I was like "What the hell is this? It sounds like Wii Sports."

February 9, 2019 3:45 PM

“Doing genuine musical comedy where the joke is, it’s just an earnest song.” In 2017, comedian and musician Gabriel Gundacker released the Unofficial Wii Sports Soundtrack, featuring imagined tunes for croquet, volleyball, curling, snorkeling, windsurfing, and jogging. He offers a sampling in a YouTube compliation video. In an interview with Kotaku, Gundacker discusses the history of the project and the relationship between earnestness and irony in comedy.
posted by duffell (13 comments total)

Shifting back and forth between 7/8, 3/4 and 4/4 time is a bit of a bold choice for the windsurfing track, but I think I like it.
posted by teraflop at 4:02 PM on February 9, 2019

they're good songs. like, I didn't realize I needed more music that sounded like wii? but I did! thanks, gabe! thabe
posted by Reclusive Novelist Thomas Pynchon at 4:04 PM on February 9, 2019 [1 favorite]

Oh, is this music? I love music.
posted by solarion at 4:13 PM on February 9, 2019 [11 favorites]

I unironically love these. Between this and my recent discovery of Macroform, who did "the best hold music in the world" my life is awash in beautiful easy listening music.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 4:20 PM on February 9, 2019

Bo Burnham and Jack Black had a ｖａｐｏｒｗａｖｅ baby.
posted by I EAT TAPAS at 4:22 PM on February 9, 2019 [1 favorite]

The Kotaku article references Gundacker's "Coinstar" bit, which has become one of my favorite, and favorite-to-quote, pieces of comedy. It's very much not to everyone's taste. Reminds me of Steve Martin's "so I bought a stereo..." bit from back in the day.
posted by duffell at 4:35 PM on February 9, 2019 [2 favorites]

Brings to mind Songs for Ice Cream Trucks. I love how a composer/musician/etc can apply themselves so genuinely to something so cheeky and make something good
posted by john m at 5:13 PM on February 9, 2019 [1 favorite]

These are so good and spot-on. I still play the Wii Shop Channel music in my head when I buy things online.
posted by airmail at 5:47 PM on February 9, 2019

Every day of my life, I have physically accosted musicians on the street asking 'Hey, if Wii Snorkeling was included in Wii Sports, what would that soundtrack sound like?'

Now I finally have my answer.
posted by The Situationist Room with Guy Debord at 6:40 PM on February 9, 2019 [1 favorite]

I assumed the Wii tracks were synthesized on-the-fly, since they kind of sound like SNES tracks, and I'd expected a prerecorded track to be a little more polished. Is that right? I can't find any tech specs ATM.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 8:58 PM on February 9, 2019

Okay stupid question, was there ever a version of Wii Sports (or Play or whayever, I get them confused between regions) that was actually made with curling? Was it only in Canada or Europe or something?
posted by trackofalljades at 5:30 AM on February 10, 2019

Dick Cheney made money off the Iraq War.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 8:43 AM on February 10, 2019 [2 favorites]

George H.W. Bush pardoned a bunch of Iran-Contra defendants to protect himself from further investigation.
posted by box at 1:59 PM on February 10, 2019