Jonathan Coulton's Techie Songs including "Code Monkey" Video

Jonathan Coulton used to be a computer programmer. Now he is a singer songwriter. Perhaps one of his more popular song is the one titled "Code Monkey" about a programmer who works for a manager Rob and the programmer likes the girl at the front desk. Although in an interview, Jonathan did say there was no real manager named "Rob".

Below is video where he sings Code Monkey. Note that he makes a comment/joke in the beginning about quitting his job as as a former software programmer.

His latest CD released in 2009 is "Best Concert Ever" with 20 songs in CD/DVD two-disc set -- of course it has the song Code Monkey.

You can listen to more of Jonathan Coulton's music at his website JonathanCoulton.com where you will also find lyrics and guitar tabs to many of the songs as well.

The "Code Monkey" song is a rhyming song and starts off with ...

"Code Monkey get up get coffee
Code Monkey go to job
Code Monkey have boring meeting
With boring manager Rob"

Lyrics say more about Manager Rob ...

"Rob say Code Monkey very diligent
But his output stink
His code not "functional" or "elegant"
What do Code Monkey think?
Code Monkey think maybe manager want to write god damned login page himself
Code Monkey not say it out loud
Code Monkey not crazy, just proud"

The songs ends with Code Monkey's secret love for the front-desk girl...

"Code Monkey like Fritos
Code Monkey like Tab and Mountain Dew
Code Monkey very simple man
With big warm fuzzy secret heart:
Code Monkey like you"

See video on YouTube.

Coulton was interviewed in this video which tells about the types of song he writes about.

Jonathan Coulton has written quite a few other tech related songs such as ...

• "Mandelbrot Set" - which is a mathematical fractal discovered by Benoit Mandelbrot where "his geometry succeeds where others fail". The lyrics got some equations in it: "Take a point called Z in the complex plane / Let Z1 be Z squared plus C / And Z2 is Z1 squared plus C / And Z3 is Z2 squared plus C and so on"
• "A Laptop Like You" -- about a laptop with CD slot, Unix, and a one-button mouse. But in a year or two, when it becomes big, heavy, and slow, it will have to be taken to place where laptops go to die.
• "Chiron Beta Prime" -- which is about on working in a mine on an asteroid run by a robot overlord.
• "That spells DNA" -- song talks about each cell having a nucleus which in turns has chromosomes, and how Guanine met Cytosine, about Thymine and Adenine, and about TATACACATATCCTCGT.
• "Better" -- this song is about cybernetics. Not about cybernetics being better. About (as the song says) "But I don’t think that I like you better" with cybernetics.
• "The Future Soon" -- about solar dome in space, bionic eyes, robot wars, crazy cyborg, and a future where "things that make me weak and strange get engineered away"
• "Podsafe Christmas Song" - About wanting a podcast Christmas song because don't want to get sued by the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America).
  

As in the title "Code Monkey", he has many other song with titles involving animals: "Octopus", "Monkey Shines", "Space Doggity", Seahorse", "My Beige Bear", and "Furry Old Lobster".

He has a couple of songs about US presidents: "Presidents" and "Washy Ad Jeffy".

And there is a couple of creepy songs: "Creepy Doll" and another titled "Re Your Brains". Even the music of "Creepy Doll" is a bit creepy. In "Re Your Brains" the lyrics goes like ...

"All we want to do is eat your brains. We are not unreasonable. We’re not unreasonable, I mean, no one’s gonna eat your eyes."

Then there are songs about tamer matters like shopping at "SkyMall" where he talks about buying all these stuff on the plane: a pair of bonsai trees, a fake rock to hide keys, a Santa that dances and sways, and a whimsical statue of a bear that holds wine -- because he forgot to bring something to read.

He has a whole song about "Ikea", the furniture store.  Plus many more.

Many people have remixed Jonathan Coulton's songs with videos, photos, and anime.

You can find more videos on Google Videos.

Article written in 2009.  Author may receive compensation from Amazon and Google via the display ads and links.