Virtual Insanity

"Virtual Insanity" is the first and lead single of Jamiroquai's third album Travelling Without Moving, released on 19 August 1996 via Sony Soho Square. Written by Jay Kay and Toby Smith and produced by Al Stone, it charted number-one in Iceland and peaked at number-three on the UK Charts, along with charting in several other countries. It also became their biggest US song, charting number 38 on the US Billboard Modern Rock Tracks. Considered their biggest song, it would win them a Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group.

The song regained popularity again in 2023 for it's music video, along as a Family Guy cutaway gag where the character Carter Pewterschmidt rearranges furniture in his home in the style of the music video.

Background

Despite being the first track and single of their third album, it was the last to be recorded. Only recorded as a rough track with one verse and the keyboard structure written, it only became a proper track as the label had requested the band to make a a proper single for Traveling Without Moving. The premise of the track was inspired by a walk in an underground city in Sendai, Japan, by singer Jay Kay and the band's didgeridoo player, Wallis Buchanan. Kay wrote in liner notes of the album quote, "Everything was covered in snow and there was absolutely no one about. [We took] these stairs that led down to this whole underground city … with all the color and noise you get in Japanese streets."

Lyrically, the song delves into social issues such as overpopulation, human genetic enhancement, eugenics, and ecological collapse, with lyrics such as "And now every mother can choose the colour / Of her child, that's not nature's way".

The runtime of the track is 5:40 for album releases, 4:04 for the single, and 3:46 for radio edits. Physical release include both the studio and radio edit along with the b-side tracks "Bullet", a funk instrumental, and "Do You Know Where You're Coming From", a track featuring M-Beat originally released as a single for the album.

In popular culture

The song and music video have been parodied several times because of its unique style of having objects seemingly move on its own and Jay Kay gliding across the room seamlessly. One of the most popular early examples was a 1997 MTV Video Music Awards ad featuring Chris Rock parodying the music video in a comedic fashion via digital superimpositon. Another early example is a 2007 parody of the original music video done by Jonathan Glazer, the original music video director, where the room is digitally edited to be a bathroom while Kay moves around the room interacting with patrons in a comedic fashion.

Other music videos would parody or take inspiration of the music video, with Austin Mahone and Pitbull taking inspiration for their 2014 single "Mmm Yeah" and FILDAR parodying the video along with several others in their 2015 single, "40.oz on Repeat". TV shows would as well make parodies of the video with the season 11 Robot Chicken episode "May Cause the Exact Thing You're Taking This to Avoid".

"Dancing, walking, rearranging furniture" / Family Guy cutaway

Possibly the most famous example would be in a cutaway from the season 14 Family Guy episode "Scammed Yankees", where the character Carter Pewterschmidt sings the chorus of the song but instead replacing the lyrics as "Dancing, walking, rearranging furniture / Babs is shopping, I let the bird out of the cage". This meme started off as a small meme within communities around 2021, but would blow up later in 2023 under the portmanteau "Cartermiroquai" which came from a YouTube upload. The cover would be overlayed over many videos along with the original music video of "Virtual Insanity" and an AI cover with Jay Kay singing the parodied lyrics. The meme would come full circle when the band would create a TikTok account with the first video uploaded being the cutaway gag, albeit with different clips such as scenes from the "Canned Heat" music video and live performances of Kay.

Edits/variants of the "Virtual Insanity" gif (middle is original)

While not as popular, the hat Kay wears in the video was used in a joke in the season 18 episode "Peter & Lois' Wedding" where Peter flashbacked to the 90's, where people wore vests and "Jamiroquai hats".

Internet culture

Outside of the "Cartermiroquai" clip, the music video itself has been parodied many times online and segments of the video have been turned into popular gifs. Around the 2:38 mark of the music video, Kay inserts himself into a still "grabbing" position and slides towards the camera slowly. This specific clip has been made into a popular gif of varying speeds and various communities. General parodies of the music video include a "real-life" mock-up, a bass cover dubbed "Virtual BASSanity", a rotoscope using the style and characters of the popular anime Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, a re-animation of the video in 3d with Hatsune Miku, and plenty more.