What Does the Fox Say, also known as The Fox, is sung by Norwegian comedy duo Ylvis. It is a funny dance music video popular amongst teens. It was published on YouTube September 3^rd and has since gone viral. The video has over 95 million hits as of October 6^th.  The song is becoming increasingly popular and has so far made it to no. 8 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and no. 9 in the iTunes Top Ten Songs.

Background

Brothers Vegard and Bård Ylvisåker, from Norway, are the two members of Ylvis. They originally produced the song to promote the upcoming season of their television talk show “I kveld med YLVIS” (Translation: Tonight with Ylvis). In an interview with a Norwegian newspaper, the brothers said that the idea about a fox song was originally thought of in 2012. Half a year later, Bård and assistant song writer Christian Løchster began to play around with the idea once again. Vegard was initially hesitant about making a song about a fox, but soon agreed to the idea.

Music Video

The video opens with the singer at a costume party where everyone is dressed as a different animal. He then tells the sounds each animal makes which leads to the question “What does a fox say?” The video then transitions to a forest scene where both brothers are dressed as foxes. In each chorus, the duo offers several different possibilities to what a fox may say. Randomly throughout, you will see an elderly man with a child in his lap reading the child a story about what fox says. The song then describes the fox and shows the singers admiration for it. At the end of the video, the duo float in the air and a computer-animated fox stands up and scat sings.

Why is The Fox so Popular?

Many people question why “The Fox” is so popular due to its extremely childish content and some even consider it to be annoying. People that like the song say they enjoy it because they find it to be very catchy and funny. Freshman Grace Olive says, “I find the song to be kind of dumb, but it is catchy and that’s what I like about it.” The brothers were surprised by the international success of their song, due to them only intending to target their Norwegian audience and draw them to watch their new talk show. The video has also been compared to PSY’s Gangnam Style because of its catchiness and viral success.