"We've got the chamber orchestra"

Aeons ago I wrote a blog entry on song parody, a genre I was thinking about apropos of a television special I'd watched starring Mark Russell, writer nonpareil of really terrible song parodies.

While driving this weekend I was excited to hear a superb song parody on "A Prairie Home Companion." The song was a promotional jingle for the city of St. Paul, Minnesota, and it was set, improbably enough, to the tune of Outkast's "Hey Ya!"--the sort of bizarre juxtaposition that represents song parody at its best. I wonder if Garrison Keillor has heard the Outkast song; this number seems like something someone in the band must have cooked up.

To hear for yourself, go to this web page, scroll down to Segment 6 and launch the RealAudio file, and then skip ahead to about 21:05.