Web Video / Pat Finnerty

"There’s a lot of shitty songs out there that have made a lot of people a lot of money."

A G-Chord Production.

Pat Finnerty is a musician and YouTuber based in Philadelphia who talks about bad songs and breaks down what makes them stink in a series of videos that toe the line between satire and sincerity, all while shouting out actual good songs in the process.

Pat has two series:

• What Makes This Song Stink: The long-form main series in which Pat chooses a song that sucks and discusses what makes it bad. Occasionally comes with a message about the bigger picture.
• Little Stinkers: Like the above, but in shorter form. Sometimes.

Songs Covered:

• What Makes This Song Stink
  • Episode 1: “Kryptonite” by 3 Doors Down
  • Episode 2: “All Summer Long” by Kid Rock
  • Episode 3: “Beverly Hills” by Weezer
  • Episode 4: “Hey Soul Sister” by Train
  • Episode 5: “Fly Away” and “American Woman” by Lenny Kravitz
  • Episode 6: “Dani California” by the Red Hot Chili Peppers
  • Episode 7: “Emo Girl” by Machine Gun Kelly feat. WILLOW
  • Episode 8: "Try That In a Small Town" by Jason Aldean

• Little Stinkers
  • “Fancy Like” by Walker Hayes
  • “Don’t Tell Me How To Live” by Kid Rock
  • “The Twelve Stinks of Christmas” (Christmas Special)
  • “San Quentin” by Nickelback

He also has the What Makes This Song Stink Podcast in which he discusses chosen songs with a Special Guest. There’s also other one off videos, such as Pat being on hold with a gas company for an hour or analyzing the drummer from Fuel.

What Makes These Tropes Stink (doo-da doo doo):

• Actually Pretty Funny:
  • Pat laughs when an angry commenter says Pat will “never reach the heights of Beato.”
  • He also completely loses it when Lloyd tells him to "fold up" in an undersized hot tub.
• Added Alliterative Appeal: “Beato Burner.”
• Alter-Ego Acting: The Moose radio announcer and Probably An Asshole (the Kravitz Bowl commentator).
• Arc Words:
  • For episode 5: “You can say it.”
  • For episode 8: "You fucked me."
• Bittersweet Ending: The Weezer episode has a genuinely touching ending, before Pat’s friend Mike shows him Beato’s guitar pedal wall.
• Broken Pedestal: Pat with Weezer. By the end of their episode, he accepts that he got what he needed from them with the blue album and Pinkerton, and realizes that he doesn’t miss Weezer, he just misses being young.
• Brown Note: The Kravitz Bowl halftime spectacular by "HCA," a supergroup of Dexter Holland, Eric Clapton, and Kenny Aronoff.
• But I Digress: Pat has a habit of going on long unrelated tangents, such as the war for D-A-G-A or the time he accidentally sent Lenny Kravitz’ dick pic to one of his guitar students. The majority of episode 4 actually centers around Pat trying to avoid talking about Train.
• Call-Back:
  • When he calls Lenny Kravitz "walking cologne," there's a brief clip of the cologne-wearing ukulele student from the previous episode.
  • Pat tries re-writing the bass line to "Dani California" he says that he "three-blind-miced it" by ending it with three descending notes.
  • Tommy Turtle returns in episode 8.
  • Episode 8 has Pat apologizing to most of the acts he's covered on the series, since he doesn't see Aldean as having the smallest shred of integrity and finds it unfair to place the other bands next to him.
• Censor Suds: While Pat is in the bath in episode 8.
• The City vs. the Country: Discussed in episode 8. Pat, who grew up in the small town of Scranton and now lives in the big city of Philadelphia, finds the divide pointless, and the rejects the idea that city-folk are unkind or don't care about their families.
  "There's scumbags in the south, there's scumbags in the north, there's scumbags in small towns, there's scumbags in cities."
• Comically Missing the Point: When asked about Machine Gun Kelly, Pat's landlord, Lloyd, completely disregards him and only talks about Megan Fox.
• Damned by Faint Praise: Pat (reluctantly) apologizes to Train in episode 8, because as much as he hates "Hey Soul Sister," at least Monahan can hit the notes while singing live, unlike Aldean.
• Darker and Edgier: Pat’s “Tortured Agony” alter ego.
• Decided by One Vote: In episode 5, Pat can't decide which song is the worst, so he has people on Instagram live vote for the song that they think is worse, and they end up tied 4-4 votes. The final vote comes down to the Blinds-to-Go Guy, who chooses "Fly Away" as the worse song.
• Despair Event Horizon: Pat nearly reaches this in the “Hey Soul Sister” video.
• Driven to Suicide: Played for Laughs. Pat chooses the electric chair over listening to “One Week” by the Barenaked Ladies in Episode 7.
• Drunk Driver: Tommy Turtle, Pat’s idea of a typical Nickelback fan.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: Before making it to YouTube, Pat filmed the videos on his phone, and didn’t have a proper mic, so the first two episodes are much different quality-wise, though the sense of humor is the same.
• Emo Teen: Discussed in the “Emo Girl” episode. Pat finds MGK’s representation of depression exploitative and offensive to the true emo girls of the world.
• Even the Subtitler Is Stumped: When Pat asks if one of the ukulele students is wearing cologne, he initially misunderstands. After realizing what Pat actually said, he says, "I thought you meant, like, a clone." A bunch of question marks appear on screen, Pat still having no idea what the guy thought he said.
• Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": The Blinds-To-Go Guy. His real name is Steve.
• Everyone Has Standards: Pat loves simple riffs, but draws the line at songs that are so simple they’re lazy and cheap.
• Face–Heel Turn: Realizes he could easily get the coveted hot tub if he became a scumbag country singer, and the last thing he needs is an awful soul patch. He doesn't do it.
• Fakeout Fadeout: Multiple times in episode 4, because the ghost of Rivers Cuomo won't let him end it.
• Foreshadowing: Pat Monahan being in the intro for What Makes This Song Stink.
  “He’s been waiting there, the whole time.”
  • Rivers Cuomo haunts Pat throughout episode 4, appearing whenever something is about to go wrong. He’s addressed by the end, being the meta-manifestation of Pat’s fear that he peaked with the Weezer video.
• Formula-Breaking Episode: “The Kravitz Bowl,” which not only discusses two songs, but is structured as a football match between them.
• The Four Chords of Pop: The I-V-VI-IV (beato), which Pat despises.
• Gag Censor: Pat Monahan's face is used to censor Lenny Kravitz' dick pic.
• Gilligan Cut: In episode 4.
  • “I don’t remember where I recorded it, at least I think it wasn’t here…” (cut to Pat recording while pumping gas at a gas station).
  • “Of course, that’s a pretty difficult strumming pattern to get down without a pick.” (Cut to Pat teaching people on the street who have never played the ukulele how to do the strumming pattern).
  • “What else is there to do? A protest?” (Cut to Pat standing in a field, planning the protest.)
• Go Mad from the Revelation: Pat collapses when he realizes that both “Play That Song” and “Hey Soul Sister” sample “Heart and Soul,” a piano standard.
• Grave Humor: Shows up twice for Pat’s grave.
  “Pat Finnerty: how about me dying”
  “Here lies Pat Finnerty: He crawled into a sewer / he never met Paul”
• Hate Sink: Kid Rock, to Pat. Also Pat’s sports announcer character “Probably An Asshole.”
• Insult Backfire: All the troll comments discussed in episode 4. Pat isn’t bothered by them at all, since “getting trolled” means he’s finally made it to YouTube.
  “‘This guy gets more views on Grindr.’ Great!”
• In the Style of:
  • August is Falling is a pastiche of pop punk bands such as blink182, made in response to Machine Gun Kelly.
  • "Dead Man's Trail" by Tortured Agony is a parody of 2000s-era butt-rock bands such as Nickelback.
  • "The Hoop-shredding Gigolo" is Pat's attempt to make a song as dumb as The Offspring.
  • "Hold With You" is a song about being stuck on hold imitating John Mayer.
• It's Personal: He says this in episode 3 about "Beverly Hills" because Weezer used to be his favorite band, unlike 3 Doors Down or Kid Rock, whom he couldn't care less about.
• Let's See YOU Do Better!: Pat dodges these retorts by coming up with his own songs in the episodes, all of which are better than the songs discussed.
• Male Gaze: Parodied in Pat's montage for his overwhelmingly male audience, made up of sports, monster trucks, buffalo wings, and a girl in a bikini. Conversely, the only thing in the montage for the substantially smaller female audience is a pile of decorative throw pillows.
• Manipulative Editing: There are a few examples of this.
  • In episode 4, Pat points out that Train means “soulmate” when he says “soul sister,” because “soul sister” means something completely different. It then cuts to an introductory card for Desuana, a black woman (answering the question for anyone who might not know what a soul sister is).
  • Pat mentions the lyric “She checks out Mozart while she does Tae-Bo," before showing a picture of Train holding their Grammy’s.
  • A lot in Episode 8. Pat brings up how people deny that "Try That In a Small Town" is a racist song, while showing blatant racist YouTube comments from the song's music video.
• Mood Whiplash: Lampshaded by Pat in episode 7 when he goes from joking about killing himself with an electric chair to an earnest discussion about depression and anxiety.
• Mugged for Disguise: The referee (Pat) does this to a random person in Episode 5 after the crowd turns on him.
• Never Got to Say Goodbye: Pat after he collapses in episode 4:
  “He never met Paul… that’s what I’ll say… all I wanna do is sing ‘And Your Bird Can Sing’ with Paul… I wanna hear him sing the harmony part…”
• Nightmare Sequence: Pat has a nightmare about struggling to find a dongle while Imagine Dragons plays in a Walmart.
• Old Shame: Pat’s song “Wayno Wayo” that he wrote when he was in high school.
• Satire:
  • His entire channel is a satirical take on guitar and music theory YouTube channels such as Rick Beato. The title and concept of "What Makes This Song Stink" is a response to Beato's series "What Makes This Song Great."
  • The Kravitz Bowl is an inspired, very detailed parody of NFL broadcasts.
• Rated G for Gangsta: Invoked with Train’s “So gangster I’m so thug” lyric.
• Recognition Failure: Pat initially fails to realize that the Willow featured on "Emo Girl" is Willow Smith.
• Running Gag: Pat has many:
  • Putting more and more music gear in the background to become a “real” YouTuber. This gets to the point where he makes a “pedalmobile,” a mobile of spinning planks with guitar pedals attached to them.
  • Calling himself “bald as shit.”
  • Saying “Beato” after mentioning anything to do with music theory.
  • “Patreon, who said that?” after mentioning his Patreon.
  • “Dogmutt” (one troll commenter who told Pat that he needs stop taking so long in the videos) being representative of haters of the channel.
• SellOut:
  • A few troll comments accuse Pat of being a shill for Dunkin’ Donuts. He’s not sponsored, he just loves coffee.
  • The "Emo Girl" episode discusses in-depth the value of authenticity in punk music. Pat finds Machine Gun Kelly’s pop-punk posturing to be inauthentic, though he doesn’t feel qualified to speak on it himself, since he isn’t punk either.
  • Pat’s reasoning for starting August is Falling is that he wants enough money to get a hot tub.
  • Ultimately averted in episode 8. Pat realizes that he could easily get the hot tub if he pivoted from pop punk to being a scumbag country singer like Jason Aldean, because he slots into the latter role more easily, but he can't bring himself to do it because it goes against his morals.
• Shout-Out: Despite being a series about bad songs, Pat often brings up good songs as a point of comparison. Some songs/bands he mentions and features in the videos are:
  • "House of the Rising Sun" by the Animals.
  • "Mother" by Danzig.
  • "Werewolves of London" by Warren Zevon.
  • “Undone,” “El Scorcho,” “Holiday,” and “Tired of Sex” by Weezer.
  • “Here Comes the Hotstepper” by Ini Kamoze (and Dr. Dog’s cover).
  • “I Only Wear Blue” and “Ladada” by Dr. Dog.
  • “Give It Away” by The Red Hot Chili Peppers.
  • “Ghostbusters” by Ray Parker Jr.
  • "Come Together" by the Beatles.
  • “War Pigs” by Black Sabbath.
  • “Maggot Brain” by Funkadelic.
  • “Survivor” and “Say My Name” by Destiny's Child.
  • “What I Like About You” by the Romantics.
  • “6L GTR” and “Smoko” by the Chats.
  • "Three Blind Mice." Yes, the nursery rhyme.
  • "This Kiss" by Faith Hill.
  • The guy with the hard hat that appears in the intro is Jack Hoffman from Gold Rush!, a reality show about mining, simply because Pat thinks he’s hilarious.
  • Boston Market in Episode 3, in a way. Pat thinks that the B-Mart has fallen off in recent years, but wonders if it could ever come back and be good again like it was in his youth; analogous to his relationship with Weezer. The episode ends with him enjoying some Boston Market food with Mike after jamming to "Holiday."
  • Pat as Hank Williams Jr. is a guest on "Is It Green Day or Rascal Flatts?"
  • As much as Pat hates "Fly Away", he does compliment the song's drummer Cindy Blackman, saying she's cool.
  • He dresses up as Anthony Fantano in episode 7.
  • Lloyd quotes "Don't piss down my back and tell me it's raining" from The Outlaw Josey Wales in episode 8.
  • Pat says that he "doesn't know how they do it" while showing pictures of John Oliver and W. Kamau Bell, referencing how the two men often deal with bigoted people as part of their work.
• Straw Nihilist: Parodied in episode 4 as Pat comes with lyrics for August is Falling.
  Pat (singing): “Don’t click the link below, we’re all gonna fucking die!”
• Special Guest:
  • Pat brings in the guitarist from rock band The Darkness to make him play his own solo in the wrong key.
  • Feeling unqualified to talk about punk, he brings in Eamon Sandwith from punk band the Chats to talk about it instead.
• Straying Baby: The baby in episode 4 that somehow gets into the studio, and manages to take the Dr. Dog CD to the radio station. (Not actually though. The baby is the child of one of Dr. Dog's band members).
• Stylistic Suck: Pat's "animations" that he uses to act out various hypothetical scenarios using stock backgrounds and PNGs.
• Take That!: Every single episode is a prolonged version of this.
  • "might be a Jackson, might be an Epiphone of a Jackson…"
  • The state of Alabama catches a stray in episode 2.
  "Is Alabama really that sweet? No! Have you ever been there? Rough!"
  • A one-off short video parodies music "tutorials" that are made just to show off and don't teach anything.
  • The Moose is an obvious parody of bad rock radio stations.
  • Somewhat subverted when one of Pat's friends sits in front of the camera and calmly says, "While I'm here, I've never really cared for 'I Can't Drive Fifty-Five...'"
  • "These Guitar Stands! Thinkin' of puttin' your guitar down? Think again!"
  • "Bandcamp: Your friends have to listen to half of one of your songs somewhere."
  • "G-Chord Ultra! You like loggin' in, right?"
  • He insults the harmonies on "Comedown" by Bush.
  • There was a joke cut from episode 5 about Greta Van Fleet sounding exactly like Led Zeppelin.
  • Pat expresses gratitude that MGK chose to emulate blink-182 instead of The Offspring, saying he wouldn't be able to take it.
• The Unsolved Mystery: The identity of the "Beato bandit," a member of the audience at one of Pat's shows that shouted "BEATO!" after Pat mentioned the I-V-VI-IV. He offered to Venmo $30 to whoever it was, requiring anyone who came forward to recreate the yell as proof. There were a few fakers, and ultimately the Beato bandit was never found. Some speculate that the bandit was likely drunk and doesn't remember it, or just doesn't realize that the voice in the recording is them.
• This Is Gonna Suck: Pat has a pained expression on his face as he slowly goes to press play on "Wayno Wayo."
• Voice of the Legion: Played for Laughs in episode 4. Every time Pat says "Hey Soul Sister" it's heavily pitched down.
• Vox Pops: Does this in a lot of videos, most notably when he asks random people on the street if they like the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
• Wham Line: In episode 7.
  "If this fuck who's fucking 32 years old is bringing this bullshit back, I want in."
• Word Salad Lyrics: One of his main issues with "Hey Soul Sister" is that lyrics are complete bullshit.
• You Got Murder: Mentioned when Pat says he's gonna have "anthrax in his mailbox" for attempting to re-write a Flea bassline.
• You Keep Using That Word: Points out that Train uses "soul sister" in place of "soulmate" because Monahan needs the syllables, even though they do not mean the same thing.
  “Are we gonna take another thing from these people?!”

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