Uh-Huh, Man: Even Fake Bands Sing Real Songs

Sometimes songs are written as themes for movies, or to be sung by a character for plot development purposes. Songs written for films can live an interesting sort of half life: writers may pen one verse or chorus to be shown in the film, or they may compose an entire song, even though less than a minute of it may appear on screen.

In Yes Man, a romantic comedy starring Jim Carrey as a depressed loner who learns to open himself up to new experiences, the on-screen band Munchausen by Proxy plays a brief concert montage. Despite the band's brief appearance, four of the 13 songs on the soundtrack are original pieces by the fictional group.

While the song "Yes Man" is played over the movie's end credits, the other three songs barely feature in the film. Nevertheless, they're some delightful synth-rock numbers that tell some interesting stories--including the story of a bad break-up the romantic interest references obliquely in the film.

"Uh-Huh," sung by actress Zooey Deschanel--who in real life forms half of the musical duo She and Him--forms a little appendix to Yes Man. It tells you exactly what happened in Allison's (Deschanel) love-life before Carl (Carrey) showed up.

There isn't enough of a story to justify another movie, but the song's ironic observations about cyber-fighting and stealing the noodles when you're moving out more than justifies the song's existence. It creates a life of its own.

If you came across "Uh-Huh," or any of Munchausen's songs, on the internet, you wouldn't necessarily know they were written for a movie. Let's just hope no one's stuck out there trying to buy tickets to see Munchausen by Proxy.