The following video seems to be gaining a lot of traction on the intertubes at the moment, as it apparently demonstrates what it’s like for non-English speakers to listen to songs in English.

The song is pure gibberish, was the brainchild of Italian singer Adriano Celentano and was recorded in 1972. It’s actually very entertaining, in a bizarre kind of way, and for some reason I love it when Celentano makes the “OK” sign. From now on, this is definitely the way I’m going to indicate that everything is okey-dokey with the world.

The Voodoo Logic:

But wait, is this really all that much different to the experience of an English speaker listening to a song in German? Check out, for example, Nena’s 99 Luftballons below, from 1984. If you replaced the lyrics with gibberish German, would you expect German intertubers to be sitting in their living rooms going, “Das seltsame ist, klingt es fast, aber nicht ganz wie die deutschen!” [1]

Oh, and bonus Voodoo Logic points awarded for the title in the video above — “What English Sounds Like To Foreigners” — because of course, if you don’t speak English, you’re the foreigner, baby.