Filk Friday: Twelve Days of Star Wars

Tom Smith is one of my favorite filkers. Here's Twelve Days of Star Wars performed at World Steam Expo last year. I wish I could have gone. Dearborn, MI is really close to where several of my relatives live. That would have made a great combo trip. Enjoy!

Filk Friday: Creative use of self parody

Carla Ulbrich knows how to apply humor to her own embarrassing incidents and health issues. I like her unique voice and would love to meet her in person. This video clip was a recording she made just a few days ago as part of an interview with Michael Stock. She tells about an embarrassing fall she made when she was recovering from kidney failure and stroke. (She even made a whole CD entitled Sick Humor, humorous songs about medical procedures, after being in the hospital.) Then she shared about how she lost weight during the recovery to the point where she'd lost too much. It had inspired her to write "What If Your Butt Was Gone?" Not only is it entertaining, but it's a parody of one of her own songs.

Some of my favorite songs include "If I Had the Copyright" (the F Words Song), "Sittin' In the Waiting Room," "Therapy Works," "Duet With a Klingon," and "How Old Are You." Hope you enjoy the video. If you do, you may want to check out her website: The Singing Patient. She is a spunky woman as well as a remarkable singer. What an inspiration.

Filk Friday: The Doctor And I

After a little poking around this morning, I found this gem. Yes, it is really John Barrowman singing The Doctor And I, a parody of "The Wizard And I" from Wicked. Jack Harkness is a great character. According to a comment, Barrowman knew the composer of the original song and got permission to change the lyrics. I wish I could get it on iTunes, but from what I understand it was a special release on iTunes UK a year or so ago. I don't know if it's still available.

And now I'm wishing again that the new Torchwood episodes weren't on STARS. Sigh.

Who's the tank?

One of the people in my gaming group showed me this on Sunday: a modern interpretation of the old Abbott and Costello "Who's on 1st" routine set in World of Warcraft terms. I was laughing so hard. My dad used to have a cassette of the old routines, so I've actually listened to them many times. The guys who put this together have the entire thing nailed from beginning to end with all the emotions. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did. Even though I know some of you aren't gamers, it still makes sense from a fantasy standpoint. Hehehe.

Filk Friday: It's a Fanboy Christmas II

It's a Fanboy Christmas II is rather strange, but it's got some clever parts (and a few groaners like the part about the Vorlans in the second half). Luke Ski is one weird dude. You'll hear references to Wonder Woman, Lord of the Rings, Pirates of the Caribbean, It's a Wonderful Life, Star Trek, and more. Yes, he really managed to put so many diverse movies and shows into one long holiday parody medley. Freaky--but funny. See how many references you can recognize.

Filk Friday: Hey There Cthulhu

Doing this feature has forced me to hunt for new songs. I now have another singer added to my favorites list: Eben Brooks. He not only has a great voice but he can sing well. Even though I'm not much of a fan of the original song "Hey There Delilah" (or HP Lovecraft), this parody is brilliant. I love the maniacal laugh at the end.

Filk Friday: World of Filkcraft

Somehow when I edited a phrase in this post late Thursday night, it messed up my scheduling. Sorry it's late, but I hope you'll enjoy anyway.

World of Filkcraft is something I stumbled into, and I have to say that their parodies are phenomenal. If you don't know World of Warcraft, you may not understand some of the references, but I think you may enjoy these anyway. Aergor and Aquilae are fabulous singers; their two co-conspirators, Maeril and Aeslin, are wicked lyric writers. Here are two of my favorites.

A Gnome is about a young lady who had been playing on the Horde side with an online buddy. After she'd not seen him around for awhile, she ran into a gnome who waved at her. Her buddy had switched factions to make an Alliance character. A gnome. (I love my gnome rogue, but I think her dismay is hilarious.)



I've Been Everywhere is an Orc's travelogue. The game keeps track of everywhere you've explored, and after you've passed through everywhere, you get a special achievement. The song cleverly fits in so many places with a perfect video capture at the end. Follow this link if you want to go to the video itself. The guy doing the song has a little bit in the comments about how he put it together. Pretty neat.

Filk Friday: ROFLMAO!

This is a fun ditty of a parody based on The Muppets song "Mahna Mahna." The lyrics the undead dude is singing are leet-speak words from World of Warcraft. I'll translate below the video. The song itself ends around 2:31; the rest is just the credits and rambly vocals in the background.



ROFLMAO-Rolling on floor laughing my a** off. (most people should know this by now)
PWN-Leet-spelling for "Own" as in "I totally owned that dude." A statement of superiority right after easily beating their opponent in battle.
n00b-New player, usually being derided for some clueless action or question.
UBER L33T HAX-Extremely good elite hack/cheat code. (yes, a double positive, for emphasis)
Pr0n-(I had to look this one up.) A deliberate misspelling of "porn" to get around language filters, sometimes for legitimate purposes in message groups, not just to be perverse.
WTG-Way to go. A standard commendation.
FTW-For the win. Congratulatory or boasting comment.
ROXORZ BOXORZ-(sorry, can't tell you, never seen it before this song)
OMG-Oh my God/gosh (depending on your upbringing)
HAX-A hack or cheat code for something.
L33T HAX WTG-"Super elite cheat code, way to go!"
PWN NOOBS FTW- Dominate new/inexperienced players for the win.
G2G-Good to go (off to the dungeon, to the raid, to kill horde/alliance in their own city)
C U L8TR-See you later.
LFG BRD-Looking for group to Blackrock Depths (a dungeon)
UBRS-Upper Blackrock Spire (raid level dungeon)
DM-Dire Maul (dungeon)
ZG-Zul Gurub (dungeon)
MC-Molton Core (raid dungeon)

Filk Friday: Play That Filky Music

From Con On the Cob 2008, here is Play That Filky Music. The sound quality isn't great, but the music is catchy enough that you can still get into the groove. Some fun tributes to various people of SF. It is sung by Power Salad with guest Luke Ski joining in on the chorus.

Filk Friday: Dr. Horrible Firefly Parody: Brand New Day

What do you get when when you cross Dr. Horrible with Firefly? A hilarious parody of course! I am a huge fan of both shows, so when I ran across this video this morning--and laughed really hard the whole way through--I had to share.

As the poster of the video said: "Neil Patrick Harris auditioned for the role of "Simon" on Firefly. What would the show have been like with Dr. Horrible playing that part? Probably something like this." (I agree completely.) Go to the video itself for the lyrics and to find other related parodies.



P.S. And sorry about Wednesday. I didn't get the post finished ahead of time, and that morning I was busy with taking my son to get his immunizations for school before I had to go to work.

Filk Friday: Wrocking with Harry Potter

I admit it. I love Harry Potter. The series, that is.

Now I didn't jump in when it first came out. By the time I heard about HP, it was already a teen craze. I tend to avoid crazes. They're often just overhyped emptiness. But I caught my mom reading it, shortly after book two came out. A surprise since she's not much into crazes either.

She'd picked it up out of self-defense in order to know what all the kids were talking about when she subbed in their classrooms. Turned out she liked it. Since by this time I openly admitted to having a similar taste in books, I decided to give the Harry Potter series a try. I've been a fan ever since. Yes, I was one of those crazy people in line for the midnight releases for books 6 and 7. And I had to debate with my hubby who was going to read them first. (He ended up getting them first.)

The Harry Potter universe is the source of much ridicule as well as fan-produced hilarity. (And drivel, but I'm not going there.) Entire sites of fanfiction are devoted to HP. There is even a subdivision of filk music called Wizard Rock. I doubt that Wrockers consider themselves as filkers, but they are. The groups I listen to most are The Moaning Myrtles, Gred and Forge, Draco and the Malfoys, and The Parselmouths, but there are many more. Some of them do shows. If you get a chance to see them perform, go check them out. If you can't, look them up on iTunes.

Wizard Rock is my guilty pleasure, because some of it gets a bit raunchy ("Prefects Are Hot" and "And Then I Died") or not nice ("My Dad Is Rich," "Potions Yesterday," and "What Kind of Name Is Hermione"). But oh, I love them anyway. Some of these songs are very well done, musically speaking. Clever lyrics, too.

Anyway, here are a few I don't mind sharing more directly. I hope you enjoy them.

99 Death Eaters


Save the Quibbler


This last song isn't Wizard Rock, even though it's still about Harry Potter. Robert Lund pokes fun at the series and its fandom. But if you haven't read the books, you'll only get about half the references and jibes. Even though I do actually enjoy the Harry Potter series, this song cracks me up. It's one of my favorites with some of the best quotable lines. ("You put the 'emo' in Voldemort.") The man is a wizard with lyrics. Check out this parody of "Rockstar."

You've Got Hogwarts