As happens pretty much every weekend, I found myself getting roped in to a Ridiculousness marathon on MTV today, and as I was screaming “Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah-yeah-yeah-yeah-yeah-yeah!!!” along to the theme song heading into a commercial break, I began to wonder, what’s the story on this song because it’s pretty amazing! Little did I realize that the story behind it was even more amazing! (For me personally it was bordering on mind-blowing because I recently moved to Austin, Texas and have been immersed for the last couple months in Richard Linklater and Wes Anderson movies. But, more on that in a minute.)
The Ridiculousness theme song is actually a rerecorded version of the Devo song “Uncontrollable Urge” from the band’s New Wave classic debut album, Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo!
Here’s the original version:
The song was written by Devo co-founder, Mark Mothersbaugh, who went on to have an enormously successful career doing musical scores for television and movies — including the Wes Anderson films Bottle Rocket, Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums and The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. I had actually made a mental note to look into Mothersbaugh (as well as music supervisor Randall Poster, who has worked on the majority of Wes Anderson and Richard Linklater films) because of how moved I was by the musical selections used in Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums and The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. Sometimes the world of entertainment is a small one indeed!
Annnnnyways….
Mark Mothersbaugh and the rest of Devo teamed up with Rob Dyrdek to rerecord “Uncontrollable Urge” for the Ridiculousness theme song, and here’s a clip from Rob Dyrdek’s Fantasy Factory capturing that historical (and hysterical) moment:
I’ve got to share some photos from that clip in a little segment I like to call, “Rod Dyrdek: Pothead:”
And here’s the finished product, which I’m sure will instantly conjure up images of drunk dancers falling off roofs and skateboarders getting intimate with metal railings:
OK, housework break is over! Time to put the clothes in the dryer and get back to watching bulldogs play with themselves as Chanel West Coast’s laugh makes me fall in love with her all over again…
