20th Century Fox (flute):
how to mock the self-important
Of all the music in this noisy world, little so rapidly channels self-importance as the 20th Century Fox fanfare. The pounding snare which booms into a melodic thud; brass, matched in confidence only by a soaring response from the strings. So imposing is the fanfare that John Williams wrote the Star Wars theme tune in the same key (B♭ major) so that it might serve as a follow-up to the piece. If you ever need a shot of self-importance, play the 20th Century Fox fanfare as you step out of your front door. Where else do you think Mr Rupert Twenty-Century-Fox Murdoch gets it from?
There have been many different iterations of the original fanfare over the years — a Simpson’s special (2007), a Diary of a Wimpy Kid/75th anniversary edition (2010), and a Cinemascope extension (1953) which went on to become the standard. But none of them have quite entered the popular imagination in the same way as 20th Century Fox (flute).
If you’ve watched it you’ll have watched it more than once. It’s up there with the YouTube greats; the one you remember while your mate is showing you Jeremy Corbyn High Five Emily Thornberry’s Boob and think, he is going to bust a lung. Many, many title screens and theme tunes have been ‘flauted’ (Universal, Disney, Dreamworks), but none of them hits you like 20th Century Fox (flute).
Let’s break down the stages of that hit:
- Shock (0:05–0:07)
The shock hits you first. Is that a flute? The whole tone jars with you inwardly. What’s happened here then? If you don’t know what’s coming you might even recoil slightly — but in a good way. Shock; followed by
2) Confusion (0:08–0:11)
It isn’t meant to be like this. The confident opening has tripped into a fumbling mess. Hang on, isn’t that a recorder? Why has this happened? You feel awkward, maybe even cross. How can anyone be this bad at an instrument made of plastic?
And then you get it.
3) Catharsis (0:11–0:15)
You can picture the faux-flautist. Determined. Triumphant. Standing on a chair, middle fingers rammed into holes 3 and 6 of a black and white Yamaha YRS302BIII like they’re Murdoch’s flaring nostrils. This is how it happens. This is how the revolution begins: a grade 1 school-kid upending Hollywood’s favourite orchestra with a recorder that he thinks is a flute.
4) Unbridled Joy (0:16–0:21)
Throw your head back and laugh like you’re barreling through a field of wheat. With every drawn out B♭ the victory gets sweeter, the self-important get smaller. We know your game. We know you’re human too. Your pride won’t stand here.
The other title screens don’t work because they aren’t self-important enough. It isn’t that funny to watch someone play a recorder badly; it’s only funny when they’re doing it with the arrogance of a trumpet. You aren’t really laughing at the folly of the recorder. You’re laughing at the arrogance of the snare, brass and strings; and the flautist that made them human again.
Being a human is embarrassing in the 21st century. Flesh and blood are foolish and weak — there’s nothing absolute or divine about an eyelid or a finger nail, regardless of what Disney and L’Oréal try to tell us. That truth hurts if your importance and worth are self-made, if your confidence rests on your own shoulders/quarterly bonus/beach-bod. As Friedrich Nietzsche famously argued, “If there were gods, how could I bear not to be a god? Therefore, there are no gods.”
It takes a Yamaha YRS302BIII to upend the arrogance of 20th Century Fox’s trumpet fanfare; but subverting the self-importance of humanity will take a far greater folly. What parody is there for human pride? Who can make us laugh at ourselves?
‘20th Century Fox (flute)’ is a work of art with considerable pedigree: art that undoes and upends the self-important by playing the fool — art that makes us laugh at ourselves. And in a world where there are proud men who live as gods, the sharpest art and deepest comedy is the story of the God who died as a man. Easter is the divine comedy, the quintessential satire; a God with fingernails oustretched, eyelids wide, and blood pouring from his hands and side: “high and lifted up”.
“Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.
Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.”
Look at God dying for you. Then laugh at yourself, and know this: you’ll never find strength that can compare with the humility of the cross.
