At precisely six minutes after midnight on May 31, Donald J. Trump Tweeted the following: “Despite the constant negative press covfefe.”
Naturally, the internet imploded upon itself, memes abounded and puns were made. Still, no one really understood the true meaning of the covfefe. The Washington Post speculated “coverage.” Heavy suggested “conference.” The purest soul who runs the Merriam-Webster Twitter account didn’t even try to define it and went back to bed.
At 1:14am, however, Rogue NASA Tweeted, “Someone please make a #covfefe playlist.”
Who knew duck and cover would be so entertaining? Someone please make a #covfefe playlist. https://t.co/mjwH29WkXR
— Rogue NASA (@RogueNASA) May 31, 2017
And that was a challenge we were willing to accept, even if Trump’s original tweet was finally deleted hours after the initial digital dumpster fire. Below, please find six songs that may or may not be about covfefe.
1. Papa Roach, “Last Resort”
With a hat-tip to the honorific Mountain Goats, Papa Roach’s alt-metal hit from 2000 could totally be about Trump’s mysterious covfefe. Like John Darnielle suggests, those lyrics could easily be as follows.
covfefe my life to pieces / this is my last resor
— The Mountain Goats (@mountain_goats) May 31, 2017
2. Sylvan Esso, “Coffee”
This North Carolina electro-pop duo got in on the covfefe Twitterstorm, too, with a simple “Covfefe the future.” But since much of Twitter is interpreting covfefe as “coffee,” we’re going with the band’s breakthrough hit of the same name.
Covfefe the future
— Sylvan Esso (@SylvanEsso) May 31, 2017
3. Britney Spears, “Lucky”
Comedian, writer, actor, Twitter Live host and brilliant internet presence Lane More bequeathed the internet with this suggestion. She parodies the lyrics to Britney Spears’s song “Lucky,” off 2000’s Oops!… I Did It Again, proving it doesn’t really matter what covfefe is as long as it rhymes.
????and they say
she’s covfefe, she’s a star
but she cries, cries, cries in her lonely heart thinking
if there’s nothing missing in my life…????— Lane Moore (@hellolanemoore) May 31, 2017
4. Tal Bachman, “She’s So High”
The chorus from this 1999 one-hit-wonder could easily be replaced with, “She’s COV-FEEE-FEEEE.” It seems especially fitting since all of Twitter was basically yodeling it together two hours after the original Tweet.
5. Carly Rae Jepsen, “Call Me Maybe”
Lots of votes for Carly Rae Jepsen have been popping up in the Twitterverse. Our own Music Editor Bonnie Stiernberg punned the lyrics to the pop singer’s biggest hit, “Call Me Maybe,” while Oregonian Music Critic David Greenwald suggested the specific stylization of Jepsen’s 2015 LP, E•MO•TION.
Hey, I just met you, and this is crazy, but here’s my number, covfefe maybe
— Bonnie Stiernberg (@aahrealbonsters) May 31, 2017
Carly Rae Jepsen – Co•vfe•fe
— David Greenwald (@davidegreenwald) May 31, 2017
6. Carly Simon, “You’re So Vain”
Mistaking cofveve for coffee is the easiest slip, so we couldn’t help but throw in one more pun. In her beloved hit from 1972’s No Secrets, Carly Simon dreamt there were some clouds in her cofveve. Um, we mean coffee. But it doesn’t help that the egomaniacal leader of the (at this point still) free world definitely thinks this song is about him.