When it comes to criticism of their band and music, Fall Out Boy decided to light’m mup mup mup on Wednesday, releasing an updated version of Billy Joel’s “We Didn’t Start the Fire” for some reason.
While the original version, which catalogs notable moments in Boomer history and pop culture, hasn’t exactly aged well, it appears that people were clamoring for a revised version that reminds Millennials of all the cultural ephemera they’ve lived through for the past 30 years.
Social media reaction has been…mixed, to say the least. Aside from the silliness of the exercise, some have pointed out that Joel at least tried to group every verse by decade, whereas FOB’s version kinda just throws everything at the wall in order to make it rhyme. That’s how you end up with lyrics like “Obama, Speilberg, Explosion Lebanon.”
Since the song is attempting to cover “newsworthy items from 1989-2023,” there were bound to be a few sports-related mentions in there. Sure enough, while they might be in random order, the sports world got its due, for better or worse. Let’s find out who and what made the cut.
Tiger Woods got the first mention, which certainly makes a lot of sense. Woods was not only the best golfer in the world for a long stretch but he also became a worldwide sports icon. His controversies also became worldwide stories.
In the third verse, we get “More war in Afghanistan, Cubs go all the way again,” which is a very sweaty way to mention the Chicago Cubs won the World Series in 2016, their first title since 1908. It’s also something of a nod to “Brooklyn’s got a winning team” from the original version.
Michael Phelps gets namechecked in the next verse. Given that he is the most successful and most decorated Olympian of all time with 28 medals, that checks out.
You had to figure it was only a matter of time before LeBron James shows up. He gets sandwiched in between ISIS and Shinzo Abe, the former Japanese Prime Minister who was assassinated in 2022, so we’re sure he loves that.
We were starting to get a little worried they might not take note of women’s sports but Venus and Serena Williams show up at the end of the same verse, right after the Fermi Paradox. Quite the adventure we’re on here.
Probably the cheekiest moment in the song came when they opened a verse with “Michael Jordan 23” and then, a few lines later, added “Michael Jordan 45.” Well played, Fall Out Boy.
Finally, we get a mention of “Kaepernick” for Colin Kaepernick and a nod to the social justice protests that he led in the NFL. Fair to say that kickstarted a fair bit of discussion and feedback from around the nation. Much of it not great!
So there you go. Fall Out Boy considered those the most important sports-related items of the last 30 years and who are any of us to disagree with them?
About Sean Keeley
Along with writing for Awful Announcing and The Comeback, Sean is the Managing Editor for Comeback Media. Previously, he created the Syracuse blog Troy Nunes Is An Absolute Magician and wrote 'How To Grow An Orange: The Right Way to Brainwash Your Child Into Rooting for Syracuse.' He has also written non-Syracuse-related things for SB Nation, Curbed, and other outlets. He currently lives in Seattle where he is complaining about bagels. Send tips/comments/complaints to sean@thecomeback.com.