I knew I could depend on the Sludemeister! Very funny, and well performed. I’ll second the Adult Lyric warning though.
Well…I thought so too at first, but if you look at her other music, I’m not so sure. Given the fact that she did that one with TBEP’s, it still could be. But she’s so full of herself, it wouldn’t surprise me if she wrote it not to be critical at all, but to call attention to what she feels are her best attributes 
This is my position as well. But, being a pragmatist, I must point
out that Fergie does not write her music. “My Humps” was written
by will.i.am, front man of the Peas, and he continues to write and
produce Fergie’s solo work.
Once I heard “London Bridge”, I lost any illusions that “My Humps”
could have been satirical.
hmmm… not very often you see a post from jim that’s so off the mark.
Genocidal pursuit of world domination as performance art? Kind of an abnormal mind to see it that way.
Steve Allan did this kind of parody on several occasions. The humor is found not in the quality of the song being parodied, but in the ridiculous presentation of the lyrics out of context with the music.
Also, African music? Yes the members of the Silhouettes were/are black but this was American pop music, not African.
Nevermind. Comment no longer relevent.
Forget all that. Jesse Jackson’s reading on SNL of Green Eggs and Ham was priceless.
As for TBEP, face it..the group IS will.I.am. Everybody else is simply a prop. Fergie is simply eye-candy ho with an OK voice. Her Dutchess album makes cry real tears of blood from my ears.
From the bottom up:
Sure this was American pop music sung by African-Americans
but the roots were in
Africa. Listening to music from Africa, especially sung by groups,
it often sounds
like this and is good for the same reason. Adding
the tune helps.
We agree that Allan was parodying the song. Whether or not
it was his intention, he was, in fact, holding the song up
to ridicule by treating it in a nonsensical manner. I saw
this on TV. That’s what parody does.
Knowing Allan, who was an extroardinarily gifted and
erudite fellow,
I don’t think he would have done this if he had
understood more about the music. Such were
the 50s. Again the point was that one doesn’t do this
to something that’s really no good–parody is, even
if inadvertently, a form of praise.
No, genocidal pursuit of world domination isn’t performance
art, we agree. Hitler’s performance art consisted of
brilliantly orchestrated public speeches and demonstrations
before large groups of people,
often photographed wonderfully as in the film
Triumph of the Will. Indeed, the speech before
the vast audience was staged for the sake of
making the movie. Hitler was, recall,
a skillful artist and he often put it to good use,
e.g. he took the Indian Swastika, reversed it,
put it slightly off kilter so that it appeared to
be moving, and placed it in a white circle
on a red background. It’s artistically superb.
Hitler had a keen aesthetic sense
and often put it to use in public performances
meant to express political power. Viewed
as performance art, which is, in fact, an important
dimension of what was going on, it was
brilliant–if somewhat over the top. Hence
the parodies.
Parody often focuses on art too good to be ignored
that nonetheless seems to go ‘too far’ in some direction. The parody
tends to accentuate
what goes too far. The truly
abysmal doesn’t get parodied because it
doesn’t get noticed.
Agreed. Weird Al Yankovic would be an unknown if he chose
to parody Tito Jackson rather than Michael Jackson.
I don’t think this is entirely true. Fergie brought the Peas into
the mainstream. I suppose this could have been the case with a
different singer, but there is a reason will.i.am has hitched so
tightly to her solo career. He’s riding her star as much as she’s
riding his talent.
What made the blood come out of my ears was when Fergie
provided the shrill voice of Sally Brown in the more recent
“Peanuts” TV specials. Gaaaaah! “Get me Some Earplugs,
Charlie Brown!”
Interesting point about BEPs. Morrisette did much the same. Her first album was a total flop. On her second, Jagged Little Pill, she had a boyfriend who did all her arranging and production. That’s where all her hits came from and her fame, as well. She dumped the boyfriend and has done very little to match that second album worth listening to. Where will Fergie be if she strikes out on her own? Maybe she has watched Alannis and will avoid the same mistake.
djm
Thank you all for such a wonderful conversation. I’ve really enjoyed reading this thread (with all the different undercurrents of conversation) so far. 
I entirely agree that she brought them into the mainstream. I’ll also posit that they haven’t been nearly as good since they added her. They were definately a better band talent-wise and originality-wise before they added the fluff.
Is he the gentleman she refers to in “Hands Clean”?
OTOH,I don’t listen to a lot of pop music, so there may well have been a song called "My Blls" or some such…
The Austrailian band AC/DC had a song called “Big Balls” on their 1976 album “Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap”. It still gets airplay on classic rock stations…