The 10 Greatest Fake Boy Bands

Now that the nostalgia pendulum is swinging the late 1990s and early 2000s back into public consciousness, boy bands are coming back in a big way. In real life, K-pop bands like BTS, EXO, Wanna One, and Got7 are international superstars, and film/television have continued creating fake boy bands to better build their Y2K worlds. If your fave isn't listed, it just means that you truly are their number one fan and deserve all of the glory. Obviously no one wants to pit strong fictional boy bands against one another, and music taste is still subjective even if the people singing it are hired guns.

That said, honorable mentions include Alvin and the Chipmunks, B12 from "American Dad," The Drama Brothers from "Total Drama Action," Paisley Sideburn Brothers from "Phineas and Ferb," Connect 3 from "Camp Rock," Oh Boyz from "Kim Possible," Boyz Next Door from "Girls5eva," and Room Temperature from "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend."

Time to frost our tips, bust out the moves we learned from "Darrin's Dance Grooves," and sing along to the greatest fake boy bands.

One of the most popular Disney Channel Original series of all time, one of the most memorable episodes of "That's So Raven" features the fictional boy band Boyz 'N Motion. The group books a reservation at Raven's family restaurant while on tour, but after bragging about it at school, inadvertently unleashes a mob of screaming fans. The group hides out at Raven's house, her little brother Cory sells their used food scraps to rabid fans, and in typical "Raven" fashion, she and her best friends Eddie and Chelsea have to pose as the band and perform for their school. The band is referenced in future episodes, but Ricky, Trey, and JJJ (the third "J" is silent) made such an impact with their family-friendly twerking and three part harmonies that people have been making impassioned pleas to see them show up on the sequel series, "Raven's Home."

Best song: "Boyz 'n Motion" because obviously, duh.

With music written by the late, brilliant, Adam Schlesinger, the film "Music and Lyrics" opens with a music video for the fictional '80s boy band PoP! filled with plenty of checkerboard decorations, skinny ties, and the same glowy filter that cursed the first season of "RuPaul's Drag Race." Clearly inspired by Duran Duran and Wham!, the introduction of the band is a brilliant way to set up the film's story centered on Hugh Grant's Alex Fletcher, a washed-up pop artist coasting off of his nostalgia status. While the 1990s may have been the explosion of boy bands, there were plenty of new editions on the block (see what I did there?) that paved the way for the boy band craze. PoP! is a perfect encapsulation of the new wave/pop hybrid boy groups that Gen X-ers grew up loving.

Best song: "PoP! Goes My Heart" because who doesn't love a synth solo and syncopated claps?

The boys of "South Park" have satirized just about everything at this point, and the boy band craze is no different. In the episode "Something You Can Do with Your Finger," Cartman founded the band Fingerbang with his friends Stan, Kyle, and Kenny and subsequently Wendy Testaburger and later Stan's dad Randy, who replaced Kenny after he was killed by an elevator at the mall. This isn't the last time Cartman would pursue a musical career, as Cartman also convinces Tolkien and Butters to join his group Faith+1, a Christian act whose song lyrics are unintentionally double entendres about loving Jesus sexually. Real ones know where Cartman got his start though, because you never forget hearing him serenade us with the poetic greatness of "'Cause I'm the king of Fingerbang, let's not fight."

Best song: "Fingerbang" because it's a song plenty of pre-teens sang all the time in the year 2000 and drove their parents' absolutely bananas with annoyance ... or so I've been told.

Pixar's latest "Turning Red" is brilliant for a number of reasons, but its love letter to 2002 pop culture is absolutely superb. While the film's score comes from Oscar, Grammy, and Emmy-winning composer Ludwig Göransson, the boy band songs were written by actual pop stars, Billie Eilish and Finneas O'Connell. It's so very clear that the two grew up listening to these bands, because all of the songs by the fake band 4*Town are absolute bangers. Finneas O'Connell also lends his voice as Jesse, along with Topher Ngo as Aaron T., Grayson Villanueva as Tay Young, Josh Levi as Aaron Z., and Jordan Fisher as Robaire. Fisher's wailing high notes are sure to make the inner 13-year-old girl in all of us scream at the top of her lungs and make you think, JC Chasez, who? (I still love you JC.)

Best song: "Nobody Like U" because it's been stuck in my head since "Turning Red" hit Disney+ on Friday and I need someone else to sing along with me. Special shout out to "Pandas Unite / Nobody Like U (Reprise)" which slaps so unbelievably hard on its own but will also make you want to cry within the context of the film.

As a wise title card once read, "Josie and The Pussycats is the Best Movie Ever!" Painfully misunderstood upon its release in 2001, "Josie and The Pussycats" is a brilliant satire of the pop music industry complete with the hilarious fake boy band, DuJour. Literally playing on the fact that they're nothing more than the flavor of the week, the comedic talents of Seth Green, Donald Faison, Alexander Martin, and Breckin Meyer, fresh off the success of "Can't Hardly Wait," synced up once again to give us a hilariously perfect riff on the boy band craze of the 2000s. Do I own the "Josie" soundtrack on vinyl and Du Jour 7-inch LP? Yes, yes I do. Do I still listen to DuJour as if they're a real band from my youth? Also yes. DuJour means friendship, family, teamwork, seatbelts, crash positions, and the best fake boy band of all time.

Best song: "DuJour Around the World" because while I know it's a hot take compared to "Backdoor Lover," nobody rocks the mic like DuJour and this song is an echo of Backstreet Boys' "We've Got It Goin' On" and earns extra points for nailing the form this hard.