, Linda Cardinelli, and of course Martin Starr as Bill. NBC really screwed the pooch on this one in the 1999-2000 season by constantly changing the schedule, pre-empting it with other programming, etc. Eventually, due to low ratings, the show was cancelled. By then though, it had quite a cult following. All 15 episodes are now on dvd for all to enjoy… or borrow from Jamie and Jo.
The music in this entire series, which takes place in the late 70s / early 80s is absolute gold. There’s never been such a brilliant homage to the Styx classic, Lady as when Nick (Jason Segel) expresses his true feelings towards Lindsey (Linda Cardellini). The magical words of Dennis DeYoung and the music of Styx say it all. About 1:40 into the video, you’ll see/hear what I mean.
Ever since Andy Samberg and the fine fellows at Lonely Island made Lazy Sunday, SNL has embraced the idea ‘Digital Short’ fully. Thank god, because there have been some real gems since. There have been a bunch of parodies and many many homages (with a particularly good one being Lazy Scranton), but the original is still king.
Everybody clap your hands! I love how McDonald’s decided to use The Cha Cha Slide in one of its Happy Meal commercials. I think it’s great. In fact, I’m lovin’ it.
Originally developed and recorded by DJ Casper in 1996 for Bally’s Total Fitness,The Cha Cha Slide Part 2 by Mr. C The Slide Man (aka DJ Casper) Featuring The Platinum Band was recorded later. Because in part 2, they felt the desire to get funky. You can practically taste the funk as this kid eats his apple slices in the aforementioned Happy Meal commercial:
The Cha Cha Slide Part 2 itself has provided some serious line-dancing action in clubs, at weddings, proms, and parties across the U.S. and beyond. Better watch the video now, or you’ll look like a jackass at your niece’s Super Sweet 16 party.
In the short lived, but hilarious comedy/realty tv show, Jamie Kennedy’s Blowin Up, Jamie Kennedy tries to fulfill his lifelong dream of becoming a rapper. He and his sidekick, Stu Stone film a great music video for their song, Rollin’ With Saget.
When Matt and I worked together at Silver Screen, we would often carpool (especially when we were living in the same apartment building). Every day on the way home, we would pass the Motor Inn in Greenfield. One day, one of us (I can’t remember who started it) started singing “Motor Inn” to the tune of Sister Christian by Night Ranger, and the other immediately followed up with, “What’s your price per night?” We thought we were pretty clever. In fact, I still do.
1. In Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, the game takes place in the 80s, and there’s a mall you can enter and wreak havoc in. The music store in that mall is called “The Vinyl Countdown”.
2. Every day, I drive by a store in Springfield, MA called The Final Markdown and will occasionally started singing this in tune to The Final Countdown to Kristen, since she is the lucky one who gets to carpool with me these days.
3. Jamie and I songspeak this all the time whenever the final anything happens. With food (It’s the final hot dog, the final taco, the final donut), with highway signs (It’s the final exit, the final rest stop), with television series (it’s the final episode, the final installment, the final-ee).
4. On Arrested Development, Gob Bluth (a magician… sorry, illusionist) makes his entrance with a fog machine and magical dance moves while blasting The Final Countdown by Europe. Brilliant.
At the 2004 World Series of Poker main event, Marcel Luske belted out his own version of Give a Little Bit by Supertramp. You can view it here (the video is lengthy, but the songspeak in question appears at about the 5:05 mark):
Jamie and I have been making Songspeak Greatest Hits mixes for years now, and while we’ve tried to make them reasonably listenable, we can never deny a truly awful song’s inclusion if it falls under the category of (what we consider to be) songspeak.
Trapped In The Closet, R. Kelly’s ridiculous hip-hopera with all the soap opera elements (sex, betrayal, gunplay) was released in installments of one chapter at a time. Its first twelve chapters run over 30 minutes long. I know this because I own the dvd. When he wrote it, in 2005, he always left the storyline open ended. In 2007, he wrote another ten chapters, and apparently we can expect more chapters. By the way, the dvd is great because there’s commentary on it. First of all, the song itself is basically an R. Kelly singing narration of the storyline. The commentary, therefore, is R. Kelly commenting on the narration of the storyline… just in case the story wasn’t clear or whatever.
For awhile now, FreeCreditReport.com has been running some clever commercials featuring Eric Violette singing clever songs about how he should have gone to FreeCreditReport.com instead of that tool on the stool saying, “I’m THINKING of a number…”. These commercials feature clever songs sung in English, even though Eric Violette is French-Canadian whose primary language is French.
The Car Song: I was shopping for a new car, which one’s me… A cool convertible or an SUV?
Yet another recent example of songspeak in advertising. I can’t help it, but I love this GoPhone commercial featuring Meat Loaf and Tiffany. My wife’s (and now my) favorite part is when the kid starts rockin’ hard right after Meat Loaf sings, “You ask about that cell phone every night and day”. Truly phenomenal.
Perhaps this falls under the banner of wrestlespeak more than songspeak, but last night on WWE RAW, the three main presidential candidates (Clinton, Obama, and McCain) made pre-recorded comments to air during the show.
Yes, I enjoy wrestling, and yes, most wrestling fans get a bad rap and are stereotyped into the “unintelligent trailer trash” category. However, most wrestling fans are just average people who watch wrestling as any other form of entertainment.
So imagine how I felt my intelligence to be insulted when watching these candidates’ comments. Not only did they talk in circles and not actually say anything, they littered their mini-speeches with lame wrestling metaphors and catchphrases of wrestlers who haven’t been active for about 6 or 7 years (most notably, The Rock). If you’re going to try to relate to your audience, wouldn’t it make sense to, you know, make some more current references? Good God, I was half-expecting John McCain to say, “Where’s the beef?” Don’t get me wrong, hearing Barack Obama say “If you smell what Barack is cookin’” was pure gold, but I just got the feeling I was being talked down to. It was obvious they know nothing about the WWE and were just spouting lines. They blew a good opportunity to say something real and intelligent and instead let some speechwriter make it obvious that they knew nothing of their audience. And it didn’t help McCain’s case that his message appeared last and he used the same “If you smell what the Mac is cookin’” line.
Below is a snippet of each candidate’s clip so you can see for yourself.
I don’t really know why Rogue Wave places an order for lunch in their song, Ghost, but “I want a slab of coleslaw. I want a ham and cheese” is the first line of the song, I swear… I don’t know, maybe I should look it up…….
Okay, I looked it up online, and supposedly the lyrics really are “I want to slam the coastline. I want to hammer trees. You know I like it. You know I like it.”
I think my lyrics actually make more sense, though I have to say, I usually think coleslaw is pretty damn gross.
The real lyric is “Sometimes I think I’m the only cab on the road”, but Kristen likes to think that her version is better anyhow. Neither one of us is a Train fan, but somehow we like to joke about their song, Cab, from time to time.
I found this video on that YouTubes. I have no idea what it’s all about, but maybe the guy from Train could be a little more literal about the lyrics of the song in the video next time.
Oh, and speaking of cabs on the road, has anyone ever watched Cash Cab?
It has come to my attention that the new ads for Six Flags feature a younger dude saying “Six Flags. More Flags. More Fun.” These are kinda creepy, but not as creepy as the campaigns a few years ago featuring Mr. Six dancing to We Like To Party by Vengaboys.
Among the many bands named after geographical locations (Kansas, Boston, Europe, Chicago), the band Asia scored big points with their catchy song, Heat Of The Moment. The creators of South Park noticed this, and paid tribute in their episode about Cartman attempting to get stem cell research legalized in order to save his friend Kenny.
You have to watch the tender sappy moments before the song begins:
Sitting in my office listening to the radio (mix 93.1 to be exact) with Runaround by Blues Traveler playing, I’m reminded of one of the most ridiculous songspeaks I’ve ever been a part of.
When Matt and I both worked at Silver Screen together, we’d carpool most days. We’d always sing along with the radio and make our own lyrics, the usual end-of-the-workday zaniness. Every day, we would pass the Dunkin Donuts, but at one point, they were remodeling it. Through the window, written on the wall next to an electrical box/circuit breaker of some sort was written in large block letters, “BOX IS HOT”. Well, one day as we drove by, Runaround was on the radio and one of us sang, “Once upon a box is hot…” and the other finished with “That’s the Dunkin Donuts they remodeled!” to the tune of the song. It stuck, and we can’t think of anything else whenever we hear that song.
And speaking of Dunkin Donuts, who doesn’t absolutely love doin’ things? I know doin’ things is what I like to do (YES!). Also a very popular songspeak in and of itself.
Songspeak can start at a very early age. This is proof.
Having a 2 year old will open your eyes to all sorts of new television entertainment. So when Yo Gabba Gabba premiered last year on Nick, Jr., it didn’t take long for Quinn (and moreso, her parents) to become obsessed with it. There are random bits in the show where they show a little kid, and they say, “My name is (whatever), I like to dance!” Then they dance to some crazy song. Well, whenever Quinn would dance, I’d always say, “My name is Quinn, I like to dance!” and every now and then she’d say it.
But one day she was standing at her little table in the living room having a snack, and as she was eating, she said (unprovoked), “My name is Quinn, I like to eat!” We got a kick out of that, and she would crack it out every now and then for different activities (”My name is Quinn, I like to jump!”, etc.). This just makes me impressed with the instinctual nature of songspeak (TVSpeak?).
Anyway, here is an amusing example of that show from The Soup:
This songspeak tends to come up when we’re trying to decide on dinner and one of us says, “What you want, Bucky Done Gun?”… or if we’re trying to get going and one of us says, “get crackin, get-get crackin”.
For the longest time, whenever I went to Subway, I tended to order Combo Number 5 (which is the Italian B.M.T. in case you’re curious), so if anyone happened to be with me, I started singing, “Ladies and gentlemen, this is combo numba fahv”, thinking I’m absolutely hilarious (even though most people just roll their eyes). Even if I’m alone, I think it (songthink?). Every time.
Lately it’s come to my attention that they have gotten rid of the order-by-number system. Stupid Jared Fogle. He ruins everything. Anyway, this is a absolutely hilarious reference to the Lou Bega song, Mambo No. 5. A little bit of something and something else.
For years while we worked together in Greenfield, Jamie and I carpooled to work. We would pass the same people frequently on our commute. One of those people we saw so much, we affectionately named her “The Crazy Lady With The Funky Sunglasses”. There was also “The Guy Who Loves The Nields” and “The Car With The Wing” but this story isn’t about that. It’s about “The Crazy Lady With The Funky Sunglasses”.
When one of is would see her, we would go “Ohhhhhhh!” which eventually evolved into just a shriek. One day one of us recognized that that there’s a similar shriek at the end of Friday I’m In Love by The Cure. To this day, even though Jamie and I no longer work together, we both see her still around the valley. She’s since traded in her silver Chevy for a green Kia, but after that we still recognized her because she was either wearing the funky sunglasses, or put the funky sunglasses on her dashboard on cloudy days. These funky sunglasses are hard to miss.
Anyhow, to this day, if I see The Crazy Lady With The Funky Sunglasses, sometimes my excitement cannot be contained and I’ll leave a message for Jamie on his cell phone or something and give him a classic Friday, I’m In Love shriek.
When he hears it, he knows that The Crazy Lady With The Funky Sunglasses has been spotted about the area.
Actually… a similar message was one of the early impressions I made on Jamie’s wife, Jo. Oh, what she must have thought.
Jamie and I used to work at the Smith College bookstore in our college days and of course, had various songspeaks for various book titles. One time, Gimme Shelter by The Rolling Stones came on the radio and I walked by Jamie holding a copy of Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf. He knew what I was talking about, and started singing “It’s Mrs. Dalloway, it’s Mrs. Dalloway-y-aaaay!” instead of “It’s just a shout away”.
Other songspeak moments for this song include:
- Watching early seasons of ER and singing “It’s Carol Hathaway, It’s Carol Hathaway-y-aaaay!” whenever Julianna Margulies was on screen.
- Corresponding via email between Jamie and myself about how far our friend’s house in NJ is from my grandmother’s house on Long Island and typing “It’s just an hour away, it’s just an hour away-y-aaaay!”
Songspeak in commercials is a tradition as old as songspeak itself. Sometimes it’s done well, sometimes it’s cringe-worthy. When Mohegan Sun decided to do it with Super Freak by Rick James, the results were truly horrifying:
We have to give a shout-out to the Song Chart Pool on Flickr for showing us the phenomenon of songspeak on a whole other level. Some of these are really hilarious.
Also, (and I will never live this down) when I was younger I thought he sang “it’s all been a pack of ice” because my little kid logic didn’t know what a “pack of lies” was. Actually, I still don’t, but whatever.
In April of 2007, I was lucky enough to procure some free tickets to see OkGo at my alma mater, WPI. One of the perks of working at Silver Screen Design is that when you print shirts for a show, sometimes they’ll hook you up with tickets. Anyway, my wife Jo and daughter Quinn were in Australia (with me soon to follow), but Matt and Kristen and I decided we’d all go to Worcester together for an adventure.
In the weeks leading up to the show, there were countless awful Ok Go puns (”ok, I’ll go”, “I can’t wait to go to the show, ok?”, “ok, just go”, “where will we okgo to eat?”) It was relentless. Right up to showtime.
The show itself was very good, and a few of the students who were with security for the show choreographed the band’s dance from their A Million Ways video and performed it on the upper level (right in front of us) as the band performed the song below in the middle of the crowd. It was pretty cool.
My fiance Kristen was cutting some lemon once for her Zazz (though she generally prefers lime) and some juices squirted me in the eye. I exclaimed, “You squirted me… with lemon!” like the guy speaks during the song, She Blinded Me With Science. Amazingly, Kristen knew just what I was talking about. This new wave 80s gem is by Thomas Dolby.
It seems that the term, “songspeak” was included into the Urban Dictionary online. They’ve published a few Urban Dictionary books, let’s keep our fingers crossed that ’songspeak’ makes it into the printed version also someday.
It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia is one of the greatest shows on television. It’s hard to sum up Charlie’s character if you’ve never watched the show, but Day Man is one of the best ‘Charlie moments’. It’s from the episode, Sweet Dee’s Dating a Retarded Person. It’s a pretty crude show. The premise of this particular episode is that the main characters, Frank, Dennis, Mac, and Charlie can’t tell if Dee’s new boyfriend is retarded, because he’s a well known local rapper and… it actually is questionable if you watch the episode.
Anyhow, realizing that having music at the bar they own together would be good for business, Frank, Mac, and Charlie form a band together. Charlie is kicked out of the band and replaced by Dennis, who is kicked out of the band shortly thereafter. Feeling defeated, Dennis finds Charlie huffing paint in his apartment, and the brilliant Day Man song is born.
Here’s a clip of the pivotal moment:
Here’s a clip of the actual performance in the bar:
There was a commercial in the 70s for Pace Picante sauce that featured cowboys discussing the virtues of a sauce made in San Antonio. It’s a call-and-response kind of thing– when they criticize the cook for bringing a picante sauce made in “New York City?!”, a moustachioed man in the background says, “Get a rope”. Ever since this commercial had a brief revival in the mid 1990s, Jamie and I (and about a zillion other people) have quoted this following any mention of the NYC with “New York City?!… Get a rope”.
I searched and searched, and the only video I could find also has a news report (after the commercial) about an earthquake a long time ago. Maybe someone else has the original?
I, I just died in your arms tonight
Must have been something you said
I just died in your arms tonight
Oh I, I just died in your arms tonight
Must have been something you said
I shit and walk away
I shit and walk away
I think the real line is either “I shoulda walked away” or “I shouldn’t walk away”, but whatever. Anyway, nowadays when I hear this song on the radio, all I can think of is the Horatio Sanz and Will Ferrell skit on Saturday Night Live.
I was listening to one of my many CD mixes on the way to work today when this song came on. I was reminded of why I downloaded this song in the first place. Not long after my daughter Quinn was born, my wife Jo and I were in the condo watching TV. Jo was holding Quinn, and she had fallen asleep on Jo’s chest. Jo got my attention and just pointed at Quinn and said, “Everybody needs a bosom for a pillow”. I had forgotten about the song up to that point, so I downloaded it. This song also reminds me of working at the Smith bookstore with Matt in the late 90’s, as that’s when it was popular. Ah, nostalgia. The song, by the way, is Brimful of Asha by Cornershop.
Actually, what’s kind of interesting about this song is that there’s an original version, released in 1997, and then the Fatboy Slim remix, released in 1998. That funk soul brother sped that shit up.
OMG! It’s like, totally really happening! So many people have been waiting for years and years for the NKOTB reunion. The reunion was on April 4, 2008, but the performance happened on the Today show on May 16, 2008. And though we don’t really see what the big deal is, many of our friends, wives, fiances, etc. are absolutely crazy about them. They could ace a quiz about them, in fact. These guys DO look rather suave in their old age, we must say. Get your money ready now, ladies, New Kids On The Block are embarking on a world tour.
