Thing a Week 26 - Re Your Brains
If Hollywood has taught us anything, it’s that being trapped in a mall surrounded by a million zombies would be really troublesome. But how much more annoying would it be if the head zombie used to be your co-worker, and he was kind of a prick even before he got infected? And now he’s right outside and he just keeps talking and talking - still the same jackass, only now he wants to eat your brains?
Also, for those of you who only see this feed, I should alert you that there is now an option to purchase a subsc ription for Thing a Week if you like. Click here for details: http://www.jonathancoulton.com/subscription
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March 24th, 2006 at 6:17 am
Cool, everyone getting together for a little brainstorming.
If my co-workers became zombies I’m not sure I would be able to tell the difference.
March 24th, 2006 at 6:44 am
Mr. Coulton:
A Catchy Zombie song. My God man, is there anything you can’t do?
You had me at “feast on my flesh”.
Love it.
March 24th, 2006 at 8:03 am
Absolutely great! One of my favorites. I love the chorus of zombies, reminds me of a great drunk sing-along. Also my new favorite rhyme is ‘compromise’ and ‘eat your eyes’
March 24th, 2006 at 9:10 am
\m/
March 24th, 2006 at 9:23 am
And I just watched Shaun of the Dead again last weekend. Great work, JC.
March 24th, 2006 at 9:34 am
A Coulton Classic. I love the line “We’re not unreasonable, I mean, no one’s gonna eat your eyes”.
So much classy, classy awesomeness. Thank you!
March 24th, 2006 at 10:04 am
Fantasticle! Thank you for another great song, JC!! WOO!!!!
March 24th, 2006 at 10:09 am
I’m sitting in a cubicle right now, having just completed a lunch meeting (on the heels of the third (yes, that’s right, third) project status meeting of the week… and I’m having to resist the urge to blast this on my laptop speakers.
Inspired.
(Though the “Re:” in the title should really have a colon. Just sayin’.
March 24th, 2006 at 10:11 am
Man, that guy is brutal. Isn’t it bad enough that you’re gonna eat his brains, but you gotta talk him to death first??
I’m reminded of a Simpsons moment:
“Dad, you shot zombie Flanders!”
“Flanders was a zombie?”
March 24th, 2006 at 10:24 am
“…you gotta talk him to death first?”
It’s all about *process*. Maybe wandering the halls, crashing down doors at random, and eating the brains of helpless co-workers without any sort of dialogue worked in the ’90s, but the marketplace has changed. In the new economy, it’s a much more undead-dog-eat-dog-brains marketplace. Competition for the grey matter has never been higher, and it’s much harder to find quality brains to devour.
And don’t get me started about offshore outsourcing.
I don’t know if you’re working out, Robthar. I think it’s time to sit down for a performance review. If you’ll just open the door…
March 24th, 2006 at 10:35 am
hey someone mentioned this song on the Stephen King website. Expect to get a few more hits then normal. If you really want to make some money do a song with King’s character Roland in it. You will make a fortune. I think the song should spound like the Bad Company song.
March 24th, 2006 at 11:51 am
Wow — it’s remniscent of your earlier jems such as De-Evolving; great job!
March 24th, 2006 at 12:42 pm
Man, was that somehow related to http://www.urbandead.com? Great song.
March 24th, 2006 at 1:21 pm
Wow. I mean… wow. Another instant JC classic!
I worked with a lot of guys just like that… you know, back when I had a job.
March 24th, 2006 at 1:39 pm
This song is amazingly funny.
Honestly, if Romero’s original “Dead” movies were satires of the consumer culture of their time, then this ranks up their on that same classic level as a satire of today’s office culture.
Which I guess means that you need to make a bunch of sequels that slowly lose the point, and that you can expect somebody to do an ultra-violet remake in about 20 years that doesn’t quite get it, and your song will become such a major cornerstone of a new genre (Zombie-pop) that it will be itself parodied! Whew… that’s a big burden to bear!
March 24th, 2006 at 1:39 pm
err ultra-violent
March 24th, 2006 at 10:13 pm
I think I have a new favorite Thing a Week. Well played, sir. Well played.
March 25th, 2006 at 7:12 am
I’ve played this seven times since last night.
I think I’m in love.
March 25th, 2006 at 11:53 am
I now have a reason to get my video camera fixed: to make a video for this awesome song!
But, jesus christ, Jonathan, again with the hand claps?!
March 25th, 2006 at 1:26 pm
Personally, I like the hand claps.
But yeah, I really like this one, especially the chorus (this was mentioned before, but the “no one’s gonna eat your eyes” = awesome). I’m really starting to like Thing A Week, it usually takes me several listenings to decide whether I like a song or not, but now looking back, I think some of your best stuff has come out of this. Great job, keep it up.
Also, is J.F. who I think it is?
March 26th, 2006 at 1:36 am
A song about zombies? Lampooning biz-speak? Beauty. Rapture. Joy.
Eat your eyes/compromise has replaced Norsemen/divorced men in the funniest rhyme category.
The zombie chorus is great, and the hand claps reinforce the mindless bloodthirst. (Though I am starting to wonder if you need to go to Hand Claps Anonymous.)
Bbbbrrrraaaaaiiiiinnnnnssssss…..
March 26th, 2006 at 8:06 am
Dude, the fucking chorus of zombies. Oh man. I’ll be honest, a) I wouldn’t have understood it as well if you hadn’t explained it (which isn’t as good) and b) this is the kind of song that lends itself perfectly to that idea about which you and I have been talking. I smell fan contest!
C Ya,
Eric
March 26th, 2006 at 9:01 am
And I’ve posted a livejournal entry, which I should have done long ago, so you’ll get TONS (okay, maybe three) more hits.
March 26th, 2006 at 8:14 pm
Got a defintite “I Am Legend” vibe off this, with zombies for the vampires, with the guy outside shouting his name to open the door?
You do know “I Am Legend,” right?
March 26th, 2006 at 10:13 pm
You know, the more I listen to this track, the more I get the “Thriller” vibe off the handclaps. Maybe we don’t need to send you to HCA.
There’s also an “I Love Rock & Roll” and “We Will Rock You” vibe to that stuff. Were either of those playing when Laura went skating by?
Peace. -kp
March 26th, 2006 at 10:23 pm
Wow, that song made my day. It totally rocked! Funny too! Keep up the good work!
March 27th, 2006 at 6:18 am
[...] Abonnieren - Thing a Week - von Jonathan Coulton - jetzt aber los. Ihr könnt auch was kaufen. Ich werde das definitiv tun demnächst. Allein für Scullcrasher Mountain gebührt dem Mann eine Medaille, aber der Song jetzt ist noch besser: “We are reasonable - we don’t eat your eyes…” Wahahahahahahaha… [...]
March 27th, 2006 at 7:29 am
Thanks all, I’m pretty happy with this one. Yes, the handclaps are becoming a problem. I’m going to need to get a talking drum (talking drum is to hand claps as methadone is to heroin). Thriller, I Am Legend urbandead.com, yep, they’re all in there somewhere I’m sure. My favorite thing about this character is the way his zombie and corporate sides war for dominance - Tom, how about we compromise by EATING YOUR BRAINS!
March 27th, 2006 at 9:49 am
Please climb out of my head already! As a row crop in a cubicle farm, this strikes just a little too close to home, OK!
BTW: The double feeds are showing up twice in iTunes…I thought I was seeing double while the zombies chewed on my optic nerve.
March 27th, 2006 at 10:31 am
JC,
Great song; definite earworm material, too. (”Earworm” takes on a whole new meaning when a catchy song is about zombies. Ew.)
Favorite lines:
But here’s an FYI / You’re all gonna die… screaming.
But Tom, that’s what I do / and I plan on eating you… slowly.
I’m surprised that there hasn’t been more commentary about the wonderfully apt music behind the lyrics! The beat is plodding, insistent, unchanging; the guitar solo actually sounds like something a zombie would play. Trying to interpret the meaning behind an artist’s work can be a setup for embarrassment, but I can’t imagine that those sorts of things weren’t deliberate decisions.
Genius.
March 27th, 2006 at 12:53 pm
I expect a music video for this on YouTube to appear *any second now*.
March 27th, 2006 at 1:44 pm
Damn, just when I manage to get Skullcrusher Mountain out of my head, you come out with another one I walk down the street singing along to and getting very strange looks to. I can tell its gonna last a while…
Bob does kind of remind me of a boss I once had.
March 27th, 2006 at 3:43 pm
As somebody whom just recently discovered the mastery that is the music of Jonathan Coulton (thanks to a few podcasts I listen to) and instantly falling in love with some of the music, this song has beat them all aside as my favorite of the heap. I had to listen to this thing six times in the first hour I downloaded it. It’s also already well entrenched in my iTunes top 40 most played songs list after this weekend. Keep up the great work.
March 28th, 2006 at 3:12 pm
Another excellent tune! I do hear Weezer in their though, essence of “Beverly Hills.” Not a problem though, because this is just a good damn song.
March 28th, 2006 at 8:39 pm
The fellas over at http://zombiehunters.org love it.
March 29th, 2006 at 10:53 am
Arlo’s the only one who gets me man…
March 29th, 2006 at 11:33 am
I’ll just point out that Matheson’s I Am Legend was one of the inspirations for Romero in creating the original Night of the Living Dead.
And yes, I like this a great deal.
As I like all of the songs I’ve found by you, Mr. Coulton.
March 29th, 2006 at 4:10 pm
Yay for the zombies! And (yay for the guy from German who used the word “frelling” I want to compile a list of sci fi swear words)
I’ve turned you on a a local friend of mine and this song made me giddy when I thought about forwarding the link to her. She never remembers names, though, and just refers to you as the “fucking outside,” guy. Lol!
March 30th, 2006 at 2:55 pm
Jonathan Coulton » Thing a Week…
Jonathan Coulton » Thing a Week is a podcast with a twist. It’s a free song every week by the guy. What makes this even more worth it though are the subjects. For example, this weeks was about a group of zombies around a mall, and the head zombi…
March 30th, 2006 at 4:57 pm
This song is brilliant and funny, and the music and singing are top notch as well! Never been here before, just followed a link from friends.
April 2nd, 2006 at 3:44 pm
[...] Re Your Brains by Jonathan Coulton [...]
April 6th, 2006 at 12:56 pm
Good this came out!
Google Maps for Zombies
http://www.lifehacker.com/software/zombies/use-google-maps-to-track-zombies-in-your-area-164501.php
April 6th, 2006 at 7:24 pm
An instant classic, and a reminder that there are not enough zombie songs out there. Cause zombies have feelings too.
April 7th, 2006 at 4:50 am
[...] From here: If Hollywood has taught us anything, it’s that being trapped in a mall surrounded by a million zombies would be really troublesome. But how much more annoying would it be if the head zombie used to be your co-worker, and he was kind of a prick even before he got infected? And now he’s right outside and he just keeps talking and talking - still the same jackass, only now he wants to eat your brains? [...]
April 7th, 2006 at 2:01 pm
This has gotta be one of my favorite songs you’ve done. This just rules!! It’s probably already made it onto my most played list on iTunes. Like Skullcrusher Mountain (another favorite), it follows the life of a guy who seems like a good guy at times, but then comes out with a line like “We’ll put this thing to bed / when I bash your head… open”. Hysterical!
One thing I still don’t get though is the title. What’s it mean?
April 7th, 2006 at 2:15 pm
Another corporate fixture: the memo, complete with subject line that begins “Re: “.
April 8th, 2006 at 2:21 pm
The handclaps work fine here. And hey, there’s precedent…
WE WILL
WE WILL
CHOMP YOU!
April 13th, 2006 at 7:06 am
This is too effing awesome to even articulate. Why you haven’t yet made a kazillion dollars off of songs like this is one of the greatest mysteries of the universe. JC, you are amazing!
April 21st, 2006 at 1:22 am
[...] http://www.jonathancoulton.com/2006/03/24/thing-a-week-26-re-your-brains/ [...]
April 29th, 2006 at 8:04 am
My personal favorite of all the songs of yours I’ve heard, probably since I have an unreasonable obsession with the undead.
I’m working a video of sorts using random pictures of businessmen, clips from Dawn of the Dead and Evil Dead 2-3, cards from Twilight Creation’s brilliant “Zombies!!!” board game and possibly Return of the Living Dead. It’ll probably suck since I’ve never tried anything like this before but, meh.
I’m sorry I haven’t been able to support you financially at all, but I have no steady source of income.
May 3rd, 2006 at 10:57 am
Damn, I’m gonna be singing that chorus all month.
May 14th, 2006 at 7:44 am
I can stop singing this - and neither can any of my friends. Guess we’re zombies then…
May 14th, 2006 at 7:44 am
Fneh - and clearly being a zombie has eaten my typing skills - Can’t!!! *
May 16th, 2006 at 1:09 pm
You know, Coulton, you’ve ruined me.
Never again will I be able to go to my boss and say, “John, let me pick your brain about–” I shall freeze in mid-sentence, this goofy grin will creep onto my face, and I shall promptly collapse onto the floor in paroxysms of hysterical giggling, and I’ll be fired on the spot, and they’ll come, and they’ll tie me up, and they’ll take me away, and my wife will be left penniless, and my dog will starve, and it’ll be ALL YOUR FAULT!!!!!
So there.
May 20th, 2006 at 5:57 pm
*hysterical laughter* “We’re not unreasonable, I mean, no one’s gonna eat your eyesâ€. *more hysterical laughter*
May 21st, 2006 at 11:54 am
I want to wish the above guy with the video software luck. This really does need a music video. I’m picturing something along the lines of a zombie “We are the World.” You know, with thousands of zombies in a show of solidarity, holding hands and swaying, possibly a few raising lighters.
June 20th, 2006 at 10:13 am
This…is my favorite tune since Code Monkey. Perhaps a funny video could be made from Shaun of the Dead clips.
Bravo Sir, Bravo
June 28th, 2006 at 12:34 pm
Just saw this on YouTube. Freaking hilarious. http://youtube.com/watch?v=BjMiDZIY1bM
July 14th, 2006 at 4:41 pm
dude ….
someone mentioned the chorus reminded them of a drinking song …. thats what WE’VE been doing!!!!
better than any crap on the radio these days, so go get paid, man, PAID!!!
July 27th, 2006 at 7:15 am
[...] Re Your Brains The lead zombie who wants to eat your brains is your annoying co-worker who is still talking about F.Y.I.s and tabling discussions. [...]
August 14th, 2006 at 2:30 pm
Hey, Re: Your Brain was featured in the german Podparade - http://www.podparade.de - a chartshow for podsafe music. It’s a really good show bye the way, you can register there and vote for you favourite song. (And of course I voted for you. :-)) Let’s see if the song will be featured in the regular charts. I hope so.
Ad Astra
August 24th, 2006 at 7:39 am
Hey, great job at the Bookeaters benefit concert last night! I’m glad you’ve still got this song available for download, as it was one of my favorite surprises of the night. I only knew your Baby Got Back cover and the Hobo Names collaboration, but now I’ve got to check out the rest of this site.
September 15th, 2006 at 3:04 pm
[...] I’ve been listening to this guy Jonathan Coulton so I thought I’d link to him. He has some mp3s for free if you dig into his site a little bit. Some are quite bizarre, but I find humor in most of them. My particular favorite is a song called “Re: Your Brains” which is about a zombie trying to negotiate with a co-worker or something. It’s very strange, Michelle hates it, but to my warped sense of humor it’s about the funniest song I’ve heard in quite some time. Also of particular interest is his “white-boy” rendition of “Baby Got Back.” [...]
October 12th, 2006 at 10:42 am
[...] Amy Annelle - Long Wasted Fall Jonathan Coulton - RE: Your Brains [...]
October 12th, 2006 at 5:45 pm
[...] 2 of those can be found here: http://www.g7welcomingcommittee.com Coulton’s best song can be found here: http://www.jonathancoulton.com/2006/03/24/thing-a-week-26-re-your-brains/ [...]
November 17th, 2006 at 2:54 pm
Best comment: “It’s all about *process*. Maybe wandering the halls, crashing down doors at random, and eating the brains of helpless co-workers without any sort of dialogue worked in the ’90s,…”
OK, I liked Code Monkey. A lot. But the way it turned out was a downer and, you know, I’ve been on bot sides of the code-monkey-rob discusison and I’ve really wanted to tell some idiot whose code wasn’t functional or elegant to get out of my fucking way so I can write a login page that doesn’t suck… or equivalent.
Actually, I’ve DONE that, but rewriting some guy’s code into 1/4 the lines and having it work better then having him hammered on code review because he didn’t understand his code is a bummer too.
But, man, this just blows Code Monkey away. Best corporate song of all time. I’m picturing one of the guys from Dilbert with “manager hair” as the zombie…
November 29th, 2006 at 7:28 pm
I know this is late, but I heard this on Bob and Tom and OMG, you rock. Zombie song = love.
December 6th, 2006 at 10:19 am
Hey guys. Play this back-to-back with http://sprites.org.uk/mp3/sprites_george_romero.mp3 and really get a good bouncy its-the-end-of-the-world-and-I-feel-fine mood going.
December 11th, 2006 at 11:49 am
[...] You can find it here. Go on, I’ll wait. [...]
December 15th, 2006 at 9:18 am
Just saw this on YouTube. Freaking hilarious. http://youtube.com/watch?v=BjMiDZIY1bM
December 16th, 2006 at 4:11 am
Did you really write that? Its sort of incredible….almost like the hulk, but zombified.
The only comment i can really leave about this is….awesome…and i never say awesome…honestly, never.
So i shall say it again, with an added noun. That was awesome dude.
March 25th, 2007 at 8:21 am
[...] So today, I’d like to go back to another of Coulton’s songs. This is a catchy little power ballad about office life. And zombies. I think Coulton puts it best on his own blog. So with no further ado, Jonathan Coulton’s “Re Your Brains” Heya Tom, it’s Bob from the office down the hall Good to see you buddy, how’ve you been? Things have been OK for me except that I’m a zombie now I really wish you’d let us in I think I speak for all of us when I say I understand Why you folks might hesitate to submit to our demand But here’s an FYI: you’re all gonna die screaming [...]
March 27th, 2007 at 7:40 pm
[...] Lisa and Gracie are sick with some sorta stomach virus…a lot of people are sick with it around here…I believe this is the start of the undead virus that kills its victims and then reanimates the corpes as a brain hungry zombie…I must not catch it…I must find my gun…ammo…a little water… some chips if I have any…this might be my last post… [...]
July 15th, 2007 at 12:02 pm
My friend had this played at his wedding last week. We his friends were all shambling around the dancefloor, but I’m not sure what the parents’ generation made of it all
August 27th, 2007 at 2:35 pm
[...] Expo 2007 (PAX) in Seattle. Here’s a video by rurounifrane of Jonathan signing his classic “Re Your Brains”, complete with a crowd of zombies signing [...]
October 11th, 2007 at 1:40 pm
[...] RE: Your Brains For zombies in the business world. [...]
October 15th, 2007 at 2:23 am
I’m with Arlo (no, this is not a suckup). That relentless pedestrian chorus up against the syncopation of the bridge lyric, with the trailing “weak” / grace notes at the end delivering quiet killer punches to the funny bone…
It’s anthemic… almost “We Will Rock You” for the office-zombie-vs-ex-co-worker-mall-refugee WORLD. That being your world, I must say, which we just live in.
Only it’s better than that, because typical zombies just sing the chorus of “We Will Rock You,” with no lyric at all, because that’s all they can keep in what’s left of _their_ brains. Substituting “Eat” for “Rock”, I mean. Boooring. And don’t get me started on when they sing “100 Gobbets of Brain in the Mall”.
October 28th, 2007 at 8:49 pm
Hi…just wanted to tell you that I found your site because wil (OMG) wheaton referenced this song but I would have found you anyway because I have your name on a sticky note on my google page because someone else (and I have no idea who) suggested your work.
November 14th, 2007 at 12:35 pm
I tried the “Buy the song” link, but got an error message: “There is a problem with the link used. Please contact the site administrator.”.
November 23rd, 2007 at 6:11 pm
[...] I posted something just fun and not too techy. But this just cried out for propagation — a new(-ish) song from Jonathan Coulton (the guy who covered “Baby Got Back” in a nice, easy, banjo-heavy [...]
November 27th, 2007 at 9:14 pm
[...] Zombies mean love There are days when you feel disconnected. Perhaps a bit dead-like combined with a terrible case of the munchies. Don’t you just wish you could walk around in a stupor and do nothing but moan? Of course you do! Zombies are back and better than ever. You too can be a zombie and I don’t mean just at work. Dress up like a zombie and find yourself a Zombie Walk in the town nearest you at the Zombie Walk forum. Before you venture forth to snack on some grey matter, get into the mood by listening to Jonathan Coulton’s classic, Re Your Brains. [...]
December 5th, 2007 at 5:20 pm
[...] 9. WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT VERY OFTEN? Crash the Party - OK Go Which, anyone who knows me, will know that this is the point where the iPod Oracle fails because what I think about very often is actually exemplified in the Jonathan Coulton song Re: Your Brains. [...]
December 7th, 2007 at 3:48 pm
[...] am just sure Oasis could work as a musical. You want proof? Go listen to “RE: Your Brains” by Johnathan Coulton. (Its the link that says “Re Your Brains” on his [...]
December 11th, 2007 at 1:59 pm
Heard this in NC on 88.1’s halloween show. Nearly died. Heard it again on the Phantom Frequency radio show, and found out who you were. This is godly.
January 12th, 2008 at 9:37 pm
[...] song appears to have been done by Jonathan Coulton, and there are more than a few videos on youtube making use of [...]
March 5th, 2008 at 8:22 pm
[...] | this is a follow up to make your own ringtones post. i’ve made a new ringtone from re: your brains by jonathan coulton. get it here, if you can’t be bothered to make one of your own
[...]
March 20th, 2008 at 4:17 pm
your song makes me happy: that pretty much sums it up. Thanks!
April 1st, 2008 at 9:50 pm
[...] haven’t had a chance to read the other fiction (see above re: brains), but judging by a cursory glance they look fantastic. Enjoy! Posted in Stories [...]
April 2nd, 2008 at 6:20 pm
Just one thing that i have to throw in with this song:
Boxhead
http://crazymonkeygames.com/Boxhead-2Play-Rooms.html
April 28th, 2008 at 8:19 pm
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Typed in “eat your brains” at yahoo and got these sponsor reults…
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May 13th, 2008 at 3:56 am
[...] Jonathan Coulton – Re: Your Brains Man sagt, Zombies sind des Videospielers liebste Gegner. Und ihr solltet alle mal anfangen, [...]
July 29th, 2008 at 1:36 am
Hey everyone my friend Craig and I made a video for RE: Your Brains for MVI. It aired on Zombie beach night July 27 at the Beach Theatre in St. Pete Beach, Fl during Interchangeable Parts performance of the Rocky Horror Picture Show. here’s the link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4pGu5f8mOs
October 23rd, 2008 at 4:17 pm
There’s a world event going on in World of Warcraft right now where zombies are invading the world. Lots of people are quoting this song in game and in forums. Simply a fantastic piece of work sir.
November 28th, 2008 at 9:15 am
From the moment my friend Ross sent me the link to a video of this on YouTube, I have been hooked. It was my introduction to Jonathan Coulton, and damn, I found someone who is just like me except for having talent. I do chemistry songs (check out Gadjitfreek on YouTube), but I can’t play an instrument to save my life (should that actually come down to it). This is great stuff.