TWEET:🐥 Haddaway -- What is Love

1993 Eurodance hit-cum-legendary SNL skit backdrop, is this week's earworm

I wrote about 5 ways of “earadicating” earworms in my last post.

All of my finely considered methods, though, might not be good enough to stop the strongest TWEET (This Week’s Embedded Earworm Tune) I’ve come across in years.

If, like me, this one is especially difficult for you to get rid of, at least there is always the option to keep dancing.

And the option to keep watching as well.

I would bet that many of us came upon this 1993 Haddaway Eurodance hit while innocently watching Saturday Night Live one night in 1996 when a skit titled “Roxbury Guys” appeared on our pre-HD TV screens.

The skit would feature Chris Kattan and Will Ferrell and a rotating cast of male actors to play the third “Butabi” brother. Jim Carrey was arguably the best and is in the clip below. Others included Sylvester Stallone, Tom Hanks, Martin Short, and Alec Baldwin.

And then of course there is the 1998 film, A Night at the Roxbury, which was one of the most widely panned films of the SNL skit-to-film canon.

But don’t let reviews such as Roger Ebert’s sway you from streaming this vastly underrated comedy:

“It's the first comedy I've attended where you feel that to laugh would be cruel to the characters." - Roger Ebert

Sure, the film is dumber than a doorknob, and I haven’t watched it in at least 25 years, but I have fond vague memories of it. Over the years it’s become somewhat of a midnight movie, a cult classic if you will. Something to put on at a party after your snooty friends have left.

But if you aren’t willing to watch the entire feature, at least check out the skit above (and a half dozen more skits streamable on YouTube by these clueless recurring characters).

And do check out Trinidadian singer and recording artist Haddaway, who continues to record new music to this day, releasing his latest album, Day After Day, in 2021. The official video for “What is Love” is below.

“What is Love” was a #1 hit (or close to it) across the world when it came out in 1993 — the lowest charting was, sadly, in the U.S. It was even #1 in Zimbabwe! So the SNL-specific connotation might be more of an American thing.

Here are some of the song’s numerous accolades:¹

Note, I have to wonder if those last two items were created just to include this song though…”52 Best Pop Songs?” “57-Best One-Hit Wonders of All Time”?

• Is this song new to you? Have you been living in a bunker?

• Yes, this song is me utilizing method #5 in my “How to Get Rid of Earworms” post.

• What IS love? The song doesn’t really answer that question. If you have the answer, please let us know in the comments.

• And before you start to curse me, I want to say: I’m sorry and you’re welcome.

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What_Is_Love