I’m going to Savannah for a long weekend and all I can think about is that episode of The Office called “The Murder”. Can’t wait for everybody down there to sound like Paula Deen.

And of course…

I’ve been walking around saying “I do declare” a lot in preparation, which another fine gentleman, Foghorn Leghorn used to say a lot also.

Was Foghorn Leghorn even from Savannah? I say, I say… I thought he was from Virginia. Nevertheless, Imma have some good food down there, y’all.

I don’t know who does the song used in the tv commercial for Toyota trucks, but it’s going to drive me absolutely insane. I don’t know about you folks, but up here in Massachusetts, they’ve been playing it on the local NBC station every two seconds. Consequently, the stupid “Push The Limits / How Cool Is This” song has been stuck in my head. I’ve been singing it constantly around the house and driving my family nuts.

Push the limitttttttttttts. How cool is thiiii—is?!

Fudge you, Toyota. I love/hate you for making this commercial.

Hey, songspeakers, do any of you know what band sings this song? I’ve scoured the interwebs, but was unable to locate info about who wrote this song.

So, at the beginning of December, my wife and I went to see Matthew Larsen and the Documents along with Darlingside at the Montague Book Mill in Montague, MA. We saw many friends at this show, two of whom (that will remain nameless to avoid embarrassment) told us they had just finished watching all four seasons of That’s So Raven! on Netflix on-demand on their Nintendo Wii. I’ll point out that this couple are grown adults and currently have no children, which means they chose to watch this Disney Channel show of their own accord. The female half of this couple reminds us quite a bit of Raven in her personality and way of speaking on occasion, so the That’s So Raven jokes tend to fly freely.

One of the members of Darlingside is dark-skinned (of Indian descent, I believe), and he talked about how the other band members needle him when he speaks his native tongue. All in good fun, of course, but after the show we were joking about how it could have come across as racist (teasing the foreigner for speaking a funny language other than English). While downstairs in the line for the restroom, the male half of the Raven-obsessed couple and some others were talking about the on-stage discussion, and then started doing a jig, singing “That’s so racist!” to the tune of the That’s So Raven theme song. It caught us off guard, but it was truly brilliant. And it has sparked even more “That’s So _______!” jokes.

…is what Teena Marie will be singing from now on, because she died in her sleep Sunday at the age of 54. Why are these one hit wonders being taken from us so young?

Dexter is a pretty amazing show. A serial killer who kills other serial killers is a character I can really get behind. Michael C. Hall does a great job with this character, but who knew he was a serial killer with some serious vocal talent? Michael C. Hall was on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon the other night, and when Jimmy asked him what Dexter’s favorite Christmas song would be, it didn’t take him long to come up with Santa Claus is Coming to Town. He broke into an excellent rendition, and changed the lyrics to make it appropriately creepy for the character he portrays. Who knew that Dexter songspoke?

Last Thursday’s episode of The Office (Sex Ed) hilariously incorporated all of Michael Scott’s exes over the past 6 seasons into one convenient plot about herpes. However, one of my favorite moments from the episode was from the B story, which was when Andy took it upon himself to hold a sex education seminar for the rest of the employees in order to learn more about Erin and Gabe’s relationship. The Nard Dog bribed the staff with pizza, and as he arrived with it, he beautifully illustrated the concept of songspeak by altering the lyrics to Hot Blooded by Foreigner and singing:

Hot pizza, check it and see…
Got a whole buncha pepperoni!

Classic. These are my favorite moments of the show. The ones where the characters do dorky things that real people do all the time. Which is exactly what songspeak is.

Maybe Andy should replace Michael Scott when he leaves the show at the end of the season…

Here at Songspeak, we strive to keep our massive fanbase updated with the most current pop culture news and happenings. So it’s no coincidence that this post is about a movie that came out over a month ago referencing a group that existed mainly in the 90′s.

Last night, I found myself with the opportunity to see a movie, so I chose to see The Other Guys. I’m always up for a good Will Ferrell yarn. Now, I won’t give any spoilers about the plot here, but there was one running joke that tickled my funny bone, and it was songspeak related. Michael Keaton played Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg’s characters’ police captain, and throughout the movie, he would reference TLC songs, including:

“Don’t go chasin’ waterfalls”
“I don’t want no scrubs”
“Creep………creep”
“I ain’t too proud to beg”

Will Ferrell’s character calls him out on the TLC references from the start, and the gag is that Michael Keaton’s character continues to insist he has no idea who or what they are. This is never explained, but it continues throughout the movie.

And I think I thought it was funnier than any of the other 7 people in the theater.

RIP, Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes.

Last Friday, I met a friend at Mohegan Sun to see Barenaked Ladies, for which I had complimentary tickets. The show, in a nutshell, was great.

I left work promptly at 5pm and made it to Mohegan Sun in an hour and 40 minutes. Not too shabby. My friend arrived shortly thereafter and we went to the ticket window to get the tickets about a half hour before the start of the show. No offense to the first opener, Angel Taylor, but our first priority was getting dinner rather than catching the opening act. Luckily, we were able to get an immediate seat at Big Bubba’s BBQ and had a nice meal (I opted for the chicken and ribs combo, and she had meatloaf. Because two out of three ain’t bad.).

After dinner, we headed into the arena in the middle of Ben Kweller’s set. He was pretty darn good. I especially enjoyed Sawdust Man. After Ben Kweller, though, it was the moment of truth. Barenaked Ladies were going to take the stage and this was my first time seeing them without Steven Page.

And you know what? I didn’t miss him at all. They opened their set with Who Needs Sleep? (an always odd choice, in my opinion), and then broke into The Old Apartment. It was as it always is with them. They rocked the house. It wasn’t long before Ed Robertson was freestyle-rapping about playing at Mohegan Sun, and then him and the band started talking about how he’d gotten schooled at poker that day. It appears he played a $200 buy-in tournament and learned a couple lessons along the way. Lesson 1: Trip 9′s aren’t worth a damn (“I was outkicked!”), and lesson 2: Queens full of 10′s? Fold ‘em! (“He slowplayed me!”). All was right with the world. I’m not familiar with much of the new stuff, but Angel Taylor did come out to sing with Ed on one of the songs I DO know, Every Subway Car, and it sounded really good. They even played a song called Eraser from their kid’s CD Snack Time, which was great fun. The other band members (mainly Kevin Hearn) took over a lot of Steven Page’s vocals, and his absence was barely felt. In fact, the only time I really thought about him was when they played You Run Away, off their new All in Good Time album, which is clearly about him.

And as always, as I was hoping, they did their famous medley finale. It started with Kevin Hearn playing the piano and singing Magic by Pilot. This led into the band doing a song and dance routine that included Empire State of Mind by Jay Z, I Gotta Feeling by Black Eyed Peas (who were coincidentally playing the XL Center in Hartford the very same night), Baby by Justin Bieber, and California Gurls by Katy Perry, topped off by “Mohegan Sun, won’t you come” at the very end to the tune of Black Hole Sun by Soundgarden (which they’ve done at their previous Mohegan Sun shows). The crowd, of course, clamored for an encore, and BNL gladly obliged. They played 3 songs for their encore, and for the first, Ed Robertson played drums while Tyler Stewart stumbled across the stage belting out Alcohol (that song was made for him to perform), and they finished the night with Brian Wilson (the song, not the Beach Boys singer).

We left thoroughly satisfied with the show, and continued to do a little gambling on the penny slots. And even though it only took me an hour and twenty minutes to get home, it was still 2:15am. But who needs sleep, right?

This morning on the way to work, I passed a billboard that I’ve probably passed countless times before. For some reason, I never really noticed it like I did today. It was for Basketville in Putney, Vermont. And all I could think of is that right out front, Justin Timberlake is dressed up in a giant ridiculous basket costume, pressing play on a boombox, singing basket-related lyrics to some kind of current pop hit like Ke$ha’s Tik Tok, and then shouting, “Bring it on down to Basketville!” All thanks to the Omeletteville skit from years ago, and then the follow-up, Homelessville:

Yes, these are the things that go through my head on the drive to work…

Over the past few days, my wife has been re-watching her all-time favorite TV show on DVD, thanks to Netflix. Degrassi High. I watched the series with her once years ago (I had bought it for her on VHS tapes in the dark ages before DVD’s were all the rage), and it’s really something else. Let’s start with the opening theme:

You have to admire any TV show that has the gall to open the show with a gratuitous shot of a jeans-clad teenager’s asscrack. You don’t see that very often. As I watched some of it with her, I’m reminded of all the old (horrible) characters (some of which appear as adults in the next generation series).  However, I had forgotten about the 3 dorky main characters (Joey, Snake, and Wheels) and their band, The Zits. And their terrible song. Which I’ve had stuck in my head for the past couple days:

What a sweet, sweet tune. And after watching the video, it reminds me of Matt’s high school band, Gemini (or was it Detour? Or Poppo Smiley?). This video seems totally like something they would have done back then. Only instead of Everybody Wants Something, it would be Future Shock.