Is âThe Fox (What Does the Fox Say?)â so bad itâs good? Could it be that the viral hit is actually revolutionary? Is there even a point (and does it matter)? One thingâs for certainâit has captured the zeitgeist. Millions of people have watched and rewatched the totally bonkers YouTube video, and thatâs precisely the position the Norwegian brothers of Ylvis were hoping to be in.

Vegard and Bard Ylvisaker, whoâve been working together professionally for 13 years, have been thrown into a new ring of fame in a matter of weeks. Their hit song âThe Foxâ surpassed 100 million viewers on YouTube this last week and jumped to the sixth spot on the Billboard Top 100 Chart in the U.S., which led to performances on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon and the Today show. The brothers are established celebrities in Norway, but given their new fandom in the states, the Ylvisakers want to make sure there is no confusion: theyâre doing it for the comedy.
âItâs like a protective mechanism,â Vegard stressed.
âBasically, yeah, weâre cowards,â Bard chimed in. âBecause we raise the comedy flag, we can get away with more.â
âWe can be as pretentious as we want,â said Vegard.
âItâs like if some person in a bar thinks [âThe Foxâ] sounds nice thatâs nice for us, but if itâs drifting off then people can say âwell, itâs comedy,ââ added Bard. âOr, if someoneâs like, âwow, theyâre off pitchâ itâs like, âitâs OK, theyâre comedians.ââ
They refuse to call themselves songwriters, but thereâs no denying the cleverness in the lyricsâeven if most of it is gibberish. Ylvis brings up the question that many (okay, very few) of us have thought about, but have never asked out loud: What noise does a fox make? And they even offer answers! Itâs even funnier when itâs spelled out. Go ahead, sing along:
Ring-ding-ding-ding-dingeringeding! / Gering-ding-ding-ding-dingeringeding! / Wa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pow! / Hatee-hatee-hatee-ho! / Joff-tchoff-tchoff-tchoffo-tchoffo-tchoff!
But actually, what you hear in the video isnât what they originally dreamt up. While sitting around bouncing ideas off each otherâthe scene of most of their brainstormsâthe brothers did a little recording of their own on Bardâs phone. And their first fox sounds are much differentâeven ⌠angrier:
When they officially recorded âThe Fox,â with assistance from Norwegian producing team Stargate, things took a slight change. Not only did the fox sounds become friendlier, but Vegardâs whistle at the end of song was altered with the help of auto tune. It was first sung as a howl, he said. But no one complained.
âIt ended up coming out better than I first expected and I liked it,â Vegard said. âI love those things, like when good things happen by accident.â
The eccentric costumes in the video were an accident, too. The Ylvisakers originally hired a man to make their costumes, but it didnât work out. A day before the shoot, they arranged to rent costumes from the Norwegian Film Institute, but there werenât any actual fox costumes. Instead, Vegard wore a squirrel costume and Bard wore a bear costume.
âAt first we thought âthis is crapâ and this looks silly and suddenly we thought maybe this isnât a stupid idea and maybe the silliness would add to it,â Vegard added.
âAnd the fox hoods were cool, they looked nice,â they concluded.
Before Ylvis, the Ylvisaker brothers were experimenting in their rooms. It was always more about being commenters on music, rather than making the music, they explained.
âIf youâre gonna sing a song about your love life, you have to make yourself vulnerable. But if you turn it into a comedy you can still keep the distance,â Bard said. âOnce youâve chosen a path of comedy, itâs really hard to crossover. You canât change from making fun of others to become to the thing people are making fun of. That would backfire pretty quick.â
âUnless youâre like Justin. But heâs just special, I guess,â Vegard lamented.
But theyâre happy to stick to the genre. The duo created their own production company Concorde TV and launched their own comedy show on Norwegian television âI kveld med Ylvisâ in 2011 after years of making their way through the national TV spotlight.. âWe own more than 50 percent of the company,â Vegard said proudly. âSo, we have to disagree if weâre not going to have it the way that we want.â
âBut if we agree, things just happen. Just like that. Itâs like North Korea, Jing Un and King Jung In,â Bard joked.
Even though theyâve experienced fame, you might think the bright, aggressive stages in New York and Vegas would alarm the Norwegian duo.
âItâs hard to describe it without seeming like the biggest dick in the world,â Vegard started, âbut I donât get nervous. I donât know why. I was really nervous the first time I was on stage when I was 16.â
âAs an upside down stripper,â Bard chimed in.
âHa, no! Like when I was just performing at school. I was standing behind the curtain and my heart was going thumpthumpthump, but as soon as the curtain opened I was fine. And Iâve havenât been nervous since.â
And even with the tsunami of fame crashing down, it only hardly fazes them.
âI guess now weâre getting bigger, so now everything will fall apart,â Bard said unconcerned.
Vegard reasons, âAnyway, it would be OK. Weâre emotionally handicapped.â