MLP Season 1 : Laughter Song (Giggle At The Ghostly)

The review of the first song of the show !




Lyrics here :

When I was a little filly and the sun was going down...

[Twilight Sparkle]: Tell me she's not...

The darkness and the shadows, they would always make me frown

[Rarity]: She is.

I'd hide under my pillow

From what I thought I saw

But Granny Pie said that wasn't the way

To deal with fears at all

[Rainbow Dash]: Then what is?

She said: Pinkie, you gotta stand up tall

Learn to face your fears

You'll see that they can't hurt you

Just laugh to make them disappear

Ha! Ha! Ha!

[ponies gasp]

So, giggle at the ghostly

Guffaw at the grossly

Crack up at the creepy

Whoop it up with the weepy

Chortle at the kooky

Snortle at the spooky

And tell that big dumb scary face to take a hike and leave you alone and if he thinks he can scare you then he's got another thing coming and the very idea of such a thing just makes you wanna... HAHAHAHA...heh...

LAAAAAAAUUUGH! 

So here's the first song of the show, and just in the second episode ! Isn't it great ?

The song give us a very good idea of Pinkie's personnality and set the tone for the whole show. Besides, we discover the awesome voice of Pinkie Pie !

About the lyrics now, I think it's a good idea to begin with a little flashback of Pinkie when she was just a filly, it makes the character really loveable and we learn a bit more about Pinkie's family ('Granny Pie'). In the same time, the lines of the other ponies add  a lot to the feeling of sheer fun and 'WTF !?' intended here
There isn't really much to say then, Pinkie give us her method to make all fear disappear : Laughter !
We have that looong list of lines with the same meaning to underline the importance of laughter in our lives. I can tell you I liked it because now I have more synonyms of 'laugh' and 'scary' for my english classes xD.

At the end, we got the big and powerful WTF line that suits perfectly the rest of the song and add the the random side of Pinkie. Furthermore, it's a bucking challenge to sing it along with her, I dare you to try !

The last 'LAUGHHHHHHHHH' is kinda like a summary of the song and of Pinkie herself, that last line is like the heart and spirit of the whole song for me !

Let's talk about the instrumentalization. The song starts with some sort of wooden percussion instruments. I love that intro, it's perfect because they are in a forest, so I liked the idea of putting wooden percussion instruments here. They will last until the end, but eventually stops during her long tirade.

Then, what I think is a ukulele (hm, maybe a guitar, but I don't think so ~~) enters with high pitch and bright chords, to directly put the bases of the song and it's tone : fun, fun, fun !
We can note that the first chord stays for a pretty long time, so I think it confirms my idea of putting the base of the song.
In the same time, some kind of shaker or hand percussion comes at each off-beat (like the opening theme) Throughout the song, some other percussions enters, like maracas I think, to support the rythm. In the same time, a bass drum enters and kicks in every two beats, alterning with the bass at the beginning

So the bass comes in, with a syncopated pace, sometimes, especially in the 'Pinkie, you gotta stand up tall' part, the bass quite feels like a 'Drum n Bass' kind of bass (Repetitions ftw !), fast and versatile.
It adds to the whole atmosphere of freedom which comes from the song
At some moments, a folk guitar takes over the notes of the bass and it become difficult to hear the bass line, but the guitar was necessary to give 'punch' and power to the song

These are the most important instruments here, but there are two others :

During the 'Pinkie, you gotta ...' part, you can hear a synthetizer overdubing Pinkie's voice. I think it gives a good overall harmony, adding and electronic-sounding instrument.
We can hear it too at some other moments, it's kinda like the little 'riff' in the Opening Theme I think, but with all kinds of effects.

Finally, there is that xylophone I believe, it's difficult to hear it sometimes, but I consider it as the interpretation of the innocence which fills the entire song, and always add a 'fairy tale' kind of feeling.
There are also some 'shiny' effect (sorry, I don't know how to call it, so I will stick with 'shiny') like in the opening, they give the same effect as the xylophone for me

That's all for the intrumentalization, and as always in every MLP song, it's quite dense ! The overall feeling reflects totally the idea given by the song and the situation in which they are.
 

But I figured that there is something as important as the instrumentalization... The lack of instrumentalization ! I've counted 11 wholes seconds without any background music, just Pinkie singing/talking, and it's huge ! But it work perfectly, creating a little break to see the reaction of the other ponies, and letting Pinkie finish with her tirade, clearly enhanced here.

Now, about the voice. Not much to say, that's Pinkie Pie, with her high pitched, funy voice. It suits perfectly the message, with that 'innocence' which I was talking about earlier. Kudos for the voice actress, especially for the long tirade !

One word about the video and context

The video definitely add to the song, you see Pinkie dancing, hoping, laughing, it's the perfect imaging of the song, and it's once again full of WTF, with Pinkie's head appearing out of nowhere etc ...
Like I said for the Opening Theme, I can't remember what exactly happens in the video : too many things ! The important point is that we see our pink pony helping the others and singing about her element, the perfect symbiosis. That passage in the episode totally breaks with the rest of their adventure in the Everfree forest, it's not dark anymore and everypony is reassured and ready to continue their journey. Considering that it is a show for young kids, I can totally understand why it's here. I like the message too, kinda like 'Don't worry, be happy', it's very important for us and the rest of the show (that topic is aborded in other episodes, especially in Lesson Zero, or other Pinkie's song, like Smile Smile Smile !)

Finally, I would conclude by saying that this is a song I sing really often (it's so catchy !) and which I can listen to a lot of time without being embarassed. The tempo around 110 bpm allows the song too be short enought to keep us concentrated on the plot too.

So, I would say that even though this song is not the most memorable, it made us discover another side of Pinkie : her reliability and devotion for her friends, just like when Applejack asks Twilight to take a leap of faith in the same episode. A bit like the feeling you have when you discover something you like in you kitchen closet :  hmmmmm that's good ! I like it !

Brohoof everyone !