Line #38 YMMV/BeastieBoys


1	* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: While the Beasties insist that ''Licensed To Ill'' was a StealthParody, some still take the material seriously and wonder if the official explanation is a ParodyRetcon (the boys ''were'' big partiers at the time, and were known to perform with a giant inflatable penis onstage). We might never know for sure.
2	* AngstWhatAngst: In the "Triple Trouble" video, the boys are pretty blasé about having been [[spoiler: kidnapped and held captive by the Sasquatch for six years.]]
3	* BrokenBase:
4	** ''To The 5 Boroughs'' has a very split reaction. Some fans found it a good return to form, others found it forgettable.
5	** Their old hardcore punk material is either great or crappy, depending on who you ask.
6	* BigLippedAlligatorMoment:
7	** Opening for Music/{{Madonna}} on one of her earlier tours. The interaction between the fanbases was...interesting.
8	** The short film for "Don't Play No Game That I Can't Win" with Santigold certainly qualifies. A marionette adventure! The plot of the video is: [[spoiler: the Marionette!Beasties are pursued by a {{Determinator}} unnamed commando who is inexplicably anti-Beasties. The commando ambushes the Beasties at a concert, who promptly escape into a snowy forest. The commando and his troops attack the Beasties; all but the commando are killed. The dead troops return as zombies to come after the Beasties, who are unexpectedly rescued by a Yeti. The Yeti flies the Beasties off by helicopter, which is then shot down by the commando. The Beasties parachute safely into an ocean. Mike D is then attacked by a shark, but rescued by the return of Santigold, who was on stage during the concert at the beginning. The Beasties and Santigold, inside a submersible, then take out the commando and his next wave of troops by firing missiles at them. As the Beasties and Santigold escape, the commando emerges from the water, still bent on revenge.]]
9	** Possibly "5-Piece Chicken Dinner" on ''Music/PaulsBoutique'': a CountryMusic interlude (sampled from ''Film/{{Deliverance}}'', no less) in the middle of the album, sandwiched between [[IntercourseWithYou "Hey Ladies"]] and [[RapMetal "Looking Down the Barrel of a Gun"]].
10	** The "Triple Trouble" video provides a unique explanation for the band's six-year hiatus after ''Hello Nasty''—[[spoiler:they were kidnapped by the Sasquatch and held hostage in his cave. After they insult him at an awards show, he proceeds to Mapquest directions to their location and re-kidnap them right out from under Mix Master Mike's nose.]] It only gets weirder from there.
11	* EpicRiff: Pretty much all of their songs have at least one.
12	* EvenBetterSequel: ''Music/PaulsBoutique''.
13	* SugarWiki/FunnyMoments:
14	** The video for "Fight for Your Right". Arguably the funniest music video ever made.
15	** "Your mom threw away your best porno mag."[[note]]Busted![[/note]]
16	** As with "Ch-Check it Out". The Boys slap each other with alligators randomly leaping into their hovercraft. It goes from there.
17	** Ditto "Sabotage", of course.
18	** Don't forget about the video for "Intergalactic." Even [[http://s3.amazonaws.com/rapgenius/1361758594_beastie-boys-intergalactic-single_5644.jpg the cover art for the single]] is hilarious.
19	** In "No Sleep Till' Brooklyn" from ''Music/LicensedToIll'', when the guitar solo begins, a ''guy in a gorilla suit'' is shown playing it, only for a more metal looking guitarist to rush in, shoulder push the gorilla away and resume the solo. That guitarist, ''Kerry King from'' ''Music/{{Slayer}}.''
20	*** Even funnier was that originally Kerry and the gorilla's roles were ''reversed'', but Kerry objected, saying "If anyone is gonna is gonna be pushed off stage, it's gonna be me pushing the gorilla."
21	** "She's Crafty," in which MCA brings home a known kleptomaniac despite the warnings of his friends. In a reversal of their accustomed BoastfulRap, the song ends with the boys rattling through [[StealTheSurroundings a detailed and improbable list of things she stole from their apartment.]]
22	--->''When I woke up late in the afternoon''
23	--->''She had taken all the things from inside his room''
24	--->''I found myself naked in the middle of the floor''
25	--->''She had taken the bed and the chest of drawers''
26	--->''The mirror, the TV, the guitar cord''
27	--->''My remote control and my old skateboard''
28	** "Rhymin' & Stealin'."
29	---> ''My pistol is / loaded! / I shot / Betty Crocker!''
30	---> ''Deliver Colonel Sanders down to Davy Jones' Locker!''
31	** "Paul Revere" tells us the absolutely true and not at all fictional story of how Beastie Boys met. Ad-Rock was on a horse running from the sheriff, got held up at gunpoint by MCA (who just wanted his beer), and led him to a saloon that in turn was held up by Mike D., whom they both proceeded to assist.
32	** "Egg Man" is an entire song about [[{{Egging}} throwing eggs at people]]. The best part is that it's based on actual antics on the part of the band members during that period, according to Mike Simpson of the Dust Brothers:
33	---> We became obsessed with throwing eggs at people. The Beasties were staying at the Mondrian hotel, on the ninth floor. Summer was starting and every day all these people would line up in front of the Comedy Store across the street. It was just open season. Eventually they got a very diplomatic letter from the hotel management, like “We’ve had some reports of things falling out of your window. If there’s a problem with your window, please let us know.” Then we started driving around in limos, throwing eggs at people. That’s how we came up with the song “Egg Man.”
34	*** Oddly, that's not even the ''only'' song they wrote on the topic - their early HardcorePunk song "Egg Raid on Mojo", which receives a {{callback}} in "Egg Man", is about the band throwing eggs at a bouncer for never letting them into the club.
35	** By the time the Boys were touring in their forties they had substituted some of the more misogynistic lyrics of the ''Licensed to Ill'' era to better reflect where they were in life, which led to the alteration of the line "MCA's in the back 'cause he's skeezing with a whore" (in "No Sleep Till Brooklyn") to "MCA's in the back with the mahjong board."
36	** In 1999, the Boys recorded a full-length country album called ''Country Mike's Greatest Hits'' as a gag Christmas present for a small audience of friends and family. MCA's commentary in the liner notes is priceless:
37	---> At some point after ''Ill Communication'' came out, Mike got hit in the head by a large foreign object and lost all of his memory. As it started coming back he believed that he was a country singer named Country Mike. The psychologists told us that if we didn't play along with Mike's fantasy, he could be in grave danger. Finally he came back to his senses. This song is one of the many that we made during that tragic period of time.
38	* GrowingTheBeard: They started growing some beard on ''Music/PaulsBoutique'' (and in MCA's case at the time, literally), and finished the job on ''Check Your Head.'' By that point, they'd long shed the frat boy persona they made their name with, and their immense musical ambition was readily apparent.
39	* HarsherInHindsight: The remix of "Too Many Rappers" found on ''Hot Sauce Committee Part Two'' substitutes MCA's verse from the original single, released before his cancer diagnosis. [[TearJerker It's not hard to see why]]:
40	-->''Yo, I been in the game since before you was born''
41	-->''I might still be [=MCing=] even after you're gone''
42	-->''Strange thought, I know, but my skills still grow''
43	-->''The 80s, the 90s, 2000s, and so''
44	-->''On and on until the crack of dawn''
45	-->''Until the year 3000 and beyond''
46	-->''Stay up all night, and I MC''
47	-->''[[Music/{{Nas}} And never die, 'cause death is the cousin of sleep]]''
48	* HilariousInHindsight: As of ''Hot Sauce Committee'', [[WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}} Beastie Boys have eight albums]].
49	** Back in the [=80s=], when the boys were picking up steam, a fairly popular novelty song called "Star Trekkin'" came out. The B-Side, which used the same beat and cadence as Star Trekkin', albeit modified to be a mockery of ''Licensed to Ill's'' beats, was a massive TakeThat towards the boys' style of rapping, calling them disgraces to rap and hacks. Through the years, though, the boys consistently put in references to Franchise/StarTrek--and come the reboot, Kirk's a fan of the boys themselves. And the band's music is highly regarded in the 23rd century (at least in the reboot timeline).
50	--->'''Dr. [=McCoy=]:''' Is that ''classical'' music?\
51	'''Spock:''' (''subtly bobbing his head'') Yes, Doctor, it would seem to be.
52	* MemeticMutation: For their song "Mullet Head", the Beastie Boys made fun of people with a contemporaneously popular haircut by calling them mullet heads, a term meaning stupid or foolish. They ironically coined a name for said haircut, the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mullet_(haircut) mullet]].
53	* MisaimedFandom: While a lot of their songs (especially their earlier material) were meant as a parody, quite a few people wound up taking them seriously. For example, "(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (to Party!)" was meant as a spoof of party songs but ironically became a big hit among the people they were making fun of. Of course, there are some who know it's a parody [[MexicansLoveSpeedyGonzales and use it as a party song anyway]].
54	* OneSceneWonder: Mike D on "Paul Revere".
55	-->''"I'm Mike D and I get respect''
56	-->''Your cash and your jewelry is what I expect"''
57	* SignatureSong: Originally "Fight for Your Right", now it's probably "Sabotage" and "Intergalactic". Maybe "Hey Ladies."
58	* SoBadItsGood: "Dedication" ended up on ''Hello Nasty'' because the band themselves found it laughably terrible- the entire song is just Mike D ListingCities for two and a half minutes over a messy psychedelic funk jam.
59	* SoOkayItsAverage: ''To the 5 Boroughs'' met this reception from fans, although quite a few critics loved it.
60	* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: "Your mom threw away your best porno mag" might be the funniest line from "Fight For Your Right", but it's also the most dated, as the proliferation of online porn since the turn of the millennium has driven porno mags into extinction.
61	* VindicatedByHistory: ''Music/PaulsBoutique'' didn't sell as well as ''Music/LicensedToIll'', but it's still regarded as their masterpiece.

Context YMMV / BeastieBoys