Who Let the Dogs Out

''Todd plays "Who Let the Dogs Out" on the piano

BAHA MEN - WHO LET THE DOGS OUT A pop song review

Todd: [well...] You wanted it.


 * Video for "Who Let the Dogs Out"
 * Rik Carey: Who let the dogs out
 * Baha Men: Who, who, who, who
 * Who let the dogs out
 * Who, who, who, who

Todd (VO): The one-hit wonder is often associated with outright garbage and stupid novelty songs that everyone hates.

Todd: And it's hard to think of a song in recent memory that more fully matches that description than "Who Let the Dogs Out".

Todd (VO): This song was the first real big hit worldwide smash of the 2000s—a decade which,...

Todd: ...in retrospect, was pretty damn terrible, let's admit it.

Todd (VO): Now this song was inescapable, or at least that's what I'm told. I...I don't actually remember ever hearing it. I mean, I remember people complaining about it incessantly, I remember everyone hating it and making jokes about how much they hated it. Somewhere along the line, "Who Let the Dogs Out" and the band that recorded it, the Baha Men, became our new gold standard of bad music.


 * Album cover of CunninLynguists - SouthernUnderground, with "Nasty Filthy" playing
 * DJ: ...just to pour Listerine on your wounds, we're gonna play three full hours of the Baha Men
 * "Baha Men": Monkey, monkey
 * Monkey, monkey
 * Monkey, monkey

Todd: But is it really that bad, when you get right down to it?


 * Baha Men: Who let the dogs out
 * Who, who, who, who

Todd (VO): Now surely, out of all the bands that I have to cover, the band that produced "Who Let the Dogs Out" can't be considered anything but a bunch of gibbering idiots, right? Well, as someone who...

Todd: ...honestly has never really had anything against "Who Let the Dogs Out"...

Todd (VO): ...I vow to go into this with an open mind. After all, no group becomes that famous, even famous for being bad, without something to recommend it.

Todd: So let's check out who these Baha Men really were, and once and for all, let's discover...[moving closer in with each word] who... let... the dogs out. Strap in.

Before the hit

Transcript in progress