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Alanis's humps

Spoofing

By MATT ASHARE | May 8, 2007

Since early April, YouTube.com has had a hilarious video of Alanis Morissette covering the Black Eyed Peas’ Fergie showcase “My Humps” in her sincere, woman-on-the-verge-of-a-nervous-breakdown fashion, with little more than her own simple piano accompaniment. Yes, it’s a spoof. And if it’s possible for a low-budget video to redeem an artist in the eyes of those who’ve grown tired of having to swallow Bitter Little Pill not once but twice, this is it. Electrofunk porn-rocker (and fellow Canadian) Peaches has already weighed in with an even lower-budget spoof. And as Morissette teams up with self-proclaimed MILF Tori Amos on a shared Web site (alanisandtori.mp3.com) to help promote their 26-city “5-1/2 Weeks Tour” (August 18–September 25, with a Tweeter Center date on August 31), we can hope for more. One thing’s certain: as word spreads about Alanis’s humps, she’ll be getting a lot of requests for the tune this summer.

Alanis Morissette, “My Humps”
Slowed to mid tempo and set to simple piano arpeggios (there’s already a YouTube video of a guy demonstrating how to mimic the chordings), the funky rap turns into a bittersweet ballad. But Alanis stays true to the lyrics, overenunciating “All their money got me wearing fly” and “What you gonna do with all that junk/All that junk inside your trunk” in a way that, uh, pays tribute to the female self-empowerment message behind the tune. And the bling-bearing characters who float on and off screen as Alanis shakes her booty frost this particular piece of cake. If you haven’t seen it yet, get thee to a computer posthaste.

Peaches, “My Humps, My Dumps”
Peaches rips the basic piano backing from the Alanis version and then does her best to imitate that pained, sincere delivery as she sings “My junk is on the run/Buy some Immodium” and “What you gonna do with all that tripe/All that tripe coming down your pipe/I’m gonna make you make you wipe,” her voice breaking in all the right places. Of course, instead of bling, Peaches brings a whole lotta Depends to the low-budget party, and she does some really nasty stuff.

Alanis Morissette, “My Humps” (speeded up)
For those of you with ADHD, someone’s been kind enough to speed up the Morissette original. The sound quality’s terrible and it ruins the whole premise of the spoof. Other than that, it’s great.

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Topics: Download , Alanis Morissette, Tori Amos, Fergie (Singer)

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