Mr. Fancy Pants

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Mr. Fancy Pants
ReleaseThing a Week Four
Length1:20
Release date08/11/2006
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{{#song:Mr.+Fancy+Pants }}


"Mr. Fancy Pants" is a song on Jonathan Coulton's seventh album, Thing a Week Four.

History[edit]

"Mr. Fancy Pants" was released as the forty-fifth Thing a Week on August 11th, 2006. Jonathan has explained in many concerts that it was one of the pieces of music that rattled around in his head, made no sense whatsoever and didn't want to write, but wouldn't get out of his head until he did.

Live performance[edit]

Initially, "Mr. Fancy Pants" was rarely performed live, since Jonathan had felt that a short piece of music with no defined ending and little sense would confuse the listener. This changed at the September 14th, 2007 show in San Francisco when Jonathan started using his newly purchased Zendrum, and he began remixing the song as a mid-song solo, coming up with such classics as "chances are you're- best in- everybody's- PANTS". "Mr. Fancy Pants" and the Zendrum solo gradually became more and more common, has now become a concert staple, and he has said that he enjoys playing it immensely.



Trivia[edit]

  • Recently, Never Gonna Give You Up has been programmed onto one the Zendrum keys, allowing Jonathan to Rickroll the audience during "Mr. Fancy Pants", as well as being remixed like "Never gonna give you- PANTS".
  • It is possible that Mr. Fancy Pants is a hobo. In John Hodgman's The Areas of My Expertise, a "Mr. Wilson Fancypants" is number 21 in the list of 700 hobo names.[1]
  • At the 2008 UK tour dates, Jonathan commented that the UK power system had burnt out the power supply for his Zendrum. At the Manchester, London, Nottingham and Birmingham shows, he proceeded to play Mr. Fancy Pants using his Iphone to trigger the samples on his laptop.
  • In his last show of 2009, Jonathan mashed up "Mr. Fancy Pants" with "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)" and the Super Mario Bros. theme. This has continued into 2010, for example at his second Florida show ever. This was also played when he was opening act for They Might Be Giants in Charlotte on March 10, 2010, in Richmond on May 13, 2010, in New York City on July 29, 2011, and in Alexandria, VA on June 9, 2012.
  • An essay reading the song as an exploration of the human condition, especially with respect to consumerist culture, can be found here.

Availability[edit]

Downloads[edit]

"Mr. Fancy Pants" is available for purchase in the Jonathan Coulton MP3 Store as an individual track or as part of Thing a Week IV. Of course, this song is also included as part of the "Everything" playlist.

Downloadable FLAC versions of the above are available in the Jonathan Coulton FLAC Store.

CD[edit]

"Thing a Week IV" is available for purchase as a CD here.

Other versions[edit]

A karaoke version of "Mr. Fancy Pants" is available on the Jonathan Coulton Karaoke Store.

Themes[edit]

Pants. Fancy pants. Duh.

Citations[edit]

  1. Page 112, hobo 21
Thing-a-Week Four
1. SkyMall · 2. Seahorse · 3. Creepy Doll · 4. Under the Pines · 5. Big Bad World One · 6. Mr. Fancy Pants · 7. You Ruined Everything · 8. I'm Your Moon · 9. The Big Boom · 10. Make You Cry · 11. Pull the String · 12. Summer's Over · 13. We Will Rock You · 14. We Are the Champions
JoCo Looks Back
1. Code Monkey · 2. Ikea · 3. I Feel Fantastic · 4. Mandelbrot Set · 5. Tom Cruise Crazy · 6. Shop Vac · 7. Chiron Beta Prime · 8. I'm Your Moon · 9. My Monkey · 10. Skullcrusher Mountain · 11. I Crush Everything · 12. When You Go · 13. A Talk with George · 14. You Ruined Everything · 15. Creepy Doll · 16. Mr. Fancy Pants · 17. Baby Got Back · 18. First of May · 19. Re: Your Brains · 20. The Future Soon
Best. Concert. Ever.
1. The Future Soon · 2. Ikea · 3. Shop Vac · 4. I'm Your Moon · 5. Baby Got Back · 6. Kenesaw Mountain Landis · 7. Chiron Beta Prime · 8. Tom Cruise Crazy · 9. Code Monkey · 10. Creepy Doll · 11. Still Alive · 12. Mr. Fancy Pants · 13. I Crush Everything · 14. Skullcrusher Mountain · 15. Mandelbrot Set · 16. You Ruined Everything · 17. Re: Your Brains · 18. A Talk with George · 19. I Feel Fantastic · 20. First of May