The ‘What Does the Fox Say’ Band Wrote a Song About Massachusetts

[Update Oct. 24, 2013: See a follow up to this post here.]

Ylvis, the band behind this summer’s internet-fueled hit “What Does the Fox Say,” has followed up their viral success with a five-minute ode to the state of Massachusetts. Yeah, we’re not really sure why, either.

Ylvis is a band made up of two brothers surnamed Ylvisaker, known more for their comedy than their music in their native land of Norway (and arguably here, too). They released the absurdist “What Does the Fox Say” to surprising acclaim last month. The verses of that song list the sounds various farm animals make. Then comes the hook, which asks “What does the fox say? Ring-ding-ding-gedingading.”  It is, no kidding, No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart this week.

Their highly anticipated follow-up, “Massachusetts” offers strikingly specific references to Haverhill and Attleboro and the video at least appears like it might have been shot in the vicinity of the state, but it makes about as much lyrical sense as “The Fox.” They seem to have dedicated this over-the-top tune to our state rather than one of the other 49 for the same reason they wrote a song about farm animal noises: no particular reason at all.

Or perhaps it was so they could make deft rhymes like this one:

The famous Massachusetts Bay

Home of J.F. Kenneday

That tragically was shot

There are also some weird, childish taunts alleging that we’re all secret homosexuals—The line, “Massachusetts greatest state of all/just because you’re kissing a man doesn’t make you gay” is the least gross of them. Those gags probably won’t land in a state where some of us are just non-secret homosexuals, and the great majority of us aren’t 11-year-old boys.

But as a whole, the hokey 80s synth, the melange of genres from gospel to Celtic, the lists of tourist attractions, and panning camera shots of lighthouses make the whole thing feel sort of like a tourism bureau commercial gone wrong. We’re not sure whether to be flattered, or what. Even if they are mocking us, the lack of tired jokes about Boston accents and clam chowdah would make it the most original parody this great state has seen in many years. Either way, we should probably figure it out before everyone we know from out of state posts it on our Facebook walls for the next week.