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Friday 10 December 2004, 5:40 PM
Rupert Goodwins' Diary
Tuesday 7/12/2004
OK, listen up. It's meme time. I could be perpetuating a viral marketing campaign, but I doubt it: the show in question seems to be doing insanely well without the need of any such thing and it is, after all, a Broadway musical. I write of Avenue Q, which is currently winning lots of awards and getting lots of happy reviews: it isn't quite South Park meets The Muppets, but it does involve a lot of puppet monsters helping various attractive and talented young actors sort their lives out on stage.
This may be the first time I've mentioned a musical: not that I've got anything against the art form, I can even be found sometimes singing a selection of hits from South Pacific, but they don't form a big part of my life. Let's be frank, they're rarely deeply appropriate to IT journalism. So what makes Avenue Q different?
It's a very modern production and is aimed squarely at the experiences of young New Yorkers. As such, it involves work, sex, social life, ambition and the Internet. One song in particular is dedicated to the latter: it brings together Amazon.com, eBay, online financial trading, even online birthday cards. It's light, bubbly and very, very catchy. Once you hear it, you can't get it out of your head.
And that's the problem. The song in question is a duet of sorts between Kate Monster and Trekkie, two puppets, with Kate -- a young woman of serious mien, you know the sort -- hymning all the good and useful aspects of our wonderful online world. Trekkie, on the other hand, is a Cookie Monster type of shaggy beast, equally joyous in his appreciation of the good things to be had at the end of a broadband connection. Unfortunately, his preferences lie towards the raunchy end of the spectrum -- and he gets all the best lines. One in particular... well, it has a rhyme for double-click. I should say no more.
Your task, should you accept it, is to find the name of the song. It has the word Internet in the title, if that helps. I am informed that illicit MP3s may even be floating around out there, if you can't find the CD of the show available in your local record store. I had the bad luck to be exposed to just such an MP3, and I was so shocked I immediately played it to the rest of the office -- and it's spreading through the usual network of IMs and emails.
Amaze your friends -- be first to hear it. Just be careful: singing it out loud in the office may not be appropriate. But you may not be able to help yourself. I and ZDNet UK accept no responsibility for your actions.
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