One man's nefarious quest to make people picture various celebrity voices in songs

TikTok is home to some of the very worst and very best of what the internet currently has to offer. It is, for example, the premier destination for staying up on cool trends like dumping beans on porches, sitting like Laura Dern, intentionally peeing your pants, or finding new ways to induce horrible diarrhea. On the other hand, it’s also a place where you can go to have your favorite songs ruined by some jerk who wants to point out how a track’s singer kind of sounds like a celebrity.

A TikTok user with the handle “snipermike253" has been hard at work assembling an entire series that points out these comparisons. Each video follows the same format: Snipermike looks blankly into the camera as a song starts playing. He then grins a contented grin, knowing that what he’s about to do may change the listener’s relationship to a song forevermore, and a picture of the actor, comedian, or cartoon character in question pops up.

While not all of his comparisons are hits—it’s a stretch to hear SpongeBob in a Linkin Park song or Stewie Griffin in Tame Impala—the best do exactly what he intends.

For instance: We will never be able to hear R.E.M.’s Michael Stipe again without seeing Nic Cage’s face appear before us. The sound of Jack Bruce singing falsetto in Cream will now call to mind the horrible old creep from Family Guy. The singer from Alt-J does, indeed, sound like that babyish voice Adam Sandler’s made millions speaking in. John Mulaney could, in fact, sing a verse of “Love Shack” and, most haunting of all, it really does sound like Jerry Seinfeld is performing lead vocals on “Mr. Brightside.”

We expect that this is all in good fun. But maybe, just maybe, considering what we know about the modern music business’ love of TikTok marketing, snipermike253 is actually an arm of the industry, determined to move old Killers records by reminding us of Seinfeld episodes.

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