It was 1999. Bill Clinton was finishing his second term, everyone was terrified that computers would explode because of Y2K, and a group of guys from Pennsylvania decided to release a song about mating like mammals. You know the one. Even if you don't know the title "The Bad Touch," you definitely know the hook: lets do it like they do on the discovery channel. It’s one of those rare cultural artifacts that somehow feels both incredibly dated and weirdly timeless.
Jimmy Pop, the frontman of the Bloodhound Gang, wasn't trying to write a masterpiece. He was trying to be funny. He succeeded. The song isn't just a relic of the late 90s; it’s a masterclass in how a specific brand of low-brow, high-IQ humor can capture the collective imagination of a generation. Honestly, it’s kinda impressive how a song filled with puns about Waffle House and "horny like a rhino" managed to dominate the airwaves in multiple countries. It reached number one in Italy, Spain, and Germany. Think about that. People who didn't even speak English as a first language were screaming about the Discovery Channel in clubs from Berlin to Rome.
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The Genius Behind the Absurdity
When you peel back the layers of lets do it like they do on the discovery channel, you find a lot of clever wordplay. Jimmy Pop, whose real name is James Moyer Franks, has a degree in communications and history from Temple University. It shows. The song isn't just random vulgarity. It’s a rhythmic, rapid-fire sequence of similes and metaphors. You've got references to the "X-Files," "The Brady Bunch," and "Siskel and Ebert." It's a pop culture time capsule.
The Bloodhound Gang always existed in this weird space between "stupid for the sake of it" and "actually pretty brilliant." They weren't a boy band, and they weren't quite a punk band. They were more like a comedy troupe that happened to have a sampler and a record deal. The synth-pop beat of "The Bad Touch" was a departure from their earlier, more rap-rock sound. It was catchy. It was bouncy. It was designed to stay stuck in your head until you wanted to rip your ears off, but in a good way.
Why Discovery Channel?
Back in the late 90s, the Discovery Channel wasn't what it is now. There were no "Gold Rush" marathons or "90 Day Fiancé" spin-offs on their sister networks. It was mostly nature documentaries. Educational stuff. Lots of footage of lions chasing gazelles and, yes, animals mating in the wild. By saying lets do it like they do on the discovery channel, the song was making a literal connection between human desire and the raw, unedited footage of the animal kingdom. It stripped away the romance and replaced it with David Attenborough-style clinical observation.
It’s hilarious because it’s so unsexy. Most love songs talk about the moon and stars. This song talks about being "nothing but mammals." It's Darwinian. It’s basically saying that despite our clothes, our jobs, and our obsession with cable TV, we are still just biological machines driven by instinct. The irony, of course, is that the song itself is a highly manufactured product of the very culture it’s poking fun at.
The Music Video and the Monkey Costumes
You cannot talk about this song without mentioning the video. It featured the band members in "Monkey Suit" costumes—which were actually more like lemurs—running around Paris and kidnapping people with blowdarts. It was chaotic. It was bizarre. It was exactly what MTV in 1999 wanted.
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Interestingly, the video ran into some trouble. There was a scene involving two gay men that was deemed offensive and eventually edited out for certain broadcasts. Looking back, it’s a reminder of how much the cultural needle has moved. What passed for "edgy" comedy in 1999 often looks a bit cringey through a modern lens. But the core hook—that goofy, repetitive invitation to do it like they do on the Discovery Channel—somehow escaped the "cancel" bin of history because it was just so patently ridiculous.
Impact on the Charts and Pop Culture
"The Bad Touch" wasn't just a fluke. It was a global phenomenon.
- In Germany, it stayed at the top of the charts for weeks. The Germans loved the Bloodhound Gang. Maybe it was the electronic beat, or maybe they just appreciated the sheer directness of the lyrics.
- In the UK, it hit number four.
- In the US, it peaked at 52 on the Billboard Hot 100, but its cultural footprint was much larger than its chart position suggests. It was a staple on Total Request Live (TRL).
The song's success proved that there was a massive market for "frat-boy humor" that didn't take itself seriously. It paved the way for other acts that used comedy as a primary vehicle for music. But while many of those acts have been forgotten, the phrase lets do it like they do on the discovery channel has entered the permanent lexicon. It’s a shorthand for a certain kind of "no-frills" intimacy.
The Production Secrets
Technically, the song is fascinating. It’s built on a very simple loop, but the layering is what makes it work. The percussion is crisp. The synth bass is thick. It has that "Eurodance" feel that was dominating the charts at the turn of the millennium, which is likely why it performed so well in Europe.
Jimmy Pop’s delivery is also key. He’s not singing; he’s deadpanning. He sounds bored, which makes the outrageous things he’s saying even funnier. If he had performed it with too much energy, it would have felt desperate. By playing it cool, he made the absurdity feel natural. He’s telling you that he wants to "put his hands on your lap" and "bet you'll find out that it's all in your head" with the same tone someone would use to order a cheeseburger.
Is It Still Relevant?
You might think a song this specific to the 90s would be dead by now. You’d be wrong. It has hundreds of millions of streams on Spotify. It’s a TikTok staple. Gen Z has discovered the song and, surprisingly, they don't hate it. They seem to appreciate the irony.
In a world where pop music is often incredibly polished and emotionally heavy, there’s something refreshing about a song that is just... dumb. But it’s a smart kind of dumb. It’s a song that knows exactly what it is and doesn't try to be anything else. When you hear lets do it like they do on the discovery channel, you aren't thinking about the complexities of modern dating. You're thinking about monkey suits and bad puns.
Misconceptions and Trivia
People often think the song was a one-hit-wonder. For the Bloodhound Gang, that’s not entirely true. They had other hits like "Fire Water Burn" (the one with the "the roof is on fire" hook) and "Foxtrot Uniform Charlie Kilo." They had a dedicated fanbase that stuck with them through several albums.
Another misconception is that the Discovery Channel hated the song. While they didn't officially endorse it, the "free advertising" was hard to argue with. At the time, the channel was trying to skew younger, and having a massive hit song name-drop them every five seconds didn't exactly hurt their brand recognition among teenagers.
The song's lyrics are also more complex than people remember. There’s a line about "sweat baby sweat baby sex is a Texas drought," which is a pretty vivid image if you think about it. The references to "The X-Files" ("you'll find that the truth is out there") show how deeply the band was plugged into the zeitgeist. They weren't just writing a song; they were writing a commentary on the media they were consuming.
What We Can Learn From The Bad Touch
There is a lesson here for creators. Sometimes, being specific is better than being universal. By naming a specific TV channel and using specific cultural references, the Bloodhound Gang created something that felt grounded in a real time and place.
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If they had just said "let's do it like they do in the wild," the song would have been forgettable. By saying lets do it like they do on the discovery channel, they created a hook that was visual, funny, and slightly transgressive. It felt like an inside joke that everyone was in on.
Also, don't underestimate the power of a good beat. You can say almost anything over a catchy enough synth line. The song works in a club setting just as well as it works as a comedy track. That dual-purpose nature is what gave it such incredible longevity.
Actionable Takeaways for the Nostalgic
If you're looking to revisit this era or understand why this specific track worked, here’s how to dive back in without getting lost in the "cringe":
- Listen to the full album 'Hooray for Boobies': It’s a wild ride. It shows the context of where "The Bad Touch" came from. You'll hear the influences of 80s synth-pop, 90s hip-hop, and straight-up punk rock.
- Watch the uncensored music video: See the original vision. The "monkey suits" were a deliberate choice to de-sexualize the song's themes, making it more about slapstick comedy than actual eroticism.
- Analyze the rhyme scheme: If you're into songwriting, look at how Jimmy Pop uses internal rhyme and multi-syllabic rhymes. It’s much more sophisticated than your average "joke" song.
- Check out the remixes: There are dozens of them. From house versions to rock covers, the song’s structure is remarkably flexible.
The legacy of lets do it like they do on the discovery channel is one of pure, unadulterated fun. It’s a reminder that music doesn't always have to be deep to be meaningful. Sometimes, it just needs to make you laugh and give you a beat to dance to while you're wearing a ridiculous costume.
Ultimately, the Bloodhound Gang caught lightning in a bottle. They took a simple biological fact—that we are all mammals—and turned it into a chart-topping anthem that defined the end of a millennium. It remains a high-water mark for the "novelty" song, proving that if you're going to be silly, you should at least be clever about it.
Practical Next Steps
To truly appreciate the impact of this track, start by comparing the original 1999 version with some of the modern covers found on platforms like YouTube or TikTok. Notice how the synth-pop production style has aged—it actually sounds closer to modern "hyperpop" than many other tracks from that year. After that, look up the lyrics to "Fire Water Burn" to see how the band utilized different cultural touchstones, like Rock Master Scott & the Dynamic Three, to build their brand of referential humor. This will give you a better grasp of why their specific style of songwriting resonated so deeply before the era of viral internet memes.