Quirky Swedish musical group the latest beneficiaries of the 'Colbert bump'

Stephen Colbert has turned tongue-in-cheek sponsor shilling into a full contact sport on his Comedy Central fake-news show. (Notice all the Bud Light Lime he's been pushing lately? Doesn't it look icy and refreshing?) Now, it's apparently time for him to pimp for the home team. Colbert recently interviewed the members of Movits!, a Swedish "swing, hip-hop jazz" band, before they performed a song called "Fel Del Av Garden." They pretty much brought down the house with the Cab Calloway-influenced rap performed entirely in Swedish. Unique! And they are a Colbert kind of act—so nerdy they're cool, dressed in matching suits with geeky glasses, rocking out to lyrics no one understands. Added bonus: stand-up bass and sax. Turns out that Movits! is the first musical act to have a release on Comedy Central Records, a label that has existed mostly to launch CDs from comedians like Dane Cook, Lewis Black and Christopher Titus. Synergy at work! So, did it work? Indeed. The YouTube video of "Fel Del Av Garden" more than doubled its views in a few days (to upwards of 250,000), and the Movits! CD shot to No. 2 on the iTunes hip-hop chart and No. 18 overall. All that action led the host to pat himself on the back for giving Motivs! the "Colbert bump" and immediately wag his finger at himself for overhyping the band. Another meta marketing moment from a master of the craft.

—Posted by T.L. Stanley