"Take On Me"

About

"Take On Me" is a 1985 hit synthpop single by the Norwegian new wave pop band A-ha. Online, both the song and its music video have been a popular subject of musical covers, remixes and parodies.

Origin

The song was released on October 19th, 1984 by Warner Bros Records as the band's first single and later featured on their debut album Hunting High and Low. The music video is set in an alternate world where the female protagonist meets a male character from the comic book she is reading. The music video received acclaim for its plot and for its use of the rotoscoping technique.^[1]

Spread

In Popular Culture

On July 17th, 2005, the animated series Family Guy parodied the scene in the episode "Breaking Out Is Hard to Do",^[5] in which Chris Griffin gets briefly pulled into the world from the song while grocery shopping. On November 13th, 2013, the BBC^[6] posted a video, which stars English comedian Harry Hill, that parodies the original music video for the charity Children in Need. The video (shown below, right) received over 656,000 views in over ten years.

Online

Online, the music video has been subject to several parodies. The earliest online parodies can be seen on YTMND,^[2][3][4] which were posted as early as 2005.

On October 3rd, 2008, YouTube user DustoMcNeato^[7] posted a parody of the music video in which the song's lyrics are replaced with ones that reflect what's going on in the music video. The video (shown below) received over 16 million views in over fourteen years. On February 23rd, 2016, Ninja Sex Party^[8] posted a music video of a cover of the song sung by Dan Avidan. The video (shown below, right) received over 14.6 million views in over eight years.

On June 17th, 2020, YouTube user bad puns^[9] posted a parody of the video which uses the Steamed Hams scene from The Simpsons. The video (shown below, left) received over 1.6 million views in over four years. On December 10th, 2022, CarbotAnimations^[10] posted a parody of the song in an animation about Elden Ring. The video (shown below, right) received over 2 million views in over one year.

Various Examples

Related Memes

The Band of the Bold

The Band of the Bold, also known as #JoggingManChallenge, is a series of videos in which comedian Marlon Webb jogs through neighborhoods with a group of friends while the songs "Take On Me" and "Stayin' Alive" are heard playing in the background.

Search Interest

External References