On 20/20 a few weeks ago, they showed a segment that involved college students going door-to-door canvassing a neighborhood. After ringing one bell for a while with no response, one of the students sang “Nobody’s hommmmme! Nobody’s hommmme!” to the tune of Beethoven’s 5th, and I sat up and took notice, because that goes through my head all the time, too! It’s from this ubiquitous commercial from the ’80s for a tape of pre-recorded joke outgoing messages for your newfangled answering machine: Crazy Calls! I used to beg my parents to buy it, but they were of the “If you say you’re not home on your answering machine, whoever is calling will come and rob you” school of illogical thought. Anyway, it’s nice to see that someone thought it was important enough to put on YouTube:

“You gotta leave your name/gotta leave your number/gotta WAIT FOR THE BEEP!” Move over, Jay Z, because that is a real rap. (I actually want to find a way to make this my outgoing cellphone message.)