The Bad Touch

"The Bad Touch"
Single by Bloodhound Gang
from the album Hooray for Boobies
Released	May 31, 1999
Format	Sticks & Stones, 12"
Recorded	1999
Genre	Electronic rock, alternative hip hop Synthpop new wave
Length	4:02
Label	Jimmy Franks Recording Company Geffen Records
Writer(s)	Jimmy Pop
Producer	Jimmy Pop
Certification	Silver (BPI)
Bloodhound Gang singles chronology
"Along Comes Mary" (1997) "The Bad Touch" (1999) "The Ballad of Chasey Lain" (2000)

"The Bad Touch" is the first single by the Bloodhound Gang of their 1999 album Hooray for Boobies. It was released in 1999 internationally and, a year later, in the US and UK. The song was also remixed by God Lives Underwater and Eiffel 65. Like much of the Bloodhound Gang's other music, the song contains a wide variety of sexual colloquialisms. The sleeve for the single features a photo of two zebras in copula.

Music video

The song's video, shot during the summer of 1999, features the band dressed in "MonkeyRat" costumes with oversized ears, in various locations in Paris (including the Place de l'Estrapade, Avenue de Saxe, and Champ de Mars), and the Eiffel Tower is visible in many shots. During the video, the band uses blowguns to shoot tranquilizer darts into the buttocks of four passing young women dressed in black with short skirts and stockings, then carrying them away. They then use a fishing rod to dangle a croissant in front of a group of French chefs, enticing them to follow. The band members dance around for a few seconds and then lure three chefs into following them. The band members swallow several mealworms, before finding two stereotypically effeminate gay men in a café, who are then beaten over the head with baguettes and knocked unconscious. A dwarf mime artist is captured in a net and then thrown into a cage with the four women, three chefs and the gay couple in a clear parody of animal collectors capturing frightened specimens. The band leap around the cage taunting their captives. As the song draws to an end, the prisoners are released and all dance together in formation in the street. The mime artist escapes and is run over by a speeding Renault 5 car driven by Lüpüs Thünder.

The uncensored version of the video shows the band playing with and eating a brown semi-liquid food, with the implication that it is feces, and a beginning which features them feigning sex in a doggystyle position rather than dancing as in the clean version. The violent capture of the gay couple is also missing from some versions.

The video reached #11 on MuchMusic's 50 Most Controversial Videos for references to zoophilia, sexual lyrics, insulting French people, gay people and chefs.

Critical reception

Most recently, on September 11, 2010, Matthew Wilkening of AOL Radio ranked "The Bad Touch" at #49 on the list of the 100 Worst Songs Ever, stating that the song was "very juvenile", but that the lyric, "You and me, baby, ain't nothin' but mammals, / So let's do it like they do on the Discovery Channel," was "pretty clever."^[1]

Track listings

Promo Single

• 1 The Bad Touch 4:20

Canada Promo

• 1 The Bad Touch [Radio Version] 3:37
• 2 The Bad Touch (Eiffel 65 Remix) 3:34

Europe Promo

• 1 The Bad Touch [Radio Version] 3:37

Europe Single

• 1 The Bad Touch [Album Version] 4:19
• 2 The Bad Touch [Eiffel 65 Remix]3:33
• 3 Along Comes Mary [BHG Mix] 3:23

Europe Single

• 1 The Bad Touch [LP] 4:23
• 2 Along Comes Mary [The Bloodhound Gang Mix] 3:20

Australia & Europe Maxi-CD

• 1 The Bad Touch [LP]
• 2 The Bad Touch [The God Lives Underwater Mix]
• 3 The Bad Touch [The K.M.F.D.M. Mix]
• 4 Along Comes Mary [The Bloodhound Gang Mix]
• Video Kiss Me Where It Smells Funny (Video)

Europe Maxi-CD

• 1 The Bad Touch [The Bloodhound Gang Mix] 4:20
• 2 The Bad Touch [The Eiffel 65 Mix] 4:28
• 3 The Bad Touch [The Rollergirl Mix] 5:59
• 4 The Bad Touch [The God Lives Underwater Mix] 4:23

UK Promo

• 1 The Bad Touch [The Bloodhound Gang Mix] 4:20
• 2 The Bad Touch [The K.M.F.D.M. Mix] 4:19
• 3 The Bad Touch [The God Lives Underwater Mix] 4:23
• 4 The Bad Touch [The Eiffel 65 Mix] 4:29
• 5 The Bad Touch [The Rollergirl Mix] 6:00
• 6 The Bad Touch [The Eiffel 65 Acapella Mix]

Spain Vinyl 12"

• A1 The Bad Touch [Eiffel 65 Extended Mix] 4:30
• A2 The Bad Touch [12" Rollerblade Remix] 6:02
• B1 The Bad Touch [Eiffel 65 Instrumental] 4:30
• B2 The Bad Touch [Album Version] 4:20

[1]

Charts performances

Chart (1999–2000)	Peak position
Australian Singles Chart	5
Belgian Ultratop 50 Singles (Flanders)	1
Canadian Singles Chart	9
Dutch Mega Top 50	19
German Singles Chart	1
Italian Singles Chart	1
Irish Singles Chart	1
New Zealand Top 40[2]	4
UK Singles Chart	4
US Billboard Hot 100[3]	52
US Billboard Hot Modern Rock Tracks[3]	6

Cultural references

The song contains many cultural references. These include (in order):

• Prince, an American musician
• Siskel and Ebert, a popular movie-review duo
• Two-Hand Touch, a gentler variant of American football
• Waffle House, a Southern and Mid-Western United States restaurant chain
• FedEx
• Coca-Cola
• Daylight Saving Time
• The Discovery Channel
• Small craft advisory, an advisory saying that the seas are too rough for small craft
• Battleship, a popular paper-and-pencil game. The line "You sunk my battleship" is drawn from a memorable television commercial that ran in the 1970s for the commercial version of the game.
• Mr. Coffee
• Tool Time, a show-within-a-show on the sitcom Home Improvement
• Lyle Lovett, an American singer-songwriter
• The X-Files

References

1. ^ Wilkening, Matthew (September 11, 2010). "100 Worst Songs Ever -- Part Three of Five". AOL Radio. http://www.aolradioblog.com/2010/09/11/100-worst-songs-ever-part-three-of-five/. Retrieved December 22, 2010. 
2. ^ http://charts.org.nz/search.asp?search=the+bad+touch&cat=s "Charts.org.nz
3. ^ ^{a b} http://www.billboard.com/song/bloodhound-gang/the-bad-touch/2180000#/song/bloodhound-gang/the-bad-touch/2180000