Ylvis Discuss Comedy, Viral Videos and "The Fox"

Largely recognised as “the next Gangam Style” and the unexpected “song of the summer,” Norwegian comedy artists Vegard and Bård Ylvisåker saw global fame when their hilarious track “The Fox” went viral this week. A playful poke at EDM, the tune kicks off with a slow ballad dedicated to the basics of nature before dropping a heavy rave-appropriate chorus that questions the sound of a fox. The duo, known to the world as Ylvis, sat with billboard to discuss their comedic origins, their take on going viral, and the epic tune and video itself.

So I guess this has been an insane 24 hours? Did you expect this to happen or did you think it would just go around Norway?
Very much so. No we didn’t even think of it. It was for our talk show, starting this Tuesday. It was released to get some attention in Norway. Beyond that we hadn’t even thought about it, it’s really crazy.

Do you have any idea how it happened?
None. What surprised me the most is that even the very earliest comments on YouTube were “This one is going to go viral,” “This is the new Gangam Style.” Everything was about it going viral. Normally, you know we get some hits and we get some comments, but they’re all about the actual contents of the songs. But this was mostly about the phenomenon, which was really strange, even when it was only at 100,000 views.

Where did the idea for the song come from?
I’m trying to remember. The way we work is we just sit and talk about everything and get ideas and take some notes. I guess we must have been talking about what kind of sound the fox makes. And then we had a chance to work with Stargate, a production company in New York City, they’ve produced for Beyonce and Rihanna–they’re Norweigans but based in the U.S.. We actually did a favor for them and we asked them if they could produce a song for us for the next season in exchange. And we assumed that they would turn down the offer because it wasn’t a very good offer for them. But somehow they said yes.

Check out the video for yourself above and head over to billboard to check out the interview in full.