[Weekly Song Addiction] Crash Test Dummies-”Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm”

Jack Rudder

– November 17, 2009Posted in: Music, Music Review, Retro Bunker

“Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm” is pretty much the one song by the Crash Test Dummies that anyone would recognize. It was rather successful during its release in 1993, even garnering a music video and air time. Funny, too, that the only time it is mentioned nowadays is in “worst” or “annoying” songs lists. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying its necessarily the best song in the world, but I think it gets a bum wrap.

Crash Test Dummies- Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm

The song is catchy in its own intentionally weird way. The Crash Test Dummies aren’t exactly a parody band, but I’d qualify most of their music rather humorous on one level or another. I think the “annoying” aspect that people get from the song is that they listen to it with the wrong expectations. The stories are pretty absurd, yet they resemble other more serious songs about suffering people. Again, like last weeks, the video echoes the absurdity in the song. The video is of a stage performance, performed by kids, and each verse is portrayed as one “act”. The first “act” is about a boy who was in a car accident, and when he came back to class his hair was bright white. The second is about a girl who has birth marks all over her body, and refuses to change with the other girls until the make her. The third situation is of “one kid who had it worse then that(the first two kids)”, a kid who’s parents are part of a Pentecostal Church and convulse all over the place during sermons. The third situation isn’t really worse then the first two, but then again, that’s part of the irony. The situations are strange, but they certainly aren’t the same as other similar situational songs of the time, like The Verve Pipe’s “Freshman” or half of U2′s collection, that are trying to get an emotion out of you. This song, rather, is simply funny. Maybe not exactly in a laugh out loud way (although I do chuckle at the video), but at least in a ridiculous sense, as it lampoons us trying to find solace in some rather fake emotional song. People trying to find something to wallow in should probably look elsewhere.