The most recognised power of music is that it can “engineer” emotion and set the mood of a scene. This function depends on a shared cultural understanding of musical convention. Key elements of harmony, tempo and instrumentation are manipulated to create the desired emotion response.
Control of mood is also possible through subversion of expectation. A classic example is the extended ladder climb in the video game Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater by Konami in 2004.
Following a boss fight, the player must climb a ladder for well over 2 minutes. All the ambient sound is removed and the full non-diegetic vocal theme song of the game plays in its place. This bold choice transforms a frankly mundane act of traversal into a powerful moment of meditation. It serves as a deliberate “hard stop” to the preceding tension, leveraging the reflective pace of the song to give the player a singular moment of calm and introspection before the climax of the story.
According to Annabel J. Cohen, this emotional power often derives from “congruence” or “contagion”. The music’s emotional character matches the scene and is “caught” by the audience, dictating precisely how they should feel about the images they are seeing. (Cohen, A. 2010)
A good example of use of comedy music is in South Park, more specifically the “Good times with weapons” series 8 episode 1.
Written and performed by creator Trey Parker, the song is a spot on, high energy parody of J-pop/rock theme song similar to Japanese “shonen” (action) anime.
The song is a perfect genre replication. It perfectly imitates musically the high energy guitars, driving drum beats and anthemic vocals typical of themes origination from anime shows like Dragon ball z or Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure.
This is an authentic sound used for comedic juxtaposition. The epic “badass” music scores the boys fantasy of themselves as powerful anime fighters. It then cuts back to reality, showing them as children in their normal animation style awkwardly holding their weapons.
The most immediate joke is the song’s use of “Engrish” a term describing the comically broken nonsensical/grammatically incorrect English common in Japanese pop culture.
The lyrics are a barrage of enthusiastic but meaningless phrases such as:
“Hey hey let’s go, kenka suru!” Kenka suru meaning to fight
“Taisentsu na mono, protect my balls!” Taisetsu na mono meaning important things
“Boku ga warui, so let’s fighting. Let’s fighting love!” Boku ga warui meaning I am bad or its my fault.
The title phrase, “Let’s fighting love,” is the central gag. Grammatically nonsensical, combining “Let’s” with a present participle and a random noun perfectly satirises the trope of mashing together English words which sound cool, regardless of their meaning.
The song’s most brilliant comedic layer is hidden in the actual Japanese lyrics, which Trey Parker (who studied Japanese) wrote and sang himself (Playboy, 2000). For Japanese speaking viewers or those who look up the translation, the song contains a separate set of vulgar and self referential jokes.
The Japanese lyrics include lines such as:
“Subarashii chin chin mono / Kintama no kami aru”. Translation “I have a wonderful penis / There is hair on my balls”.
Even more cleverly, the song becomes meta aware, its lyrics translating to “Kono uta chotto baka / Wake ga wakaranai / Eigo ga mecha kucha” Translation: “This song is a little stupid / It doesn’t make any sense / The English is all messed up. This punchline is aimed directly at the parody itself. The song is not just imitating a style, it is simultaneously mocking its own imitation. It confirms that every nonsensical English phrase is a deliberate choice, turning the song from a simple parody into a complex, bilingual and self-aware joke.
References
Harrell, C. (2004). Snake Eater.
V, L. (2011). MGS3 Ladder Climb in HD. [online] Youtu.be. Available at: https://youtu.be/vgaYe4ZYYyY [Accessed 4 Nov. 2025].
Konami. (2004) Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. [Disc] PlayStation 2. Konami
Cohen, A. (2010). MUSIC AS a SOURCE OF EMOTION IN FILM. [online] Available at: https://musicog.discoveryspace.ca/sites/default/files/31-juslin.pdf [Accessed 4 Nov. 2025].
Playboy (2000). Playboy Interview: Parker & Stone. [online] Playboy.com. Available at: https://www.playboy.com/magazine/articles/2000/06/playboy-interview-parker-stone/?srsltid=AfmBOopLycBBu_By5hD-PE67AqSZ8_tJRZELPikoFMjNZIxXtqs79sr4 [Accessed 5 Nov. 2025].
Parker, T. and Stone, M. (2022). Let’s Fighting Love.
TheFish222 (2008). South Park – Let’s Fighting Love. [online] YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VILgSsesD0&list=RD-VILgSsesD0 [Accessed 5 Nov. 2025].