Thanks to the intrepid reporters over at New York Magazine, the truth to a long-held belief among many children of the 80’s can finally be revealed. Toni Basil’s “Mickey,” the cheerleader-style video that was once a staple of MTV (back when it stood for “Music Television”) does not contain references to being poked in the brown eye, despite the line “Come on and give it to me, any way you can. Any way you wanna do it, I’ll take it like a man!”
As it turns out, “Mickey” was a remake of an original 1970s song by a band name Racey, who were signing about a girl named Kitty.
When Basil changed “Kitty” to “Mickey,” she also swapped the gender in most, but not all, of the lyrics. “It’s girls like you, Kitty” became “It’s guys like you, Mickey”; “Why can’t we say goodnight, so I can take you home” became “why can’t we say goodnight, so you can take me home.” But the infamous lyric, “So come and give it to me any way you can, any time you wanna do it, I’ll take it like a man,” only changed to “Any way you wanna do it, I’ll take it like a man!”
And, as a result, a nation of immature children and adults snickered for the next 30 years.
But in a recent interview, Toni Basil, the singer/choreographer who made the song a huge hit back in the day with her new wave cheerleaders and incessantly happy beat, finally reveals the truth, when asked about the lyric.
“No! Everyone reads shit into everything. It’s not about anything dirty. You change the name from boy to girl” — i.e., from “Kitty” to “Mickey” — “and they read anything they want into it! When it’s a guy singing about a girl, it’s a sweet line. But when a girl sings it, it must mean butt-fucking!”
Now if we could just find out what this song is about.
