Alanis Morissette updated the lyrics to “Ironic” earlier this week on “The Late Late Show with James Corden,” and chances are good that you have already seen the video — easily one of this week’s biggest content marketing wins.
What we love about it:
1. Raise your hand if you’d heard of James Corden and his show prior to this video. No? Win for whomever in that writers’ room at CBS thought of this idea. Win for whomever coined the brilliant lyrics and directed the video, a “duet” between James Corden and Alanis, which has blown up the Internet this week. Big content marketing win for this show. I, for one, will definitely be checking it out now.
2. You might be as hip as a millennial if … you recognized all of the terms and brands used in the song. With nods to Snapchat, Tinder, Uber and Waze, the song basically gives you a laundry list of what social media and apps younger people are using now, while referencing some more widely known brands like Amazon and Netflix as well.
3. After catching flak for the past 20 years about misusing the word “ironic” in the song, this updated version addresses that lyrically (at 1:56 in the video) and finally allows Alanis to poke fun at the fact that she and co-writer Glen Ballard weren’t aiming to make every lyric “technically ironic” as she has previously stated in interviews. (And yes, we intentionally also misused the word “ironic” in our headline. Anyone catch that?)
4. Since this year marks the 20th anniversary of Jagged Little Pill — which came out the summer after my freshman year of college and was pretty much the soundtrack for the next two years at my predominantly women’s college — it’s refreshing that Alanis and this song are still cool. Or have been made so funny and cool again. Which makes me feel a little bit cooler as well.
Enjoy!
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