Pop Parody

As a child of the 90s I have an emotional tie with the punk-rock band, Blink-182. When I hear a particular song from Blink, I immediately have a memory that takes me back to my youth. One song that stands out to me is, All the Small Things. In particular, the hilarious video that Blink produced for the song. The video parodies the major pop videos of the time including Christina Aguilera’s, Genie in a Bottle, Britney Spears’, Sometimes, and The Backstreet Boys, I want it that way. The band pokes fun at many of their pop competitors in order to make a statement that they are a rock band and this new pop movement is ridiculous. All the Small Things made me look deeper into this concept of parody music videos.

All the Small Things by Blink-182

Of course one cannot mention parody music videos without mentioning the parody king, Weird Al Yankovic. Weird Al’s success directly relates to his music videos that parody pop culture. In 1983, Weird Al released his first parody album. In the self-titled album, Weird Al spoofs Michael Jackson’s, Beat It with his first single, Eat It, which became extremely popular because of the music video. The Eat It music video is shot for shot identical to the original Beat It video, however Weird Al creates a comedic spin. Other hits that Weird Al has parodied include, Nirvana’s, Smells like Teen Spirit and Coolio’s, Gangsta’s Paradise. The king of pop culture satire has over 181,000,000 views on YouTube and over 50 different music videos.

Eat It by Weird Al Yankovic

Beat It by Michael Jackson

Recently, one particular group took the lead in satire videos, The Lonely Island from Saturday Night Live. Although these songs and videos do not directly poke fun at specific artists, the Lonely Island has created a whole new genre for comedic music by incorporating popular artists to be apart of the track/video. The most popular hit from Lonely Island, Dick in a Box features pop star, Justin Timberlake who has branched out from his original “pop icon” identity as an artist with a sense of humor willing to make a fool of himself. Other popular artists like Rihanna, Akon, Michael Bolton, and Justin Bieber have followed Timberlake’s lead by participating in Lonely Island’s comedic music video movement.

Dick in a Box by Lonely Island

As YouTube began to rise in 2006, parody videos have become a huge success for the website. Channels like Barely Political and College Humor have created some of the top parody music videos on YouTube. Much like Weird Al, these channels have taken the original satire route by creating shot for shot videos that make fun of a specific artist’s video. For example, Glitter Puke from Barely Political ridicules Ke$ha’s number one hit Tik Tok, and has over 100,000,000 hits. Many channels like this gain popularity from outside demographics of a particular artist. So in this example, non-fans (and sometimes even fans) of Ke$ha find Glitter Puke to be an amusing portrayal of her original video as well as her “party girl” identity.

Glitter Puke by Barely Political

Tik Tok by Ke$ha

I’ll leave this post with a quote by Charles Dickens, “There is nothing in the world so irresistibly contagious as laughter and good humor.” As long as people believe in this idea of humor, comedic songs and their music videos will be alive forever.