The Fox (What Does the Fox Say?)

Examples

Three-panel Legend of Korra spirit-forest scene turns the song reference into a fictional character’s angry response. Visible caption: my friendly spirit fox told me you were lost, I came to show you the way out / so that’s what the fox sa- / bumi! I swear to god if you say that one more time, I will f*cking kill you!

So that’s what the fox sa-

Source ↗

Strong profanity. Cartoon violence or fictional violent language.

Credit & details

my friendly spirit fox told me you were lost, I came to show you the way out / so that’s what the fox sa- / bumi! I swear to god if you say that one more time, I will f*cking kill you!

Source media ↗
Animated-series screenshot of an owl in the foreground and a fox at the far end of a corridor. Visible caption: WHAT DOES THE FOX SAY ? / FUCKING LIES

What does the fox say? Lies

Source ↗

Strong profanity.

Credit & details

WHAT DOES THE FOX SAY ? / FUCKING LIES

Source media ↗
Black-and-white anthropomorphic fox comic: a smaller fox asks the song question and a larger fox punches him while holding a phone. Visible caption: HEY MILDRED! / WHAT DOES THE FOX SA.. / PAF!

What does the fox say, Mildred?

Source ↗

Cartoon violence or fictional violent language.

Credit & details

HEY MILDRED! / WHAT DOES THE FOX SA.. / PAF!

Visible signature: GREYOFPTA.DEVIANTART.COM

Source media ↗
About & sources

An ordinary animal-sounds question swerves into an extravagant dance track with deliberately impossible answers.

Date

Ylvis music video for Norwegian television, released online in September 2013.

History

The selected 2013 is the music video’s release and online-spread year. Know Your Meme credits Norwegian comedy duo Ylvis, brothers Bård and Vegard Ylvisåker, and dates the TV Norge YouTube upload to September 3; that exact upload date is a retrospective source attribution, not an independently verified first-ever claim. The song was made for their television series I Kveld med YLVIS. A contemporary Guardian headline also documents the video going viral. The joke contrasts a familiar children’s-question setup with the staging of a serious pop spectacle: the missing animal noise becomes the chorus rather than a factual answer. This preview is title artwork with a decorative fox illustration and the words YLVIS THE FOX, not a frame of the performance or a playable archive of the choreography, song or original upload. Music, performance and video imagery retain their respective rights; attribution and private display do not establish public-reuse permission.

Know Your Meme — Ylvis creators and September 2013 chronology
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The Fox (What Does the Fox Say?) representative image