155. "The Thriller" by Michael Jackson
This song made it into the top 200 for three reasons.
Reason #1: It caused the Great Drill Team Tight Pants Scandal of 1982. When the Marsh Valley High School drill team entered the gym and performed a dance routine to this song while wearing skin tight pants and extra-scary makeup, the Keepers of Religion in the crowd shat themselves so hard they lifted off their seats and got a little closer to heaven. The urge to begin the public shaming was so intense that it began before the dance was even over. We heard about how sinful the dance was in seminary, in church, in school, in seminary again…. I always enjoyed the irony that all the people that were railing against the overtly sexy performance by the girls only made us young men think about it that much more. If they'd just kept their mouths shut, we wouldn't have thought about it the following week at least six times less than we would have otherwise.
Reason #2: Vincent Price's rap at the end of the song is awesome wrapped in bacon. And he tops it off with a long over-the-top evil laugh. I am particularly fond of the last line "For no mere mortal can resist the evil of the Thriller." I discovered later on in life that it is a really fun to substitute this line for the last line or two of any opening or closing church hymn. I don't use it for sacrament hymns, though. There's "inappropriate and funny," and then there's "inappropriate and wrong."
Reason #3. I thoroughly enjoyed watching every episode of Psych on DVD. But there was a special treat in Season 2, Episode 1 "American Duoes" when Shawn and Gus couldn't agree on which song to perform during the duet contest. In the end, Shawn sang Tears for Fears' "Shout" and Gus did the Thriller dance to it. It was laugh-out-loud TV that got replayed a dozen times before I went ahead and finished the episode. Fun fact: This episode of Psych was directed by John Landis, who also directed the "Thriller" video.
The More You Know….
No comments:
Post a Comment