You know, I never really thought about it until YouTube emailed me.
YouTube initially guilted me for forgetting Gangnam Style’s 1-year-old birthday and then posited that existential question:
I really wanted to answer: “Fuck yes, it is!” But before I did, I figured I should ask YouTube since that’s what the computer was telling me to do and you do not say no to your computer, amirite humans?
YouTube was surprisingly reticient. It wanted to show me parodies of the song, but didn’t–or wouldn’t–provide the answer.
This was a journey of discovery I had to make on my own.
I figured I should probably watch the video having never seen it, but jesus, who has that kind of time? Those candies aren’t going to crush themselves.
Apparently 1.7 billion people found the time. I am lazier than 1.7 billion people.
I decided to consult a trusted advisor.
Hugo, I’m sorry to disturb you, but I need to know if Gangham Style is still fresh a year later.
True, but not very helpful.
Nowhere closer to an answer, I looked it up in the dictionary and realized I had been spelling it “gingham” all along. Gangnam is something like the Korean version of the soul-killing phrase YOLO, which is an acronym for “Nearly as Annoying as You Go Girl”
What makes something fresh? Doesn’t everything–except radioactive isotopes and styrofoam lunch trays–have an expiration date? I would think anything Internet-based is fresh for about as long as it takes to pin The Towel Workout onto a Pinterest board.
Mathematical formula: Viral video + Today show – quinoa recipe – sharkando = freshness.
I guess since YouTube is still talking about Gangnam Style a year later means it is still relatively fresh so I will stick by my original response because, after all, you only live once and you go girl.
Speaker7 
“You are a sad, little woman”–god, if I had a nickel for every time I hear THAT on a typical day.
Gangnam style is alive and well. How do I know this? I recently witnessed him dancing with mutant almonds in a TV commercial.
Mutant almonds? Do they know those California Raisin guys? Those are definitely not fresh.
I also hear “You are a sad, little woman” quite often. In fact, Sad Pony told me that just this morning.
Do you think YouTube will also send an email on the one-year anniversary of the mutant almond gangnam style commercial?
I’d say it is fresh as well since that song gets stuck in my head at least once a day. Then again … so does the Full House theme song.
Everywhere you look . . . oh CRAP!
I have that horrible new Corey Feldman song “Ascension Millenium” in my head nowadays. Don’t look the video up on YouTube as it will destroy your life.
Hugo should have is own advice column. Sure, everyone has their own advice column, but not everyone is Hugo.
I don’t know if it’s wise to give Hugo any information about anyone.
I disagree. This can only lead to hilarity.
All you need to know about “Gangnam Style” is the title, since that’s about the only understandable word save “Hey, Sexy Lady.” I’m sure the Korean part is just as sophisticated. And those MC Hammer pants never go out of style.
I hope to be buried in my parachute pants.
“Gangnam Style” stopped being fresh when I did the dance in front of my kids at our friends’ cottage last weekend. You Only Live YOLO!
You go girl!
I’m sorry, I was distracted by the “click here for a video of Kim Kardashian’s uterus performing Gangnam Style” on that first image. Show that to Hugo and I think he will be singing a different tune.
I believe Hugo was the one who filmed it.
Oh HUGO. Those glasses! “Those candies aren’t going to crush themselves.” HA.
I got a strange thrill that we both mentioned Sharknado in today’s blog post.
What’s that saying…great minds think alike about some really great stuff and shit?
According to my 10 year old – you can’t get ENOUGH versions of Gangnam Style – Luckily I’ve hated it from the get go – but I’m ruder than 1.7 gazillion people.
I feel I tend to take the get-off-my-lawn attitude about most Internet sensations.
I have to suffer little 10 year olds galloping all over my house to that song… sigh….
I didn’t know what YOLO meant until the intergooglewebnets told me – but if I was into reincarnation I’d have to disagree. I’m completely uncool.
Maybe the new saying could be YOLOUYBIRSMISRWID (You Only Live Once Unless You Believe In Reincarnation So Maybe I Should Rethink What I’m Doing)
I think that ROLLS off the tongue.
I got that email too! I can honestly say I would not have given the matter thought if YouTube hadn’t helpfully steered me in that direction.
And it’s a silly question. It will always be fresh. Did anyone ever get tired of “The Macarena”? No. “Who Let The Dogs Out?” Of course not.
Everyone got sick of both songs by the seventh note, sir. What planet do you live on?
I doubt we will ever tire of Who Let the Dogs Out until someone claims responsibility.
I like Hugo’s glasses. Mr. Potato-Head will be pissed when he finds out.
Hugo knows how to remove Mr. Potato-Head’s arms.
It’s too bad neither of them has legs. 😦
Personally, Gangnam Style reached it’s expiration date with me as soon as I finished watching it last September when I think “only” 380 million had checked it out. Yes, I like being among the first to see what’s trending. Why chubby, middle age, average looking Psy, ridiculously riding an invisible horse like a nerd, surrounded by nubile adoring nymphs that quaffed the Kool-Aid, resonates globally is beyond me … As popular as that video and song is today, I think that it’s predominantly of this moment in time. I predict that 30 years from now when that melody streams in a supermarket, elevator or high colonic clinic, people that were among the nearly 2 billion that checked their brains at the door over it in 2012-13 will go out of the little that’s left of their minds trying to remember what song that was in 2043.
What a beautiful vision of the future. I hope I’m at the high colonic clinic when it happens.
Hugo doesn’t even have legs to do the dance that accompanies that fresh, fresh song.
I bet his glasses don’t even have glass in them!
Just so you know, Hugo is weeping.
Plastic tears.
Gangnam style honestly sounds like something to do with your 50 Shades recraps.
Yes especially if it involves beating yourself in the forehead with the dining room table.
Gingham is ALWAYS fresh!
I know! It just never goes out of style. Laura Ashley forever.
Mint.
A sprig of mint makes things fresh.
Sheesh.
by the way, Psy is now the spokesman for all of South Korea.
Maybe Psy can help bring the Koreas together.
Huh. Apparently YouTube doesn’t care what I think about this important matter.
For the record: it’s still fresh. I know because whenever I play with my cats with a laser pointer, I hear a version of the song, but the voices inside my head sing “laser time” instead of “Gangnam style”. Wait — does the fact that I hear voices in my head singing about my cats make me sound crazy? If so then, um, never mind.
Of course the fact that you hear voices in your head singing about your cats doesn’t make you sound crazy. Now, if the voices in your head were your cats singing about you, that might be different ….
Oh, they’re not telling you to kill us all yet, are they?
I think I might be into the song if it was “laser time” and featured cats going berzerk over a laser pointer.
Speaker7,
In this house, we dance to the beat of Rebecca Black. Cause it is always Friday in la casa del la fantastica.
Le Clown
Le Clown,
Do you kick it in the front seat? Or do you sit in the back seat? Seriously, which seat do you take?
Speaker7
Speaker7,
The driver’s seat, of course.
Le Clown
I sympathize with your lack of time to keep up on popular culture. I am now stuck on level 103, I need to persevere.
How the %#$%@% did you get there?!? I’m impressed. I think I’m at 12.
You have to give up all other hobbies. Like working.
“Gingham style” is quite popular with the polygamists in Utah.
Maybe they can make their own version of the song and then the world can officially end.
Sadly, whether I think it’s fresh or not (personally, I think it’s so stale that if it were bread, I’d feel guilty leaving it for the birds) it’s inescapable. I live and teach in South Korea and this song follows me everywhere. Clubs, coffee shops, bars….even between classes as I try to nap at my desk, students will enthusiastically dance Gangnam Style around me while singing ‘Heeey, sh-exy lady’. Which frankly, leaves me feeling a little objectified for one thing. It also just doesn’t really feel like something elementary school kids should be saying to their teacher, no matter how true it is.
And now, there’s ‘Mother, Father, Gentleman’ to deal with. It could be time to leave the country.
I am unfamiliar with “Mother, Father, Gentleman” but from your comment, I think it’s wise to stay away from it.
It’s questions like this that really keep the world going round. I’m delighted YouTube is considering such weighty issues.
And by the way, I am about to do a towel-toning exercise RIGHT NOW. Because this shit’s just got real.
Don’t you think you should wait on the towel-toning until YouTube weighs in on its freshness?
Good point, well made.
If Youtube has to ask if Gangnam style is fresh, it’s already a sign that it isn’t. It’s like smelling the milk in the carton: if it results in you saying “wellllllll……” – it means that maybe the milk isn’t poison yet, but certainly not fresh anymore.
I’m a little behind on my reading S7. 🙂 I think fresh is while it is still making people want to dance when they hear it. I think, at this point, that even kids grown when this song is played now. My answer…no, not fresh. But then again, what do I know.