Parody is a tricky form. Do it just right, and you’re a keen cultural observer with a razor sharp critical eye. But get it wrong and you look pathetically out of touch. Not surprisingly, Microsoft has gone the latter route, coming up with a fake boy band called 4 Softies and a Pizza Guy (what?) to promote Windows 7. They even have a silly music video! It looks like a rejected MadTV segment from 1999!
According to their MySpace,
We are a group of guys that wanted to take our natural singing and dancing abilities and bring back the Boy Band phenomenon of the late 90s.
Let’s take a trip down memory lane, shall we?
Backstreet made its comeback.. twice…
There are some New New Kids on the Block…
… and now you have us: 4 Softies & a Pizza Guy. We are the hardest hitting Boy Band found exclusively on Teh Internetz. Not even LOLCats can stop us now!Hope you enjoy our debut single P-D-C 2008.
Oh but if only the LOLcats could stop you! At least whoever’s writing this copy has the decency to acknowledge that boy bands were a late-’90s phenomenon, but the fact remains that at this point in time it’s both too late to parody them and be relevant and too soon to attempt some sort of nostalgia. The result is a flat, uncomfortably outdated gimmick that was already parodied anyway.
If Microsoft really wanted to generate interest for its product using pop music, the company should have just thrown a couple million dollars at the Jonas Brothers and Tokio Hotel for an old-fashioned cage match. First 300 hysterical teens in line get a free copy of Windows 7!
4 Softies and a Pizza Guy [MySpace; HT Silicon Alley Insider]
I didn’t realize “MadTV” rejected sketches. I was consistently amazed that, with that group of (no-)talent, they could create enough sketches to fill an entire season, even if they used every single thing anyone thought of- which, considering how terrible the show is, was, and always will be, I assumed they did.
@kicking222: Hey! don’t hate on MAD TV! The first, maybe 5 seasons of the show were incredible, thanks to people like Nicole Sullivan, Debrah Wilson, and Orlando Jones. Oh, and the lady who played “Swan”.
@Maura Johnston: And let’s not forget Du Jour:
Not as cool as “Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place,” which is staying something.
@Maura Johnston: I love how often 2gether’s been showing up here lately.
WTF - did MS already ditch their rip-off John Hodgeman? I thought that chubby potato-faced dudes in glasses were finally becoming a trend… I thought my moment had come! Dammit!