We’re on our final round of the Service King Road Trip Giveaway, which means we’ve been reminding you to follow us and comment on our Instagram posts for chances to win a $500 gas card the entire summer.
In fact we’ve been doing it for so long, some of you might find it a little bit annoying by now. Which got us thinking - whether you’re road tripping around with your friends or your family, one of the best things about it are the practical jokes you play along the way.
That’s why in this final entry, we’ve decided to get a little bit evil and arm you with the top 10 most annoying road trip songs ever in our humble opinion. That way you can playfully punish your carmates during the long miles of your trip. Read on and learn about each song, or just jump in and enjoy over 50 on our already curated playlist.
(WARNING: Service King and our associates are not responsible for what happens if you actually follow the suggestions written in this list. We would, however, love to hear about it if you do.)
“Baby Shark” - Pinkfong
Since 2000, there have been more than 1,500 unprovoked shark attacks, killing over a hundred people. Pinkfong released ‘Baby Shark’ in 2017 and has already done exponentially more damage to humanity. Although calling it a song is being nice, since it’s more a weaponized campfire ditty that was digitally designed by a children’s educational company. Don’t forget to add the dance each time you play it to make things extra annoying.
“Take Your Best Shot” - Dope
Whether you hate hardcore or not, the irony of this song is enough to make it uncomfortable. It’s neither “dope” nor the band’s “best shot” since it was literally used to torment people at Gitmo. Speaking of torment, if you’re playing the advanced level of this game and annoying your friends by repeating one song over and over, we recommend holding this one back to passive-aggressively use when someone finally cracks.
“Bohemian Rhapsody” - Queen
Now before all the Wayne’s World fanatics stop partying on, even the song’s producer Roy Thomas Baker says it was a joke. Almost six minutes long, this mock opera was basically three different songs Mercury tied together, so it’s like getting a terrible three-for-one! After you play it, conduct an experiment to see how many times you can sing “Galileo!” before the driver pulls the car over.
"I Love You" - Barney Theme Song
These days this song would probably end up getting Barney arrested, but for some reason back in the 90's people thought letting a large purple dinosaur with the creepiest theme lyrics ever educate their children sounded like a good idea. If you happen to have one of the weird few who still loves purple dinosaurs, ask them if they know why he was canceled.
“Photograph” - Nickelback
You know how sometimes you take a photograph to preserve a precious memory you want to keep forever, and sometimes you take a photograph so you have something to burn while casting a spell to open the portal to the underworld? This song is the latter. Earn extra annoying points by singing this song’s meme to your trip mates every time you can think of something that rhymes with graph. Is it graph or giraffe?
“Hey Ya!” - Outkast
This song is like cilantro - some people like it and some people think it’s a thing that shouldn’t be consumed by the human body. If one of the victims in your vehicle happens to be someone who actually doesn’t think this overplayed pep rally is the equivalent of tasting soap, feel free to casually crush their love for it by pointing out that the lyrics are some of the saddest ever.
“Let it Go” - Frozen Soundtrack
This is another good one to hold back and passive-aggressively use as a response when someone finally freaks out on you. Also if you’re annoying your road trip team by playing the same song over and over, each time this one repeats, we recommend giggling and saying “Sorry, but I couldn’t find anything ELSA!”
“Tragedy” - Bee Gees
If nothing else, this song is really well named. Off the ironically titled album ‘Spirits Having Flown’, it was released at the height of music's most tragic time - the disco era. Ten months later the entire genre was declared dead. Plus, the band was banned from airwaves and became the target of jokes worldwide. It got so bad that to this day some never psychologically recovered and one member literally died because of it. This song is like a tragedy tiramisu, but not delicious at all.
“Tom's Diner” - Susanne Vega
You could do an entire road trip on this earworm alone, even if you aren’t doing the advanced version of this game. That’s because in 1991, Vega plus nine other evil artists unleashed an unholy 13 track album of nothing but this terrible tune called Tom’s Album. If you want, play it in its entirety then ask everyone which was their “favorite”.
“PPAP (Pen Pineapple Apple Pen)” - Pikotaro
Imagine this - Sasha Baron Cohen’s character Borat writes a joke educational song, Justin Beiber shares it on Twitter and it ends up hitting #6 on the Top 100 and averaging 1.5 million views a day. Replace Sasha with Japanese comedian Daimaou Kosaka and that’s basically how this felt-tip and fruit monstrosity came to be. Earn extra points by actually bringing all three song props along with you on the trip. Use them until someone throws them out the window.
Honorable mentions:
“Remember (Walking in the Sand)" - The Shangri-Las
Tik Tok’s annoyingly infamous “Oh no” song is another great response when something goes wrong - no matter how small that something is.
“Who Let the Dogs Out” - Baha Men
It’s a question that every canine lover has heard a quadrillion times and it’s the perfect song for any bathroom stop. Or every bathroom stop.
“Danger Zone” - Kenny Loggins
Play it once and then ask “Do you think THIS is the highway to the Danger Zone?” every ten minutes or so for the rest of the trip.
“Teenage Dream” - Katy Perry
If you were teenagers when this pop-sicle came out, ask everyone what their teenage dreams were. Then uncomfortably point out how none of it happened.
Something that actually sounds good:
“The Service King Road Trip Giveaway” - Service King Collision Repair
After that list your ears would probably love anything, but these days nothing sounds as good as possibly winning a free $500 gas card. Simply make sure you and all your victims are following us on Instagram and Facebook and have commented on our official Service King Road Trip Instagram post! Do that and one of you might get contacted by @service_king and told you’re our $500 gas card winner. But hurry - the whole thing ends on August 26th.
Editor’s Note: As an apology, we’ve also supplied this curated list of awesome road trip songs to help wash the sound out of your ears.