Xtratuna is a name that has become rather infamous in the dark crevices of fandom communities lately, with the breakout “hit” of “Jackie’s Box” wiggling its way into the brains of “Five Nights at Freddy’s,” also known as “FNAF,” fans throughout the community. It has reached an unusual six-and-a-half million views on YouTube as of writing this, with Xtratuna’s other videos sitting anywhere from fifty thousand to five hundred thousand views.
What makes Xtra’s work so special? Well, his work consists of mostly parody pieces, emulating early fan music for games like “FNAF,” “Bendy and the Ink Machine” and “Hello Neighbor,” all standouts in the mascot horror genre of games. These songs include wacky visuals, sometimes nonsensical lyrics and genuinely hard beats. But the real question is whether or not these songs are any good. My friend Noah and I will be putting forth our thoughts about them to try and reach a consensus on the matter. We will be reviewing three different songs: “Jackie’s Box,” “A Captain’s Curse” and “A Teacher’s Sorrow.”
Starting off with the instant classic “FNAF” parody of “Jackie’s Box,” which breached containment immediately, flooding clips of “my name is David” to all social media platforms. This song is an absolute cognitohazard of a mess, but is hilarious to listen to. That, in my honest opinion, is the sole reason why listening to this does not cause my ears to bleed. The lyrics are absolute gobbledegook, with one example being “No! Not the clown! What have I done? I’mmm sooorrryyyyy!” as the song is about to end. It just does not take itself seriously at all, which is only an upside as far as the community is concerned. However, Noah has a different viewpoint. He says that the lyrics are incoherent and that everyone constantly saying their names is quite an annoyance, which I agree with. The song cannot seem to go twenty seconds without saying “my name is ____,” which gets old quickly. Another complaint he had is that the lyrics often do not fit within the beat, which is also true. Overall though, this song tries and succeeds at parody status.
“A Captain’s Curse”– a parody of the game “Mouth washing”– is, dare I say it, sort of a banger? It has a good beat, and the lyrics are mostly competent. The first half actually flows quite well for one of Xtratuna’s songs, which is high praise coming from someone who had to tap out of “An Under’s Tale” after thirteen minutes of “walking underground underground underground.” Both Noah and I concur that the only real complaint with “A Captain’s Curse” is the overuse of swears, which I believe is to replicate the feel of some fandom songs that were attempting to be “edgier” at the time, and while it achieves that goal, I think it is to its own detriment. Also, the last five seconds of the video just say “Credit to: BINX” with a picture of a green cat underneath. Who is this mysterious BINX? It remains a secret to this day.
The final song is based on the hit indie game “Baldi’s Basics.” “A Teacher’s Sorrow,” is unfortunately not a song I can praise very much without stretching a few things. It has a very repetitive, boring beat and the beat never drops. As Noah and the comment section concur, “the beat drop got detention.” Not only does the song sound boring, though, it also goes on for far too long. Sitting at a stunning four minutes, “A Teacher’s Sorrow” long overstays its welcome.
Xtratuna seems to be starting a rebirth of parody songs, but with video games and internet culture being the subject this time. Notably, the “Creepypasta Song: The Scariest Song In Decades” dropped about a month ago, along with some others. Where will this all go? Only time will tell.
