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Right Said Fred perform anti-Assad version of 'I'm too sexy'

Bashar al-Assad, who is apparently a fan of the group, was given a scathing rendition of the 90s pop classic

Heather Saul
Tuesday 10 June 2014 16:27 BST
Nineties pop group Right Said Fred revisited their classic song I’m Too Sexy to deliver a scathing version of I’m Too Sexy especially for Bashir al-Assad on the Last Week Tonight show
Nineties pop group Right Said Fred revisited their classic song I’m Too Sexy to deliver a scathing version of I’m Too Sexy especially for Bashir al-Assad on the Last Week Tonight show (YouTube )

Nineties pop group Right Said Fred revisited their classic song I’m Too Sexy to deliver a scathing version of the track especially for Bashar al-Assad, who is apparently a fan of the band.

John Oliver, the British host of Last Week Tonight, invited the duo onto his show to deliver a revamped version of their pop hit especially for the Syrian President. The invitation came two years after leaked emails gave the world a glimpse of Assad’s music taste, including a list of i-Tunes tracks purchased by the President.

Among those were I’m Too Sexy and LMFAO’s Sexy and I Know It, leading Oliver to dismiss Assad as “half-mass murderer and half your creepy sophomore-year roommate”.

He described feeling frustrated at being “powerless” to hurt Assad, before telling the audience: “We could track down, let’s say, Right Said Fred and we could, hypothetically, fly them all the way over here from London to perform a specially re-written anti-Assad version of their greatest hits.

“But would it really be worth all that time and expense just for the momentary catharsis of mildly irritating one of the worst people on the planet?”

Apparently it was, as Right Said Fred then burst on the stage and performed their 1991 No2 with tailored lyrics such as “you’re too awful for this earth, so awful it hurts” and “so please, stop downloading our tracks, here’s your money back”.

Another lyric was amended to: “You’re a monster and we hate your regime, and we think you should be tried for war crimes, yeah for war crimes, for war crimes, you should probably be on trial for war crimes.”

The resounding chorus finished: “You’re an a******, you’re an a******! Please stop listening to our songs” while Oliver danced behind the pair with a sign that read “U R A d*** Assad”.

Tens of thousands of civilians have died in Syria since civil war in the country began in 2011. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights estimates that 125,000 people have been killed under the Assad regime.

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The UN estimated in January 2014 that some 242,000 people were trapped in areas under siege, with more than 200,000 of those besieged by the regime.

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