Tom Cardy (born 12 June 1994) is an Australian comedian, musician, songwriter, and actor. He became known in Australia for his "Song Sequels" segments on the radio station

Triple J Triple J is an Australian government-funded national radio station founded in 1975 as a division of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). It aims to appeal to young listeners of alternative music, and plays far more Australian conten ...

in 2020, and achieved more international recognition when he began posting comedy songs and videos on

TikTok TikTok, known in mainland China and Hong Kong as Douyin (), is a social media and Short-form content, short-form online video platform owned by Chinese Internet company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which may range in duration f ...

and

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

. He has composed music for the comedy series '' The Feed'' and ''

The Moth Effect ''The Moth Effect'' is an Australian sketch comedy television series on Amazon Prime Video from 30 July 2021. The series is Amazon's first scripted Australian Amazon Original series. The six part series features sketches, music videos and inte ...

'', as well as the animated web series ''

Helluva Boss ''Helluva Boss'' is an American adult animated musical black comedy web series created by Vivienne "VivziePop" Medrano. It revolves around the misadventures of the employees of I.M.P., a company in Hell that offers hitman services in the real ...

''. His debut EP, ''

Artificial Intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is the capability of computer, computational systems to perform tasks typically associated with human intelligence, such as learning, reasoning, problem-solving, perception, and decision-making. It is a field of re ...

'' (2021), peaked at No. 40 on the

ARIA Albums Chart The ARIA Charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling songs and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA became the offici ...

. He was shortlisted for the

AACTA Award The Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Awards, known as the AACTA Awards, are presented annually by the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA). The awards recognise excellence in the film and television industry, ...

for Favourite Digital Content Creator and the Craft Award for Writing at the

Streamy Awards The YouTube Streamy Awards, also known as the Streamy Awards or Streamys, are an awards show presented annually by Dick Clark Productions and Tubefilter to recognize excellence in online video, including directing, acting, producing, and wr ...

Early life

Cardy was born in

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

on 12 June 1994. He has two older sisters: Alex, a cinematographer, and Stephanie, a doctor. He and his sisters took piano and drum lessons during childhood at the behest of their parents, and he was the only one who chose to continue when their parents asked them if they wanted to stop. He studied music and psychology at the

University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD) is a public university, public research university in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in both Australia and Oceania. One of Australia's six sandstone universities, it was one of the ...

, then studied at

technical and further education Technical and further education or simply TAFE () is the common name in Australia for vocational education, as a subset of tertiary education. TAFE institutions provide a wide range of predominantly vocational courses. Colloquially also known ...

to sharpen his music production skills.

Career

While at university, Cardy wrote and performed for several arts revues in addition to his own sold-out comedy festival shows. Around this time, he played drums for Sydney band the Lulu Raes. He also began regularly appearing on the Australian ''

Dungeons & Dragons ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (commonly abbreviated as ''D&D'' or ''DnD'') is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG) originally created and designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. The game was first published in 1974 by TSR (company)#Tactical ...

'' podcast ''Dragon Friends'', where he participated as a player and provided musical accompaniment. In September 2020, he was featured on fellow musical comedian Bridie Connell's single "Armageddon (It On)". That year, he also began working with the radio station

on its popular "Song Sequels" segments, in which he produces parodies of famous songs. Cardy released his debut single, " Mixed Messages", on 30 July 2021. He released his debut EP, ''

'', the following week. On 12 August, he was a guest on Triple J's

drive time Drive time is the daypart in which radio broadcasters can reach the most people who listen to car radios while driving, usually to and from work, or on public transportation. Drive-time periods are when the number of radio listeners in this c ...

program '' Hobba and Hing'', where he discussed how the EP came to be made. ''Artificial Intelligence'' debuted at No. 40 on the

. On 9 September, he released the single "Fruit Salad". On 20 October, he was nominated for the Craft Award for Writing at the 11th Streamy Awards. On 3 November, he was shortlisted for the audience-voted Favourite Digital Content Creator Award at the

11th AACTA Awards The 11th Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Awards (generally known as the AACTA Awards) is an awards ceremony to celebrate the best of Australian films and television of 2021. The main ceremony occurred on 8 December 2021 at the S ...

, but did not make it through to the list of five finalists. On 21 November, he released the Christmas-themed single "Not Quite Almost Christmas Time". On 23 January 2022, Cardy had two songs voted into Triple J's Hottest 100 of 2021 when "Mixed Messages" and "

H.Y.C.Y.BH "H.Y.C.Y.BH" (an acronym for "Have You Checked Your Butthole") is a song by Australian musical comedian Tom Cardy. It was taken from his debut EP, ''Artificial Intelligence (EP), Artificial Intelligence'', which was released on 6 August 2021. W ...

" were respectively ranked at No. 17 and No. 11. On 9 February, he was cast alongside musician

Montaigne Michel Eyquem, Seigneur de Montaigne ( ; ; ; 28 February 1533 – 13 September 1592), commonly known as Michel de Montaigne, was one of the most significant philosophers of the French Renaissance. He is known for popularising the essay as ...

in the SBS musical comedy ''Time to Buy''. Montaigne also featured on his song "Red Flags". On 17 February, he was a guest on ''Hobba & Hing'', where he debuted a song about host Lewis Hobba called "Weird Guy", which was recorded as a prank during Hobba's

COVID Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...

-induced absence. The song additionally features Montaigne. On 21 February, he was featured in an interview published by ''

Rolling Stone Australia ''Rolling Stone Australia'' is the Australian edition of the United States' ''Rolling Stone'' magazine devoted to music, politics, and popular culture, published monthly. The Australian version of ''Rolling Stone'' was initially published in 197 ...

''. In the interview, he discussed his sudden popularity on

and explained that his success mostly comes from creating a number of extremely short songs designed to be shared online, some of which get expanded into full-length songs. On 6 August, he uploaded the video for a new song titled "Hey, I Don't Work Here" and announced that his debut studio album would be released in the near future. The album, titled ''Big Dumb Idiot'', was released on 9 December 2022. In 2023, Cardy continued to release singles such as "H.S", "Beautiful Mind" (featuring Brian David Gilbert), and "Perception Check". In 2024, he co-wrote a song for the ''Orpheus'' DLC of the video game '' Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical'', which was released on 27 June. He also featured on the

Ninja Sex Party Ninja Sex Party (often abbreviated as NSP) is an American musical comedy rock duo consisting of singer Dan Avidan and keyboardist Brian Wecht. They formed in 2009 in New York City and are currently based in Los Angeles. They are also part of ...

song "Dance 'Til You Stop" and alongside Montaigne on the TWRP song "Online". His second studio album, ''The Dancefloor at the End of the Universe'', was released on 18 October 2024.

Musical style

Cardy's style of musical comedy often incorporates elements of awkward humour, observational humour, and

surreal humour Surreal humour (also called surreal comedy, absurdist humour, or absurdist comedy) is a form of humour predicated on deliberate violations of causality, causal reasoning, thus producing events and behaviors that are obviously illogical. Portra ...

Discography

Studio albums

Extended plays

Singles

As lead artist

As featured artist

As songwriter only

Filmography

Awards and nominations

AACTA Awards

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2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

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Streamy Awards

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References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Cardy, Tom 1994 births Living people Australian comedy musicians Australian male singer-songwriters Australian singer-songwriters Australian TikTokers Parody musicians Australian parodists 21st-century Australian comedians 21st-century Australian male actors 21st-century Australian male writers Comedians from Sydney Australian male comedians