Guy masterfully splices 'cold beer' references from country music songs into a comedy anthem for the ages

Beer is a common theme in country music. (A sampling of 2025's brew-themed tunes include Bryce Leatherwood's "Where the Bar Is" and Dierks Bentley's "Cold Beer Can.") Dustin Ballard, who runs the popular music-parody project There I Ruined It, highlighted this ubiquity in a hilarious mash-up video called, you guessed it, "Cold Beer." The premise is very simple: Ballard takes samples from dozens of country artists singing the words "cold beer" (or variations like "ice cold beer" and "cold, cold beer") and sets them against a twangy backing track.

There are lots of famous singers here: Bentley, Blake Shelton, Zac Brown, Luke Combs, George Strait, Jason Aldean, Eric Church, the list goes on. The video even takes some creative liberties: incorporating a gratuitous key change, including a snippet of comedian Bo Burnham's country send-up, and ending with one exception to the lyrical rule, "warm beer." - YouTube www.youtube.com The Instagram comments are incredible, uniting people who seem to view the song as both satire and celebration.

A number of famous musicians weighed in, including Chris Young, the first artist sampled in the song. "I would use this as a walk out [song] with permission haha," he wrote. The Roots drummer-producer Questlove lamented that Ballard didn't end the parody with a Beastie Boys reference: "Damnit I just knew you were gonna end it 'I grabbed two girlies and a beer that's cold' - Paul Revere." And, unsurprisingly, a lot of beer brands seized the moment by leaving a comment, including Coors Light, Samuel Adams, Budweiser, and Miller Lite.

"Cold Beer" earned some hilarious replies: "The lyrics are just incredible" "This is how I perceive country music as a non country music listener" "Next up: 'My Truck' 🛻" "the Bo Burnham cameo is so iconic" "What’s this song called I wanna add it to my playlist? Anyone know it?" "But what is this song about?" - YouTube www.youtube.com "What standing in the middle of broadway in Nashville on a saturday at 9pm sounds like" "Crazy this song has been #1 on the country charts for almost 2 decades." "Now do room temperature whisky" "hear me out..

cold beer to the tune of jolene" "And the Grammy for song of the year goes to…" "A nice cold beer or an ice cold beer? 🤔" "This is my We Are the World" "Ok hear me out....hot beer" Other comedy classics from There I Ruined It There I Ruined It has become one of the world's most popular sources for musical parody not named "Weird Al." Since launching the project during the COVID-19 pandemic, he's churned out instant comedy classics like a hall-of-mirrors version of Nickelback's "Photograph," a fake-Radiohead take on "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town," and a version of Pearl Jam's "Jeremy" featuring only Eddie Vedder's breaths and grunts.

Hysterical. But Ballard has also put his skills to use on a deeper level, giving a fascinating TED Talk with the title "Is AI Ruining Music?" - YouTube www.youtube.com