The ‘10 Duke Commandments’: Holderness family gives UNC-Duke matchup a ‘Hamilton’ twist
Ahead of Saturday’s historic Final Four match-up between Duke and UNC, Penn Holderness is offering fellow North Carolina fans some timeless advice.
“Apologize to your kids and your wife. It’s the most important game of your entire life,” Holderness says in a new musical parody video posted online Friday. “So say that you are sorry for your impending obtuseness. You’ll be preoccupied, distracted and totally useless.”
If the tune sounds catchy and gets stuck in your head, there’s a reason for that. Holderness sets the video, titled “10 Duke Commandments/He Won’t Be Back,” to the tune of two very catchy songs from the wildly popular musical, “Hamilton.”
But instead of giving advice on how to conduct a 19th century political duel, Holderness suggests 10 tips for UNC fans to make it through the most tense night of their lives.
The mash-up parody is resonating with fans of Penn Holderness and his wife, Kim Holderness, the Raleigh couple who won $1 million on “The Amazing Race” last month. The couple is known for their viral videos since shooting to national fame with “XMAS Jammies” in 2013.
The “10 Duke Commandments” video has over 509,000 views on Facebook while it’s topping 30,000 views on YouTube.
“10 Duke Commandments” is a spoof of “Ten Duel Commandments,” sung by Lin-Manuel Miranda and other original “Hamilton” cast members. The “He Won’t Be Back” segment is a parody of “You’ll Be Back,” originated by Jonathan Groff in the original cast.
Among the commandments, Holderness advises keeping a pillow handy (“you’ll need something to strangle if a call don’t go your way, like when they start flopping like Shane Battier”) and leaving a note for your next of kin (“tell ‘em if you win they may not hear from you until April 10”).
Further down the list of commandments, Holderness suggests warning your kids that “you love them but beware — you’re gonna get angry and you’re probably gonna swear” and praying that Duke forward Paolo Banchero “finally plays poor.”
A Coach K tribute only a UNC fan could make
Halfway through the video, Holderness switches gears to a UNC fan’s tribute to retiring Blue Devils Coach Mike Krzyzewski.
“He’s been there for 41 years, now he’s going away,” Holderness sings about Coach K. “And he’ll cry, either tears of sadness or of joy when he says his goodbye.”
“But I’m so bad,” Holderness continues. “He seems like a family man and his players love him. But he makes me so mad, that I scream these obscenities at the screen. But that soon will all change, cuz he won’t be back.”
Holderness complains about how referees rule for Krzyzewski and Duke with every single call, and makes one final request: “Can this game against UNC pretty please be his last?”
Kim Holderness walks in and pulls away the microphone from her husband. As the family’s neutral observer, she says, “I just want everybody to have fun. I think it’s ridiculous how mean they are to each other.”
Her husband, who laughs, interjects: “But we’re friends otherwise, just for these two hours, and listen, they’ve never met in the Final Four before. Do you realize like how much anxiety I’m having right now?”
“I know,” Kim Holderness replies, before turning to the camera to shake her head “no.”
Winners of ‘The Amazing Race’
The Holdernesses, both alumni of local TV news markets in Florida, New York, Colorado and here in Raleigh, quit their jobs in 2013 to launch a full-time business of documenting their marriage and family through music videos, vlogs, skits and spoofs like the Duke-UNC video they posted on Friday.
The popular videos have helped them garner a substantial online following; their YouTube channel has more than 761,000 subscribers, and “XMAS Jammies” remains their most popular video and has been viewed more than 18.5 million times.
They gained new fans on Season 33 of “The Amazing Race,” in which teams of two race around the world completing challenges.
In December, the Holdernesses announced on social media that they had participated in the new season, which began airing in January.
Taping of the worldwide adventure reality TV show started before the pandemic but was put on pause for almost two years. Filming was completed last year.
The Holdernesses advanced through each leg of the show to make it to the season finale, which aired March 2. They crossed the finish line before two other teams.
This story was originally published April 1, 2022 at 7:01 PM with the headline "The ‘10 Duke Commandments’: Holderness family gives UNC-Duke matchup a ‘Hamilton’ twist."
