In 1981, electronic music pioneers Kraftwerk sang the praises of the technological marvel that is the pocket calculator. At the time, it was enough just to celebrate the ability of a tiny device to do your adding and subtracting—to praise it for “controlling and composing” and its “special key [that] plays a little melody.”
But it’s now 2021, and we need calculators to do more impressive things if they’re going to keep proving their value to us. Now that we’re jaded by the commonplace wonders of modern life, we need people like Korean YouTuber 차커 Chaco to show the value of the calculator by using a bunch of them to perform full songs.
차커 Chaco writes, “My calculator doesn’t do math, but it plays” on his channel bio, and, well, it sure does. In one of his most recent videos, he lines up three calculators and performs Daft Punk’s “Get Lucky” in its entirety, never missing a note as his fingers dance across way too many buttons to tap out an instrumental version of the song above a backing track of clacking plastic. In another homage to the memory of Daft Punk, 차커 Chaco adds a fourth calculator to his deck and plays through “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger.”
His mad button pressing isn’t limited to Daft Punk, though. 차커 Chaco has also uploaded calculator version of all kinds of other songs, from Ariana Grande and BLACKPINK covers to an extra-bleepy version of the Legend Of Zelda theme, a festive “All I Want For Christmas Is You” rendition, and his take on Beethoven, Shostakovich, and Vivaldi compositions.
Not only is his channel evidence of a skill that’s equal parts absolutely absurd and legitimately impressive, but they also suggest that 차커 Chaco was, bar none, the best guy to sit next to in math class.
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30 Comments
BOOBS
Ooo! Now do the calculator-appropriate “I Love Boobies”!
This could be the B-side.
Man, accounting offices in Korea must be loud as hell.
Yeah those are some loud calculators.
*calculouders
There is actually very little math involved in accounting. Most of the actual math I do is counting on my fingers. I’m serious, the one time when I find myself needing to calculate something myself is usually figuring out the number of months left in a contract and for me it’s quick and accurate to count them out on my fingers.
That’s some MacAuthor Genius Grant shit.
No, thank you.
Not sure if this is a hot take or an opinion blinded by nostalgia but, while I love Random Access Memory, I think Discovery is still Daft Punks best album.
Don’t think that’s a hot take at all…it’s just the correct take. I love all Daft Punk albums (except Human After All…I don’t think anyone on the planet can truthfully say they “love” that album), but Discovery is more listenable all the way through while Random Access Memories has a skippable track here and there. On some days I might actually put RAM third to Homework…
Honestly if you count the Tron Legacy Soundtrack you could almost say it’s forth. But to be honest I like them all and don’t hate any of them. I just wonder if Discovery is my favorite because it was the first of their music I heard and because I love Insterstella 5555
“Interstella 5555″ is absolutely the reason it’s my favorite, but I think the album also stands 100 percent on its own merits as their best. Your opinion is vindicated.
I have to admit to not being a hipster, but Tron Legacy is how I first heard about Daft Punk. I like the soundtrack a lot, and it makes sense that they did it because the original Tron had Wendy Carlos’ pioneering electronic soundtrack.
I thought it was calculators the whole time.
PLAY FREEBIRD!
This doesn’t add up.
That’s cool and all but it’s hard to top the Strong Bad version.
talking about ‘Daft Punk’ tribute videos I’m not sure anyone is going to top this:
I don’t understand why a calculator would make these noises, but also apparently be otherwise unresponsive to button pushes (the screen never changes?). Seems like, other than doing videos like this, the calculator has no actual function?
Right? Why do calculators play musical tones at all? Could it be that the calculators are wired (underneath the table) to something that triggers musical notes, and the calculators themselves are nothing more than empty shells?
https://www.amazon.com/Egoelife-Musical-Desktop-Calculator-12-Digits/dp/B076WWTM2P
calculator has a function that turns it into a musical device, and you can presumably set the key of the tones.
It’s a setting for the calculator. There’s other shit it does besides crunch numbers and make music. Like an alarm or a timer.
if you look up the calculator model, it has a synth built in. there is a speaker on the calculator.
He skipped the Mexican monkey part. That’s my favorite part.
check the song out if you get the chance. sound of the summer
I think I like this version better than the original-i would love to hear a full synth version
This was cute, but his ambidexterity is more impressive in his Legend of Zelda cover.
Impressive as it is, still think the most fitting way to cover Daft Punk is by floppy drive.https://youtu.be/eHBl3b8t0-A