"Bony things inside a mouth
Take those teeth and let 'em out
It's my dental fantasy
Take those teeth and set 'em free"
Take those teeth and let 'em out
It's my dental fantasy
Take those teeth and set 'em free"
Erik Helwig, known online as Hot Dad, is a musician and comedian fond of creating surreal, synth-heavy songs about topics ranging from Facebook to anosmia. These songs are often accompanied by Tim & Eric-esque music videos created by Peter Bjorndal containing stilted animation, heavy green-screen, and occasionally disturbing imagery. Hot Dad's music can be found on YouTube or Bandcamp. He also produced various songs and music videos in-character as Chowder Man in Hypnospace Outlaw.
Hot Dad's music contains examples of the following tropes:
- Book Ends: The album “TV” starts and ends with remixes of the HBO Vanity Plate, at least on Bandcamp.
- Cover Version:
- He’s made quite a few, usually keeping the lyrics intact while completely changing the melody. Some examples are “I’m a Believer” and “Mambo No. 5”.
- "Sports Men", which was originally by Haruomi Hosono of Yellow Magic Orchestra fame. This version is fairly faithful to the original on Philharmony, differing only in its arrangement (being more guitar-driven than the Synth-Pop of Hosono's rendition).
- Crossover: Hot Dad has made numerous collaborations with Erik of Internet Comment Etiquette, even writing and singing his outro theme song.
- Eldritch Abomination: Whatever this is◊, presumably Hot Dad's daughter, appears for a few seconds, accompanied by a sudden loud noise, at the end of the video for The Birth of My Daughter Changed My Life.
- Gag Penis: "Fun Time Laser Intercourse Beach" has him claim to have a 69-inch penis. Luckily for him, his partner has a vagina that’s at least 70 inches.
- Instrumentals: His 2019 album “Synthdown” is completely free of lyrics.
- Intercourse with You: “Fun Time Laser Intercourse Beach”, as the title suggests, is an especially explicit example.
- Last Note Nightmare: The last chord of "The Birth of My Daughter Changed My Life" is completely off-key and distorted. The lyrics are a bit dark too:"I - I think she's exploding
All you know and love is lost
The solar system gone
Hey! It's all because of your daughter" - Noodle Implements: The video for "The Birth of My Daughter Changed My Life" was found on a CD that also "contained information sensitive to the security of the United States".
- Ruder and Cruder: "They Are Making Mario Nasty Now" is about someone receiving (fictional) news that the Super Mario Bros. franchise is getting this treatment.
- Stylistic Suck: The music videos tend to feature either terrible green-screen effects or still images with bad animation.
- The story behind the video for "The Birth of My Daughter Changed My Life" is explained in a series of classic Movie Maker-style title cards.
- "KFC (Waiting For Me)" has an "Unregistered HyperCam 2" watermark in the top-left for a few seconds.
- Surreal Humour: Most of his songs feature it to some extent.
- "Bring Me All Of Your Teeth" is Exactly What It Says on the Tin.
- Suspiciously Specific Denial: "There's No Cause For Concern - Rio Olympics 2016 (Come to Brazil)".