Is “License to Sl*t” a Clever Halloween Joke, or Is the Joke Getting Old?
There's a familiar rule in comedy: committing fully to a ridiculous premise can make even a questionable idea entertaining.
Electronic duo Soul in the Machine certainly understand the commitment part.
Their Halloween song, “License to Sl*t,” takes the annual tradition of revealing Halloween costumes and turns it into an elaborate fictional licensing system, complete with characters, costumes and an accompanying website.
The production is ambitious. The title is provocative. The joke is immediately recognizable.
Whether it's particularly fresh is another question.
Sexy versions of ordinary occupations have been a Halloween staple for decades. The sexy nurse, sexy police officer and sexy firefighter are practically their own costume category by now.
Building an entire song around that observation risks feeling like a joke that has already been told.
Still, there's something interesting underneath the obvious gag.
The creators describe the premise as a celebration of Halloween's temporary freedom from judgment. Everyone receives a fictional license, and nobody is supposed to shame anybody else for their choices.
That's a more generous idea than the title initially suggests.
The distinction matters. There's a difference between laughing at the absurdity of costume culture and making the people wearing those costumes the punchline.
The original music video attempts to land on the playful side of that line, treating the entire premise as an exaggerated fantasy.
A cleaner companion version, "License to Strut", also exists for audiences who would prefer the concept without the more provocative language.
The people behind the project add another layer of interest. Georg Bissen and Henry Chang have spent years developing technology and custom instruments for live electronic performances, with appearances at EDC, Ultra and AREA15.
That background makes the elaborate execution easier to understand, even if the joke itself won't appeal to everyone.
Ultimately, “License to Sl*t” is unlikely to settle any arguments about Halloween, sexuality or what makes a good joke.
It doesn't need to.
The more useful question is whether audiences still have room for deliberately ridiculous music videos that take an old joke and run with it.
The answer probably depends on how funny you find the joke in the first place.
