Friday, April 17, 2009

Do you like fishsticks? What about DVDA?

Last week's 'South Park' episode gave us another great addition to the ever expanding songbook of comic gold by Matt Stone and Trey Parker. With 'Lonely Planet' and 'Flight of the Conchords' enjoying recent popularity, some people are saying musical comedy acts are cool again for the first time in years (with 'Tenacious D' as a small exception), but these guys have been doing it successfully for almost 15 years now. And how many of those acts have an Oscar nominated song? (3-6 Mafia comes closest with their Oscar winning 'Hard Out Here For A Pimp' but are disqualified because I'm pretty sure the humour there was mostly unintended). With three feature length musical films under their belts, songs featured in at least two others, and 12 and a half seasons of an original series with musical gems like this one sprinkled throughout, I think people should motherfuckin' recognize!



I've listened to this song over and over for the past 7 days, and apparently I'm not alone as this youtube posting (one of many) is already at almost 1 million views. It reminds me of when I used to listen to Weird Al because I could enjoy certain pop songs I would never normally listen to and tell myself that it's because he's making fun of the performer. But unlike Weird Al's songs, 'Gay Fish' is an 'original' creation that sounds like any Kanye song, not spoofing a particular one (that I know of). I love the absurdity of the lyrics, but also just enjoy the song in all its pop-like glory.

As I've mentioned on this blog before, I admire these two guys for many reasons, particularly their autonomy and consistency they've been able to maintain with this show, not to mention the increasing relevance and immediacy as episode production periods get shorter and shorter (last season saw and episode with Obama winning the presidency that aired the night after the election, of course he was ahead in the polls for weeks, but I wonder if they had a contingency plan if he lost). Anyway, I think Trey and Matt's cars are metaphorically waxed to a blinding shine by now, so I'll just leave you with this song from Season 8, my favourite season which they happened to make in the same year as 'Team America', another accomplishment that can't say enough good things about, so I'll shut up now.

2 comments:

Bobbo said...

its actually a spoof of 'heartless,' off his new record, but that doesnt make it any less genius.

Your Best Friend said...

Oh yeah. It's not note for note like Weird Al would do, I always wondered if he had to pay royalties for those. Probably.