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I'm Too Sexy
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Date Aired
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September 29, 2017
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Running Time
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17:01
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Website
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Todd plays "I'm Too Sexy" (and a bit of "Look What You Made Me Do") on the piano
RIGHT SAID FRED - I'M TOO SEXY
A one-hit wonder retrospective
Todd: Welcome back to One Hit Wonderland, where we take a look at bands and artists known for only one song. And folks, we're crossing a, big one off the list today.
Video plays for "I'm Too Sexy" while Todd just dances
Fred Fairbrass: I'm too sexy for my shirt,
Too sexy for my shirt...
Todd: I've, resisted covering Right Said Fred on this show for a long time.
Todd (VO): Lately I've been trying to cover more, obscure one-hit wonders; Right Said Fred is, you know...
Todd: ...too obvious.
Todd (VO): This is like, the exact type of thing you hear and go: "yep; that's a one-hit wonder".
Todd: And when you think of one-hit wonders, one of the first people you think of is usually, Right Said Fred.
Fred: On the catwalk
Todd (VO): It's like come on; I don't want this show to be that predictable. And besides I already, basically reviewed this a while back, when I looked at (Video for "Sexy and I Know It" by...) LMFAO's inferior knockoff. Jesus that was a long time ago.
Todd: But I think it's time.
Fred: And I'm too sexy for your body,
Too sexy for your body...
Todd (VO): It's time, to finally get to Right Said Fred. Seeing as they're having their big comeback; having...
Todd: ...co-written the number-one song in the country!
Video for "Look What You Made Me Do" by Taylor Swift
Taylor Swift: Oh, look what you made me do,
Look what you made me do...
Todd (VO): OK, no they didn't really. Taylor Swift just had to give them a writing credit cause, ever since Robin Thicke got sued, everyone's watching their back.
Todd: I don't even really think it's that similar.
Todd (VO): I mean if Taylor Swift has to give them a credit, Right Said Fred might wanna think about suing other songs like, (Video for...) "My Humps",...
Todd: ..."Du Hast".
Mashup of "I'm Too Sexy and "Du Hast" by Rammstein plays
Rammstein: Du. Du hast. Du hast mich.
Todd: It's, it's a really simple beat; it resembles a lot of things.
Fred: ...I'm too sexy for my hat...
Todd (VO): There's just no denying that "I'm Too Sexy" has an outsize place in pop culture for... such a goofy little song. It's, 25 years later and (Image of a t-shirt that says "I'm too sexy for my shirt") we still got that phrase. (Photo of Russian President Vladimir Putin shirtless, with the phrase...) "I'm too sexy for my shirt".
Todd: I-me-I-j...it just gets in there you know? It's not just an ear-worm; it's a mind-worm.
Todd (VO): It's the catchphrase, that defined a generation. These guys; they were just, too sexy. For their shirt. Their car. Their hat, their everything.
Todd: See, they weren't just, very sexy. Or even extremely sexy, they were...
Todd (VO): ....overtly sexy. They were, sexy, beyond acceptable parameters.
Todd: We have a strict, upper limit of sexiness; it tops off around (Photo of...) Jon Cryer, and these guys were well beyond it.
Fred: I shake my tush on the catwalk.
Todd (VO): You couldn't escape it. I know every word of this song.
Todd: And I'm just realising; I've never even listened to it all the way through I'm pretty sure.
Todd (VO): And even still you can just, instantly picture it in your head. There are these two, buff, Mobys, partying with a bunch of hot chicks, proclaiming their shirt ruining sexiness. Who were these guys, what was their deal?
Todd: Why did they hate shirts so much?
Fred: ...too sexy for my hat,
Too sexy for my hat (Bass riff).
Before the hit
Todd (VO): (Images of the band) Okay, the two guys are brothers, Richard and Fred Fairbrass. And there's a third guy, Rob Manzoli, he plays guitar.
Todd: But he's not one of the bald guys, so who cares?
Todd (VO): (Vintage picture of Fred with Bob Dylan) Richard and Fred kicked around with some bands in the '70s. (That's Fred with Bob Dylan!)
(Clip of David Bowie - "Blue Jean")
Todd (VO): Richard was a bass player for like, Boy George and David Bowie.
David Bowie: Jazzin' for Blue Jean! (Richard is shown in the next clip after Bowie)
Todd (VO): See? There he is.
Todd: And they also had their own band on the side, Right Said Fred.
(Image of Bernard Cribbins' single "Right Said Fred")
Todd (VO): It's named after a novelty single by, British actor and, (Image from the second Peter Cushing Dr. Who film "Daleks - Invasion Earth 2150 A.D.") future Doctor Who companion Bernard Cribbins.
(Footage from the "Right Said Fred" animated short film plays)
Todd (VO): It's about three movers who can't move a piece of furniture...
Todd: ...cause it's too heavy!
Bernard Cribbins: Right said Fred, have to take the feet off
To get them feet off wouldn't take a 'mo
Todd: (In bad Cockney accent) Good ol' British comedy!
Bernard Cribbins: So Fred said, "Let's have another cuppa tea"
Todd (VO): I think eh, yeah. This, this tells you quite a bit about the kind of band Right Said Fred turned out to be.
Todd: Think of them as, like, shirtless, 90s, (Image of...) Benny Hills. Anyway they wrote this stupid rock song that Richard came up with while flexing in the mirror, and they got it to a music promoter who convinced them to turn it into a dance track. Let's get to that.
The big hit
Todd: Every so often, there comes along an idea. (Image of a light bulb with the word "idea") Could be any idea, just a phrase that is so goddamn stupid that it can't help but to take the world by storm (Images of...) Pet rocks, (Teenage) Mutant Ninja Turtles, "where's the beef?" (back to Todd) And it's not like it's something you enjoy exactly, it's (clip of people doing the Harlem Shake in costumes) it's just that it's just so perplexingly stupid that you can't stop thinking about it. It becomes like a splinter in your brain. "What's going on here? What's the point of this?" And no one can forget it and suddenly it's a pop culture phenomenon. (back to Todd) Anyway that's my best guess to what happened here.
Richard: I'm too sexy for my love
Too sexy for my love, love's going to leave me
(Todd dances to the opening drum riff)
Richard: I'm too sexy for my shirt
Too sexy for my shirt...
Todd (VO): "I'm Too Sexy" only reached #2 in the UK in 1991. Prevented by Bryan Adams' [clip of...] reign of terror, which affected several continents as it turns out. [back to "I'm Too Sexy"] But "I'm Too Sexy" did go to #1 in [image of Fred Fairbrass' face in front of the Billboard Hot 100] America a year later as well as several other countries. Todd: You have no idea how big "I'm Too Sexy" was if you weren't there in 1992. I was a small child who didn't even really listen to music and I knew it front to back.
[Clip of "Family Matters"]
Steve Urkel: I'm too sexy for my shirt, too sexy for my pants
Too sexy for my shoes
Laura Winslow: Steve...
Steve: I'm too sexy for my cat, too sexy for my bugs...
Todd: Thank you for that, Urkel.
Richard: I'm a model...
Todd (VO): Trying to review it feels kinda pointless, it was barely a song to begin with and at this point, it's a fact of life like gravity or the color of the sky. So it's kinda hard to analyze.
The failed follow-up
Todd:
Did they ever do anything else?
Todd:
Did they deserve better?
Todd: