A side effect of the popularity of viral videos is a renaissance in the novelty song. The increased professionalism of YouTube-able film clips has meant that musical parodies and other comedy songs have increased in both quality and variety while finding bigger audiences thanks to blogs and social networking sites. Here are five of 2008's definitive musical videos that didn't involve a cat flushing a toilet.
1) "I'm F***ing Matt Damon"
The "Digital Shorts" of "Saturday Night Live" specialize in NSFW music video parodies like the recent "J*** in my Pants." (I use asterisks because the clips are probably funnier when the swears are bleeped out.) None has bettered shock comic Sarah Silverman and her musical prank on her boyfriend, talk show host Jimmy Kimmel. "I'm F***ing Matt Damon" has catchy hooks that make it fun listening, despite being the most inappropriate break-up song imaginable. Kimmel's response, "I'm F***ing Ben Affleck" built to a "We Are The World"-style chorus and proved nearly as funny, but the joke was officially exhausted when Elizabeth Banks sang yet another version, "I'm F***ing Seth Rogen," to promote Kevin Smith's Zack and Miri Make a Porno.
2) Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog
During the 2007-2008 Hollywood writer's strike, "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" creator Joss Whedon penned this 43-minute satiric musical that demonstrates the creative possibilities of direct-to-Internet entertainment. Neil Patrick Harris endearingly plays the title character, a sad-sack super-villain who just wants to meet a nice girl and stop heroic Captain Hammer (Nathan Fillion) from beating him up. Not technically a "novelty song," Dr. Horrible's lovely first number, "My Freeze Ray," sets the tone that mixes bittersweet aspiration with comic book hyperbole.
3) "John McCain Gets BarackRoll'd"
The clip combines two phenomena from 2008: presidential election mashup videos and Rickrolling, the prankish usage of the 1987 Rick Astley song "Never Gonna Give You Up." First Australian producer Hugh Atkin edited Barack Obama speeches so it appears he's singing the Astley song, and then another editor used the "Barack Roll" clip to make it appear as though Obama crashed McCain's acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention. The clip offers a prime example of how the Internet allows strangers to come up with endless variations on a theme. Still, it's time to give Rickrolling up.
4) "The Quantum of Solace: Proposed Theme Song"
Movie trailer mashups have become an Internet staple, but British humorist Joe Cornish offered a cheeky take on the James Bond franchise with a mock-heroic song about 007 in general, and the inscrutability of the title Quantum of Solace. In his lyrics, Cornish admits, "Sometimes I wish Roger Moore would come back/With an underwater car or some kind of jet-pack." Cornish's clip turned out to be more fun than Quantum of Solace in its entirety.
5) "Prop 8: The Musical"
Marc Shaiman, composer for Hairspray and South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut calls this three-and-a-half minute musical epic a "viral picket sign" in protest of California's Proposition 8 banning gay marriage. Taking the form of a community college stage play, "Prop 8" features an all-star cast, including John C. Reilly and Allison Janney as gay marriage opponents, Jack Black as Jesus, and Neil Patrick Harris (him again) whose solo points out that gay marriage could save the economy. Seemingly hours after "Prop 8: The Musical" debuted, it was inescapable on blogs and Facebook pages.
