Ylvis' 'The Fox' turns a new page

USA TODAY tags along as Norwegian comedy duo Ylvis suits up to promote their 'Fox' children's book.

NEW YORK - Looking back, the signs were always there that the comedy duo Ylvis would turn The Fox (What Does the Fox Say?), their musical ode to animal sounds, into a children's book.

After all, the Fox video was YouTube's top trending clip of 2013, with nearly 290 million hits. The amusingly frenetic video features an old man in a rocking chair, reading to a little boy, as brothers Bård and Vegard Ylvisåker sing and dance around in a forest dressed in bear and squirrel costumes, imagining what kind of sound a fox might make. 'Wa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pow?' 'Jacha-chacha-chacha-chow?'

BACK TRACK: Ylvis, from 'The Fox' to Foxborough, Mass.

The book, called What Does the Fox Say?, is no last-minute marketing tie-in. In fact, when Ylvis (they go by a shortened form of their last name, Ylvisåker, pronounced 'Ill-veh-soker') made their nonsensical song and video last spring as a promo for their Norwegian talk show, I Kveld Med Ylvis (Tonight With Ylvis), it occurred to them that the inane concept might make a cute kids' book.

'We thought it would be funny to have a really well-done book as merchandise for a tanked project,' explains Vegard (pronounced 'Vay-gard'), 34, who never imagined the intentionally 'bad' song and video would be a global phenom. 'It's just so stupid. But stupid dollars are the same as smart dollars.'

Norwegian illustrator Svein Nyhus was handpicked by Ylvis to visualize utterances such as 'ring-ding-ding-ding-dingeringeding!' and 'Wa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pow!'(Photo: Illustration by Svein Nyhus/Simon & Schuster)

Bård (pronounced 'Board'), 31, even had an artist in mind, pitching the idea to his favorite illustrator, Svein Nyhus, a famous children's book author and illustrator in Norway. 'He refused at first, mainly because the deadline was too early for him. But as the video started to accumulate hits on YouTube, he got back to me, and all of a sudden we were in business.'

There were no plans to publish the book in the USA until November, when Ylvis inked a deal with publisher Simon & Schuster, which then set a land-speed record getting the book into print in time for a Dec. 10 release.

'We designed it in one day,' recalls Simon & Schuster art director Laurent Linn, as he watches Bård and Vegard signing copies of his work at Books of Wonder in Chelsea. 'We have never designed a book in one day before.'

The Fox book is selling almost as quickly as it was produced. Midway through Ylvis' interview with USA TODAY at Simon & Schuster's headquarters, the sales stats started pouring in. In one day, What Does the Fox Say? went to No. 1 on Barnes & Noble's website and sold out on Amazon. It's in its sixth printing and enters USA TODAY's Best-Selling Books list this week at No. 23.

Sandwiched between morning TV appearances on NBC's Today and ABC's Live With Kelly and Michael, were two hand cramp-inducing autograph sessions. One signed copy was for Meka Larimer, 36, who departed Houston at 4 a.m. the previous day and endured six canceled flights to make it to New York. Sporting a T-shirt bearing the slogan '275 million Ylvis Fans Can't Be Wrong,' her tenacity was rewarded with a video interview by Norwegian media.

Ylvis vamp with Kelly Ripa and Michael Strahan after their appearance on 'Live! with Kelly and Michael' Dec. 12.(Photo: David E. Steele, Disney/ABC)

Naturally, there were lots of children on hand, too, including one shy 4-year-old boy coaxed by his mother to share the name of his other favorite Ylvis song. Out of curiosity, a cadre of publicists leaned in to hear his answer, since most of the duo's other material is not exactly appropriate for toddlers. After a pause, the kid named the mostly-PG tune The Cabin, Vegard's slow jam about his rustic family retreat, or as he describes it, 'my own private pinewood Taj Mahal, except for the shape and the size.'

The U.S. book tour caps three months of non-stop international travel and promotion, all scheduled around tapings of the third season of I Kveld Med Ylvis, which ran from September to November. One important lesson the brothers have picked up along the way: Never, ever put your animal costumes in your checked luggage.

'Carry-on only,' stresses Bård. 'We wondered, is it necessary to keep them in the carry-on?' Vegard adds. 'But this trip is the second time we've lost our luggage. We arrived in Canada Friday and I got my bags yesterday. If we'd had them in our luggage, we would have lost them.'

The squirrel and bear costumes they rented some six months ago (they couldn't find fox outfits) are looking a little ragged, with holes visible backstage at Live with Kelly and Michael.

Instead of becoming the umpteenth media outlet to ask Ylvis what the fox says, USA TODAY goes in a different direction: What would their costumes say?

'They'd say, 'Take us home, please,' ' says Bård. ' 'We were made in 1935 for a Norwegian soap opera. We feel too old for this (stuff).' '

Ylvis peruses the fox literature section at their book signing at New York's Books of Wonder, along with shop employee Jay Lyon, center.(Photo: Jayme Deerwester, USA TODAY)