This was redone on "Sesame Street," with Stipe singing "Shiny Happy Monsters," while a green Muppet was dressed like Kate Pierson. Maybe that's the reason they don't do it anymore. Then again, Stipe wrote a song about Andy Kaufman, so maybe he doesn't have a sense of humor.

"do do do do (x ~200,000,000 +/- 5!)" ...............Now that cracked me up! 555

i think REM took the name cause they put people to sleep...nice job on this

Ditto what alvin said.

Very good, funny. 555. It's true, even REM hated this song.

DKOS...but Whiny and crappy are two of my favorite words...and you put them to good funny use, here

DKTOS except for the chorus. And I only know that from seeing a clip on Beavis and Butthead. But I voted anyway because I'd trust your pacing anytime and it was a fun read.

555 This is another parody that Corky And The Juice Pigs should do ...good stuff, Jack

The first line of your parody was the best, and after that i could hardly make myself finish, because it entailed TRYING to remember the annoying original song. It's one of those that make you practically crash your car to change the station when it comes on.

Envy no more, Red Ant
I dont know about the other people who've commented, but I'm quite familiar with most of REM's songs, especially this one since what you're saying about them loathing the song is true(and to be honest with you, I don't blame them)555

What everybody said (good pun, alvin!)... I DKTOS, but you've painted such a vivid picture, I don't want to know it.... 555, you've got a real niche here (exposing crap as the crap that it is).

I DKTOS, Red, but you've painted..........er, I see TT has just said what I was about to say - nice parodying of the original song (but literally) - 555

Parodying more rem songs, huh? Good going! REM actually got their name from a dictionary, but that's also a really boring way to get a band name. The best way is just to think of the wackiest thing you can think of. Anyway, 5's

Thanks Michael, Rick C, Alvin, Pat, Step-chan, AFW, PMS, Dee, jango, Joel, Tommy T, Stu and Larry.

Michael: I had heard that this song was intended as satire by the band - they obviously missed the mark by a large margin. This parody was right on target.

Rick: It's funny 'cause it's true. ;-)

Alvin: See Larry's reply for the official reason, but I agree with you.

jango: One of the drawbacks of spoofing crappy songs is getting TOS stuck in the readers' minds. Sorry about that, but at least now you've got some lyrics to sing over it next time you hear it.

Joel: As painful as TOS was, the video was even worse.

PMS: I vaguely remember B&B watching this video. I hope they mocked it mercilessly.

Dee: I may send this and "Whining and a-b*tchin" to my local radio station to see if they are interested in recording one of them. There is a guy there that has the perfect voice for them.

TT and Stu: Well, to give you an idea the chorus is "shiny happy people holding hands/shiny happy people laughing", repeated 6 times no less. And there really are 200 million "do" in this song. TT: "Song satires" (as coined by Agrimorfee) are fun to do - the only one I've gotten any measurable backlash on was my lone Coldplay parody.

Larry: There may be a few more in the future.

I actually like SHP (it's one of my favorite REM songs), but this parody is good too because it perfectly sums up the feelings of a person who thought SHP was too different from REM's other work. I didn't know about how REM grew to hate this song, though. It's a shame, really. I always wanted them to record more songs with Kate. Anyway, I can't wait for future "song satires!"

I tried to judge this yesterday but fell asleep, tried again and fell asleep, tried again and... well, you get the picture. 5s for nailing it.

Thanks Olvan and Peter. Olvan, while there are a gigantic number of awful songs, there are only so many ways to mock them without being excessively mean spirited or redundant, and above all else, while being funny. I may put together an album of my satires in the future so people, like yourself, can find them easier.

Very funny parody, I don't really like the original or the B-52's either.

Yet another popular song punched in the face by Mr. Red Ant himself. Fantastic satire on a song I honestly think the band themselves are embarassed by.

(ABC) - One of REM's worst songs and trashing by parody is well deserved...

I did "Whiny Crabby People"...maybe I should enter that in the next ABC? ;)

(ABC) This time I listened to the OS and I totally see what you mean, Jack - the chorus is a bit B52s-ish - in fact I can't believe when they wrote it that they didn't see your "whiny crappy people" title sub coming - nice lampooning

(ABC5-W) I could've sworn I'd read this one before...ah, well. Like other people have already said, DKTOS apart from the chorus, but given what you have to say about the OS I'm not going to go hunting for an mp3 any time soon. 555!

ABC5(W) Parody in the truest sense of the word...Great job!!!...555!!!

"Whiny back-up singer coming in!" really did it for me. 555

You really hate R.E.M. don't you Jack, reminds me of your other R.E.M. bash--Whining and ab****in

(ABC) Hey! I love the OS! I guess I'm one of those whiny, crappy people! And I hate cynicism--unless it makes me laugh, which in this case it did. Good, clever stuff. Whiny, gripey cynic scoring fi-i-i-ives!