Announcer: "...And now, a musical interlude."
-X-
The camera panned out in a humble, square-attitude apartment from the TV set, while the familiar riff of "What a Fool Believes" by the Doobie Brothers played in the background. As the shot fully zoomed out, we see the back of Freakazoid, sitting on the couch as he bobbed his head along to the beat. He was wearing a red cardigan over a white collared shirt. At that moment, he turned to look our way.
Freakazoid [in a crooner-like voice]:
When you're alone,
and life is making you lonely,
you can always go...
The shot then cuts to a head shot of Freakazoid, who now appeared to be clad in a metallic 'disco' jumpsuit version of his costume, with a white ascot around his neck, with a city block in the background.
Freakazoid:
Down-town!
The shot then returned to the apartment, as Freakazoid quickly flipped the newspaper in front of his face down, while a light flashed on and off on the back wall.
Freakazoid:
When you've got worries, all the noise and the hurry
seems to help, I know...
The shot then cut back (and got wider) to the city block, as Freakazoid (whose 'disco' suit was further revealed to include white platform boots) 'presented' with his hands the cityscape behind him.
Freakazoid:
Down-town!
Freakazoid then broke into a strut down the street while bystanders looked on curiously. Some wondered just where the heck the music in the background was coming from-more so when Michael McDonald-like back-up vocals started to be heard.
Freakazoid:
Just listen to the music of the traffic in the city. (Listen to the mu-sic!)
Linger on the sidewalks where the neon signs are pretty. (Neeeon siiigns...)
Happy again...(Happy a-gainnn...!)
The shot then returned again to the apartment as Freakazoid took a tan overcoat off a hook and draped it over his shoulders.
Freakazoid:
So may-be I'll see you there,
we can forget all our troubles,
forget all our cares, and go...
The shot then returned again to the city streets, where Freakazoid continued his strut as all looked on, the McDonald-esque vocals continuing without interruption but still drawing confused looks, especially from the NERV staff and pilots we know who were out and about that day.
Freakazoid:
Down-town! (Workin' by the by-ways!) No finer place for sure,
Down-town! (Goin' downtown, yeah yeah yeah yeah...) I can't wait to be,
Down-town...(Goin' downtown, yeah...)
Don't sleep in the sub-way, darlin'!
It's a sign of the times...
Iiii know a place, that place is down-town! (Talkin' 'bout downtown! Goin' my way, yeah yeah...) Down-town...!
Freakazoid then turned and started strutting in the other direction.
(Talkin' 'bout all the traffic in the city, yeah yeah yeah, you goin' my way, sidewalk scenes and neon...)
Finally, Misato, the pilots and some other people looked to one street corner to see Michael McDonald himself, a microphone and stand in front of him and a set of headphones partially on his head. The Grammy-winner's singing reverie then stopped when he noticed the onlookers staring at him confusedly. McDonald, a sheepish smile appearing on his face, gave them a small wave and then split in the opposite direction, leaving both a cartoonish cloud of dust in his wake and his headphones in mid-air for the briefest of moments, before they fell to the ground.
The bystanders all looked at each other, still confused by what just happened. Finally, Misato looked our way.
"Michael McDonald, everyone!" she said with a shrug of her shoulders.
Ritsuko shouted after the singer. "I love your Motown tribute album!"
-X-
Announcer: "This concludes our musical interlude. We now return to our story."
**Author's Note(s)**
Apologies to RealRemainder, but I needed to get some brief filler up just to sate the readers here before I finally get to Bardiel. Anyway...
The musical interlude this time invokes the Canadian equivalent of Saturday Night Live, SCTV. Specifically, here we see Freakazoid fill in for Rick Moranis's Tom Monroe character in the latter's sketch from season four, episode six, "Moral Majority" (07/10/1981). Here, Monroe (a banal easy-listening crooner) sang a medley of Petula Clark songs over the tune of "What a Fool Believes", with Moranis also imitating Michael McDonald on back-up vocals. (Moranis, as Monroe, also did hilariously interesting takes on "Turning Japanese" by the Vapors and "De Do Do Do De Da Da Da" by the Police. The context was that these were 'promotional videos' shown on the fictional program The Gerry Todd Show (title host also played by Moranis), which was all about music videos months before MTV even debuted!) The Michael McDonald 'cameo' was my idea.