I Got Popcorn Stuck To My Brain!

The addictive crunchy, salty, sometimes buttery snack goes perfectly with YouTube dance videos to the namesake instrumental tune

Photo by Georgia Vagim on Unsplash

Today’s earworm dates back to 1969.

Originally written by Gershon Kingsley for the album Music to Moog By on the Audio Fidelity Records label, a rearranged version by Kingsley, performed by Hot Butter in 1972 is the one that became a worldwide hit.

Since then, multiple versions of the piece have been produced and released, including those by Vyacheslav Mescherin,[3] Anarchic System, Popcorn Makers, the Boomtang Boys, M & H Band, Crazy Frog and The Muppets.¹

It’s the plethora of dance videos from the early ‘70s though (and others, continuing on to this day), that I believe have kept the “Popcorn” popping for more than 50 years.

If you want a visual of what my moves from the free-form dance choreography I invented last week while listening to Confidence Man’s groovalicious song “What I Like,” this video below gives a decent approximation.

Of course I joke. I’ve got way more soul than any of these German hippies. Though I have been known to throw in the white-man’s overbite on occasion. I do dig the psychedelic gingerbread-man costumes though.

I was reminded of “Popcorn” — the 1972 version by Hot Butter — a couple months ago when my friend Alisa sent me the below video link to the song. I might have the backstory wrong — Alisa, please correct me — but I believe she’d come across this video the way we do, trolling the internet, and knowing how much I love goofy dance videos, mentioned it to me and my wife. We both claimed to have never heard the song before. So Alisa shared the video and when I played it, immediately recognized it. Though I hadn’t heard it in decades, it came back instantly, like earworm teleportation. A day hasn’t gone by since innocently watching this video that it hasn’t appeared in my waking nightmares.

It’s one of the most insidious earworms of all time. There are very few songs that can infect and spread across all the brain parts (I believe that’s the term the most scientifically-minded anatomy books use) the way “Popcorn” can. In fact, the main melodic theme to the song is playing ad nauseam in my head as I write this.

Because I’ve been trained in the mental-martial art of earworm-pocketing (the ability to “pocket” an earworm while continuing on with other activities such as writing and driving), I can multi-task despite this tune occupying 87 percent of my brain.

They say (and I’ve said in these here pages) that playing an earworm song several times in its entirety will rid it of its power, but in the case of “Popcorn” the opposite is true.

In fact, the original idea behind Earworms and Song Loops was a selfish one. I figured that if all the usual methods of ear-radication (sorry) were unsuccessful, I could always write about them. That’s gotta help. Right?

It’s a bit like I’m the earworm host and the only way to get rid of it is to find a new host (or hosts, assuming more than one of you reads this). Perhaps by spreading the earworm far and wide, across many new brains, it reduces its power, diluting its stickiness.

I would imagine a few of you might be more susceptible to the song’s moog-melody than the others. Others, probably those too young to have experienced this song in its infancy, might find yourselves joyously appreciating the sonic pleasures of “Popcorn.”

So I’ll simply repeat what I’ve said so many times in these pages: You’re welcome and I’m sorry.

Last night I made microwave popcorn for dinner.

I know what you’re thinking: what a nutritious meal you’re providing for your family!

Popcorn, the Orville Redenbacher kind with “real butter flavor” (and isn’t that an oxymoron? Why must it say “flavor” if it is indeed real?) is a combination vegetable and dairy product. Corn and butter. And for the vegans, there are butter-free (or butter flavor-free) options!

By the way, I had a salad for late lunch, so really, the popcorn was dessert if anything.

Did I have the popcorn because the song was making decisions for me? Probably. But also, I was looking for a snack and when I opened the pantry, the box of popcorn was literally staring right back at me. And by literally I mean figuratively.

Shoutout to my one of my favorite TV characters of all time, Chris Traeger, played perfectly by Rob Lowe in the landmark comedy Parks and Recreation.

Popcorn is the food we eat when we go to the movies. The snack that is crunchy and salty and is there when we need to keep our hands and mouths occupied while our eyes and ears and hearts are engaged visually, sonically and emotionally in a cinematic story.

And with the last decade or two of amazing prestige television programming, the explosion of streaming services, and the affordability of giant HD/4K home theater systems, the microwave popcorn industry has gone bananas.

So what was I watching last night to go along with my popcorn you ask?

The Australian Open of course.

If you read the piece I wrote back on June 7th, 2022 (the 5th Earworm and Song Loop essay), you would know that I’m a tennis nut.

Click the link below to read about my love for Rafael Nadal and the original Karate Kid movie soundtrack.

You're The Best...Around

Rafa was sadly injured in the 3rd round of the grand slam tournament last week, straining the iliopsoas muscle in his left leg. :(

Because my kinship with Nadal is so strong, I’ve been feeling a tightness in my own left leg iliopsoas muscle. That how deep and profound my empathy goes.

But I’m getting away from my whole point about the power of popcorn. It’s affordable. It fills large bowls. It makes children smile. And it makes TV shows better.

You know what else makes TV better? Reading about it.

The Menu Review: Where a table setting serves as haute class warfare

One of my favorite television Substack newsletters is Beth’s Exceptional Video Playlist, written by Beth Lisogorsky. As a prestige-TV nut myself, I find Beth’s writing makes me feel less alone in my boob-tube obsessions. Recently she wrote about the film The Menu, which I will admit I haven’t read yet because I don’t want to know anything about the film until I’ve seen it. But I’m gonna watch it this week and then I’m gonna read her piece and then I’m gonna hope that Beth hasn’t moved on from talking about it yet because I’m so damn late the party.

Beth writes about several current TV series (both The Last of Us and Velma have been recent articles) as well as the state of the medium and other TV related topics.

I highly recommend you check it out!

Getting back to “Popcorn” the song, there are no shortages of unique cover versions to choose from on YouTube. I’m going to share a couple of my favorites with you and I highly recommend you click these links to experience the joy that I felt when I first discovered them. I know most of you don’t click the links in these posts because you have lives to lead, but this time it’s gonna be worth it.

Here’s an amazing version by a young Finnish girl playing the song on a kantele, an instrument I’d never seen before.

And this sort of heavy-metal version of “Popcorn” by Charlie Parra is super fun.

And lastly, check out this insane version by a guy who builds instruments for his fingers and breath using PVC piping. Now that’s dedication.

And if you want to watch a hilarious video about microwave popcorn by the great Bo Burnham, click here.

Is this your first time hearing “Popcorn”? What did you think? Do you want to kill me now? Will you have to double your therapy sessions?

And what are your feelings about popcorn as a snack to accompany movies and TV shows? Or to chomp on while reading a book? Do you add things like nutritional yeast? Do you only eat kettle corn? Is kettle corn a whole different topic?

Leave your thoughts, ideas and rants in the comments. And as always, thanks so much for reading!

1. information taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popcorn_(instrumental)