"Ras Trent" The lonely Island

“Ras Trent” A Comical Truth

The song “Ras Trent” by The Lonely Island, argues that the people who practice the Rastafarian religion smoke marijuana regularly, are from a ghetto culture, and hate people with bald heads. The Lonely Island are a comedy troupe of writers and comedians from Saturday Night Live, so their songs are usually funny but never factual. This little fact about them makes the argument of the song less convincing. However the words and imagery used in the song and video proves that the writers of this song have done their homework on the Rastafarian religion, making their argument valid.

The Lonely Island uses a lot of ambiguous words, repetition, and humorous context throughout their lyrics, to get their point across to you. The first thing that pops out at you as you are reading the text is, these words are not making any sense and are practically gibberish. The words used throughout the song seem foreign because they are actual Rastafarian words. This shows that the authors are using a lot of ambiguous language to further the humor and truth within the song. One particular quote in this song uses a lot of ambiguous words and truth is “oh fire pon Babylon and fire pon a batty boy rude boy living in the shanty dorms my roommate Nick is an ignorant bald-head.” The actual meaning of the beginning phrase oh fire pon Babylon is the Rastafarian belief to put a (fire) or end to corrupt businesses, places or people. The second part of the phrase was the words shanty dorms and ignorant bald head take on a different meaning as well. Shanty dorms is describing that Ras is staying in a dorm that is of ghetto value. This phrase in the song seems rude and racist, but actually makes since due to the fact that, Rastafarian religion is usually practiced by poverty stricken people of Jamaica. Ignorant bald heads refers to the Rastafarian commandment to not shave off their dreadlocks and become like corrupt white men.

The phrase bald heads is repeated again in the phrase “Have you ever noticed how bald-heads suck? Ba-da-da ding-ding-ding dong-dand ding dong duck!” The authors choose use humor and repetition to show you that this must be a term that is very important and used frequently in the Rastafarian religion. Another humorous quote from the song that works well and gives a less threatening tone to the song is “Are you there Jah? It’s me, Ras Trent.” The Lonely Island used this phrase to show people that they are not making the song out to be hurtful or prejudice against the Rasta religion. This phrase is also showing a lot of pathos, because Jah is the Rasta word for God. How would The Lonely Island know that the people of Rasta faith pray to this God, its not common knowledge. They of course had to research the Rasta religion to use accurate words in context. This should show the Rasta people that they have respect for their religion, because the writers have a lot of authority and credibility since they work for Saturday Night Live. So they did not have to use accurate words to make the song funny, but they did and it added truthful humor to the song. The way The Lonely Island chose to represent the lyrical aspect of the song makes their argument more accurate and convincing.

The video portion of “Ras Trent” adds more in depth descriptions of the Rasta Religion that makes the lyrics of the song make more sense. In the beginning of the music video Ras is dressed in very tacky thrift store clothes that look like a person were in the 1960’s, with long blond dreadlocks which just makes the character of Ras look even more ridiculous. The director of this video probably chooses this type of look, due to the fact that most people who follow the Rasta religion are expected to have dreadlocks, and have tackier looking clothes because of their poor culture.

link to video: http://www.nbc.com/Saturday_Night_Live/video/clips/digital-short-ras-trent/787281/

link to lyrics: http://www.lamourproject.com/2008/10/ras-trent.html