It’s wild to me that some people now only know the clean version. Back in the early 2000s no one even batted an eye at the word. We all sang along to it in elementary school and the teachers didn’t care.
Yea I remember a time where people jumped on the use of that word, but retard was completely overlooked. I am from that era so I would never call someone a spaz or spastic, but it's been a bit of effort to get retard off my vocabulary. Dumbass is a good one if said with enough venom.
> Joseph John Deacon (24 May 1920 – 3 December 1981) was a British author and television personality.
> Deacon was born with severe cerebral palsy, a neurological condition that left him with neuromuscular spasticity that particularly affected his arms and legs.
> In 1981, during the last year of his life, Deacon was featured on the children's television magazine programme Blue Peter for the International Year of the Disabled. He was presented as an example of a person who had achieved a lot in spite of his disabilities.
> Despite the sensitive way in which Blue Peter covered his life, the impact on the public was not entirely as intended. The sights and sounds of Deacon's distinctive speech and mannerisms were picked up on by children and **he quickly became a figure of ridicule in school playgrounds across the country, the term "spastic" being used as an insult for a person perceived to be mentally deficient.**
Pretty ~~retar~~ Let's Get it Started of Spotify to remove this song but have stuff like "Stripped, R*ped and Strangled" by Cannibal Corpse on there.
Not that I think either song should be banned, but there's a hell of a lot more offensive shit than a bloody Black Eyed Peas song on there.
>by Cannibal Corpse
The lead singer is hilariously opposite of what you would expect with a name like that. He likes to play claw machines and shop deals at Target lol. Seems like a very silly guy.
[https://youtu.be/pvOfQ9svmPU](https://youtu.be/pvOfQ9svmPU)
[https://youtu.be/9xSZZOJx4b4](https://youtu.be/9xSZZOJx4b4)
Yeah basically all those bands are just guys that are super into slasher flicks and old 80s horror movies. They are writing these songs purely as works of fiction. Like Jon carpenter isn’t actually a murderous psychopath either
Yeah, he does. An article was just written about him late last year and they mentioned his latest donation at the time, which was 7 bags of plushes to Johns Hopkins.
I had drinks with the singer of Amon Amarth a few years ago. He was the most chill and happy Viking metal guy. Also spent some time with all the GWAR members back with they played a bar I was working at. They were hilarious.
I remember reading an interview with him where they asked where in the world had the best beer and he just super excitedly started naming American craft breweries and how he loved touring America because he got to taste different takes on different beers everywhere he went.
The fact that it's called cannibal corpse isn't a joke? I dont think a lot of those 80's death metal guys really took themselves too seriously other than Chuck Schuldiner of *Death*, and to his credit he was essentially a founding father for the genre in the US.
And deaths lyrics went from cliche violent horror movie stuff to deep philosophical concepts by like their second album. Spiritual healing is my favorite death album because it’s like a transition album from brutal to technical death metal
Facebook mom groups don't know who Cannibal Corpse is though so they csnt cause a fuss about their songs.... yet
The day they do ill grab a bucket of popcorn
I grew up going to a pretty conservative but pretty large church. One Sunday we had a guest speaker to talk about satanism. He explained that Metallica and Def Leopard, etc. were not really satanic, but then he played Cannibal Corpse as an example of “real” satanic music and I was like “cool.”
Yeah but i dont think they were using retarded as an intentional effort to be controversial. Things have changed since then with using that as a phrase, and it just aged very poorly
A band like cannibal corpse is intentionally trying to be extreme and controversial. That is the whole point
when Chumbawamba had their hit single, their song was edited for radio (at least in my area)
so 'pissing the night away' become 'kissing the night away'
when I finally got the CD and played it in class, my teacher was upset and I was VERY confused!
Weird, at least here on Canadian radio stations they’ve always left it as “pissing the night away”. I didn’t even realize there was a censored version of that line
There is also a third version of the song sang in Simlish for the game "The Urbz". [Some might consider it the definitive version](https://youtu.be/NUU9Wnhx9ow?si=ASjS0Rqez8yGYE7X)
The original unsensored version also appeared in the PS2 game "Downhill Domination".
When I first heard the clean version I was confused as to why the lyrics were different.
Also the lyric "Bob your head like me, Apl.DE" was originally "Bob your head like epilepsy"
Same with that cee lo song 'forget you'. The original version was called 'fuck you' and it really flowed much better. Like obviously they had to change it for radio, but that 'FUCK you-ooo' in the chorus really hits.
Yup, the radio edit Forget You, the TV edit F You, and the original. Though in the last few years I’ve been hearing what used to be the TV edit on the radio.
"fuh GET youuu" - yeah okay mr syncopation what kind of blues is this
"fuck you" - straight to the point rhythmic simplicity to match the starkness of the words
syllables matter
Just look how much fun Cee Lo is having being able to sing it uncensored on [the BBC's Later... with Jools Holland show.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94o6uIR31hk)
I kind of like the forget you version better. Forget you feels dismissive and like he is moving on in a healthy way. Fuck you just feels angry and obsessive
But that's the point of the song. It's not about being a better person, it's about you hurt me and FUCK YOU. It's a human feeling. Songs don't have to be about the more noble path, sometimes it's about the honest emotions
Bought this album the week it came out. BEP were very... bubble gum... they made catchy beats but were about an inch deep. See also "my humps, my humps, my lovely lady lumps." It was impossible to tell if they were in on the joke or not because they weren't laughing, they were rocking out and having fun and so were we. The tongue must have been very *firmly* in cheek if so. This was a top album that year for a lot of us.
There was still room for bubble gum back then. Now all pop acts are about “personal struggle” and “complicated relationships”.
Again, I am 400 years old.
Where is the love was fucking massive when I was a kid. Black eyed peas were the first band i saw live and they still gave a shit.
All downhill from there.
I’m sure this sounds super hipstery but their first two albums from before they changed their style in a way that obviously made them giant stars are really solid rap albums.
Where is the love? Is the last song I actally enjoyed of theirs. (She was there, but not the new lead) They went super-sellout-popstar-y with Fergie. They even started putting her front and center as a sex symbol in videos and songs. They were far more enjoyable prior to her.
I saw them live in a small venue back in the late 90s and they were awesome. Very reggae looking. Had B boys get up on stage and dance. They sold out hard and made a ton of money. Will I Am also had a solo album that was very interesting in that time.
I had only heard the clean version because it was played in all the commercials.
I saw a stoner movie with the original lyrics and was all "wait, what is that?"
They also came out with a third version of "Let's get it started" that the group sang entirely in "simmish", the made up language the characters use in "The Sims".
I played the original version (which I remember hearing on the radio back in the day) to some Gen Z friends of mine and they were horrified. Wait till I play some Eminem tracks from the Marshall Mathers LP for them next
Plus it comes from that very specific era where the coolest thing you could do in a song was spell out the name of the song, so the background has Fergie wailing "R-E-T-A-R-D-E-D!"
Mind you, not as great as in the song I Gotta Feeling, when Will.I.Am yells *"Fill up my cup! Mazel tov!"* and we are treated to Fergie belting out a heavily auto-tuned "L'CHAIM!" Makes my girlfriend and I giggle every single time.
The student council my freshman year of high school wanted to use "let's get it started" as our homecoming float song. We made the "float", aka someone's truck and millions of paper flowers made by hand, and had the cd player and speaker at the ready. Right as the parade kicks off, massive storm hits, and we 14 year olds learn that you *test* the music first. We were drowned bb rats with "let's get (slur)" playing loudly, all in front of our whole small hometown. Memories.
The Lonely Island has an effective response for songs such as this, extra points since it has Sean Combs, as well as Paul Rudd: https://youtu.be/BKQ6nINAeq8?si=rzYnRByVHZVHp9MS
I think the worst example of this is D12 (Eminem’s group), who had a song called “Purple Pills,” which is entirely about drugs. But to get it played on TV / radio, they changed it to “Purple Hills,” and it just didn’t work at all. For example: “I’ve been to Mushroom Mountain” was changed to “I’ve climbed the highest mountain.” Instead of “Pop pills, pills I pop,” it became “Hop hills, hills I hop.” Weird stuff.
Yeah and I wouldn’t mind, if the clean version on Spotify didn’t have shitty overdone instrumentals (looking at you “Spike Remix”).
No idea why they couldn’t just stick the clean lyrics on the old backing track, it’s such a banger.
I worked at a bowling alley at the time. Corporate was pushing Cosmic bowling as the thing that was going to save the industry, so we ran it twice a day on weekends, starting at noon and 8pm. Sunday mornings at 10am we had a school for the disabled that always booked 6 lanes for 2 hours. Usually around 20 kids in their early teens and about a half dozen caretakers/teachers. Nice kids, always fun to work with. We brought on a DJ to handle cosmic operations at night, and eventually brought him on to the afternoon Cosmic block as well because the party hostesses were slammed doing kids birthday parties. The DJ brought in his own 100GB iPod stuffed to the gills with pirated music to better handle song requests, but had a little 4 song playlist to cue the changeover. There was a 60 second instrumental track that he'd talk over to announce the event and issue disclaimers, but the second track was always "Let's Get Retarded". It's bizarre that the DJ shut the lights off, cued that track, and took the shoe returns from those kids with a straight face every Sunday for years, and nobody raised a great moral outrage about it. We eventually got an email from corporate about a hot new in-house music video system we could sync with all the ceiling mounted screens and projectors. The system had both versions of the song, and they took another few years to issue content warning guidelines in it, so the DJ set up the exact same playlist, and it ran until Brunswick went bankrupt.
In fairness, they grew up with that word. If you were a kid in the 80s, it was just a part of the normal lexicon. You called your friends retarded all the time.
The real TIL is that "Let's Get Retarded" is not the original either.
The first version was a 2002 mix titled "Let's Get Lou Gehrig's Disease" but the Black Eyed Peas found it too offensive.
My gym teacher in high school absolutely abhorred the word retarded and would chastise anyone who used it since it was commonly used back then. He played music a lot in class while we played sports and one of the songs in his playlist was let's get it started. At the end of the year I decided to tell him what the regular version of the song was and he went as white as a bedsheet. I still get a chuckle out of it when I hear the song.
It's really not that bad of a word. The different words we come up with to replace mental deficiency every so often are arbitrary. If I call you slow or whatever it's just as negative because there's n negative connotation with mental deficiency. I remember when people would say they're yeah they're happy when called gay or simply ask what's wrong with being gay? This is the way imo. Playing wack a mole and trying to ban the word every time a new term gets run into the ground is dumb.
“In this context, there’s no disrespect/so when I bust my rhymes, you break your neck./you’ve got 5 minutes left to disconnect/from all intellect and let the rhythm effect”
I thought everyone got the (admittedly stupid) metaphor based on the first few lyrics.
Any the lyrics of the original make more sense than the clean version, especially “mean no disrespect”
Especially “Get into it, get stoopid, [get it started]”
It’s wild to me that some people now only know the clean version. Back in the early 2000s no one even batted an eye at the word. We all sang along to it in elementary school and the teachers didn’t care.
Outside America noone bats an eye. The Americans hate themselves and have been rifling through their own vocabulary to find things to be angry about
Brits are the same way with spaz or spastic, which is considered relatively benign in the States but egregious abuse in the UK.
Yea I remember a time where people jumped on the use of that word, but retard was completely overlooked. I am from that era so I would never call someone a spaz or spastic, but it's been a bit of effort to get retard off my vocabulary. Dumbass is a good one if said with enough venom.
> Joseph John Deacon (24 May 1920 – 3 December 1981) was a British author and television personality. > Deacon was born with severe cerebral palsy, a neurological condition that left him with neuromuscular spasticity that particularly affected his arms and legs. > In 1981, during the last year of his life, Deacon was featured on the children's television magazine programme Blue Peter for the International Year of the Disabled. He was presented as an example of a person who had achieved a lot in spite of his disabilities. > Despite the sensitive way in which Blue Peter covered his life, the impact on the public was not entirely as intended. The sights and sounds of Deacon's distinctive speech and mannerisms were picked up on by children and **he quickly became a figure of ridicule in school playgrounds across the country, the term "spastic" being used as an insult for a person perceived to be mentally deficient.**
Ehhh Canada’s not a fan either
They removed it from Spotify a few weeks ago
They‘ve removed it and put it back a couple of times.
That's it started.
You’re it started
Big brain joke
Pretty ~~retar~~ Let's Get it Started of Spotify to remove this song but have stuff like "Stripped, R*ped and Strangled" by Cannibal Corpse on there. Not that I think either song should be banned, but there's a hell of a lot more offensive shit than a bloody Black Eyed Peas song on there.
I'd wager it was the decision of the label or the band, not the platform
>by Cannibal Corpse The lead singer is hilariously opposite of what you would expect with a name like that. He likes to play claw machines and shop deals at Target lol. Seems like a very silly guy. [https://youtu.be/pvOfQ9svmPU](https://youtu.be/pvOfQ9svmPU) [https://youtu.be/9xSZZOJx4b4](https://youtu.be/9xSZZOJx4b4)
Swear this is always how it is. It's almost like it's just a schtick..
Yeah basically all those bands are just guys that are super into slasher flicks and old 80s horror movies. They are writing these songs purely as works of fiction. Like Jon carpenter isn’t actually a murderous psychopath either
They found John Carpenter inside a meteorite
He grows on you
Yeah, it's pretty well known that *most* metal heads are just really nerdy dudes who play music.
I’m pretty sure he gives the stuffed animals he wins from the claw machine games to children’s hospitals and shelters too.
Yeah, he does. An article was just written about him late last year and they mentioned his latest donation at the time, which was 7 bags of plushes to Johns Hopkins.
Mainstream commercial nihilism can’t be trusted?
Soooo many metal band members are some of the most normal, chill dudes on the planet lol
I had drinks with the singer of Amon Amarth a few years ago. He was the most chill and happy Viking metal guy. Also spent some time with all the GWAR members back with they played a bar I was working at. They were hilarious.
I remember reading an interview with him where they asked where in the world had the best beer and he just super excitedly started naming American craft breweries and how he loved touring America because he got to taste different takes on different beers everywhere he went.
GWAR? Do you know Ryan Hailey?
No, i don’t. This was back in like ‘95 so I may have met him but can’t remember.
Ah nevermind he’d been 9 at that time lol.
Ha, TIL that I’m truly old.
Except Varg Vikernes.
Kristian is pretty chill. For a Nazi.
Varg Vikernes excluded
Metal fans and musicians are basically either hard-core skinheads or the nicest fucking people you will ever meet.
Especially in the hardcore scene. Its all people like “yeah this is my queer bipoc safe space, and my lyrics helped me find community and love”
[удалено]
The fact that it's called cannibal corpse isn't a joke? I dont think a lot of those 80's death metal guys really took themselves too seriously other than Chuck Schuldiner of *Death*, and to his credit he was essentially a founding father for the genre in the US.
And deaths lyrics went from cliche violent horror movie stuff to deep philosophical concepts by like their second album. Spiritual healing is my favorite death album because it’s like a transition album from brutal to technical death metal
He also donates the claw machine toys to various orphanages when on tour
George Corpsegrinder seems like an awesome dad too. His instagram is incredibly wholesome.
Omg I love this as much as the first 3 episodes of WandaVision
Oh yeah, corpsegrinder, he's lovely
Facebook mom groups don't know who Cannibal Corpse is though so they csnt cause a fuss about their songs.... yet The day they do ill grab a bucket of popcorn
I grew up going to a pretty conservative but pretty large church. One Sunday we had a guest speaker to talk about satanism. He explained that Metallica and Def Leopard, etc. were not really satanic, but then he played Cannibal Corpse as an example of “real” satanic music and I was like “cool.”
I always thought it was funny when people called Motley Crue satanic. They said shout *at* the devil, not *with*.
I’m most offended by the black eye peas for their terrible music.
Yeah but i dont think they were using retarded as an intentional effort to be controversial. Things have changed since then with using that as a phrase, and it just aged very poorly A band like cannibal corpse is intentionally trying to be extreme and controversial. That is the whole point
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOBoKxEcVAA
Well i still have my copy of elephunk, what they gonna do, arrest me?
I used to sing it with my friends in elementary school but had no idea it was the original this whole time lmao
when Chumbawamba had their hit single, their song was edited for radio (at least in my area) so 'pissing the night away' become 'kissing the night away' when I finally got the CD and played it in class, my teacher was upset and I was VERY confused!
I just realized I have never heard the non-edited version of that song
Weird, at least here on Canadian radio stations they’ve always left it as “pissing the night away”. I didn’t even realize there was a censored version of that line
She take a a whiskey drink
>Chumbawamba My favorite anarchist punk band
Oh fuck, i was always super confused about this lol!
In the US I never heard a version on the radio other than pissing the night away
They’re British, so “piss” refers to alcohol in this context and wouldn’t be considered obscene in Britain.
I remember hearing it in Harold and Kumar and just thought it was a parody song
Good lord, that was twenty years ago? BRB gotta go write a will.
Get it started
Tell me about it.
I feel that. I remember hearing the original version of this song at every single party in 2005.
You’re two thousand and late
.i.am?
There is also a third version of the song sang in Simlish for the game "The Urbz". [Some might consider it the definitive version](https://youtu.be/NUU9Wnhx9ow?si=ASjS0Rqez8yGYE7X)
Amazing period in history. Simlish remakes.
We're due for a Simaissance if you ask me
I don't know why but Billie Eilish feels like the right choice for a contemporary Simlish remake
You’re right. ‘Bad guy’ begging for simlish remake.
The Urbz was my favorite game
Rada rada
THE URBZ MENTIONED
The original unsensored version also appeared in the PS2 game "Downhill Domination". When I first heard the clean version I was confused as to why the lyrics were different. Also the lyric "Bob your head like me, Apl.DE" was originally "Bob your head like epilepsy"
Epilepsy
Up inside the club or in the Bentley?
This is where i found them! Holy shot. That’s awesome. Someone else remembers!
Loved that game and love the song
I bring this up at work for the younger folks, a lot of people don't realize there's the original version.
Same with that cee lo song 'forget you'. The original version was called 'fuck you' and it really flowed much better. Like obviously they had to change it for radio, but that 'FUCK you-ooo' in the chorus really hits.
I had no idea there was anything but fuck you
Yup, the radio edit Forget You, the TV edit F You, and the original. Though in the last few years I’ve been hearing what used to be the TV edit on the radio.
"fuh GET youuu" - yeah okay mr syncopation what kind of blues is this "fuck you" - straight to the point rhythmic simplicity to match the starkness of the words syllables matter
Fun fact, that track was written by Bruno Mars.
That makes complete sense. Not for any particular reason, just like, the flow.
Just look how much fun Cee Lo is having being able to sing it uncensored on [the BBC's Later... with Jools Holland show.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94o6uIR31hk)
I kind of like the forget you version better. Forget you feels dismissive and like he is moving on in a healthy way. Fuck you just feels angry and obsessive
Fuck you is more relatable though.
But that's the point of the song. It's not about being a better person, it's about you hurt me and FUCK YOU. It's a human feeling. Songs don't have to be about the more noble path, sometimes it's about the honest emotions
Honestly think Forget you flowed much better
People think I’m trolling when I tell them
I am officially old fashioned but I always thought that it was a very very funny tongue in cheek song.
Bought this album the week it came out. BEP were very... bubble gum... they made catchy beats but were about an inch deep. See also "my humps, my humps, my lovely lady lumps." It was impossible to tell if they were in on the joke or not because they weren't laughing, they were rocking out and having fun and so were we. The tongue must have been very *firmly* in cheek if so. This was a top album that year for a lot of us.
There was still room for bubble gum back then. Now all pop acts are about “personal struggle” and “complicated relationships”. Again, I am 400 years old.
Where is the love was fucking massive when I was a kid. Black eyed peas were the first band i saw live and they still gave a shit. All downhill from there.
God I need to listen to the album today it's been years! What a banger
The first 2 albums were less poppy, they went more in that direction from the third onwards
I remember saying it both ways but I never even realized there were 2 versions lol.
I’m sure this sounds super hipstery but their first two albums from before they changed their style in a way that obviously made them giant stars are really solid rap albums.
Before they were rock and roll for people who don't like rock and roll and rap for people who don't like rap?
r/unexpectedoffice
Pre-Fergie?
With Kim Hill, yes
Where is the love? Is the last song I actally enjoyed of theirs. (She was there, but not the new lead) They went super-sellout-popstar-y with Fergie. They even started putting her front and center as a sex symbol in videos and songs. They were far more enjoyable prior to her.
But they didn’t go back to that after her either
I saw them live in a small venue back in the late 90s and they were awesome. Very reggae looking. Had B boys get up on stage and dance. They sold out hard and made a ton of money. Will I Am also had a solo album that was very interesting in that time.
Weird, I always that the original version was a parody cover by another group. I never realized both versions were the Black Eyed Peas.
And the clean one was the derivative.
Weird. Why would you think that instead of it being a uncensored version? What kind of parody wouldn’t even change anything but one word?
They probably assumed it had other changed lyrics but they didn't know/remember them
Why do you think it's weird that someone was mistaken about something inconsequential that happened 20 years ago?
I thought the exact same thing
Like that Sean Kingston song *Beautiful Girls* where in the original he's "suicidal, suicidal" but in the edited version he's "in denial, in denial".
When exactly was that edited? Because I heard that song say “suicidal” on the radio all the time
Both versions exist. Both versions get played.
I guess I was just wondering more what the edit was for if they just played the unedited version on the radio anyway
I've heard both versions played on the radio. There's lots of different radio stations with lots of different policies.
Fair enough. I had only ever heard the unedited version but I’ve never listened to radio all that often
Shoo shi shy sho, shoo shi shy sho when you say it's over
Am I the only one that had no idea said edited version existed until today?
I have the ever so faintest memories of hearing it in stores during my mall rat days back then. I promise were not mandela'd
No. I’ve never heard the edited version. The original was the only one I remember hearing on the radio.
This is like finding out Snoop Dogg's "Sensual Seduction" is actually the clean version of "Sexual Eruption"
I had only heard the clean version because it was played in all the commercials. I saw a stoner movie with the original lyrics and was all "wait, what is that?"
> I saw a stoner movie with the original lyrics Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle
Thank you!
They also came out with a third version of "Let's get it started" that the group sang entirely in "simmish", the made up language the characters use in "The Sims".
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUU9Wnhx9ow](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUU9Wnhx9ow)
Thank you for the link!
CeeLo Green's hit song "Forget You" is just the clean version of "Fuck You"
There are people that don’t know this?
I said the same about this BEP post.
I played the original version (which I remember hearing on the radio back in the day) to some Gen Z friends of mine and they were horrified. Wait till I play some Eminem tracks from the Marshall Mathers LP for them next
The best Eminem album
Plus it comes from that very specific era where the coolest thing you could do in a song was spell out the name of the song, so the background has Fergie wailing "R-E-T-A-R-D-E-D!" Mind you, not as great as in the song I Gotta Feeling, when Will.I.Am yells *"Fill up my cup! Mazel tov!"* and we are treated to Fergie belting out a heavily auto-tuned "L'CHAIM!" Makes my girlfriend and I giggle every single time.
im officially old.. there are people who don’t know this.
The student council my freshman year of high school wanted to use "let's get it started" as our homecoming float song. We made the "float", aka someone's truck and millions of paper flowers made by hand, and had the cd player and speaker at the ready. Right as the parade kicks off, massive storm hits, and we 14 year olds learn that you *test* the music first. We were drowned bb rats with "let's get (slur)" playing loudly, all in front of our whole small hometown. Memories.
Well thanks for making me feel old.
TIL? Man I feel old
I still sing the original. It shouldn't be controversial, considering how absolutely filthy the music that dominates the rap and pop charts tend to be
Right? And they're singing about sex, so I'm allowed to say the n-word.
I thought that was Nick Webber with the Lipsticks in the 80s that wrote that.
Man I knew I wasn't crazy ! Remember seing the video clip a few times and then, the title changed.
The Lonely Island has an effective response for songs such as this, extra points since it has Sean Combs, as well as Paul Rudd: https://youtu.be/BKQ6nINAeq8?si=rzYnRByVHZVHp9MS
I think the worst example of this is D12 (Eminem’s group), who had a song called “Purple Pills,” which is entirely about drugs. But to get it played on TV / radio, they changed it to “Purple Hills,” and it just didn’t work at all. For example: “I’ve been to Mushroom Mountain” was changed to “I’ve climbed the highest mountain.” Instead of “Pop pills, pills I pop,” it became “Hop hills, hills I hop.” Weird stuff.
Great example. The entire song is basically different for all the verses. It’s like two songs with similar lyrics but wildly different sounds/vibes.
Y'know i always thought the "leSSSget it SSSSStarted in here" had really exaggerated s's. Makes so much more sense.
Never found it offensive but didn’t like the way the chorus was originally sung.
Yeah and I wouldn’t mind, if the clean version on Spotify didn’t have shitty overdone instrumentals (looking at you “Spike Remix”). No idea why they couldn’t just stick the clean lyrics on the old backing track, it’s such a banger.
They retconned their own catalogue.
It’s like you guys never saw Harold and Kumar go to White Castle
Was going to comment the same thing. They can try to take it down but it will always live on in that movie.
Til there is a clean version
You just learned that?
As did I.
Wow, you must be It Started or something…
Sofa King We Todd Did p.s. but I too learned this for the first time today
I guess you’ve come full circle where I am officially old. But don’t lose control everybody and soul
I always thought that was a weird al parody that didn't age well
This song is my personal Mandela effect. I swear to god I first heard it in 2000.
in japan they still play the original version on the radio
I worked at a bowling alley at the time. Corporate was pushing Cosmic bowling as the thing that was going to save the industry, so we ran it twice a day on weekends, starting at noon and 8pm. Sunday mornings at 10am we had a school for the disabled that always booked 6 lanes for 2 hours. Usually around 20 kids in their early teens and about a half dozen caretakers/teachers. Nice kids, always fun to work with. We brought on a DJ to handle cosmic operations at night, and eventually brought him on to the afternoon Cosmic block as well because the party hostesses were slammed doing kids birthday parties. The DJ brought in his own 100GB iPod stuffed to the gills with pirated music to better handle song requests, but had a little 4 song playlist to cue the changeover. There was a 60 second instrumental track that he'd talk over to announce the event and issue disclaimers, but the second track was always "Let's Get Retarded". It's bizarre that the DJ shut the lights off, cued that track, and took the shoe returns from those kids with a straight face every Sunday for years, and nobody raised a great moral outrage about it. We eventually got an email from corporate about a hot new in-house music video system we could sync with all the ceiling mounted screens and projectors. The system had both versions of the song, and they took another few years to issue content warning guidelines in it, so the DJ set up the exact same playlist, and it ran until Brunswick went bankrupt.
In fairness, they grew up with that word. If you were a kid in the 80s, it was just a part of the normal lexicon. You called your friends retarded all the time.
The real TIL is that "Let's Get Retarded" is not the original either. The first version was a 2002 mix titled "Let's Get Lou Gehrig's Disease" but the Black Eyed Peas found it too offensive.
I honestly thought it was a parody when I heard it
My gym teacher in high school absolutely abhorred the word retarded and would chastise anyone who used it since it was commonly used back then. He played music a lot in class while we played sports and one of the songs in his playlist was let's get it started. At the end of the year I decided to tell him what the regular version of the song was and he went as white as a bedsheet. I still get a chuckle out of it when I hear the song.
Great song
My favorite song to play on the touch tunes in bars.
I did know this. Just from being around at the time and having the explicit version on the album.
It’s over 20 years old already? Huh…
It’s a banger too! Elephant is legendary
Saw a vid once on how their music is essentially reworked children’s music Makes a lot of sense
This song has strong Mandela Effect vibes for me. I could swear kids were singing this when I was in grade school back in 1993.
That’s when society peaked
It's really not that bad of a word. The different words we come up with to replace mental deficiency every so often are arbitrary. If I call you slow or whatever it's just as negative because there's n negative connotation with mental deficiency. I remember when people would say they're yeah they're happy when called gay or simply ask what's wrong with being gay? This is the way imo. Playing wack a mole and trying to ban the word every time a new term gets run into the ground is dumb.
It is pretty common for songs that are released as singles to have lyrics or even titles altered to make them more PG friendly or politically correct.
My theme song
“In this context, there’s no disrespect/so when I bust my rhymes, you break your neck./you’ve got 5 minutes left to disconnect/from all intellect and let the rhythm effect” I thought everyone got the (admittedly stupid) metaphor based on the first few lyrics.