"The Fox" - Ylvis

This should not have been a hit.

But I guess that’s just the kind of age we’re living in! The digital age, where a song that asks that eternal question, “What does the fox say?” can become a hit! Oh, life is wonderful.

All right, I don’t hate this song. Sure, it’s stupid. Unfathomably stupid, in fact. But if you think that any part of this song is meant to be taken seriously, then I’m sorry, but you’ve fallen for the joke. Anyway, at least it’s a fun kind of stupid, and not just stupid-abysmal.

Something else to note about the song is that it takes a strangely uncomfortable turn in the second verse when one member of Ylvis seems like he’s professing his love and attraction to the fox.

Big blue eyes
Pointy nose
Chasing mice
and digging holes

Tiny paws
Up the hill
Suddenly you’re standing still

Your fur is red
So beautiful
Like an angel in disguise

Again, probably not meant to be taken seriously, but still… whaaaaa?

Thankfully, the moment soon passes when he starts talking about horses and Morse code and whatnot.

But if you meet a friendly horse, will you communicate by mo-o-o-o-orse, mo-o-o-o-orse, mo-o-o-o-orse?

Yeah, I don’t know. It’s not a cognitive song, as I’ve said. Doesn’t exactly get the neurons whirring up there. It’s pretty funny the first few times (mostly due to those ridiculous sound effects), but wears out its welcome fairly quickly. And that’s all there is to say about “The Fox”. A joke song that started out on a Norwegian talk show. We don’t get much weirder than that when it comes to popular Billboard songs.

But just so I’m not ending this here, let’s talk about why this song became a Billboard hit in the first place.

In early 2013, Billboard issued a new policy about their charts that would include YouTube streaming in the data they would collect. Why did they do this? Well, let’s take it back to 2012, where as we all know, the number 1 song on everyone’s mind was…

What? No, no. I’m talking about Gangnam Style.

This song was everywhere… but mostly on YouTube. Parodies upon parodies have been made, and the video itself chalked up a billion views in six months. It’s sitting pretty at 1.8 billion last I checked… not that I really care that much or anything, but it’s nice to remember the video that trumped “Baby”. Now, let’s ignore the sheer absurdness of this happening in the first place and use it as an example of why Billboard changed their policies. Because this song was everywhere… but never made it to number 1, being effectively chartblocked by that Maroon 5 song. Let’s be honest: “One More Night”‘s popularity paled in comparison to “Gangnam Style”. There’s no way that “Gangnam Style” did not deserve number 1 at that moment in time. And that, I believe, is why it happened.

That’s the long and short of it. America, this is the price you pay for accurate representations of song popularity. Being Canadian, I don’t have to deal with this nonsense. Peaking at number 19 is enough for us. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to get that ring-ding-dinging out of my head.

Agree? Disagree? Comment below!