"Friday" is a pop song performed by Rebecca Black, released in February 2011 and going viral shortly thereafter.
The song is about a girl celebrating the fact that it's Friday. And eating cereal. And choosing between the front and back seats of her friends' car when there's only a seat in the back open. And listing the days of the week, before some random guy starts rapping about passing a school bus.
We'd say It Makes Sense in Context, but it doesn't.
Originally the obscure product of a Vanity Studio called ARK Music Factory, the song became viral due to its infectious beat, gratuitous use of Auto-Tune, mind-numbingly bland melody, and amusing lyrics, all ARK Music Factory's own fault. Specific outlets credited with boosting the song's notoriety include Mystery Science Theater 3000, RiffTrax comedian Michael J. Nelson, and the Tosh.0 blog.
The original video was taken down from YouTube in June-July 2011 due to a copyright claim by Black herself. As of September 16 that year (a Friday, appropriately), the video has been restored on Black's official YouTube channel
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Because the song and its video were effectively the product of ARK Music Factory, both are ultimately just brief blips on Black's early career, who would spend the next decade maturing and developing herself as a mostly independent artist. With her name still being attached to "Friday" by 2021, she released a 10-year anniversary remix featuring 3OH!3, Dorian Electra, and Big Freedia, with production by Dylan Brady of 100 gecs. With the remix this time intentionally taking everything obnoxiously poppy about the original track and cranking it up to the max, indebted to a new sonic direction inspired by hyperpop (with all of the featured artists being popular in the genre), the remix gained surprisingly positive reception from fans and critics alike, so it appears like she got the last laugh on the matter.
Not to be confused with "Last Friday Night" by Katy Perry, whose video features Black.
Tropes associated with this song:
- Aborted Arc: Enforced: Rebecca's quest to catch the bus ends around 2 seconds in, when her friends show up in a car. She later said that there wasn't enough money to rent a bus for the video.
- Accent Upon The Wrong Syllable:
- Happens with a few words, in particular "Par-tee-ing"
- "Gotta have my bowl, gotta have cereAL"
- "Tomorrow is Sat-UR-day, and Sunday comes afterWAAAAAARDS"
- Ascended Extra: Benni Cinkle, the girl in pink/friend on the right has a couple of songs out too.
- Captain Obvious: "Tomorrow is Saturday... And Sunday comes after...wards."
- Carload of Cool Kids: The kids are driving down the road in a convertible, complete with passengers sitting on the rear deck, going to a party.
- Conflicting Loyalty: The back seat, or the front seat? Which seat will she take? Which group of friends will she align herself with? She picks the back seat. It is made redundant when you realise that all the front seats are full - the only seat she can actually take is in the back.
- Dancing on a Bus: Rebecca and her unnamed friends dance in the car (not a bus) despite the car moving quickly.
- "Days of the Week" Song: "Yesterday was Thursday, Thursday, to-day it is Friday, Friday [...] Tomorrow is Saturday, and Sunday comes afterwards..."
- The Ditz: Black is portrayed as rather stupid in the video. She forgets about school, takes a long time deciding where to sit in a car, and stands up in the back without a seatbelt despite the obvious risk.
- Epileptic Flashing Lights: Happens near the end at the "rave party".
- Foregone Conclusion: There is only a seat open in the back of her friends' car, so the choice between front and back is easy.
- Gag Dub: Bad Lip Reading did a Gag Dub of "Friday" called "Gang Fight" which made it less about fun and more about gang warfare... and chicken.
- Instant Waking Skills: Rebecca rises at 7am like she never actually went to sleep.
- In the Style of:
- The rap remix.
- And the Bob Dylan cover.
- Similarly, The Doors' version.
- Can't forget the Meat Loaf cover.
- Done by Rebecca herself with the acoustic version, which is basically "Friday" as an inspirational ballad.
- The Midnight Beast did an acoustic cover as well. They did it as a straight cover, but called it a parody anyway, because in Stefan's words, "the lyrics are funny enough."
- This True Art Is Angsty take. It twists the meaning, featuring a lot of Lyrical Dissonance.
- The "In Hell" Cynical Mass Remix.
- This redux, with Stephen Colbert's best Johnny Cash impression, Jimmy Fallon on autotune, and generally soaked in Mundane Made Awesome. Oh, and Taylor Hicks.
- The Crash City version.
- Apparently, Fanny Goldberg sang this in 1932.
- The orchestral version.
- The screamo version, as well as the deathcore.
- A contemplative ballad by a guy with a(n epic) mullet.
- The aptly named EPIC EDITION.
- The Christopher Walken version.
- There's also a version that only edited the music video but it's still extremely funny.
- Amanda Palmer's "Friday, told from the viewpoint of a truck-stop hooker."
- Katy Perry's cover.
- Glee's version
- And, in order to celebrate the Rapture, we present Doomsday!
- Alex Carpenter's cover.
- Now slowed 5x.
- The 8-Bit version.
- Channel Awesome version
- In honor of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the Harry Potter version
- A Ravenclaw-specific version.
- A Ravenclaw-specific
- Polka version, first heard in the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic Abridged Series "Friendship is Witchcraft".
- The obligatory Team Fortress 2 version. Complete with its own Music Video.note
- The Slender Man Version
- Richard Cheese did a cover. FUN. FUN. FFUN. FFUN.[1]
- Now used in a commercial for Kohl's.
- Yukku Reimu's version.
- DEATHSPEEDBLACKHEAVYSLUDGEINDUSTRIALGLAM METAL FRIDAY!!!! SATAN IN THE FRONT SEAT! SATAN IN THE BACK SEAT!!
- parodied by physician/Internet personality ZDoggMD.
- In the style of Motörhead, from Moonic Productions.
- The rap remix.
- Literal Music Video: "Friday" is about the day of the week, Friday.
- Missed the Bus: This appears to create the main source of tension in the narrative, before Rebecca's friends arrive in their car.
- Morning Routine: "7am, waking up in the morning/ Gotta be fresh, gotta go downstairs/ Gotta have my bowl, gotta have cereal."
- Most Writers Are Adults: Part of what brought the song in for mockery. The songwriters were clearly trying to make a fun party anthem that would be relatable for the teens, but apparently they failed to consider that middle schoolers are not old enough to drive, and are almost certainly not going out by themselves to wild parties on the weekend.
- Mundane Made Awesome: It's FRIDAY!!!
- My Friends... and Zoidberg: When she says "my friend is by my right," she's sitting between two girls.
- Painful Rhyme: "Gotta have my bowl, gotta have cereal". The bridge also rhymes "Friday" and "excited".
- Poe's Law: No less than Rolling Stone opined, "If the video was intended to be a parody of teen pop convention, it would be on par with some of the best SNL Digital Shorts by Lonely Island."
- Random Events Plot: Of the more mundane variety. A daily morning routine followed by missing the bus, getting a ride from her friends, then throwing a party. With a random rapper interrupting to talk about cruising and how a school bus is passing him by.
- Shameless Self-Promoter: The first line in the song is "Yeah... Ar-Ar-Ar-Ar-Ar- ARK!" That is, ARK, as in the record label.
- Shout-Out: The calendar in the opening has a few references to other songs associated with days of the week, such as "Pleasant Valley Sunday", "Manic Monday", "Tuesday's Gone", and for the titular Friday, "Friday I'm In Love".
- Show, Don't Tell: There is no bowl, cereal or school bus to be found, despite being mentioned.
- Time Lapse: When Rebecca is downstairs singing "Seein' everything, the time is goin'", the family behind her moves in fast-motion.
- Viewers Are Morons: The lyrics take the time to explain that Friday is the day that comes after Thursday and is followed by Saturday and Sunday.
- Wakeup Makeup: Rebecca wakes up in full makeup.
- Weird Moon: What is with that moon? It almost doesn't look real. Oh yeah, it's upside down!
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Her male friends mysteriously disappear from the car and are replaced in a later shot by two females.
- What the Hell Is That Accent?: ARK Music Factory co-founder Patrice Wilson, thanks to growing up in Africa, moving to Eastern Europe as a teenager, and moving to the US as an adult.
- A Wild Rapper Appears!: Patrice Wilson's bridge that comes out of nowhere.
- Wild Teen Party: Subverted, despite what the song promises, there is no such thing.
- Word Salad Lyrics: The interpretation of the song by Bad Lip Reading. It's basically a Deaf Idiot Translation."I'm grabbing a routine vaccination, with chicken and sweet carp on the side."
- Wraparound Background: In all three driving sequences, the background keeps repeating.
- You No Take Candle: "We so excited".
Tropes associated with the 2021 remix:
- Auto-Tune: Rebecca's voice is heavily tuned for effect.
- The Man in the Moon: 3OH!3's face is superimposed on a full moon. There is even a Shout-Out to A Trip to the Moon when a rocket lands in his eye.
- Poster-Gallery Bedroom: Rebecca's bedroom walls are full of posters.
- P.O.V. Cam: Scenes during the first verse are shown from Rebecca's point of view as she wakes up, dresses and has her cereals.
- Speedy Techno Remake: Of the 2020s Hyperpop variety, unlike the europop ones of the 2000s.
- A Wild Rapper Appears!: This time it's Big Freedia who enters for a rapping bridge.
