Just found out that apparently last year Barenaked Ladies put out a song about cancel culture and I'm losing my mind. This song and video are both so hilariously ass.
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Idk why but this reminded me of this 2001 article about a tabletop games creator who said pac-man was the peak of all video games https://www.logicmazes.com/s7g2k/video.html pretty boomer take
“Cancel culture” and it’s step-child “wokeness” is such a boogeyman. Undefined and misunderstood. I don’t live in fear of potential past faux pas being weaponised against me. You just live and you learn. Nothing more.
Hanging on the edge of tomorrow is case by case.
The last song I even remember from them was “Pinch Me” and I only remember it cause the music video had all the background dancers wearing the same green stripes shirts Steve wore on Blue’s Clues
I came here to say exactly this. Bro no one cares about you, you’re not edgy and dangerous you’re just a white man who believes the world who couldn’t care less is out to get him
the only part about this that actually is funny is the singer thinking that his job is to “show up on stage and be funny every night.” you are a singer in a band from 30 years ago — did you think people came to hear you do standup? lmao
twenty years ago they were loud NDP lefties and loved to talk shit about George Bush - i thought they had generally benign if cringe progressive politics. Did they have a heel turn at some point?
"you don't scare me" but it's also a very scary time because I can't be creative anymore and also can't anyone take a joke anymore but also please don't joke about me being a whiny manchild
as the scholar lloyd christmas once put it "man, you are one pathetic loser"
Wow, umm... damn I need to maybe sit with that for a minute. So much of what they said was so wrong. But that land mines line hit true for sm... but I think maybe not the way he meant it. 🥴 On the bright side, I never listened to them and have no regrets about it. 🤷🏼♀️
dawg you don't get cancelled for 25 year old jokes unless you double down
everyone knows wacked out shit used to be normalized, if you dont want to be "cancelled" you just gotta be like
nah yeah that was dumb and I wouldn't say it today
1) These are wealthy men (Tyler Stewart's house, just up the road, is not palatial but it's grand).
2)They 'canceled' Steven Page for doing RnR things as they were about o release a kid's album. For profit (SP's in a better place now, IMO).
3)This song is shite. Irrelevancy's nigh.
I was surprised they brought up "The Old Apartment", since that's a Steven Page song, and Steven Page hasn't been in the band for over 15 years! He had the best singing voice in the band, too.
it's wild to compare it to The Old Apartment because that's a much more mature song with better production and smarter lyrics, like why make a comparison that showcases how much shallower the band has gotten
It's times like this you remember that they effectively kicked the guy out for being too cool.
Look he was one of the most high profile people in this country he can do a little bow as a treat sometimes god damn he's not all of Motley Crue get off Steve's dick, Ed, god damn
Funny how he says it's difficult to be creative, saying that's what he's trying to do every day, but doesn't see that the message of this song is essentially about not wanting to be creative.
Insensitive "cancelable" humor is so fucking lazy. It is lazy to be mean for laughs, instead of creative
"I don't want to be cancelled for something I might have said 25 years ago" is such an embarrassing stance too, like people haven't owned up to things they said back in times where that was the norm, speaking on growing out of that and apologizing for the hurt they might have caused.
The departed Steve Albini was like "yeah man actually it was fucked up of me to write a song accusing an entire town in Minnesota of running a child abuse ring and calling one of my bands Rapeman." And he died beloved and mourned. Kim Deal was impressed by his capacity for introspection.
"I don't wanna be held responsible for saying something fucked up because the times have changed and I've gotten quieter about my racism over the years."
25 years ago I was just on the verge of discovering 4chan, it's really not that hard to own up to past shitty things.
Whenever people take this stance it's not because they fear old opinions, it's because they know their current ones are the same as their shitty old ones because they haven't grown.
I was in my late teens 25 years ago, and I probably said some pretty cringe stuff. But also, the internet forums I used to hang out on are probably long gone by now.
I'm trying to think myself....but then I remember after a show in Spokane Washington, watching a road manager try convincing a female in my group to accept a drink and backstage pass.
Barenaked Manbabies. It sure does seem like satire. So does the interview. Haven't thought about these guys in decades...I guess their million dollars and supply of Kraft dinner ran out.
If you watch videos of them touring for Gordon they did a lot of cringe goofy white guy rapping at their shows. I would not be shocked if some of that crossed some lines.
Luckily, no one is going to end the Barenaked Ladies recording career. I literally didn't know they were still recording and the best thing they can say about this number is that the creative process behind it was reminiscent of an *actual* hit of theirs from three decades ago...
I mean imagine being a rich white dude where we are in history and going “Oh it’s SUCH a hard time right now to be creative and funny” with a straight face, on TV, in public
And you're so aFrAiD of being cAnCeLlEd that you... write a (frankly bad) song about how bad being cancelled is... which one imagines would draw the ire of the mythological Cancel Culture, no?
I think he might be overestimating a little the amount of people poring over the lore and past statements of the members of Barenaked Ladies these days.
Omg what a fucking loser. "I just want to not live in fear of one joke I made not comming back to bite me"
It's not hard for you to do that, just don't make stupid unfunny jokes based on edgy humor about minorities and things like that, and no one will "cancel you".
Also, cancel culture is not even a real thing, specially the way they describe it, if that was the case, most of these people wouldn't even have a job anymore, let alone get to have a massive audience listening to their crap and a platform to spread their bullshit.
"It's a difficult time to try and be funny."
Tells you all you need to know right there. This is some rich old fucks whining because time never stops changing things, and they hate having to change with it if they don't want to become even more irrelevant.
They have a good point with the song. Crap like that causes people to vote for orange shit stains. In a way you can say cancel culture is destroying our govt by getting Trump in office.
Really the more I think about it there’s two ways to interpret this image: either they’re Pac-man and getting themselves killed for no reason despite obvious warning signs
Or they’re the ghosts who will gladly gang up on the powerless but flee like cowards at the slightest hint of pushback
They did a whole video about how old and out of touch they are and really thought they were making a strong argument for their right to be stupid assholes
And most of them were top 10 singles in their home country. My point was that describing a band that spent 20+ years making memorable and award-winning music as "two hits and then crashed out" just because you only know the songs they licensed to American TV shows or whatever is, well, very silly.
They’d just gotten a deal with Disney and were putting out a kids album at the time. It was a little more than just drug use, but I think it was just crappy timing.
Thank you so much for this! I missed it, never heard it before but I LOVE it! Have in on repeat. The video is great too! I cannot help but listen/view it within the current context of this Administration and it's bs with Canada and our rights as well.
Nothing says, "I'm not bothered by this" quite like writing a three minute song about how you are not bothered--including music to go along with it. Making a music video--and then releasing it as your big single
It's funny because without this song I would've never known that bare naked ladies did anything cancel worthy. Honestly I'm still not sure lol what happened?
I’m convinced that the next ten years minimum will be the far-right ruining our lives in unimaginably horrible ways while the average person stands around shouting “woke left how could you??”
Barenaked Ladies fired their singer and lead songwriter Steven Page in 2004 for no reason. Steve Page did nothing wrong. Without Page they are basically a cover band at this point and a shell of the band they used to be. As a Canadian BNL is very important to me and they deserve nothing without Page
Actually they didn't 'fire' the singer, they both split because Steven Page got caught with a drug possession while promoting their CHILDRENS SONG ALBUM; Steven and Ed both said that it was really just a matter of them both wanting to do different things creatively which I respect.
Do I feel that Page was a very important part of BNL? Yeah. But getting caught with cocaine while promoting your childrens song album about snackfood is...that shit can ruin your fucking brand and they WOULD have legitimate reason to 'fire' him. They didn't fire Page, they just split up.
Shit went downhill fast after Stephen left, but the timing of his arrest & circumstances in which it happened wasn’t good for the bands potential deal w/Disney or kids record. I think if it’d happened any other time they’d have asked him to stay. Page still makes great music. BNL …not so much.
All of their songs (that I’ve heard, which aren’t many) are the kind you have to listen to for a moment to determine if it’s an actual song or an advertisement. Which makes sense if you’re writing a sitcom intro tune, I guess. There’s a word for that in The Meaning of Liff, but I can’t find it rn.
Rich white dudes being afraid of getting "cancelled for shit they said years ago" remains deeply stupid since this exact scenario happened to James Gunn, who apologized for the dumb shit he said, and went on with his lucrative career
I've been grabbing random CDs from my library lately in an attempt to expand my music taste and saw their latest album there and got excited bc I didn't know they were still making music. The whole album is this bad. It's awful. I'm so sad, I used to love them so much in the 2000s.
the funniest part of anti-cancellation anthems is that they always make it really, really apparent just how thin-skinned they are. a category of person that could not survive being transgender for a week
Nothing even remotely that sordid. It was a singular incident where he was arrested for possession of coke (he wasn't high when arrested) before they were set to do a tour of kid's music. Page didn't want to be a kid's band anyway so it was easiest for them to part ways
I have a strong memory that at the time it happened, the reports said that the women who were arrested with him were prostitutes; but no reports now say that, so it might have been false and retracted (or my memory is faulty)
I can’t believe this is the same band that did One Week. That was a very annoying song, but it had wit. This genuinely sounds like lumpy AI music. Wow.
“It’s ok guys your criticism really doesn’t bother me and to prove it I’m going to write a whole song about how unbothered I am. Come on guys don’t you care??? Look at how I just don’t care aren’t I so fucking badass?”
This makes me sad, tbh. Like there were so many other ways to address this topic that could have been witty, relevant, self-deprecating in a funny way that still encapsulates the experience of feeling old & tired of constant change but without being so… weird about it. Ugh. 😣
I think that was more like a ‘we are moving in different directions creatively and HEY, we are doing a kids album RIGHT NOW and you just got caught with drugs’ moment rather than hypocrisy.
Glad They Might Be Giants never fell into this nonsense and are still churning out bangers about incompetent people running town halls https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUkwawE_yfo
I heard "I Broke My Own Rule" at a Kroger a few months back, sandwiched between Maroon 5 and Phil Collins. The fact that they can still go that hard after 40 years is absolutely remarkable.
BTW: I think the muzak DJ meant it as a commentary on/protest of the US election. It definitely works as one.
Their Chicken Little song is one of the worst fucking things I've heard in my entire life. The Barenaked Ladies have always had the energy of Dad's garage band performing at his daughter's junior prom.
I’ve always wondered how this band has managed to have a 30+ year career despite seemingly no one liking them and it seems like they’re also asking this now.
I hadn't kept up with him at all, totally missed this. this is great, I pumped my fist when he did that little staccato singsong style he loves to do at the 57sec mark
Reminds me of John Fogrety being so heavily responsible for CCRs sound that when he agreed to an album where everyone got to write songs his tracks were the only good ones on the entire thing
The label knew it to because they immediately tried to sabotage his solo career by suing him for sounding like himself when it became apparent he could record entire CCR albums by himself without the name or other members
He's also in the Trans-Canada Highwaymen with Chris Murphy of Sloan, Moe Berg of The Pursuit of Happiness, and Craig Northey of Odds. They released an album of '70s covers and made a fake infomercial for it.
Earlier than that. Even when Page was still in the band, he was being pushed into a corner. On their first album, he sang almost all the songs. By the time he quit, he had like three songs per album.
My theory is that the record execs wanted more goofy shit like “One Week”.
This is probably the most traction the song she video got.
I was never a huge fan, but certainly had a few albums.
It's sad that the music and vocals are still there but the content feels like AI but slightly altered: the lyrics are gibberish but the words aren't written like Wingdings font.
Do you ever find it funny how they’ll go though the trouble of making a song and entire music video to boost their own ego when it seems like a simple “sorry” tends to win most people back over? Seems like one takes a lot less effort and gives a lot more results.
Don't just whine about cancel culture. I'm from a time where Mel Brooks was my comedy hero. Blazing Saddles couldn't be produced these days, but it was terribly funny at the time.
The fact that it's the Barenaked Ladies – the famously goofy, safe, and anodyne alt-rock band – singing about cancel culture is buckwild to me. What would they even do to get canceled?
Huh. It’s wild to me that talented artists can spend time making a runny self-owning derivative piece of shit and then actually put it out there for us to experience
It's so interesting comparing this to another old-man band like Bad Religion. You can tell w/ the lyric choices and even the choice of visuals there's stuff in common, clearly an outlook from an older generation. The difference w/ BR is they aren't afraid to SAY something. https://youtu.be/hES9IBTPbcw?si=B-iZGo9XR0_r1QWT
I wrote a piece about this a while ago. I essentially noted that this is deeply ironic coming from them because they basically owe their career to a cancellation attempt by the mayor of Toronto.
I see they're going the same way as Seinfeld and everybody else who lost their ability to be talented, play to the right. It can't be that fucking hard to write a song bra
The irony that one of the least offensive bands of all time are imminently concerned about cancel culture is so glaring even Alanis couldn’t have missed it.
I'd be fascinated to know how a zoomer reacts to it now when I grew up obsessed with it but already thought it was weird that Calvin's family would rent a VCR.
i actually did grow up reading it! my 5th grade class had a massive collection of fun free-reading books, including a substantial amount of comic compilations and graphic novels! C&H was one of my faves for the art style but my reading comprehension gave it no justice unfortunately 😅
i mostly say this to remind myself to buy more of the collection lol, I've only got the first volume. i find a lot of the comics very timeless, aside from the timely political figures and devices ofc loll
I have a stack of beat to fuck old collections that I've had since i was a literal child and I should really just spring for the complete run hardback at some point
I liked the Barenaked Ladies a lot in 1999 so I'm not saying this with any particular animosity:
The relevance of the Barenaked Ladies in the year 2025 is so low that if someone cancelled them I don't think anyone would notice. Why are they worried about this? It would change nothing!
They're hoping to get 'canceled' (a thing which is not real & doesn't happen) so that literally anyone will talk about them. Anyway nice PowerPoint presentation fellas
Wherein you cancel yourself by writing a song about cancel culture which makes everyone wonder why you think you're at risk of being cancelled in the first place.
(Some point in the year 2024 apparently)
A guy: "Who know who we should cancel? The guys who made the theme to Baby Blues!"
Another guy: "Great idea! You said those words and I still have respect for you." (lifts knife) "CAAANCEEEEEELLLLLL
What the...? So many questions. First off, huh? Second, who canceled the Barenaked Ladies and why? So confused. I have not thought about them in two decades.
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Hanging on the edge of tomorrow is case by case.
sir you were never funny, im so sorry to have to tell you this, you have not been canceled you are just very unpopular because your music sucks
as the scholar lloyd christmas once put it "man, you are one pathetic loser"
- Idiot American that forgets not every white douche bag is from here
everyone knows wacked out shit used to be normalized, if you dont want to be "cancelled" you just gotta be like
nah yeah that was dumb and I wouldn't say it today
then 99% of people will leave it alone
2)They 'canceled' Steven Page for doing RnR things as they were about o release a kid's album. For profit (SP's in a better place now, IMO).
3)This song is shite. Irrelevancy's nigh.
Look he was one of the most high profile people in this country he can do a little bow as a treat sometimes god damn he's not all of Motley Crue get off Steve's dick, Ed, god damn
Insensitive "cancelable" humor is so fucking lazy. It is lazy to be mean for laughs, instead of creative
It's so sad really.
It's NOT HARD.
Whenever people take this stance it's not because they fear old opinions, it's because they know their current ones are the same as their shitty old ones because they haven't grown.
*has an existential crisis* 😱
The only one I've heard people complain about is chickety China the Chinese chicken, but I think people are over that?
Also LOL at thinking Tom Petty would record something this lifeless
'Cause that cartoon has got the boom anime babes
That make me think the wrong thing
Last time I heard anyone talk about them in anyway was an episode of Community
People used to get exiled, Ed.
another casualty alongside Billy Joel, Alec Baldwin, etc
It's not hard for you to do that, just don't make stupid unfunny jokes based on edgy humor about minorities and things like that, and no one will "cancel you".
Lou Reed trusted him with a lot.
Tells you all you need to know right there. This is some rich old fucks whining because time never stops changing things, and they hate having to change with it if they don't want to become even more irrelevant.
Cocked your head to side and said "What tha?"
...
Or they’re the ghosts who will gladly gang up on the powerless but flee like cowards at the slightest hint of pushback
Curious
SJW's: "pronouns..."
"NO! PLEASE STOP! I CAN'T TAKE THIS ANYMORE!!!!"
(procedes to melt away)
Plus ca change.
If I Had A Million Dollars?
Brian Wilson?
Odds Are?
Jane?
Pinch Me?
Hello City?
It's All Been Done?
Side note: It's All Been Done only hit #44. I would have sworn that would be higher
https://tedium.co/2023/09/06/barenaked-ladies-too-old-cancel-culture/
Clearly I, have been owned here. Totes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WoeIc3-GPTs
I mean I stopped paying attention to them once Steven Page left but
Yeah it still blows
in the sense that you're old enough to goddamn well know better
bare naked ladies and shit for internet. 🤷♂️💯
They ARE way too old. The type of old where you whine and bitch and moan about how the culture changed and they couldn't change with it.
Can't understand what I mean?
Well, then it's probably cultural Marxism.
You know…maybe Canada shouldn’t exist after all
One week since you cancelled me
Most if not all of the senshi are like 14-16. Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto are slightly older, but I don’t know how much older.
Five days since you boycott me.
I've still got the butthurt on my poor ego.
thank you
https://www.metalsucks.net/2020/11/17/stephen-carpenters-bandmate-defends-his-flat-earther-anti-vaxx-comments/
Also one of the guys from Nirvana and System of a Down are Dunce supporters, makes me glad I was never a big fan of any of those bands frankly.
Fuckin shit heads ruining their own music for me
I swear, it feels like taking a stab at cancel culture unprompted was so many people's last grasp at relevancy.
Okay, then tell us your truth. What exactly can't you say? Go on, which things are people mad at?
"..... So Humpty Dumpty........"
Also wow this is far from Gordon, Jesus I swear they were good in the 90s…
Me thinks that sums it up nicely.
what even is this they sound so whiny?
i am struggling with the reality of how garbage it sounds.
no this was good music, so what the fuck happened?
conservatism really does destroy talent, wow...
Steven is still making music and is very pro vaccines and very anti-nazi. Here's his response to Charlottesville
https://youtu.be/-MR7TXhxrdQ?si=MKcYCkv7-vV5Qx8m
fuck, i do not envy people who are gonna live to see how bad it gets in that regard.
i think the only song i've really listened to them was one week because of the digimon movie lmao
Sure as fuck no "If I Had $1000000".
BTW: I think the muzak DJ meant it as a commentary on/protest of the US election. It definitely works as one.
I don't understand, if you said something 25 years ago that is clearly wrong now then just say "yeah, that was pretty fucked up. Glad I know better now." and move on. https://tedium.co/2023/09/06/barenaked-ladies-too-old-cancel-culture/
Stream his solo albums instead, they rule https://youtu.be/VyyLNmSfVKw
https://youtu.be/2ArvGvmDSuo?si=NcsXUICgFIdh-fmN
I mean Mötley Crüe literally released a song named "CANCELLED" and that screams "OLD" more than this song lol
That being said, yeah this is complete ass
My theory is that the record execs wanted more goofy shit like “One Week”.
I was never a huge fan, but certainly had a few albums.
It's sad that the music and vocals are still there but the content feels like AI but slightly altered: the lyrics are gibberish but the words aren't written like Wingdings font.
https://youtu.be/l6Ep9SNcdyI?si=4Y0nFgkoVByRsTi7
Is he nostalgic for other things that are crimes today, like slavery and child labor?
But I guess ego always wins out
This is terrible lmfao
Got it.
But here we have one such astonishing example
https://youtu.be/hES9IBTPbcw?si=B-iZGo9XR0_r1QWT
https://tedium.co/2023/09/06/barenaked-ladies-too-old-cancel-culture/
Even if he got cancelled, he's set for life already.
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/theme-songs-devo-ridiculousness-big-bang-theory-abbott-elementary-1235233087/
million dollars.
The relevance of the Barenaked Ladies in the year 2025 is so low that if someone cancelled them I don't think anyone would notice. Why are they worried about this? It would change nothing!
They just lost relevance. It's okay!
Who would even find out?
Who's digging into their history?
Who would waste time writing about it?
Are their 5 die-hard groupies gonna stay home?
Who is this aggrieved song even for?
But I don't think I've heard a thing about them since literally 2005.
"We can't tell the jokes we used to!" Gosh, I don't know, maybe make NEW jokes? Isn't that kind of the point? Who HURT you, Ed?
https://youtu.be/VyyLNmSfVKw
A guy: "Who know who we should cancel? The guys who made the theme to Baby Blues!"
Another guy: "Great idea! You said those words and I still have respect for you." (lifts knife) "CAAANCEEEEEELLLLLL
Just... man, it's got nothin. I'm not even cringing, it's that lame.