Hatten är din
Encyclopedia
Hatten är din was a internet meme
Internet meme
The term Internet meme is used to describe a concept that spreads via the Internet. The term is a reference to the concept of memes, although the latter concept refers to a much broader category of cultural information.-Description:...

 from 2000. It is a Flash animation featuring the music of Lebanese
Lebanon
Lebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...

 musician Azar Habib
Azar Habib
Azar Habib born in Marjayoun, Lebanon, was a Lebanese composer and singer. He lived in Marjayoun until he was four years old and then his family moved to Beirut. He was mostly known for his love ballads and for mixing traditional Arabic music with modern western pop.He was most popular in Lebanon...

; the name of the song playing is "Habbeetik". The animation prominently features a hat, Swedish text, and an assortment of bizarre imagery.

Origin

In 1984, Habib recorded "Meen ma Kenty/Habbeetek" (Whoever you are/I Loved You, or I Fell In Love With You) in Arabic
Arabic language
Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...

 for his Ajbeen el Layl album; the tape eventually made its way to Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

. Sixteen years later, Swedes Patrik Nyberg, Johan Gröndahl and Pet Bagge noticed that the lyrics sounded like Swedish. With this in mind, they published an mp3 file and a text file with the "misheard" lyrics on their website. Shortly after this, another Swede, Martin Holmström, decided to make a flash video of the song, which he published on his site http://come.to/hatten (which came back online in 2008). It has been seen by millions of people around the world.

Details

The Swedish "subtitles" are not a translation of the Arabic, but rather an approximated phonetic transcription of the lyrics into Swedish, resulting in outlandish non sequiturs
Non sequitur (absurdism)
A non sequitur is a conversational and literary device, often used for comedic purposes. It is a comment that, because of its apparent lack of meaning relative to what it follows, seems absurd to the point of being humorous or confusing....

 such as Limma skinkbit, cooligt (glue a piece of ham, cool-ish) and Man kan knarka och hamna i TV (You can do drugs and end up on TV). From the contents of these lyrics the deadpan
Deadpan
Deadpan is a form of comic delivery in which humor is presented without a change in emotion or body language, usually speaking in a casual, monotone, solemn, blunt, disgusted or matter-of-fact voice and expressing an unflappably calm, archly insincere or artificially grave demeanor...

 site presented a Swedish drinking game involving the passing around of hats, which was sometimes taken at face value by viewers.

The accompanying images of the animation are ostensibly Middle East
Middle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...

ern men in hats; one of those hats floating among a party of people, who appear to be dressed in traditional Turkish
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...

 or Middle Eastern clothing; and visualizations of the Swedish lyrics such as "cool guy holding a soda" and "borrow the LP
Gramophone record
A gramophone record, commonly known as a phonograph record , vinyl record , or colloquially, a record, is an analog sound storage medium consisting of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove...

 'Hatten är din' ".

Reception

The song became famous in Scandinavia
Scandinavia
Scandinavia is a cultural, historical and ethno-linguistic region in northern Europe that includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, characterized by their common ethno-cultural heritage and language. Modern Norway and Sweden proper are situated on the Scandinavian Peninsula,...

 and, according to Nyberg, was often played at drinking parties. Copies were made and sold without the creators' permission. The Metro
Metro International
Metro International is a Swedish media company based in Luxembourg that publishes the Metro newspapers. Metro International's advertising sales have grown at a compound annual growth rate of 41% since launch of the first newspaper edition in 1995. It is a freesheet, meaning that distribution is...

newspaper of Stockholm
Stockholm
Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...

even sent a journalist to get an interview with Azar Habib. Habib was apparently surprised by this mutilation of his song and the craze that followed, but liked the idea.

In the English-speaking world, the animation was also known as "Hatt-baby".

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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