Prepare yourself: The latest viral music hit has arrived. It’s called “The Fox,” a hilarious and maddeningly infectious song by Ylvis, a pair of Norwegian variety show brothers. The video, which involves people dressed up as animals dancing around in the woods while Bård and Vegard Ylvisåker croon ”dog goes woof/ cat goes meow/ bird goes tweet/ mouse goes squeak,” has acquired nearly 3 million hits on YouTube in three days. If you’ve already seen “The Fox,” it’s probably left you with plenty of questions of your own. Like, “Why am I still hopelessly stuck on the insanely catchy clutches of a song about animal noises?” and “Should I be reevaluating my own understanding of animal noises? Do elephants really go … “toot”? And of course, the most important question of all: “Wait, seriously, what sound does a fox make?”
The song proposes a number of different possible fox vocalizations:
– “Gering-ding-ding-ding-ringerdingering”
– “Wa-po-po-po-po-po-pow”
– “Hatee-hatee-hatee-ho”
– “Joff-tchoff-tchoffo-tchoffo-tchoff”
– “Chacha-chacha-chacha-chow”
– “Fraka-kaka-kaka-kaka-kow”
– “A-hee-ahee ha-hee”
– “A-oo-oo-oo-ooo”
– “Wa-po-po-po-po-po-pow”
– “Hatee-hatee-hatee-ho”
– “Joff-tchoff-tchoffo-tchoffo-tchoff”
– “Chacha-chacha-chacha-chow”
– “Fraka-kaka-kaka-kaka-kow”
– “A-hee-ahee ha-hee”
– “A-oo-oo-oo-ooo”
Yes,
While we were tragically unable find any evidence of foxes with the ability to funky scat, like the CGI fox that appears at the finale of the song, it turns out the “The Fox” may actually be more on-point than its mindblowingly shrill breakdowns suggest.
Consider the red fox, a.k.a. vulpes vulpes. This Ontario red fox, recorded by William W. H. Gunn in 1966, is clearly employing a low-key version of Chacha-chacha-chacha-chow:
