Features Podcasts Family Video Comics Music Tech Science Books Film & TV Games ✚

Jill

Zooey Deschanel plays "What Are You Doing New Years Eve?" on ukulele

Mark Frauenfelder at 4:10 pm Thu, Dec 29, 2011

— FEATURED —

Science

Last chance to enter the Armchair Taxonomist challenge!

Book Review

Black Code: how spies, cops and crims are making cyberspace unfit for human habitation

Book Review

We Can Fix it! - a graphic novel time travel memoir

Science

The technology that links taxonomy and Star Trek

— FOLLOW US —

Boing Boing is on Twitter and Facebook. Subscribe to our RSS feed or daily email.

 

— POLICIES —

Except where indicated, Boing Boing is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution

 

— FONTS —

Tweet
Kindle

[Video Link] Accompanied by Joseph Gordon-Levitt on guitar.

  • Sophie Madeleine performs "Oil & Gold" on ukulele -- Boing Boing exclusive
  • Lisa Hannigan performs "Knots" on the ukulele
  • Taimane Gardner plays Bach's Toccata on ukulele
  • Savannah Smith performs "Ventriloquism" on ukulele
  • Sarahsukulele plays "Object of the Game" on ukulele
  • Hawaii82 plays "In Your Hawaiian Way" on ukulele
  • Jam Hands plays "Modest Geologist" on ukulele
  • Dream a Little Dream of Me on ukulele
  • Janet Klein plays "Tonight You Belong To Me" on ukulele
  • Karinne Keithley plays "Sweet Child of Mine" on ukulele
  • Sophie Madeleine plays "Don't Think Twice It's All Right" on ukulele
  • 4-year-old plays 'What a Wonderful World" on ukulele
  • Thus Spake Zarathustra (on ukulele) 
  • YouTube collaborative ukulele jam with Sophie Madeleine
  • Optional Accessory ukulele video By Zoe
  • Ukuleleaya plays "Crazy G" on customized cake ukulele
  • Interview with Warren Buffett about ukulele

Mark Frauenfelder is the founder of Boing Boing and the editor-in-chief of MAKE and Cool Tools. Twitter: @frauenfelder. Come and hear Mark speak at the ALA conference in Chicago on July 1.

More at Boing Boing

The technology that links taxonomy and Star Trek

Hackers prepare for first "national holiday" in their honor

  • Bodhipaksa

    That’s delightful.

    • CoquiELF

      I concur!

  • emschelle

    I love her at least seventeen times more when she is kicking ass being awesome like this rather than her more recent “adorkable” ditz on-screen personae. Don’t get me wrong, I still love her then too, just seventeen times less and I hate myself a lot for it.

  • Nasicournus

    Man am I sick of her.

    • jnordb

      Apparently so was Ben….

    • Antinous / Moderator

      Man am I sick of her.

      I recommend purgatives. Lots and lots of purgatives.

  • Rider

    Never in my life have I gone from having a huge crush on someone to being toally sick of their fake personality so fast.

  • jnordb

    I’m just glad that she and Ben split up…now maybe he’ll go back to writing broody, depressing music again.

  • hypersomniac

    The ur-manic pixie dream girl

  • hypersomniac

    She was cute in Our Idiot Brother. I won’t go within a hundred yards of her sitcom.

    • vonskippy

      She has a sitcom?

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Mary-Goudie/720326656 Mary Goudie

    Happy New Year 2012

  • http://www.jjsaul.com Jim Saul

    It’s always wild to hear the richness of her voice, expecting just something cute coming from anyone with such ingenue eyes. 

    Her recent national anthem performance, particularly, swept aside that misperception. Instead, some whined that her performance was too somber. I felt the opposite – it was wonderful to hear the song performed by someone who had actually considered the story the lyrics tell.

  • zuludaddy

    Both lefties, eh?  

    • http://www.frogworth.com/blog/ Peter Hollo

      First thing I noticed too!

    • Rasputin

       Depends. If it’s a Mac, doesn’t the front facing camera on there mirror the actual image?

      • http://twitter.com/SCremedy scott compton

        I believe Rasputin is correct.  If you notice the guitar in the background, the pick guard should be on the right side of the hole.  It’s possible that it’s a custom left-version, but I kind of doubt it…

        • morkl

          Custom? Left handed guitars are mass produced too, just not in the same
          quantities as the right handed ones, and people who play left-handedly tend to use lefty guitars. Except, of course, Jimi Hendrix.

      • LinkMan

        I also think the image is mirrored.  I can’t quite make out the writing on the music on the piano in the background, but based on its placement on the music stand and the orientation of the binding, it looks mirrored.

    • DrunkenOrangetree

      Why in the world lefties feel they need to play their instrument backwards is beyond me.  The guitar is already left-handed.

  • hungryjoe

    Yessir, I like it.

  • http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/TGZ75URQ6DKTCNXV3RV36ZKALQ Matthew

    I had no idea that she had such fine musical talent!

    • http://www.jjsaul.com Jim Saul

      You should check out some of the “She and Him” songs… here’s another video of one with Joseph Gordon-Levitt:

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtVh8kVZ_XM 

    • Thomas Valley

      Did you not see Elf?  Her small singing parts are one of the highlights of that movie.

      • Cowicide

        That was great in Elf.  She’s a very soulful singer.

  • Roy Trumbull

    The song was written by Frank Loesser (Guys and Dolls).

  • craftyfatalist

    I’m not a fan of her new show either, but wow does she have an incredible voice!

  • Bill Walsh

    Ugh, I can’t stand Zooey.

  • IAmTheCheese

    Boing Boing posts wholly unremarkable performance because it contains ukulele. Film at 11.

  • p9ooo

    Robin Williams called, he wants his twinkle back.

  • sugarsails

    Damnit. I want to hate them so bad but I don’t.

    I hope they make adorable indie babies.

    • semiotix

      Oh, man, I know what you mean. Everything… EVERYTHING about this is custom-tailored to arouse the most frothy internet hate storm this side of “Friday.” They’re so pretty. And it’s a standard. And the production values are so disarmingly shoddy. And she’s on a FREAKING UKULELE! 

      This must be what all those computers on Star Trek felt like when Kirk fed them a logical paradox. ERROR ERROR HOW CAN I LOVE WHAT I HATE ERROR

  • Godfree

    Little Tommy from “Third Rock” never ceases to impress me.

    • http://twitter.com/matcatastrophe mat catastrophe

      Just wait ’til you see him as Batman.

  • MachineElf

    Two people having fun, making music and harmony together is not ‘wholly unremarkable’. It is the stuff that makes life wonderful.

    Certainly a whole lot more enjoyable than yet another cynical Boing Boing commenter in any case…

  • http://germanwotd.com Amelia_G

    I loved this! Thank you. She’s so precise, and fun, and the rich rich voice was lovely. Without wanting to dis Zoë in any way: tiaras. There’s something wrong about them, irl.

    • Jamie Craig

      Noo, tiaras are great, if you’ve got the look for ‘em.

      Totally works for Zooey. :)

  • jaytkay

    Well that was charming.

  • Dan Allard

    What makes this ‘accompanied by’ rather than a duet? 

    • extra88

      The length of Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s name.

  • Frank Diekman

    She’s the most manic and pixieish of manic pixie dream girls.

  • petsounds

    I’m so fucking sick of ukelele girls. And Joseph-Gordon Levitt. But this was a nice job.

     Zooey, call me! *makes phone gesture with hand*

  • Christopher Miller

    I didn’t know real girls wore tiaras.

  • http://twitter.com/MoonpieNobot Moonpie Nobot

    I am so sick of people being sick of things :)

    • Someone Else

      We don’t take kindly to people being sick of people being sick of things ’round here.

  • http://twitter.com/Sooper8 Sooper8

    I am sick of hearing things that other people are sick of hearing….but personally I like it, nice arrangement and great voices

  • Djau Qui

    I’d pay good money to see a movie where these two form a band and must battle crooked producers, evil IP lawyers and grumpy Internet commenters to reach stardom and happiness.

    Hollywood : make it so. It would make a freaking TRUCKLOAD of money, ‘sides.

  • http://noctilucent-studios.blogspot.com/ Noctilucent Studios

    I want to go to there.

    :-)

  • manicbassman

    all the other toobs out there of here are of her playing right handed

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_pGxE7cJRs

    • manicbassman

      ps. that’s on a telecaster electro-acoustic ukulele as well…

  • Sxe

    Sickeningly sweet… too much for me.

  • yri

    I thought it was adorable.

    Then again, I never tire of ukulele girls (or boys), and I like the tiara, so it’s well established I have no actual taste.

    Which is quite freeing, really. :-)

    • http://www.jjsaul.com Jim Saul

      I suspect the tiara haters don’t realize that they are both dressed for a New Year’s Eve party.

      • Antinous / Moderator

        I don’t need an excuse to wear a tiara.

  • Michael Haggerty

    Urgh. Like eating Jolly Roger Candy Canes soaked in double thick molasses, coated in a layer of sea salt and crystal sugar, surrounded by a shell of neopolitan ice cream layered in magic shell, doused in a stream of marachino cherry juice that was then dipped into a bucket of jimmies and cracked peanut butter brittle, with a thick wad of Cool Whip and raw egg whites dunked on top.

    Too much. A couple seconds into the song and I was wishing someone would replace the calendar with one that skips the holidays altogether. That Gordon-Levitt fellow just made it worse.

    Why can’t Lemmy from Motorhead do a holiday video with Philthy Campbell to counterbalance piles like this?

  • CSBD

    I was afraid to even click on this… but I must admit that after hearing it I was quite surprised that she is a much better singer than actor.

  • aeon

    I was starting to get a bit tired of all the ukulele stuff on here… Then I succumbed and bought our daughter one for Christmas. She promptly ignored it in favour of a pink tutu and fairy wings (not from me, honest), so I picked it up and started playing around with it. They are actually great fun and not at all hard to get nice harmony from either. So no hate from me, I’m a convert and that was sweet. :-)