Lonely Swedish (The Bum Bum Song)
Encyclopedia
"Lonely Swedish" is a novelty song
by Canadian
comedian
Tom Green
, created in 1999 for The Tom Green Show
. When the show moved to MTV
, Green released it as a single, encouraging visitors to download the song free of charge from his website
, burn it onto CDs
and distribute it to friends. The music video was filmed in Seattle, Washington
, home of the Swedish Medical Center
, from which the name of the song is derived.
This song is pure, nonsensical toilet humor, joking about various places the singer's rear end finds itself, such as on a step
, on cheese
, a railing, bubblegum
, a dog
, a telephone
, a man
, or on a battleship
. A sample of the lyrics are as follows:
The song came about when Green did a bit on a cruise ship, where he wandered the decks bothering people. Following an altercation with a ship employee, he began rubbing his bottom against a rail, singing, "My bum is on the rail, my bum is on the rail..." The incident inspired Green to compose the full song.
After Green's testicular cancer
treatment, his MTV special about the disease began with a clip from the video: "My bum is on the cheese, my bum is on the cheese, If I get lucky, I'll get a disease!" The clip ended, and Green then turned to address the audience: "Well... I got lucky."
Rapper Eminem
referenced Green's antics and this song in his own song "The Real Slim Shady
", making a point about what material MTV censors would allow in the network's own productions while editing similarly offensive material out of performing artists' music videos:
Green has frequently said that hearing The Bum Bum Song referenced in an Eminem song was one of the more surreal and amusing aspects of his own, very sudden fame. The section of the "The Real Slim Shady" that mentions Green was played over the end credits in Green's film: Freddy Got Fingered
.
The song's promotional video
was a great success on Total Request Live
. It was retired the day it reached number one on the countdown, and after just five total days on the show. Green stated that the reason for retiring the video was that "it's not fair to 98 Degrees
." Later, in his autobiography Hollywood Causes Cancer, he revealed that MTV had pressured him to do so in order to maintain the image that Total Request Live was, in fact, a live request show. The next week's episodes had already been pre-taped on-location, and the producers of the show were completely unaware of the song at the time.
MP3.com in conjunction with tomgreen.com ran a remix competition where several remixes of "The Bum Bum Song" were profiled on Tom Green's website, promising the winner (who was to be chosen by total number of downloads and song plays) a flight to New York to see a taping of The Tom Green Show. However, the contest was mooted when MP3.com changed formats/owners and Tom Green's popularity waned.
Novelty song
A novelty song is a comical or nonsensical song, performed principally for its comical effect. Humorous songs, or those containing humorous elements, are not necessarily novelty songs. The term arose in Tin Pan Alley to describe one of the major divisions of popular music. The other two divisions...
by Canadian
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
comedian
Comedian
A comedian or comic is a person who seeks to entertain an audience, primarily by making them laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing situations, or acting a fool, as in slapstick, or employing prop comedy...
Tom Green
Tom Green
Michael Thomas "Tom" Green is a Canadian actor, rapper, writer, comedian, talk show host and media personality. Best known for his shock humour brand of comedy, Green found mainstream prominence via his MTV television show The Tom Green Show...
, created in 1999 for The Tom Green Show
The Tom Green Show
The Tom Green Show is a North American television show that first aired in September 1994 on Rogers Television 22, a community channel in Ottawa, Ontario, until 1996, and was later picked up by The Comedy Network in 1997...
. When the show moved to MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
, Green released it as a single, encouraging visitors to download the song free of charge from his website
Website
A website, also written as Web site, web site, or simply site, is a collection of related web pages containing images, videos or other digital assets. A website is hosted on at least one web server, accessible via a network such as the Internet or a private local area network through an Internet...
, burn it onto CDs
Compact Disc
The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...
and distribute it to friends. The music video was filmed in Seattle, Washington
Seattle, Washington
Seattle is the county seat of King County, Washington. With 608,660 residents as of the 2010 Census, Seattle is the largest city in the Northwestern United States. The Seattle metropolitan area of about 3.4 million inhabitants is the 15th largest metropolitan area in the country...
, home of the Swedish Medical Center
Swedish Medical Center
Swedish Medical Center is a large nonprofit health care provider located in Seattle, Washington. It has three main hospital locations in Seattle and is also affiliated with many other suburban hospitals and clinics. As of 2009 it has 7000 employees and 2,300 credentialed physicians.-History:Swedish...
, from which the name of the song is derived.
This song is pure, nonsensical toilet humor, joking about various places the singer's rear end finds itself, such as on a step
Stairway
Stairway, staircase, stairwell, flight of stairs, or simply stairs are names for a construction designed to bridge a large vertical distance by dividing it into smaller vertical distances, called steps...
, on cheese
Cheese
Cheese is a generic term for a diverse group of milk-based food products. Cheese is produced throughout the world in wide-ranging flavors, textures, and forms....
, a railing, bubblegum
Bubblegum
Bubblegum is a type of elastic chewing gum, designed to be blown out of the mouth as a bubble.-History:In 1928, Walter Diemer, an accountant for the Fleer Chewing Gum Company in Philadelphia, was experimenting with new gum recipes. One recipe was found to be less sticky than regular chewing gum,...
, a dog
Dog
The domestic dog is a domesticated form of the gray wolf, a member of the Canidae family of the order Carnivora. The term is used for both feral and pet varieties. The dog may have been the first animal to be domesticated, and has been the most widely kept working, hunting, and companion animal in...
, a telephone
Telephone
The telephone , colloquially referred to as a phone, is a telecommunications device that transmits and receives sounds, usually the human voice. Telephones are a point-to-point communication system whose most basic function is to allow two people separated by large distances to talk to each other...
, a man
Man
The term man is used for an adult human male . However, man is sometimes used to refer to humanity as a whole...
, or on a battleship
Battleship
A battleship is a large armored warship with a main battery consisting of heavy caliber guns. Battleships were larger, better armed and armored than cruisers and destroyers. As the largest armed ships in a fleet, battleships were used to attain command of the sea and represented the apex of a...
. A sample of the lyrics are as follows:
- My bum is on the gum
- My bum is on the gum
- I can blow a bubble with my bum bum bum
The song came about when Green did a bit on a cruise ship, where he wandered the decks bothering people. Following an altercation with a ship employee, he began rubbing his bottom against a rail, singing, "My bum is on the rail, my bum is on the rail..." The incident inspired Green to compose the full song.
After Green's testicular cancer
Testicular cancer
Testicular cancer is cancer that develops in the testicles, a part of the male reproductive system.In the United States, between 7,500 and 8,000 diagnoses of testicular cancer are made each year. In the UK, approximately 2,000 men are diagnosed each year. Over his lifetime, a man's risk of...
treatment, his MTV special about the disease began with a clip from the video: "My bum is on the cheese, my bum is on the cheese, If I get lucky, I'll get a disease!" The clip ended, and Green then turned to address the audience: "Well... I got lucky."
Rapper Eminem
Eminem
Marshall Bruce Mathers III , better known by his stage name Eminem or his alter ego Slim Shady, is an American rapper, record producer, songwriter and actor. Eminem's popularity brought his group project, D12, to mainstream recognition...
referenced Green's antics and this song in his own song "The Real Slim Shady
The Real Slim Shady
"The Real Slim Shady" is a hip hop song written by Eminem for his third studio album The Marshall Mathers LP . It was released as the lead single a week before the album's release...
", making a point about what material MTV censors would allow in the network's own productions while editing similarly offensive material out of performing artists' music videos:
- Sometimes I wanna get on TV and just let loose
- But can't, but it's cool for Tom Green to hump a dead moose
- "My bum is on your lips
- My bum is on your lips
- And if I'm lucky you might just give it a little kiss"
- And that's the message that we deliver to little kids
- And expect 'em not to know what a woman's clitorisClitorisThe clitoris is a sexual organ that is present only in female mammals. In humans, the visible button-like portion is located near the anterior junction of the labia minora, above the opening of the urethra and vagina. Unlike the penis, which is homologous to the clitoris, the clitoris does not...
is"
Green has frequently said that hearing The Bum Bum Song referenced in an Eminem song was one of the more surreal and amusing aspects of his own, very sudden fame. The section of the "The Real Slim Shady" that mentions Green was played over the end credits in Green's film: Freddy Got Fingered
Freddy Got Fingered
Freddy Got Fingered is a 2001 American comedy film directed, co-written by and starring Tom Green. Some of the scenes feature similar antics to those seen in his own The Tom Green Show and scenes in Road Trip. It is largely built around gross-out and shock humor...
.
The song's promotional video
Music video
A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...
was a great success on Total Request Live
Total Request Live
Total Request Live is a television series on MTV that featured popular music videos. TRL was MTV's prime outlet for music videos as the network continues to concentrate on reality-based programming. In addition to music videos, TRL featured daily guests...
. It was retired the day it reached number one on the countdown, and after just five total days on the show. Green stated that the reason for retiring the video was that "it's not fair to 98 Degrees
98 Degrees
98 Degrees is an American adult contemporary boy band consisting of four vocalists: brothers Nick and Drew Lachey, Justin Jeffre, and Jeff Timmons. The group was formed by Timmons in Los Angeles, California....
." Later, in his autobiography Hollywood Causes Cancer, he revealed that MTV had pressured him to do so in order to maintain the image that Total Request Live was, in fact, a live request show. The next week's episodes had already been pre-taped on-location, and the producers of the show were completely unaware of the song at the time.
MP3.com in conjunction with tomgreen.com ran a remix competition where several remixes of "The Bum Bum Song" were profiled on Tom Green's website, promising the winner (who was to be chosen by total number of downloads and song plays) a flight to New York to see a taping of The Tom Green Show. However, the contest was mooted when MP3.com changed formats/owners and Tom Green's popularity waned.