The internet is an endless wellspring of absurd creativity. There is a never-ending supply of strange and brilliant content that leaves you thinking "I would never have thought of that in a million years, but I am glad this exists". One particularly great example of the internet's collective capacity for zaniness is the song mashup. Countless musicians and remix artists online have graced us with improbable yet completely fitting combinations of preexisting songs. Perhaps the best output internet remix artists have to offer are the oddball novelty hits, the ones drenched in several layers of internet in-jokes, but somehow still manage to work as enjoyable songs in their own right. Here are five novelty mashup songs that will have you laughing at the sheer absurdity of it all, while still managing to be real bangers for your various playlists.
1. "Cooking by the Book Remix ft. Lil Jon" - Mastgrr
This mashup from remix artist Mastgrr is a one-note joke, but it sure is a good one. The song combines the main track elements of the song "Cooking by the Book" from the Nickelodeon children's show "Lazytown" with rapper Lil Jon's vocals from the Snoop Dogg song "Step Yo Game Up". The juxtaposition of the cutesy children's song about baking cakes with Lil Jon's vulgarities is both comically shocking and somehow fitting. The "Lazytown" song already has a bouncy beat, which complements Lil Jon's vocal delivery. The result is a raunchy but hilarious remix about strippers and confectionaries that you will have playing on repeat for quite a while.
2. "Floor Corn" - Neil Cicierega
Musician and multimedia internet artist Neil Cicierega is perhaps the foremost name in novelty mashups. "Floor Corn" comes from his third mashup album, "Mouth Moods", and combines the unlikely pairing of the nu-metal song "Bodies" by Drowning Pool and the 1970s synthesizer instrumental "Popcorn" by Hot Butter. Cicierega has a knack for finding disparate songs with similar tempos and sticking them together into infectious earworms, and this is no exception. The growly chorus of "let the bodies hit the floor" somehow lines up perfectly with the catchy blips that comprise the majority of "Popcorn". The song also uses pitch manipulation to turn the macho, gruff vocals into a comedic warble that never stops being funny. The result is a weird lampoon of nu-metal that still manages to be wholly listenable even after the initial joke wears off.
3. "Cherry Park" - jackhoeting
The genius of this mashup is how the joke itself is buried under several layers of internet irony and in-jokes, but from a pure surface level still remains a catchy remix. The song combines the vocals from Linkin Park's "In the End" and uses the Saint Pepsi song "Cherry Pepsi" as the backing track. This particular combination is of interest because of just how many layers of strange internet in-jokes are contained here. Linkin Park has been the butt of many ironic jokes and memes in recent years (Neil Cicierega has even joined in, mashing up "In the End" with a Doobie Brothers song in a track on "Mouth Moods"), due to the band's perceived edgy image and frequently emotionally overwrought lyrics. Arbitrarily, these vocals have been placed over a vaporwave song, which is an internet remix genre already submerged in several layers of internet irony. The song used here, "Cherry Pepsi", is already itself a remix, heavily sampling the Sister Sledge song "B.Y.O.B.". The combination of these two songs is an extremely specific in-joke that will probably only be funny to a select few, but the genius of the mashup, and mashups, in general, is that awareness of all the layers of internet references are not required to enjoy the song. The combination of an ethereal 1980s funk remix with Chester Bennington's moody vocals is still catchy in that idiosyncratic way that only internet art can achieve.
4. "Neutral Slam Hotel" - Ian Decker
Similarly to "Cherry Park", "Neutral Slam Hotel" combines a number of songs and artists that are all memes within niche music communities online, and yet remains wholly listenable even if you are not in on the joke. The backing track, the instrumental of Smash Mouth's "All Star" has served as fodder for countless other remixes online, and it works just as strongly here, providing an anchor to the chaos as the song ricochets from vocal samples from Neutral Milk Hotel's "King of Carrot Flowers, Pt. 1", to rap verses from various Death Grips songs, before launching into the chorus from the "Space Jam" theme song. This is perhaps the most "internet" of the songs on the list: a bizarre mix of songs thrown together into a garish work of pop art, something so crassly ironic and yet completely listenable divorced of context.
5. "Best" - Neil Cicierega
Due to the sheer amount of mashup music he has produced, I had to put two Neil Cicierega songs on the list. I have saved the best for last, as the song "Best" is the perfect summation of the potential of the mashup song. The joke of the song is that it combines multiple songs that all feature the word "best". The list of samples is too long to recount here, but any song that successfully combines the Foo Fighters with the Folgers jingle is a winner in my book. Even beyond the joke, it is an infectious tune, using parts of the "Talespin" theme song as the backing instrumental to give the song a jaunty, funky rhythm. Cicierega even goes the extra mile and adds in original synthesizer lines to tie the whole composition together. "Best" is not only a funny song, but a fun song to listen to on repeat.
