# The Fox, the "new gangnam style" viral video by Ylvis **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 9, 2013, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-fox-the-new-gangnam-style-viral-video-by-ylvis/668426 "2013-09-09T18:37:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2013, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-fox-the-new-gangnam-style-viral-video-by-ylvis/668426/41 "2013-10-28T05:14:14Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > I think it’s brilliant and have since the moment I first saw it. I’m liking their other stuff too. I find it interesting that everything seems to be in English. Is that normal for Norwegian shows? I watched this bit from _Norway’s Got Talent_, featuring a pianist/composer from Romania: The judges all speak English — their common language — to Bogdan, and switch to Norwegian when speaking to his Norwegian boss. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2013, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-fox-the-new-gangnam-style-viral-video-by-ylvis/668426/42 "2013-10-28T13:41:22Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > I think it’s brilliant and have since the moment I first saw it. I’m liking their other stuff too. I find it interesting that everything seems to be in English. Is that normal for Norwegian shows? In my experience, a lot of Scandinavian pop/rock/metal bands perform primarily in English. I assume it’s due to a high rate of bilingualism and the fact that the English-speaking market is so huge compared to the Norwegian/Finnish/Swedish/etc.-speaking markets. ---
**Author:** ![Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/intergalactic_gladiator/32/112_2.png) [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Intergalactic_Gladiator)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2013, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-fox-the-new-gangnam-style-viral-video-by-ylvis/668426/43 "2013-10-28T14:23:31Z")
I like this parody of it: [What Does the Wolverine Say](http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=5_R8XrehV9w) ---
**Author:** ![Cinnamon\_Imp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/58956e/32.png) [@Cinnamon\_Imp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cinnamon_Imp)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2013, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-fox-the-new-gangnam-style-viral-video-by-ylvis/668426/44 "2013-10-28T15:45:59Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > [Ylvis has a new single out -](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvUMV1N7eGM) a loving tribute to their favorite place in America, which takes a hard left turn into WTF-ville near the end. Smelt of trying-too-hard to me ☹ > [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](#): > > I like this parody of it: > > [What Does the Wolverine Say](http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=5_R8XrehV9w) Nice idea, could work on the execution a little though 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2013, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-fox-the-new-gangnam-style-viral-video-by-ylvis/668426/45 "2013-10-28T16:38:30Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > [Ylvis has a new single out -](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvUMV1N7eGM) a loving tribute to their favorite place in America, which takes a hard left turn into WTF-ville near the end. That’s great. Never forget that Nelson Mandela lives in Massachusetts. F\*\*\* the apartheid! ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2013, 6:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-fox-the-new-gangnam-style-viral-video-by-ylvis/668426/46 "2013-11-03T06:11:51Z")
Saturday Night Live just did a parody of the song called What Does My Girl Say - I would link to a video, but they keep disappearing. Maybe if you search you can see one quickly. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Ponch8](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponch8/32/9883_2.png) [@Ponch8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponch8)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2013, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-fox-the-new-gangnam-style-viral-video-by-ylvis/668426/47 "2013-11-03T18:31:22Z")
It was horrible. My friend was showing it to me, but I made him take it off after about a minute. I don’t see any humor in it at all. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2013, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-fox-the-new-gangnam-style-viral-video-by-ylvis/668426/48 "2013-11-03T21:24:51Z")
> [@Cat\_Whisperer](#): > > Saturday Night Live just did a parody of the song called What Does My Girl Say - I would link to a video, but they keep disappearing. Maybe if you search you can see one quickly. 🙂 [You can always find SNL clips legitimately on Hulu.](http://www.hulu.com/watch/553594#i1,p0,d1) ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2013, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-fox-the-new-gangnam-style-viral-video-by-ylvis/668426/49 "2013-11-03T22:05:20Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > You can always find SNL clips legitimately on Hulu. Hulu doesn’t work for non-US locations without redirecting. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2013, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-fox-the-new-gangnam-style-viral-video-by-ylvis/668426/50 "2013-11-03T22:11:52Z")
I thought the “What Does the Fox Say” video was hilarious. Probably watched it half a dozen times. And this is a nice parody: > [@msmith537](#): > > [You can always find SNL clips legitimately on Hulu.](http://www.hulu.com/watch/553594#i1,p0,d1) ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2013, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-fox-the-new-gangnam-style-viral-video-by-ylvis/668426/51 "2013-11-03T22:46:34Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > My brother showed this to me yesterday. I thought it was hilarious (and catchy.) I even managed to (somewhat luckily) guess that this was Norwegian. Something about the humor screamed Norwegian to me. Turns out, I was right. The give-away to me was the subtitles. Twice, a “J” is used to indicate what, in English, would be the “Y” sound. I noticed that the first time I viewed it, and then looked at the people in the video and thought: Scandinavian. ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2013, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-fox-the-new-gangnam-style-viral-video-by-ylvis/668426/52 "2013-11-03T23:06:11Z")
I loved the “fox” video. I think its because of how much the singer commits to the bit. Too many parodies have people kinda winking at the camera, or rolling their eyes along with the audience. That guy manages to make eye contact with the camera while jumping around in a fox onsie and look like he’s deadly serious about emoting to his audience through his moving lyrics about not knowing what sound a fox makes. ---
**Author:** ![jimpatro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b9e5f3/32.png) [@jimpatro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jimpatro)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2013, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-fox-the-new-gangnam-style-viral-video-by-ylvis/668426/53 "2013-11-03T23:33:30Z")
Yeah, that’s exactly it. Committing. Appropriate that SNL is brought up because that’s how they handle satire. No smirking, no trying to hold back a snicker, just full on taking it deadly serious and thats what can make it hilarious. I grew up with Carol Burnett who would, along with the rest of the cast, regularly lose it during a sketch. Yeah, fun but when SNL came along and, ironically, “played it straight” it took comedy to a new level. I can’t quite buy into satirizing a satire though. Ylvis scored with their satire of cheesy pop artists so try something else SNL. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2013, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-fox-the-new-gangnam-style-viral-video-by-ylvis/668426/54 "2013-11-04T01:11:47Z")
You didn’t see the opening skit on SNL last night then. In fact, that’s a common attribute of SNL’s skits. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2013, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-fox-the-new-gangnam-style-viral-video-by-ylvis/668426/55 "2013-11-12T19:49:57Z")
[The Fox is now going to be a children’s book.](http://marquee.blogs.cnn.com/2013/11/12/what-does-the-fox-say-is-going-to-be-a-childrens-book/) ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2013, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-fox-the-new-gangnam-style-viral-video-by-ylvis/668426/56 "2013-11-13T18:50:59Z")
I wonder how long it will be before a Klingon version appears, as[it did for Gangnam Style.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CayMeza487M) ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2013, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-fox-the-new-gangnam-style-viral-video-by-ylvis/668426/57 "2013-11-13T19:20:57Z")
> [@Clothahump](#): > > I wonder how long it will be before a Klingon version appears, as[it did for Gangnam Style.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CayMeza487M) What’s Klingon for “geringdingding dingdingeringeding”? ---
**Author:** ![Death\_of\_Rats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a6a055/32.png) [@Death\_of\_Rats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Death_of_Rats)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2013, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-fox-the-new-gangnam-style-viral-video-by-ylvis/668426/58 "2013-11-13T19:46:32Z")
My friend has a DJ business and if he has a room full of kids he can put this song on and they will go nuts dancing to it. I have seen it. It wasn’t pretty. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2013, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-fox-the-new-gangnam-style-viral-video-by-ylvis/668426/59 "2013-11-13T20:10:43Z")
This thing is horrible, and its struggling for views, having only 215 million after 2 months. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![DKW](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dkw/32/3118_2.png) [@DKW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DKW)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2014, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-fox-the-new-gangnam-style-viral-video-by-ylvis/668426/60 "2014-01-07T03:54:05Z")
I think I have it figured out now. Step one, make the video. Don’t worry that it’s going to be terrible. You’ve never done anything like this before, of course it’s going to be terrible. That doesn’t matter. Just _make something_. Put lyrics on paper, get the band and instruments and costumes, perform, shoot. Then put it on a website. Preferably YouTube, of course, but anything accessible and with at least reasonable quality will suffice. The beauty of YouTube is that you bypass the biggest stumbling block with bad music videos, namely, getting anyone to watch them. Online shoppers don’t want to pay to see your dreck. Advertisers won’t pay to get your dreck on television. Taking money out of the equation fixes this. As an added bonus, most viewers will be a lot more forgiving of a work that they don’t have to pay or sit through commercials for. Then sit back as the ever-predictable Internet outrage machine does all the publicity work for you. You know these guys. They can never just say “this is bad” and be done with it. No, it has to be a 10,000 word essay explaining how much your video sucks, or shrieking to the high heavens over four minutes they’ll never get back, or a fire-and-brimstone denunciation of your very existence, or a smear job that would make a presidential candidate blush, or a point-by-point comparison of 25 things they’d rather do than watch your video, or that dependable standby, the dead-horse-o-rama (“This video’s suckitude is over nine thousaaaand! It sounds like it took an arrow to the knee! Oppa crappam style! Chuck Norris!”). And no matter what, they absolutely will not shut up, ever, and your notoriety will grow and grow. Trust me, these idiots NEVER learn. Bonus points if there are strident cries for everyone to ignore you, which is an ironclad guarantee that everyone’s not going to ignore you. And finally, people pay money for it, maybe out of spite, maybe because if you’re getting _this_ much hype you _must_ be doing something right, maybe because they genuinely like you better than Justin Bieber (yeah, talk about a low bar…). Either way, it’s the start of your musical career, or at worst a nice windfall and a funny story you can tell your grandchildren. Okay, maybe it doesn’t always work like that. But hey, you already paid for the video camera, whaddya got to lose, eh? (Oh, and before anyone asks, I don’t think Rebecca Black intended to use this formula, she just caught a lucky break and wisely decided to run with it.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-fox-the-new-gangnam-style-viral-video-by-ylvis/668426.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-fox-the-new-gangnam-style-viral-video-by-ylvis/668426.md?page=4)