If you watched The Rachel Maddow Show last Friday, you may have caught vlogger Jonathan Mann performing his cheeky tune “Hey Paul Krugman.” Mann’s Rock Cookie Bottom website, where he posts an original music video every day, has more than just Maddow buzzing. Want to know more? Check out MoJo’s podcast interview with Mann (excerpt after the jump).
Mother Jones: Were you surprised by the success (of the Krugman video), and can you explain what that led to?
Jonathan Mann: So the Paul Krugman song was number 77, and to me it was no different than 76 or 78. It was just another song. It was literally how I was feeling at the moment. I was like reading Paul Krugman’s blog, listening to Tim Geithner, and thinking to myself, man I really wish that Paul Krugman, who when he speaks makes perfect sense to me, was actually calling shots…The song just blew up. I think the first blog to get it was this one called Calculated Risk, and from there it went to the Huffington Post, on the front page, and from there it just totally blew up on the internet. It ultimately led to an appearance on this show called 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue on MSNBC, where the host David Schuster is apparently this huge fan of mine. So I wrote them this song and all this stuff, so it’s been pretty nuts.
Listen to MoJo’s full podcast interview with Jonathan Mann here.
