SEATTLE NEWS ARCHIVES & FEATURES

Seahawks fix: Story behind ‘What Does the Hawk Say’ video

Oct 20, 2013, 5:05 PM | Updated: Oct 21, 2013, 9:01 am

In this video for a parody song, Coach Pete Carroll asks, “What does the Hawk say?” (Sc...

In this video for a parody song, Coach Pete Carroll asks, "What does the Hawk say?" (Screen grab from the video below)

(Screen grab from the video below)

A few people in Seattle have managed to take one of the most annoying songs in recent memory “What does the Fox say?” and make it a fun Seahawks-related song and video.

The brilliant Bob Rivers and crew created another of their Twisted Tunes with the song “What Does the Hawk Say?”

“What Does the Fox Say?” is an electronic dance song and viral video by Norwegian comedy duo Ylvis. The music video posted on YouTube on September 3, 2013 and has over 141 million views as of today. It has been compared to pop hit “Gangnam Style.”

“The Fox” is number 6 on the Billboard Hot 100, the highest-ranked song by a Norwegian artist on the chart since a-ha’s number-one song “Take on Me” in 1985.

It’s the perfect song for Seattle radio personality Bob Rivers to parody.

A recent UW grad is the freakin genius who created the video for the Hawk song, which has over 59,000 YouTube views in just a few days.

Gillian Pennington is with Freak’n Genius, a Seattle-based tech startup that makes an iOS app called YAKiT, allowing users to take any photo and bring it to life by making it talk.

She majored in Business and Entrepreneurship in the UW Foster School of Business.

“This is where I first experienced the power of virality,” Pennington says. “As part of the capstone to graduating, some students and I started the company Swagga Suits, also known as the giant purple jumpsuits with the UW “W” embroidered across the chest for UW football fans to wear to games.”

UW Alum and NBA player Jon Brockman tweeted out a picture of himself in the suit to 300,000 Twitter followers, landing them on the front of the Yahoo! Sports page.

“I’m a die-hard, lifelong Seattle sports fan so the idea that I could make a hilarious Seahawks video and call it ‘work’ was an opportunity I couldn’t pass up,” she says.

By LINDA THOMAS

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