Besides Michael Jackson, I have pretty odd tastes in music. On my iPod, I have Barry Manalow, Snoop Dogg, John Denver, Duran Duran, Garth Brooks, Usher, and Metallica…and then there’s the hours of Disney music (more on that tomorrow). So I don’t really have a “type” of music that I prefer. I don’t really know what makes me like one song more than another. I don’t know why one Maroon 5 song makes me want to smash my speakers and another makes me want to blare them at full blast. My inner workings are a mystery to me. However, I do know that a common way to make it into my musical heart is to be the recipient of mockery. For instance, I was not one of the kids who jumped on the Nirvana bandwagon when they first came out. It seemed like most of my friends loved Smells Like Teen Spirit but I couldn’t change the channel fast enough. Then “Weird Al” did Smells Like Nirvana. I listened to it because, hey…”Weird Al,” and not only did I enjoy Al’s parody but I grew to love the the original as well. This is not an isolated incident either. And so I present my High 5 list of songs I like because someone made fun of them…

5) Gangnam Style
I have to admit, I like this song. My only complaint is that can’t sing along because I can’t speak Chinese…what? Korean? Oh…awkward…was I just racist? Well, I don’t speak Korean either. But I like the beat and energy of this song. But I wasn’t even going to give it a chance. It was the hot new thing on the internet and I said, “The last time I heard about that it was Rebbecca Black’s Friday…lesson learned. The internet knows nothing.” But then someone made a parody of the song…all about Star Trek. I couldn’t sing along with this one either because it was all in Romulan…what? UGH again? Klingon?! Ya know, that actually makes more sense. Anyway, I never would have even listened to all or even some of Gangnam Style if it weren’t for Klingon Style!

4) Tik Tok
With the exception of #1, all the song on this list share the common trait of me being embarrassed that I like them. None more so than Tik Tok. It’s such a goofy pop song. Every time I listen to that first verse, I feel like Danny Glover (“I’m getting to old for this s***”). But then that chorus hits and I don’t care what you think of me, I love it. But I never would have left it there if I hadn’t heard the Crocs in Socks parody. Of course it’s made more delicious because it’s a song about Crocs which we’ve used several times on the show to mock Andy. Tee hee!!! (Credit to Gerard for sending me this parody in the first place)

3) California Gurls
Another song that it is cearly aimed at teenage girls and not creepy old men is Katy Perry’s California Gurls. I remember being on a vacation with my wife and this song kept coming on and EVERY time I would ask, “Who IS this?” My wife would say, “It’s STILL Katy Perry.” After that trip I didn’t need to listen to the radio anymore because I could swim in the safe confines of my iPod. Then one week on the show, Andy pointed out how Tik Tok and California Gurls are the same song. It’s not a parody but a mash up of the two songs to show how insanely identical they are. Instead of making me angry at the music industry’s lack of originality, it made me say, “I gotta listen to California Gurls.”

2) Hot and Cold
Speaking of Katy, she had another hit called Hot and Cold. (You know what? THIS might have been the song that kept coming on the radio on my vacation. I really don’t pay attention to the radio). Technically this song doesn’t belong on the list because it wasn’t someone “making fun” of this song that got me to listen…it was a scandal involving a kids show that got me to listen. You see, Katy Perry was invited on Sesame Street to sing a parody of her song with Elmo (insert naughty Elmo joke here). Apparently she was showing a little too much cleavage for…some people who aren’t me so the video got pulled. This of course got me to seek it out and consequently fall in love with Katy Perry and Hot and Cold.

1) Skyfall
Adele’s Skyfall is obviously a pretty good song. It’s racked up a bunch of awards including the Oscar. But it never really clicked with me. Not in a “I hate this song” sort of way, I just didn’t feel anything one way or the other about it. The song was just the background music while zany effects were happening during the open credits sequence. Enter my favorite podcast guest of all time, comedian Paul F. Tompkins. He was doing a show at Largo in LA and instead of closing the show as he normally would with the song Danny Boy…he decided to do a straight cover of Skyfall. You could argue that he wasn’t “making fun” of the song since it was a very faithful rendition…but I would argue, “shut up.”