It's a big day for fans of movies about giant tornados filled with sharks and the hilarious riffers who mock them as Rifftrax releases their special live-riffing of Sharknado through their video on demand service at Rifftrax.com . While you've undoubtably heard of the SyFy Original Movie from its ubiquity on social media and subsequent Oscar snubbing, we at the Weekly agree the optimal way to experience the film is through seeing Mystery Science Theater 3000 alumni Michael J. Nelson, Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett crack wise at the film in front of a capacity crowd.
To get you in the mood for the finest movie riffing this side of regenerating teeth, we're presenting our Sharknado Playlist, a few songs to get you in the proper mood for seeing a film about a natural disaster with regenerating teeth.
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Quint – “The Ballad of Sharknado”
When Sharknado first aired on television, a lot of viewers seemed to find it funny. This is probably because the movie itself is a series of absurd trump cards. Every frame inspires a moment of surrealist panic, going right through the credits. When Quint's “The Ballad of Sharknado” started at the film's conclusion, viewers captured the moment on their phones and uploaded it to the internet with some expression comparable to “OMG this is a real song LOL!” Here's Quint's credits closer “The Ballad of Sharknado” in full.
Roc Marciano – “Jaws”
The original John Williams score from Spielberg's Jaws (which we consider the best film in the Jaws franchise) has become one of pop culture's most instantly recognizable musical cues. While it's been references and sampled numerous times, one of our recent favorites was this 2011 Roc Marciano cut, simply titled “Jaws.” The New York traditionalist MC eviscerates the clever flip of the sample on this non-album cut as only he can.
Jimmy Buffet – “Fins”
There's a funny Jimmy Buffet reference in the Rifftrax version of Sharknado and, while we're not going to spoil it here, we can confirm it has nothing to do with Buffet's crowd-pleaser “Fins.” A fan-favorite often read as a tale of a girl at a bar with numerous men attempting to take advantage of her using sharks as a metaphor, we suggest listening to the song as Buffet's surrealist nightmare of a dystopian beach bar where a victim is at the mercy of several suddenly bi-pedal sharks who've come to this establishment in attempts to woo her.
LL Cool J – “Deepest Bluest”
We put LL Cool J's “Deepest Bluest” on this playlist because, frankly, we put it on every single playlist we make without exception, only here it's surprisingly fitting. For the uninitiated, LL Cool J recorded a song for his hit 1999 sci-fi action film Deep Blue Sea entirely from the perspective of the film's genetically engineered shark. We're not kidding. The creation of the elaborate music video was then the feature of an episode of MTV's Making the Video. One of Cool J's weirdest moments, it's a fine reminder to be considerate of shark's feelings as well as what article of clothing are comparable to shark's fins.
The Rifftones – “When A Man Loves A Shark”
Wrapping things up, we have a song from the Riffers themselves. While longtime MST3K fans have a fondness for the times puppeteer Kevin Murphy would contribute his smooth voice to robot Tom Servo's croons, Murphy's also sung a few original numbers all his own. “When A Man Loves A Shark” played in theaters before and after the Rifftrax Sharknado presentation, and if it doesn't rank up there with your all time favorite shark ballads, you really need to reexamine your own qualifications to rank shark songs.
See also:
The 50 Best Things About the OC Music Scene
The 50 Worst Things About the OC Music Scene
The 25 Greatest OC Bands of All Time: The Complete List
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