Comments on: Go Metafilter Go!

Go Metafilter Go!

Del Far — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 14:46:08 -0800

Comedy Musicians Paul and Storm have started "25 Days of Newman" where they are offering a free brand new Randy Newman-inspired movie theme song every day until Christmas.

By: Burhanistan

Burhanistan — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 15:01:04 -0800

And I will murder them in their sleep for doing so.

By: Smart Dalek

Smart Dalek — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 15:10:17 -0800

A soft target's A soft target It ain't hard to figure y'know A soft target's A soft target It's just some ducks in a row You hit 'em with an arrow They're just fish in a barrel It's a little bit callow To be chasin' at shadows ...okay, that's all I got.

By: Smedleyman

Smedleyman — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 15:16:03 -0800

Broken links and empty favorites Dark dead blue on my screen streaked with grey Human kindness is overflowing And I think I'm going to post today Comments dressed in the latest rhymes With frozen similes to chase lore away Human kindness is overflowing And I think I'm going to post today Meta, Meta Gifts on the cheap Lalo Schifrin, he don't make a peep ...What's with the fucking mimes? Right before me the comments implore me To break the internet and take it to the grey Human kindness is overflowing And I think I'm going to post today

By: turgid dahlia

turgid dahlia — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 15:24:39 -0800

Newman!

By: Caduceus

Caduceus — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 15:38:25 -0800

What is this, "Post about Caduceus's favorite musical artists" week? Tomorrow we're going to need a JoCo post, Thursday should probably be Jason Webley, and Friday could be about either the Barenaked Ladies or Murder by Death. I'm not picky.

By: zippy

zippy — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 15:40:12 -0800

Would be a lot better if they didn't use the same melody for the first two songs.

By: ZakDaddy

ZakDaddy — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 15:40:40 -0800

[SPOILER]Oh noes. It was clever until they used the same tune. Boo.[/SPOILER] And I like Randy Newman.

By: neustile

neustile — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 15:54:46 -0800

I thought it was hilarious that they used the same tune and a lot of the same words in both of the songs so far. It really drives home the point. We'll see how long that keeps up, though....

By: Bageena

Bageena — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 15:54:51 -0800

My vote is for the Barenaked Ladies.

By: Del Far

Del Far — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 15:58:55 -0800

Didn't BNL release a new kids album or was that my imagination?

By: Caduceus

Caduceus — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 16:08:40 -0800

Yes.

By: doift

doift — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 16:18:26 -0800

The fact that it's the same tune is part of the joke. Background in this very funny video.

By: Del Far

Del Far — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 16:34:48 -0800

Thanks doift, I probably should have done a better job explaining that before.

By: billysumday

billysumday — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 16:43:36 -0800

Funnier when Family Guy did it...

By: grobstein

grobstein — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 17:40:53 -0800

Yeah, I think reusing the tune makes it totally derivative of the Family Guy joke. The unfortunate thing about both of those roastings is that Randy Newman doesn't reuse the same tune, or even come close to it, really. He's a very good song-writer and his repertoire contains a lot of variety. An unfair joke just gets less funny with repetition, I think.

By: Bageena

Bageena — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 17:50:15 -0800

Del Far - yep yep! I downloaded it for my wife, who's somehow an even bigger BNL fan than I am. I only listened to one track off of it, but it was good! Something to do with how the number 9 has disappeared because, well, seven ate nine.

By: MrMoonPie

MrMoonPie — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 18:07:37 -0800

I'm very much in favor of 25 Days of Newman, and of your use of the newman tag, as well.

By: The White Hat

The White Hat — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 18:28:14 -0800

A silver miner He breaks his hinder Becomes the finder Of a bucket of oil. He ships his son off He shoots his gun off The preacher's picked off, Though he made a good foil. Nobody believed that he could win. Go Danny boy, go! You my friend. Go Danny boy, go! You got a reason to live.

By: blenderfish

blenderfish — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 19:40:17 -0800

Even before Family Guy (IIRC), the usually-awful Mad TV had an awesome skit with the premise of Newman writing the soundtrack for Star Wars Episode I. (And, while I understand that these guys are mocking the content of Randy's songs more than Randy's mannerisms or style, the guy on Mad TV did a much better job aping his style.) Anyway, free virtual internet cookie for anyone who can find a clip of that skit on the web. (I have been unable to; hell, I may have hallucinated the whole thing.)

By: blenderfish

blenderfish — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 19:51:57 -0800

grobstein Yeah, I think reusing the tune makes it totally derivative of the Family Guy joke. As far as I remember, that's not part of the Family Guy joke. There's just the one song, about the family showing up and then leaving. The only repetition was the incessant "left foot; right foot; left foot; right foot" at the end. I think these guys are alone in the "It's funny that Newman reuses the literally exact same song all the time" camp. Which I think is to their detriment since, as you pointed out, it's not true. Anyway, That's enough bean-gazing for me. :)

By: paperzach

paperzach — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 20:36:22 -0800

I get that reusing the same tune is part of the concept, but once I realized that all of the songs were going to be the same, I saw no reason to listen to any more of them (and that's with a total of three posted so far). The Godfather one is pretty funny, though.

By: blenderfish

blenderfish — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 21:28:46 -0800

Yay! Randy Newman sings Star Wars (youtube) (I owe myself a Cookie) All this space, all over the place, space is the place for Star Wars

By: grobstein

grobstein — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 23:18:49 -0800

As far as I remember, that's not part of the Family Guy joke. Hm, you're right. What I was responding to was how Newman on Family Guy shoehorns each bit of narration into that one song he's singing, so it seems like the fit between words and music is arbitrary -- something that also happens if you sing the same melody for every song.

By: ericbop

ericbop — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 09:19:53 -0800

She cooked a moose They cooked her goose She could cure a Couric if she had half a chance. Grabbed her Valentino Headed back to Juno Lookin' out for Ruskies in her hockey mom pants. Go guv'ner go! You my friend. Go guv'ner, go! You got a reason to live.

By: phearlez

phearlez — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 10:04:29 -0800

Paul & Storm's joke may pre-date Family Guy's - I head them do this gag live several years ago and a quick peek at their website shows that a Newman theme for Lord of the Rings appeared on their 2005 album.

By: grobstein

grobstein — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 10:26:57 -0800

The relevant Family Guy is from the first run of Family Guy on Fox, which was long before 2005. (Here.)