The Fox (What Does The Fox Say) by Ylvis

Have you seen the viral video sensation, "The Fox" by the Norwegian comedy duo, Bard and Vegard Ylvisåker, better known as Ylvis? The video was released in September, 2013, and as of November, 2013, already has over 200 million views. It is very slickly made video, with colorful dancers, an extremely catchy tune, handsome singers (with excellent singing voices), and most of all, hilarious lyrics and a funny cast of costumed characters. Take a look for yourself:

The youtube video, What Does the Fox Say, was created by Erik Hermansen and Mikkel Storleer Eriksen of Stargate, who have made videos for Rihanna and Beyonce. The lyrics for the song were written by Bard and Vegard Ylvisåker. The video was filmed at Jay X's Roc the Mic studio in New York. According to Bard and Vegard who were interviewed on an "Ellen" show on September 19, 2013, the video was created to return favor for Ylvis who made a mockumentary for Eriksen's birthday. It was meant to be a joke, but turned out to be one of the most popular music videos in the US and UK since Ah Ha's Take On Me in 1985.

I first saw Ylvis on the Late Night with Jimmy Fallon show, on October 9, 2013, where they performed their song, re-enacting the video on stage. Since seeing their presentation of the song, The Fox (What Does the Fox Say)?, I can’t get enough of the video, and I have found other videos on youtube.com including the original video of the song, interviews with Bard and Vegard, and many articles on the video sensation.

Here is the version from the Jimmy Fallon show, which almost as good as the original song video (maybe even better):

In her interview with Ylvis, Ellen Degeneres interviews Bard and Vegard Ylvisåker, in their US television debut, and they explain how the video came about. They explain that the video was to be used to promote the third season of their variety show in Norway. Bard stated that they purposely tried the make the video as bad as they could, but instead, it turned out to be a viral hit. Ellen wanted to sing the song with them so they helped her learn how to pronounce all the sounds in the lyrics, which includes phrases such “ring-a-ding, a-ding, a-ding”, “pa pa pa pa pow-pow“ and “hatee hatee hatee ho”.

In Norway, brothers Bard and Vegard have a show called “I kveld med Ylvis” which means “Tonight with Ylvis”. The show contains interviews, comedic skits and parody music videos and is in it’s 3^rd season as of 2013. It also includes practical jokes using hidden cameras. They have been active as professional variety artists since 2000, in various variety shows, television shows, radio shows and music videos.

Little did they know that a song about a fox would launch them into international stardom!

What do you think of “The Fox (What Does The Fox Say?)” song and video? Do you love, hate it, or like me, can't get enough of it?

Please share your comments here.