A Comedy Musician Reacts | Level Clear! by Tom Cardy [REACTION]

[@msthecommentator2863]

Might sound kind of crazy, but the first thing I thought of after watching the new Tom Cardy was, "Man, I can't wait to see what Ian thinks about this one" 🤭

[@Insaneian]

This song in particular is right up my alley as far as specific content 😅

[@msthecommentator2863]

Same here! A game reference you may have missed in the list of jobs section of the song is "BreakDancer." It's a reference to Super Mario DDR ✌️

[@Insaneian]

@@msthecommentator2863 I *did* miss that one! I heard him say it, but I didn't make the connection...which is weird since I still have my copy of Mario DDR!

[@thedepressedcat4316]

Not gonna lie, same

[@DrFunkman]

When you think about it, the villain actually won. He drove Mario crazy, and when Mario reset the game, Mario left instead of fighting, meaning there’s no one to stop the villain

[@Seafor-v4l]

Yeah... But now the villain has to go through that same thing. The infinite cycle.

[@nati0598]

@@Seafor-v4l What thing? He literally doesn't need to fight mario anymore.

[@LooseCo]

"fall in love, have four kids, learn the joy a family gives" is such an incredible line. Tom Cardy you've done it again

[@Insaneian]

His slant rhymes are always so darn good!

[@jicsis1085]

literaly

[@MambamboCombo]

As far as I can tell (besides the obvious mario aspect) it's more about the dread of living life goal to goal. Constantly moving on to complete the next thing.

[@msthecommentator2863]

And only when he stopped to sleep and do what he wanted to do was he truly happy

[@gamerdweebentertainment1616]

@@msthecommentator2863 and that was doing nothing... :(

[@KumaChrisVT]

​@@gamerdweebentertainment1616 It wasnt that he was doing nothing, it's that he wasnt doing what was expected of him gave himself the chance to rest.

[@tyrionstrongjaw7729]

This is what I took away from it. Framed it in Mario obviously, but chasing the expectations of himself and others. The need to constantly move forward and achieve the next thing. He's constantly doing what he thinks people expect of him, what he "should" be doing, and then rebelling from that (to the bad guy arc.) When in the end he just needed to say no, and listen to himself. Slow down, allow himself to stop for a moment and rest. Learning to say "no" can be such a powerful and extremely healthy thing for us. I saw another comment say the bad guy won, because no one stops the villain, but I disagree. The only way the bad guy wins is if he continues playing. That's the only way those words carry weight or even continue to exist. The moment he stops playing and starts living the bad guy lost. Not to mention, once he moves on, the last thing the bad guy said...and thus the bad guy himself cease to exist.

[@gb8596]

For those who didnt get it, the breakdancer is actually a reference to Dance Dance Revolution: Mario Mix, a game that exists, and as far as I know, is BAD.

[@Insaneian]

As someone who owns that game, I can attest to that.

[@riroufudo]

It's very funny to see bowser doing the hypest moves tho

[@philiphunt-bull5817]

Wow, you guys have shit taste, DDR:MM is a masterpiece

[@lonmania9249]

did he do sign language for fuck you during the crime syndicate verse?

[@ursidae97]

Someone's gonna animate level clear and it's gonna be amazing. I wanna see how Bowser changes from diabolical to truly threatening everytime he says "Even if you did defeat me WHAT WOULD YOU DO THEN"

[@yuyesyu8339]

News flash nobody did it. The song goes unnoticed :(

[@ursidae97]

@@yuyesyu8339 :(

[@dusty_telescope]

This song has been stuck in my head since it came out so I’ve been waiting to hear your thoughts on it! Always love your reactions

[@RectPropagation]

There's a lot to like about this song and video. - The options at the beginning that aren't necessarily Mario games are still video game adjacent (Ace Attorney, The Sims...). - A lot of games have a "bad/mean guy" route where something bad happening to you is the intended ending, so it still being a Level Clear makes sense. - He goes from not being able to sleep to not even trying. - Curing a disease doesn't end the first doctor level but eating a bunch of ham does. This implies that curing a deadly disease is not considered an accomplishment in this game. - Mario Sunshine's description sounds goofy out of context. - The song is somehow both comedic and playing it straight at the same time. The joke is Mario having an existential crisis but otherwise the lyrics aren't really poking fun at him. (You know, no one's telling him to check his bh.) I really like that but I'm having trouble articulating why. (To be clear, it's not that I dislike jokey lyrics. I'm not saying this song is "not like the other girls".)

[@thaumaturgeslit7759]

I wasn't able to pick up all of the professions (The cleaner on a beach resort is of course Sunshine, I just didn't put it together before you said it!) Also, side note, I hope that autoplay at the end of the video was a hint of a reaction yet to come ;)

[@Insaneian]

Ha, it absolutely is, and I was waiting for someone to ask! 😅

[@icetide9411]

When I watched this I didn't realize that it was literally just going over all of Mario's jobs, but now that I notice it it's even funnier

[@curiouscork6302]

I believe that "umpire" is his small role in punch-out! as a referee

[@Insaneian]

Isn't that whati said?

[@gigabyte6614]

​@@Insaneiannah, you said baseball

[@ingvarsuigin609]

I definitely forgot that those professions are canon! Thanks (Also fun fact, there's a fantasy comic about a guy who keeps inevitably resetting his timeline and he goes from hero to villain because he doesn't know how to get out)

[@PerovNigma]

Do you remember the name of the comic?

[@ingvarsuigin609]

It's pretty popular around youtube nowadays, The Hero Returns

[@ohnonomorenames]

At the end when you asked how it would play on an album. Have another listen to just the musical section. The premise is still set up and the joke/s don't rely on visuals. I'd say you get 90% of the joke. You miss a few % in the set up and lose all of the positive resolution. I said to someone I work with (also a Tom Cardy fan) last Friday while she was talking about getting through a long week "Level cleared - Start again?" For me it hits home in both the short term and long term. How often have you thought "once X is done I'll feel so much better"? and then Y is waiting with another set of problems.

[@shadowstrider42]

Ah, mario... being everything except a plumber since 1981.

[@orangemonks894]

Started out as a carpenter 😂

[@Triforce_of_Doom]

holy crap I didn't catch the breakdancer role being mentioned when I first listened. Makes sense for a Mario themed song to reference the Mario version of DDR

[@damonmendal3096]

This was some grade A camera plugging in action (also the reaction was super insightful)

[@specter_8885]

Ian, being my favourite reactor, is a very menacing man.

[@Insaneian]

@@specter_8885 menacing...me?

[@SollowP]

The break dancer part is a reference to the Mario DDR game on the Gamecube. Where of course every problem could be solved by dancing. All of Mario's moves during the dancing parts is also motion captured. And yes, it looks as horrible as it sounds.

[@Insaneian]

Yup! Many folks have said that in the comments, and I should have remembered it myself, since I own a copy of that game!

[@kildeer]

4 months late but since you were paying more attention to the words in the breakdown at 2:40 ish in the track, wondering if anyone already pointed out that there's a little Zelda melody happening in the background a couple times.

[@Insaneian]

Not that I remember! Neat!

[@LordMarcus]

The text box borders are the "mint" theme UI from Earthbound.

[@gigglinggoblinman]

tom always makes hilarious songs

[@goldensuzaku]

To be fair my couch is VERY comfy.

[@miningglalie]

the song is one big reference to absurdism. one must imagine mario happy

[@miningglalie]

oh man, i got a heart! didnt think anyone would see my comment by now lol. ill point out one thing. i just finished reading the myth of sisyphus today and one thing stood out to me: that the absurd man seeks out a quantity of experiences instead of quality of experiences. and damn, beyond the more obvious "purposeless existential cycle" part, you can really see that aspect of camus in the song. im convinced tom has read the funny greek rock man book - or he's just got a good intuition for absurdism

[@skywatcher6106]

The breakdancer part was a reference to the Mario version of Dance Dance Revolution

[@luciencartervo5356]

I like how the auto play out you onto another video you should react to, truly. Sentient KZbin

[@Insaneian]

That's because it's in my playlist 😏 should be getting to that one soon...

[@flyingdragon4613]

I always love your video's.. andd im way too early here that I havent seen the video haha

[@SomeKindaHero117]

Wait. Is this the same Insane Ian who keeps the stats tracked for Game Grumps?

[@Insaneian]

Yup, that's me!

[@SomeKindaHero117]

​@@InsaneianInstantly subscribed as I finish the video as well 😂

[@Insaneian]

@@SomeKindaHero117 thanks! I appreciate it!

[@clust3rpepis]

he has fucking SCOTT THE WOZ CLUE DAWG

[@MadisonRamanamabangbang]

Also "First player on Saturn" Saturn A gas giant

[@eb3yr]

I have definitely done that ham thing xD

[@JusticeJustinGame]

8:50 legit the plot of undertale

[@iliapachulia9012]

I see BDG and now Im excited

[@Demongodkira]

i think tom was going for ryu not ken sense he is wearing white and not red.

[@Insaneian]

Whoops, you're totally right...

[@rolandkarimdesucatan5118]

Make a reaction video to Stupendium's "Wool Over Our Eyes" song

[@Insaneian]

I already did! Since it's not a comedy song, it's over on my Patreon exclusively rather than here on my show where I react specifically to comedy songs.

[@juanjosesegura4585]

He is not dressed as Ken, but as Ryu. Had to point it out :p

[@Insaneian]

I always chose the white gi when choosing Ken, so I guess that's why I said that. 😅

[@juanjosesegura4585]

@@Insaneian fair enough!

[@zachdasack6623]

7:48 Plugging in the camera for 10 seconds ruined the video. 0/10 would watch again lol

[@BLRX_07]

"break dancer" might be a reference to Dance Dance Revolution: Mario Mix . A Nintendo knock off of DDR which was so bad its good territory . Has like really bad mocap of Mario dancing and a bad and bland UI.

[@Insaneian]

Yup! Someone else here suggested that as well and that game completely slipped my mind! And I even own it!

[@BLRX_07]

@@Insaneian THAT was a fast reply man you really read all the comments love thatt.

[@attackcats]

Doesn't the fire flower make the outfit white and red?

[@Insaneian]

@@attackcats you're right!

[@jcody66]

UTW, this is the way

[@kerrychristensen7204]

😁👍👍

[@jery2729]

a year? oh no…

[@ianeko1]

hello

[@philiphunt-bull5817]

You keep saying Ken when you mean Ryu, how do you even make that mistake???

[@Insaneian]

Because I usually main as Ken, but in the white outfit instead of the red 😅

[@jicsis1085]

you look a bit like tom cardy

[@StevenSheridan31416]

I feel like the message isn't getting enough attention. It's close to the core of Buddhism, that desire is the source of suffering. The variation is that Tom is using the treadmill of goals instead of a the more usual hedonic interpretation of "desire."

[@ExinBru]

dude a 18 min video for a 4 min video

[@Insaneian]

Yup, that's normal here. Welcome.

[@MassiveQ42]

I will say that i think the Carpenter job is wrecking crew or possibly the originally Donkey Kong, plus he was Astronout Mario in one of the Gameboy games. Also the pinned comment on it about this being "Everything Everywhere At World 1-1" is amazing.

[@msthecommentator2863]

I thought "astronaut" was a reference to Galaxy, but you're right: he was one in Super Mario Land 2 as well (the Gameboy game I believe you're thinking of)

[@stupidrobotproductions627]

@@msthecommentator2863It could’ve referred to both