Billy Cobb

Submission 2,647

About

Billy Cobb is a musician and comedian known best for his meme-based songs, his impressions of other artists' singing voices, and albums performed in the style of other artists. He has produced a number of viral YouTube videos, and received acclaim for his 2019 album Zerwee, made to sound like a Weezer album.

Online History

On July 4th, 2015, Billy Cobb posted his first YouTube video,^[1] a cover of an unreleased Gerard Way (lead singe of My Chemical Romance) song titled "Don't Try" performed to sound like Gerard Way is singing (shown below, left). On August 1st, Cobb released an original song in the style of My Chemical Romance to YouTube^[2] (shown below, right).

Cobb continued to post covers and songs meant to imitate popular artists, as well as originals, to YouTube throughout the following years. On October 18th, 2016, Cobb released a Halloween-themed album titled "Halloween"^[3] (shown below, left). He would go on to release a new Halloween album the next 4 years in a row. On November 8th, Cobb released his first original EP.^[8] On December 21st, Cobb uploaded his first viral hit to the platform,^[4] a punk cover of the Spongebob Squarepants song, Gary Come Home garnering over 1 million views in 4 years (shown below, right). He went on to produce a number of other SpongeBob punk covers shortly after the success of the first.^[5]^[6]^[7]

…But Using Google Autocomplete Series

Following the success of his Spongebob covers, Cobb began leaning more into meme properties with his songs, as well as balancing a career as a legitimate musician with original releases. On December 1st, 2017, Cobb had another viral success with "Mr. Brightside but using google autocomplete results," a video^[9] in which he sings The Killers' Mr. Brightside but with autocomplete lyrics, garnering over 2 million views in 3 years (shown below).

He released a number of other videos in this series which went viral. On March 18th, 2018, Cobb released "Welcome to the Black Parade but with Google Autocomplete Sentences for Lyrics" on YouTube^[10] garnering over 1.3 million views in roughly 2 years (shown below, left). On April 17th, 2019, Cobb released the most popular video of the series titled, "Creep by Radiohead but Using Google Autocomplete Results for Lyrics"^[11] garnering over 2.9 million views in roughly a year (shown below, right).

Zerwee

On May 3rd, 2019, Cobb released the album "Zerwee," to YouTube^[12] and streaming services, an album performed in the style of Weezer (shown below). In the description, Cobb states, "I got tired of waiting for Weezer to release another album so I made one myself: Zerwee aka The White Album Deluxe DELUXE Edition aka Greta Van Weezer. This EP was actually really fun to make and I think it turned out really well, it’s one of my new favorites. Enjoy and have fun with this one, sending summer vibes your way." The album received over 500,000 views on YouTube in a year and a half, and received massive praise in the comments, with over 25,000 likes and only 250 dislikes as of January 5th, 2021. On May 7th, /u/AndrewUnknown posted the album to /r/Weezer,^[14] garnering over 500 upvotes in a comparable span of time. On July 2nd, 2020, Cobb released Zerwee, Pt. 2 to YouTube^[13] (shown below, right).

Zerwee received mixed-to-positive critical reception. The album holds a 3.2 out of 5 average rating on RateYourMusic,^[15] and a 72/100 on Album Of The Year^[16] as of January 2021.

Carl Wheezer Series

On April 1st, 2020, Cobb released, "Wheezer – Say it Ain't So," to YouTube,^[17] a cover of Weezer's "Say It Ain't So" but sung as Carl Wheezer from Jimmy Neutron (shown below, left). The video gained over 2.1 million views in 9 months. On September 15th, Cobb released a video^[18] in which Carl Wheezer sings to Joji's "Slow Dancing In The Dark" garnering over 3 million views in 4 months and becoming his most popular video as of January 2021 (shown below, right).

It's Okay To Leave A Dog In A Hot Car

On July 10th, 2020, Cobb released, "The Beatles – It's Okay to Leave A Dog in a Hot Car" to YouTube,^[19] a fake song by The Beatles based on a viral image depicting lyrics to a song about leaving a dog in a hot car (video shown below). The video gained over 870,000 views in 5 months.