“Gina, have you heard “The Fox” song on Kids Place Live yet?”
My husband asked this question a few weeks ago, and I had to honestly answer that I hadn’t. Since then, I have heard “The Fox”, and I still don’t really know what he says.
I know. You’re thinking, “Wow, Gina, you’re a month late to the party.” Yes, I realize this. I wanted to feature this earlier, but had other time-sensitive goodies I wanted to introduce you to this month.
You know how I know I’m so late? As of yesterday, the video for this song had over 95 million views. That’s right, 95 and six zeros after it. And it was released just over a month ago. In it’s first two weeks on YouTube it garnered 40 million views. That, my friends, is viral at its quickest.
If you’ve been hiding under a rock, let me fill you in. “The Fox” is a zany song by the comedy duo Ylvis, Norway’s answer to “Flight of the Chonchords“, but without the intellectual sophistication of a “Hiphopopotamus vs. Rhymenoceros“. Picture Josh Groban and a hypothetical brother of Josh Groban making an oddball track about animals, and you may just come up with “The Fox.”
This band of brothers, Bård and Vegard Ylvisåker, created “The Fox” as a joke to launch the third season of their talk show in Norway, aiming to make it as bad as they could. Perhaps that’s what makes it so alluring. Flanked with folks dancing in a dark wooded forest in the vein of “Gangnam Style”, complete with night club laser beams and folks dressed in animal costumes, there’s no way anyone could look at this and think it was high art.
Speaking of “Gangnam Style”, lots of comparison has been made between these two. Both songs and accompanying videos have gone viral and taken over the internet. To a certain degree, both rely on outlandishness, a catchy hook and beat, and a sense of humor. But there is also a common thread of conviction and commitment to performing seriously and passionately about something that’s outrageously ridiculous that makes it attractive to a certain audience, and you can count me as one of them.
Like when my brothers and I couldn’t get enough of Weird Al Yankovic as kids. Listening to the antics, it felt like we were in on the joke. And I loved every minute of it.
This song is an earworm of the stickiest kind. Listen to it once, and you’re bound to blurt out Fraka-kaka-kaka-kaka-kow! or Gering-ding-ding-ding-dingeringeding! later on in your day. And, truth be told, the guys of Ylvis do have good voices.
If you watch other videos from the duo (like “Stonehenge”) you’ll quickly realize this song was not created with the idea of being a kid song. But it’s silly and nonsensical, yet has an adult music feel to it with it’s Autotune and house music beat, and some kids are drawn to this kind of thing.
Because they probably like to feel in on the joke, too.
Besides, what seven year-old doesn’t like singing the double entendre of an elephant going “Toot”?
It’s pretty catchy. I’ll have to show it to my kids. I had never heard of it.
Alissa Apel recently posted…
Hope your kids like it as much as mine do!
I think the fox says lots of things
… Its worth watching 
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