The television studio of a popular American late-night talk show was filled with artificial smoke and laser lights when Bard and Vegard Ylvisaker arrived. These Norwegian brothers, who had spent the previous days traveling from Oslo to London to New York, did not seem to be particularly fazed as they surveyed their surroundings, which included dancers in fox masks and makeup, rows of full-length mirrors and a man in a horse costume.

"It's absurd," said Bard, 31, with a deadpan demeanor. "But after a while, it starts to feel like work."

This has become the routine for the Ylvisaker brothers, known as Ylvis (pronounced ILL-vis), for the past month or so, ever since they became unlikely pop music sensations with a willfully silly if undeniably catchy song called "The Fox (What Does the Fox Say?)."

Over a thumping electronic beat, "The Fox" asks in pleadingly sincere tones why, if there are distinctive sounds associated with the many other animals in creation, is there not one for the fox? ("Ducks say quack, and fish go blub and the seal goes ow ow ow ... What does the fox say?")

It was a prank that backfired wildly. Earlier this month, "The Fox" reached number six on Billboard's Hot 100 singles chart. An equally mystifying video that features the photogenic Ylvisakers and other performers in animal outfits had been viewed 130 million times on YouTube.

But even as the song continues to grow in popularity, it is becoming both a blessing and a burden to its creators - a propitious opportunity and a prank that backfired wildly. But how much further, they wonder, can they take something that was never meant to go anywhere in the first place?

In their homeland, the Ylvisakers are jokesters and the hosts of their own comedy talk show, "I Kveld Med Ylvis" ("Tonight With Ylvis"), on Norwegian television.

They made "The Fox" with assistance from Stargate, the Norwegian-born, New York-based producing duo that has helped create hit songs for Rihanna, Katy Perry and Wiz Khalifa - except that their track, the Ylvisakers said, was intended to be bad.

"From a comedian's perspective, it would be much more fun if we misused their talents," Bard said. "We go make that song, we come back to our talk show and we say, 'Sorry, guys.'"

Instead, the video became an international phenomenon when it was posted in early September, racking up hundreds of thousands of views by the day and catching the attention of Warner Music, which had signed Ylvis to the Norwegian arm of the company.

What the band intends to do with this momentum remains an open question. "This is a big chance," Bard said. But promoting "The Fox" requires the brothers to leave their wives and young children at home for days at a time, and prevents them from working on their Norwegian TV show. For the time being, Bard said, "We tried to push all our work on our colleagues."

Vegard, 34, said it was inevitable that enthusiasm for "The Fox" would wane.

"You can't be amazed for an entire month," he said. "At some point, it has to level off."

Whenever that happens, Bard said, he would be prepared.

"There might come a song about wolves from Denmark in the next week, and then, suddenly, we're off the hook," he said. "That's O.K. Even if that happens, it's been fun."

The New York Times

(China Daily 10/27/2013 page12)