Mr. Blue Sky

About

"Mr. Blue Sky" is a 1977 rock song by British rock band Electric Light Orchestra, or ELO for short. Since its initial release, the song has become an important song in pop culture due to its frequent usage in films and television shows. Its use in the Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 intro was parodied on YouTube in 2017. The song's use on television, in general, was parodied since June 2020 on TikTok. It also has been used in many compilation videos.

Origin

"Mr. Blue Sky" was released on October 3rd, 1977, as part of Electric Light Orchestra's seventh studio album Out of the Blue. Featured as the last part of a suite of songs on the album known as "Concerto for a Rainy Day," it was released as a single in 1978.

Spread

Following its release, the song would make numerous appearances in media, such as the movies Megamind (shown below, left), Paul Blart: Mall Cop, and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and would be used in the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2012 Olympic Games. In 2009, Yahoo^[2] answers user orangeisacolor "What movies have the song Mr. Blue Sky in them?" as a testament to how often the song was used in movies. The song would first be paired with cursed image compilations. on Youtube. On October 24th, 2017, YouTuber Jovi Prata uploaded a montage of "Every time Mr. Blue Sky shows up on movies" (shown below, right). The video gained over 1.3 million views and was shared on r/elo^[3] three years later.

On September 4th, 2019, YouTuber Clay Kramer created an Animal Crossing "KK Slider – Mr. Blue Sky" cover (shown below). The video garnered over 787,760 views and 41,000 likes in a year.

Compilation Videos

The condensed and very regular guitar riff of this song has inspired many people to use it as a musical background for their compilation videos, with each new guitar note introducing a new picture or video clip. This can be traced back as early as 2017, when Mr. Blue Sky appeared in the first cursed image compilation .

Later on, it has become a very common song to use in conjuction with various types of compilations, the most famous being those of meme redraws .

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 Intro Edits

One of the more notable examples of the song's usage in a film was in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, where it was used in the opening scene (shown below).

This inspired a series of parodies in which people played the song over clips from other media. The clips were generally violent, causing a humorous juxtaposition between the upbeat song and the video's content. For example, on July 25th, 2017, YouTuber Fawkes paired it was a Family Guy scene, gaining over 1.3 million views (shown below, left). On October 2nd of that year, YouTuber Guns 'N'Memes posted a parody using the song in a Rick and Morty clip, gaining over 920,000 views (shown below, right).

Movie Parodies On TikTok

In June 2020, TikTokers began using the song in videos parodying slow-motion montages in films. On June 9th, TikToker @samvicchiollo made a slow-motion video of a group of friends robbing a bank (show below, left). The video garnered over 2.9 million likes in a week. On June 11th, TikToker @muskanjumani12 used the format to act out escaping an arranged marriage (shown below, center). The video accumulated over two million likes in five days. On June 13th, TikToker @team2moms used the format and received over 1.5 million likes in three days (shown below, right). StayHipp^[1] published an article on the trend.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References