Tim Heidecker Wrote A Pretty Good Rock Song About Jonathan Cheban’s Disgusting Gold-Encrusted Chicken Wings
Satirical songwriter and comedian Tim Heidecker released his Trump-skewering soft rock album last year, and today he shares his musical take on something lighter but also frightening and indicative of cultural demise: Jonathan Cheban’s gold-dusted chicken wings.
If you keep up with the Kardashians — as I admittedly do from time to time — you’ve probably come across Cheban, the family’s famous-by-association friend who now insists on being called “Foodgōd.” He even got the name tattooed on his hand. I know this because I am trash. Heidecker wrote “Jonathan’s Golden Wings (demo)” after watching one of those overly-produced buzzy videos about insane and expensive food— this one featured Cheban, or Foodgōd, as a guest-host and went viral earlier this week.
Heidecker writes in the track description, “The first line from that asshole’s interview jumped out at me as a good first lyric…. i know nothing else about any of these people. I jumped to some conclusions. All proceeds go to LA FOOD BANK!” That first line is “I became friends with Jonathan through the nightlife scene.”
He sings along with ’70s-sounding acoustics, from the perspective of a Cheban counterpart, about clickbait fame and wasted riches: “We should have Fed the hungry and helped the poor / We could have done anything / But we settled on gold encrusted chicken wing.”
The song ends with Cheban’s death and the endurance of his garish online persona. People are suffering around the world (“There ain’t no water in Flint / There ain’t no power in Puerto Rico”), but he ignored it in the face of golden chicken wings. Listen below and watch the video that inspired it.
“Jonathan’s Golden Wings (demo)” is out now on Bandcamp. All proceeds go to LA Food Bank.