The Outbreak Of Think Pieces About SNL's "Narnia Rap"

Message Bookmarked
Bookmark Removed
NY Times ("It is their obliviousness to their total lack of menace - or maybe the ostentatious way they pay for convenience-store candy with $10 bills - that makes the video so funny")

Slate ("it points up what's missing in mainstream rap—an awareness that it's OK to be goofy. Who needs Biz Markie and Tone-Loc? We've got Samberg and Parns")

What am I missing? Are middle-class white dorks rapping still funny? Is this a coordinated PR campaign for SNL or just a very, very slow news week?

joseph cotten (joseph cotten), Tuesday, 27 December 2005 16:51 (twenty years ago)

Oh, I must supply the actual video, I guess:
http://www.youtube.com/watch.php?v=zLElfJ9YCh0

joseph cotten (joseph cotten), Tuesday, 27 December 2005 16:52 (twenty years ago)

It's a free download on the iTunes music store too, it seems.

mike h. (mike h.), Tuesday, 27 December 2005 16:54 (twenty years ago)

that slate piece was particularly embarrassing and ugly. the same people wishing real hip-hop was this 'fun' or 'goofy' are the ones that bemoan 'my humps' or 'laffy taffy'.

j blount (papa la bas), Tuesday, 27 December 2005 16:58 (twenty years ago)

I can't listen to this at work, but that Aaron Burr line is funny.

Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Tuesday, 27 December 2005 16:59 (twenty years ago)

I just can't believe that this line has been written in almost-2006:

Some of the humor here derives from the fact that these whitebread guys—Samberg is wearing a John Muir T-shirt; Parnell looks like a 12-year-old accountant—are moonlighting in what's traditionally been a black medium.

joseph cotten (joseph cotten), Tuesday, 27 December 2005 17:03 (twenty years ago)

the same people wishing real hip-hop was this 'fun' or 'goofy' are the ones that bemoan 'my humps' or 'laffy taffy'.

sorta otm, but "my humps" is terrible!!!

born-again christians in the old corral (Jody Beth Rosen), Tuesday, 27 December 2005 17:05 (twenty years ago)

Some of the humor here derives from the fact that these whitebread guys—Samberg is wearing a John Muir T-shirt; Parnell looks like a 12-year-old accountant—are moonlighting in what's traditionally been a black medium.

chet baker was a laff a minute

born-again christians in the old corral (Jody Beth Rosen), Tuesday, 27 December 2005 17:06 (twenty years ago)

Everytime I hear "My Humps" blasting from a car, I laugh.

Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Tuesday, 27 December 2005 17:09 (twenty years ago)

What's a John Muir t-shirt? Is it significant?

Borgnine Bourgogne (joseph cotten), Tuesday, 27 December 2005 17:10 (twenty years ago)

Chuck, can I include this song in my 2006 P&J singles list?

Raymond Cummings (Raymond Cummings), Tuesday, 27 December 2005 17:20 (twenty years ago)

http://image.allmusic.com/00/amg/cov200/drc500/c530/c5307298lu1.jpg

jhoshea (scoopsnoodle), Tuesday, 27 December 2005 17:21 (twenty years ago)

holy jesus, that slate piece.

s1ocki (slutsky), Tuesday, 27 December 2005 17:43 (twenty years ago)

i mean the video's pretty funny (esp the movie trivia bit) and parnell's weekend update rapping is even funnier... but i wonder if that slate writer's mother knows that from this he makes a living.

s1ocki (slutsky), Tuesday, 27 December 2005 17:44 (twenty years ago)

The best thing about this whole deal was that the humor wasn't really "oooh it's white guys rapping" -- it was either normal punchlines (the Aaron Burr thing), funny local color (Magnolia cupcakes), retro shtick (the stop-motion frames), or the general cuteness of having a theme tune to commonplace events (which would be similarly funny if it was, like, heavy metal about taking your dog to the groomer). (Alternately this wouldn't necessarily be less funny if it were Kenan and Finesse doing it.)

Someone said elsewhere that this was basically just a Beastie Boys video, and then ventured how odd it was that once a decade and change has passed that would play as comedy -- but really, thinking back, the Beastie Boys were "funny" in exactly the same way. Which is to say, not funny-funny but likeable and amusing and fun. Which is exactly what this video is -- it's not like piss-your-pants oh-snap humor, it's basically just amusing and lovable and not a bad song, really. It's not hard to imagine why it'd make some people nostalgic for a time when there was more hip-hop working along those clowny local lines, like back when folks were rapping about trying to pick up girls in the mall food court and all. But whatever: Biz Markie had an album out last year, right, and Jay-Z's "Girls" was practically Kid'n'Play and I don't remember rap grumps rhapsodizing over that, and a twinge of nostalgia does not actually make a good argument to cover for why people don't like hip-hop as it exists in the here-and-now.

nabisco (nabisco), Tuesday, 27 December 2005 18:03 (twenty years ago)

hey nabisco dude
what's that on your ass? ten bucks?
YOU'RE ON THE MONEY

Haikunym (Haikunym), Tuesday, 27 December 2005 18:05 (twenty years ago)

this one is better:

http://www.villagevoice.com/blogs/statusainthood/archives/2005/12/snl_narniarap_s.php

geoff (gcannon), Tuesday, 27 December 2005 18:05 (twenty years ago)

"I like the beats but why can't they just talk about cupcakes and Mapquest and stuff I know about? I disapprove of dealing drugs when minorities are involved."

nabisco (nabisco), Tuesday, 27 December 2005 18:06 (twenty years ago)

gah there's some song right NOW about picking up girls in the mall food court literally!!! i wish emily was here she knows its name. it is not 'revenge of sad-roc and sike d (geddit remix)' though.

j blount (papa la bas), Tuesday, 27 December 2005 18:07 (twenty years ago)

Very true - the song and the video are no more comic, and no less deliberately so, than "No Sleep Til Brooklyn" - but that's part of my exasperation with the response this is getting. It's like Northern State all over again, except with less Xgau and more middlebrow punditry action.

joseph cotten (joseph cotten), Tuesday, 27 December 2005 18:08 (twenty years ago)

http://www.thelonelyisland.com/bingbong.html

these dudes are not funny

$#@!, Tuesday, 27 December 2005 18:10 (twenty years ago)

isnt some cut about picking girls up at the food court? i think nitsuh meant albee square mall tho

$#@!, Tuesday, 27 December 2005 18:12 (twenty years ago)

i saw 'lazy sunday' as a comment on how the idea of 'city life' in new york right now is having a lot of its edge sanded away, but maybe i've been reading too much curbed.com this year.

maura (maura), Tuesday, 27 December 2005 18:13 (twenty years ago)

i dunno i been on parnells dick a long time and that skit was funny for real but im tired of hearing about this shit

$#@!, Tuesday, 27 December 2005 18:15 (twenty years ago)

and other dude can eat a dick, who the fuck is he?!

$#@!, Tuesday, 27 December 2005 18:15 (twenty years ago)

ethan you'll want to avoid the ile thread where the bloomberg indie yuppies (ie. ile) are going on about how this proves 'rapping doesn't take talent'.

j blount (papa la bas), Tuesday, 27 December 2005 18:16 (twenty years ago)

hahaha

$#@!, Tuesday, 27 December 2005 18:17 (twenty years ago)

sorry ethan, the fact that the skit was filled with nyc in-jokes = it'll be on the pundit radar until at least the next hbo original series has its season premiere

maura (maura), Tuesday, 27 December 2005 18:17 (twenty years ago)

see the sad thing is that i actually laughed when it first played but now like 2 weeks later shit is real suspect how every whiteboy on the planet cant stop jizzing on a 2 minute hipster rap parody, wasnt there shit like this on mtv like every night at 2am in 1996??

$#@!, Tuesday, 27 December 2005 18:19 (twenty years ago)

i saw 'lazy sunday' as a comment on how the idea of 'city life' in new york right now is having a lot of its edge sanded away

You know, I had an instinctive "oh, come AWWNN" reaction when I read your comment, but you're actually OTM regardless of the authors' intent.

By the way, I always thought of Magnolia bakery as a touristy thing that the locals tend to stay away from (much like no Fort Greeners actually eat at Junior's).

joseph cotten (joseph cotten), Tuesday, 27 December 2005 18:20 (twenty years ago)

(also the why bloggers are like rappers' piece that is linked from the bottom of the slate drivel is horrifically worse ...

"For starters, both groups share a love of loose-fitting, pajama-style apparel. Still not satisfied? Bloggers and rappers are equally obsessed with social networking. Every rapper rolls with his entourage; every blogger rolls with his blog roll. Women can't win an audience in either profession without raunching it up like Lil' Kim or Wonkette."

ROLL WITH THE BLOG ROLL)

maura (maura), Tuesday, 27 December 2005 18:20 (twenty years ago)

dr morbius = ile?? calm down blount

geoff (gcannon), Tuesday, 27 December 2005 18:21 (twenty years ago)

it was never LOL OMG funny. but it's still funny.

Christopher Costello (CGC), Tuesday, 27 December 2005 18:22 (twenty years ago)

My bum is on the rail
Bum is on the rail
Look at Me
My bum is on the rail
My bum is on a man
Bum is on a man
It's alot of fun to put your bum on a man
My bum is on a step
Bum is on a step
Don't fall down the steps you might hurt your bum!
(Insane Laughter)
And thats not very fun
If you fall down and hurt your bum
I like to put my bum on things
It's fun for everyone

My bum is on the cheese
Bum is on the cheese
If I get lucky I'll get a disease!
My bum is on the Swedish
Swedish, Swedish, Swedish
My bum is on the gum
My bum is on the gum
I can blow a bubble with my bum bum bum
My bum is on the ship
The battleship
I hope they don't shoot the cannon in my bum
I'd shoot POO all over the place
POO POO!!

Cause that isn't very fun
When they shoot a cannon in your bum
I like to put my bum on things
it's fun for everyone
My bum is on the dog
My bum is on the cat
My bum is on the phone
My bum is all alone......

The rail is all alone
The man is all alone
The Swedish is all alone
My bum...is all alone....
(Loo in the background)

1,2,3,4
My bum is all alone
My bum is all alone
My bum is all alone
My bum is all alone
My bum is all alone
My bum is all alone
My bum is all alone
My bum is all alone
My bum is all alone
My bum is all alone
My bum is all alone
My bum is all alone
Get the poo off my bum!
I need the POO off my BUM!!
I've go to get the poopoo off my bum
I want to hear the cannon! (Loon in the background)
No, let me hear the cannon! (Loon in the background)
NO NO NO, no, not the loon!
My bum is all alone
My bum is all alone
My bum is all alone
I WANNA HEAR THE CANNON!
I WANNA HEAR THE CANNON!
I WANNA HEAR THE CANNON NOT THE LOON!
(Cannon Explodes)

Yea! The cannon!
Now get the poo off my bum coo coo
I want the poo-poo off my bum bum...
(Whining)Can I hear the loon again, too.

$#@!, Tuesday, 27 December 2005 18:24 (twenty years ago)

ethan i thought you liked that shit

geoff (gcannon), Tuesday, 27 December 2005 18:24 (twenty years ago)

ts: 'lazy sunday' vs. the video of mindless self-indulgence's 'bitches' set to pokemon clips

maura (maura), Tuesday, 27 December 2005 18:25 (twenty years ago)

http://www.com-www.com/weirdal/pix/cover-ap-small.jpg

$#@!, Tuesday, 27 December 2005 18:26 (twenty years ago)

(Ha Ethan I'm not sure what track I was thinking of there, but now that I think about it more it's not a mall food court, it's a fried chicken joint. And the dude gets a Coke poured down his pants, or something. Whatever, that general era of clowning one-strap overalls middle-classy high-school rap.)

nabisco (nabisco), Tuesday, 27 December 2005 18:26 (twenty years ago)

http://www.com-www.com/weirdal/pix/cover-pent-small.jpg
he looks like benzino

$#@!, Tuesday, 27 December 2005 18:28 (twenty years ago)

this thread is a think piece on the outbreak of think pieces about snl's narnia rap

cutty (mcutt), Tuesday, 27 December 2005 18:29 (twenty years ago)

just reminding you

cutty (mcutt), Tuesday, 27 December 2005 18:29 (twenty years ago)

you win the internet

$#@!, Tuesday, 27 December 2005 18:29 (twenty years ago)

its no 'lost idm classics'

$#@!, Tuesday, 27 December 2005 18:30 (twenty years ago)

don't forget my boy:

joseph cotten (joseph cotten), Tuesday, 27 December 2005 18:30 (twenty years ago)

i still love midnite vultures

j blount (papa la bas), Tuesday, 27 December 2005 18:30 (twenty years ago)

as well you should!

cutty - i know i'm being a bit lame, but the double punch of slate and the ny times just killed me.

joseph cotten (joseph cotten), Tuesday, 27 December 2005 18:31 (twenty years ago)

btw blount i just heard my humps for the 1st time last weekend - fun song!

$#@!, Tuesday, 27 December 2005 18:31 (twenty years ago)

i hated the lispy fake rap tracks on midnite vultures but that skynyrd/kraftwerk one was hot

$#@!, Tuesday, 27 December 2005 18:32 (twenty years ago)

i didn't call anyone lame

cutty (mcutt), Tuesday, 27 December 2005 18:32 (twenty years ago)

reedonkulous

cutty (mcutt), Tuesday, 27 December 2005 21:42 (twenty years ago)

The most depressing thing to me about all of this is the proliferation of "journalists" that don't actually want to get off their asses and find real stories, and the publication of said journalists in reputable periodicals.

Abbadavid Berman (Hurting), Tuesday, 27 December 2005 23:10 (twenty years ago)

Thread useless w/out Dee Dee Ramone, I mean Dee Dee King

Morley Timmons (Donna Brown), Tuesday, 27 December 2005 23:21 (twenty years ago)

This is the part of the thread where I stop and say "OOOOOOOOOOOOOOF."

Proceed.

Confounded (Confounded), Tuesday, 27 December 2005 23:45 (twenty years ago)

Alright. That Dee Dee King record is AMAZING.
ps: The Ice is on tour in Europe now w/ ICP.

Bobby Peru (Bobby Peru), Wednesday, 28 December 2005 02:18 (twenty years ago)

Also, if rap weren't held back by people who don't know how to have fun (i.e. black rap dudes and music critics and the reborn beastie boys), wouldn't this world be amazing?

Confounded (Confounded), Wednesday, 28 December 2005 03:11 (twenty years ago)

How come there wasn't awesome internet pieces about what "more cowbell" means for the state of rock music?

Whiney G. Weingarten (whineyg), Wednesday, 28 December 2005 03:24 (twenty years ago)

Marissa Marchant charging $1000/cd (for only a few months, a long time ago) made the cover of the SF Weekly.

Abbadavid Berman (Hurting), Wednesday, 28 December 2005 03:27 (twenty years ago)

Marissa Marchant charging $1000/cd (for only a few months, a long time ago) made the cover of the SF Weekly.

The story wasn't really about Marchant, though you wouldn't know it from listening to her.

And doesn't Slate generally run commentary/opinion pieces? It's not really a news publication.

save the robot (save the robot), Wednesday, 28 December 2005 03:33 (twenty years ago)

So how long will it take them to develop a movie around this? It'll be the Lazy Sunday Movie Guys movie, and we'll learn all about their backstories.

save the robot (save the robot), Wednesday, 28 December 2005 04:01 (twenty years ago)

xpost: Crazy Delicious?

Bobby Peru (Bobby Peru), Wednesday, 28 December 2005 04:03 (twenty years ago)

Beyonce: Crazy Delicious.

Confounded (Confounded), Wednesday, 28 December 2005 04:09 (twenty years ago)

And doesn't Slate generally run commentary/opinion pieces? It's not really a news publication.

-- save the robot (chri...), December 27th, 2005.

Well yes, but I think even an opinion writer ought to dig up something genuinely worthy. The Slate piece seems lazy in more than one way -- suggesting that this little, likely short-lived internet morsel will or even should have ANY impact on hip-hop or our culture at large is lazy thinking, and writing a piece about something so insignificant and facile seems lazy in itself. But that's pretty much what everyone has already said here.

Abbadavid Berman (Hurting), Wednesday, 28 December 2005 05:32 (twenty years ago)

Well anyway, it's a t-shirt:

http://www.spreadshirt.com/shop.php?sid=5699&search%5Btext%5D=lazy+sunday

Abbadavid Berman (Hurting), Wednesday, 28 December 2005 05:45 (twenty years ago)

It wasn't too bad in the context of how abso-fucking-lutely terrible SNL is at this point (witness the shit-bag that is Weekend Update - both uncharming and unfunny), but lemme tell you, that spelling bee bit about "business", wherein there's that 5 minute barrage of consonants. That was the funny shit. Up until Jack Black and pal came on and ruined it.

Jay Watts III (jaywatts), Wednesday, 28 December 2005 20:19 (twenty years ago)

i found it charming and the men sexually attractive, but not really attached to hip hop, as far as my little understanding allows for

anthony easton (anthony), Wednesday, 28 December 2005 21:08 (twenty years ago)

Josh Levin, the writer of the Slate piece, also has written for the Washington City Paper(he had a cover story recently on the new planned stadium for the Nationals), so he may be based in DC.

Curmudgeon Steve (Steve K), Wednesday, 28 December 2005 22:46 (twenty years ago)

Same guy? Not to sound anti-Semitic or anything, but there's a helluva lot of Josh Levins in this business.

joseph cotten (joseph cotten), Thursday, 29 December 2005 00:40 (twenty years ago)

slate's owned by the washington post

j blount (papa la bas), Thursday, 29 December 2005 06:24 (twenty years ago)

I propose that ILX no longer uses "OTM" but instead "true" and then the proper response is "xpost DOUBLE TRUE"

Mickey (modestmickey), Thursday, 29 December 2005 07:05 (twenty years ago)

We could even make t-shirts.

Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Thursday, 29 December 2005 07:15 (twenty years ago)

wrong board for proposals

j blount (papa la bas), Thursday, 29 December 2005 07:17 (twenty years ago)

Okay, I finally watched this. Mildly amusing at best. That's greater expectations than I've had from SNL for a long time, so I guess that's why the excitement. I'm not terribly surprised to hear that it relies a lot on NYC in-jokes (and seriously, if cupcakes is the big new foodie trend, the infantilization of culture is nearly complete) but of course they are totally lost on me, having never visited NYC. As for all the discussion about silliness in rap and the sketch having an actually good rap beat, I think something has been missed here. It has a decent HARDCORE rap beat. Silly rap songs - of which there have always been and still are plenty - almost always match the music to the mood of the lyrics. A silly song gets a funny beat, to state it briefly (Girls Ain't Nothin' But Trouble, Ya Mama, My Humps). It's not so much the disjunction of white nerds rhyming as it is the mismatch of subject to early NWA style thump that's the source of what humor I could find in the video.

Austin Still (Austin, Still), Thursday, 29 December 2005 13:13 (twenty years ago)

he looks like benzino

Suddenly the world makes so much more sense.

Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 29 December 2005 13:35 (twenty years ago)

http://www.sickanimation.com/imagesandflash/gorilsmall.jpg
Torrible.

Bobby Peru (Bobby Peru), Saturday, 7 January 2006 03:40 (twenty years ago)

"and seriously, if cupcakes is the big new foodie trend"

it's not new.

scott seward (scott seward), Saturday, 7 January 2006 03:55 (twenty years ago)

How did I miss this thread? Jesus. At around 11pm, some dorks at the New Years Eve party stopped the music so that they could play this on a laptop for everyone. (I'll quit my grousing about how they wanted "dance music" and "not rap" but mobbed to turn off The Knife and Presets in order to put on Young Jeezy. If I'd known they wanted Young Jeezy, I woulda played Young Jeezy...)

How do you get to write a think piece like this? I mean, how the fuck do you pitch it? Because I think I can get high and toss off one like Slate's before noon.

js (honestengine), Saturday, 7 January 2006 03:57 (twenty years ago)

four weeks pass...
http://www.youtube.com/w/Lazy-Monday?v=rkcqPbTxTWY

deej.. (deej..), Saturday, 4 February 2006 00:49 (twenty years ago)

It is ... weird. And impressive. Although not so well sync'd.

deej.. (deej..), Saturday, 4 February 2006 00:50 (twenty years ago)

according to slate, i have no friends.

Tracer "sonned by slate" Hand (tracerhand), Saturday, 4 February 2006 01:48 (twenty years ago)

having now watched this, nabisco totally off the money. lots of the humor is a dig at the usual suspects of hardness, cash, weed, etc. and an implicit "people who dig rap but have random average nyc lives are pretending to be something they're not" msg. concommitant with this.

contrast vs. say, "still fly" which is for real funny.

Sterling Clover (s_clover), Saturday, 4 February 2006 06:23 (twenty years ago)

one month passes...
http://youtube.com/watch?v=tQ7bJQGlfJY

Portman Unleashed

Jimmy Mod: The Prettiest Flower In The Pond (The Famous Jimmy Mod), Monday, 6 March 2006 02:53 (twenty years ago)

wow, milk much? real Boss. Every qualm raised in this thread is hereby validated and goes more than double obv.

tremendoid (tremendoid), Monday, 6 March 2006 03:37 (twenty years ago)

Sigh, that Natalie Portman sure is cute.

This is everything the Narnia rap wasn't. The squeaky-clean whitey rapping like one of those ruffian black guys! In '06 this shit is perplexing.

jimnaseum (jimnaseum), Monday, 6 March 2006 03:45 (twenty years ago)

Dear God, I've fallen in love with her all over again.

Tantrum The Cat (Tantrum The Cat), Monday, 6 March 2006 04:01 (twenty years ago)

http://image.allmusic.com/00/amg/cov200/drc400/c488/c4885427n93.jpg

Andy_K (Andy_K), Monday, 6 March 2006 04:02 (twenty years ago)

Dear God, I've fallen in love with her all over again.

Yeah, me too. But I just realized this is the best thing she's done sinc The Professional.

Jimmy Mod: The Prettiest Flower In The Pond (The Famous Jimmy Mod), Monday, 6 March 2006 04:06 (twenty years ago)

i just like when she talks about doing yay

cutty (mcutt), Monday, 6 March 2006 04:07 (twenty years ago)

You WOULD

Jimmy Mod: The Prettiest Flower In The Pond (The Famous Jimmy Mod), Monday, 6 March 2006 04:11 (twenty years ago)

i'm only human

cutty (mcutt), Monday, 6 March 2006 04:13 (twenty years ago)

I liked the part where she said she wanted to fuck me too

Jimmy Mod: The Prettiest Flower In The Pond (The Famous Jimmy Mod), Monday, 6 March 2006 04:16 (twenty years ago)

We're just diffferent people, I think.

Jimmy Mod: The Prettiest Flower In The Pond (The Famous Jimmy Mod), Monday, 6 March 2006 04:17 (twenty years ago)

she looks uncannily like sinead o connor in that vid

mark p (Mark P), Monday, 6 March 2006 04:17 (twenty years ago)

old link dead. new link (prob dead soon too)

http://youtube.com/watch?v=hJREeZWA8Pw

Sterling Clover (s_clover), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 02:19 (twenty years ago)

I think the central joke of this one (Natalie Portman turning out to be someone who tells little kids to "suck my dick") is a lot funnier than the central joke of the Narnia rap (Hey, it's white guys rapping about un-rap-like subjects!)

Abbadavid Berman (Hurting), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 04:40 (twenty years ago)

one year passes...

funny thread

and what, Wednesday, 29 August 2007 16:08 (eighteen years ago)

lol @ "he looks like benzino" re: Weird Al

Alex in Baltimore, Wednesday, 29 August 2007 16:33 (eighteen years ago)

pre-white & nerdy, dude

and what, Wednesday, 29 August 2007 16:35 (eighteen years ago)

no, that would've been "he looks like the guy from the Mountain Goats"

Alex in Baltimore, Wednesday, 29 August 2007 16:39 (eighteen years ago)


You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.