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Ernie Wade vs. Jonathan Coulton?
About an hour ago I received a very odd email:
Here’s the text if it’s too small to read:
Dear Miss Belmont,
I have noticed that you are a fan of the musician Jonathan Coulton, but you should know that he is a fraud!! My cousin Ernie wrote the song Code Monkey (as you can clearly hear from the music file I have sent you) before he passed away from liver disease (rest his soul). Please tell your readers and don’t let this lie continue!Cory
He also sent along an MP3 of his cousin’s version, and his webpage . I grabbed a few screenshots of the site because I thought it was so funny, although it seems like it’s been up and down all day. I’m reposting the MP3 for you guys so you can take a listen:
Click to embiggen!
What do you guys think? Does Cory have something here, or is it some kind of hilarious hoax? Len from Jawbone Radio also had a similar email sent to him, so who knows! I wonder if Jonathan has anything to say about it.
UPDATES:
Cory Wade has a Twitter!
Lusis did some research into Ernie’s background, and the parallels with Coulton.
NEW UPDATE!
Coulton is obviously still trying to cover this up. When will he learn that the truth must be known?! Besides, everyone knows Tom can’t sing.
No related posts.
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Its gotta be fake…right? It sounds like someone just playing a bad version of Code Monkey with the lyrics changed around. I would be more likely to believe it if Code Monkey sounded dramatically different than the rest of Jonathan’s stuff, but the voice is consistent throughout his writing.
I’d be more suspicious if he could show evidence of contact between JoCo and his cousin.
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#8 written by Dol_ 3 years ago
Seems pretty hoaxy to me. With the very close to April first date and the general way it’s been done. Sending an email to Len from Jawbone who’s been closely linked to JoCo since the start.
Methinks this is just a hoax or something where the guy has done a little prep/research.
Guess we’ll have to wait and see what Mr Coulton has to say about it anyways.
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Obviously Jonathan Coulton couldn’t have stolen this song. In Ernie Wade’s song, Code Monkey is not employed. In Jonathan Coulton’s song, Code Monkey is employed, and has a manager named Rob. Coincidentally, Code Monkey from the Ernie Wade song has a good buddy named Rob. Maybe the two Robs are the same person. Maybe the Rob in the Jonathan Coulton song was so upset at Code Monkey’s output that he stole the lyrics to code monkey. He then stole a time machine (Which was most likely created by Jonathan Coulton using fibers from his beard) and then went back in time and befriended Ernie Wade. As a token of the friendship he placed the lyrics to Code Monkey under Ernie’s pillow as he slept soundly. Ernie then learned the lyrics through Osmosis, however the pillow was dirty so not all of the words got through, and he had to change some.
The rest of the story of Ernie Wade may be true, but it’s only due to Rob’s blatant disregard for the space time continuum. -
#12 written by Ingrid 3 years ago
Chrome says that “Len from Jawbone Radio” contains elements from the site http://www.jawbonepodcast.com, which appears to host malware – software that can hurt your computer or otherwise operate without your consent. Just visiting a site that contains malware can infect your computer.
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#19 written by Andrew Krusz 3 years ago
Honestly, I would we MORE impressed with Johnathan Coulton if it turned out to be true. I mean, making music that is actually good from source material like that is far more impressive than creating something good from scratch.
(Most) Anyone can bake a decent cake, but it takes a true master to take an old moldy cake cake out of the garbage and then re-bake it into something awesome.
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I don’t know. If you listen to the song, and swallow the bit about Ernie calling his computer music “code” it kind of hangs together. He has a crush on a girl (Jan?) at a pizza place tries to write songs to impress her, plays them for his buddy Rob who hates them. And he’s sad. And he can’t sing.
Wait, I think I have it….
Ernie and Jonathan are the SAME PERSON!!!! Ever seen them together? See?
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Skeptical.
Also, how do we know that this guy didn’t rip off JoCo, make some cassettes to make it look authentic, and then libel JoCo for some exposure? Is this mystery cousin really dead?
The internet is always full of surprises….and asshats.
In other news, “My Sweet Lord” ripped off “He’s So Fine”.
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looks like the site took into account ways of covering their tracks -hinting it’s an april fools’ jokes and/or perpetuating hoax. haha.
people have looked into it:
http://lusislog.blogspot.com/2009/03/jonathan-coulton-rip-off-artist.html
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#30 written by MjStrwy 3 years ago
I’m thinking hoax. Since other things JoCo has done (his digital music model, the Podcast from the Moon, etc.) have been so intelligently done, I doubt he would be dumb enough to do such a blatant rip-off of someone’s work. If you look at the tapes in the picture, it would have you believe that not only are all JoCo’s songs stolen from this one guy (including a brand new song “Blue Sunny Day”), but also his album titles “Our Bodies, Ourselves, Our Cybernetic Arms” instead of “Our Robots, Ourselves.” Could still be that he’s a thief, but I really, really doubt it. If this is a hoax though, I blame the HodgMan. Curse you Mr. PC.
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#31 written by Totz the Plaid 3 years ago
I think you, Len, and a few others got together to make this prank.
The song “Code Monkey” has been around and a big hit for a couple years, if there was anything to this, it would’ve come up before, especially with all the remix contests and fan videos, and the licensing of the chorus to be a TV theme, etc.
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Don’t know if it’s a hoax or not, but it’s starting to seem a tiny bit too elaborate. What makes me doubt is the song: it’s bad enough that it could be done by that ridiculous depressed 30 something living with his folks, but good enough that it would need to be recorded in a proper environment.
I mean, I feel bad even asking this and never really questionned it before, but… how does a computer programmer wake up one day and decide, out of the blue: “I’m going to think of, write and record one different song every week for a YEAR”. And throw their professional life away on a bet like this? Do you know how hard it is to actually come up with that stuff? Full bands take MONTHS to compose 10 songs for an album! Finding a year worth of music could be some kind of motivation…
I’m not saying that’s what happened, I’m just saying that someone who manages something like that is either a creative genius, or “draws their inspiration” from something that exists.
Also, it’s pretty obvious that JoCo’s version is awesome and that one is sorta crap, so even if he did use it as inspiration I’m not sure it really matters, but it’s a question of principle I guess. Oh well… -
#38 written by SgtBaker 3 years ago
@Patrick: I know a lot of coders and IT people who have gotten sick and tired of the monkeying in the Industry and decided to do something completely different. Had a good friend quit just couple of years ago and go ski-bumming to the Alps. So JoCo quitting his dayjob writing stupid login pages – sure nothing strange in that.
As to what this thing is.. I really hope it’s a hoax, it smells like one. And I hate April 1st and the new pre-april 1st prank meme. *sigh*
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it is shenanigans. when the page finally loaded without the graphics, i saw the email address at the bottom.
took only a minute of my time… so i looked at ernie’s rocketmail profile and see it was created on *march 2009*. this may indicate that this hoax (& funny contrived prank) was created failry recently …like *this month*.
i myself have had a rocketmail address since the mid-90s -not really relevant- but that was the first thing that came to mind.
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#47 written by John 3 years ago
If you look at the picture of the tapes, you can see a song called ‘moons go round’. Pluto and Charon are the only known planets or dwarf planets that orbit one another. Thus Coulton’s song, “I am your Moon”. Coulton’s song was created because of Pluto’s declassification in 2006. Thus Mr. Wade could not have created this song in 1997. So this is a fake.
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#50 written by SgtBaker 3 years ago
There’s a one line comment from JoCo here:
http://www.jonathancoulton.com/2009/04/01/i-totally-forgot/ -
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I am 100% convinced that this is a hoax. I think this guy was bored and decided to stir up some controversy. He’s created the ultimate viral email FWD:FWD:FWD:FWD:FWD