Soundtrack- making your iPod funny

If you happen to be in L.A., it's worth a trip to the Hollywood Hills region not just to see the Walk of Fame or Grauman's Chinese Theater but also Upright Citizen's Brigade who've had their West Coast outlet there since 2005. On Friday nights at 10PM (West Coast time of course), a troop called Soundtrack performs there. As part of their act, they ask that you bring your iPod and CD's (for you oldsters) which they literally play off of.

For the show I saw tonight, they plucked out a member of the audience to find out their favorite music act, which happened to be Bjork. They worked the Icelandic diva into a bunch of sketches along with songs from other peoples' iPods. Thus, Stealers Wheel's "Stuck in the Middle With You" became a scene where a grieving son pitched a giant house-sized tent in the year in honor of his late dad, Fugee's "Killing Me Softly" became a scene for a confessional about anal intercourse, R.E.M.'s "Losing My Religion" turned into a mountain hike gone wrong where a group of friends weight the pro's and con's of cannibalism. And Bjork was to be wed, arriving through a veil of smoke on a giant crane (or maybe not existing at all). Elsewhere, they shot planets out of the sky, hosted an insane foreign exchange student, hunted down a spy and performed other leisurely activities.

All of which the group pulled out of their heads on the spot as the songs came on. Even when they didn't necessarily recontextualize the tunes, they still made you laugh over 'em and good entertainment is what comedy or music should be about, right?