- 10 months ago
When imitation becomes innovation! Join us as we count down the parody songs that have eclipsed their inspirations through clever lyrics, catchy melodies, and brilliant comedic timing. Our list celebrates musical spoofs that became cultural phenomena in their own right, from "Weird Al" classics to comedy sketch gems.
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MusicTranscript
00:00Hello mother, hello father.
00:04Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for music parodies so creative,
00:10funny and well made, many feel they might outshine the songs being parodied.
00:1510.
00:21Inner City Pressure – Flight of the Conchords
00:24Pet Shop Boys lamented class division by playing up the very glamour they criticized.
00:2910.
00:36Flight of the Conchords were much more blunt about urban decay, and more charming.
00:4210.
00:46Inner City Pressure debuted on the duo's HBO show as a tongue-in-cheek spin on the socially
00:51conscious synth-pop anthem, West End Girls.
00:54Jemaine Clement and Brett Mackenzie tackle the mostly mundane hustles of working-class
00:59life, with a sly jab at the absurdity of addressing them with synthesizers.
01:04Whether you're mourning or grooving to West End Girls, the equally catchy Inner City Pressure
01:10may be more accessible in its deconstruction of the system and the way artists deconstruct.
01:16It was sharp enough to get an Emmy nomination to go with Pet Shop Boys' accolades.
01:2110.
01:22Inner City Pressure
01:289.
01:29Revenge – Captain Sparkles and Try Hard Ninja
01:33Within the cottage industry of songs and parodies involving the beloved video game Minecraft,
01:39Captain Sparkles stands out.
01:41And for many of his fans, the Try Hard Ninja collab Revenge stands out from Usher and Pitbull's
01:47The sexy EDM anthem somehow successfully translates into the tongue-in-cheek saga of Miner's
01:58battle with thieving creepers.
02:0010.
02:05The subject may be more niche, but Minecrafters fell in love so hard that Revenge briefly overtook
02:12the original song's music video in YouTube viewers.
02:23It wasn't long before the multi-platinum classic got its own revenge against the trendy parody.
02:27Still, nostalgia for DJ Got Us Fallin' In Love could very well be rivaled by that for
02:33Captain Sparkles.
02:358.
02:42Glitter Puke – The Key of Awesome
02:45The comedic YouTube channel The Key of Awesome became a sensation on spoofs of hip-hop songs.
02:50Their take on Kesha's TikTok is arguably their most enduring skit, or at least their most
02:56agreeable.
02:57Andrea Fetzko sings and stars as a party girl who wakes up with a hangover, an intervention
03:08and, apparently, no regrets.
03:10Glitter Puke is a scathing counter to TikTok's controversial glamorization of debauchery.
03:19Oh crap, not again, it's an intervention.
03:22As polarizing as it also was in terms of musical quality, Fetzko's exaggerated vocals and surreal
03:28lyrics take the edge off.
03:30The Key of Awesome were the clever highlight of a contemporary trend of lip-syncing to Kesha's
03:36undeniably infectious breakout.
03:38In fact, Glitter Puke's uproarious satire has withstood the test of time.
03:42All an act, and in fact it's even in the contract.
03:477.
03:48Elementary School Musical – South Park
03:51Trey Parker really doesn't mess around with original songs that are as impressive
03:55as they are… irreverent.
03:57Still, South Park's deconstruction of the popularity and songwriting of Disney's High
04:01School Musical franchise is a favorite moment among his fans.
04:05Dear, there's no explanation for this awesome sensation, but I'm ready to let it fly.
04:11The episode Elementary School Musical directly riffs on numbers from the original film, including
04:17Stick to the Status Quo and We're All in This Together.
04:20And you know, we're together at school again, with all of our friends.
04:26Parker and company effectively adapt the catchiest pop styles with only minimal embellishment
04:31of the nonsensical lyrics and adolescent melodrama.
04:40While most will inevitably outgrow High School Musical, that just means South Park's parody
04:45gets better with age.
04:546.
04:55Dark Horse – Bart Baker
04:57After years of experimenting with comedy skits, Bart Baker caught his big break on YouTube
05:03with music video parodies in the mid-2010s.
05:06It sounds like he knows more about being a dark horse than pop megastar Katy Perry.
05:11Her 2013 Juicy J collab of the same name, while a major commercial hit, received mixed reviews
05:25for its simplistic formula and sleazy lyrics.
05:28The music video faced even more backlash for its tasteless ancient Egyptian and Arabic aesthetic.
05:34Baker's cover not only directly called out all of this, but mocked the very nature of Hollywood
05:39pop videos.
05:41Put my makeup back!
05:43If Dark Horse wasn't the zenith of his musical parodies, many would at least consider it more
05:49endearingly self-aware than Perry.
05:51Every video I do is have to stand up above all the rest.
05:595.
06:00Diner Lobster – Saturday Night Live
06:03Saturday Night Live's long history of casual song parodies delivered a sleeper hit in a 2018
06:08sketch set in a cheap Greek diner.
06:10Did you just order lobster in a diner?
06:13Yeah, why?
06:14Because it's a diner!
06:16It's admittedly hard not to judge someone who orders seafood at that kind of establishment,
06:22but not for the love of the lobsters.
06:24Parts change when the crustaceans rise up in their own renditions of three numbers from Claude-Michel
06:30Schoenberg's Les Miserables.
06:32Certainly, the classic musical is full of iconic anthems.
06:36Who am I?
06:41But the absurdity of the SNL cast's conscious rewrites won so much fanfare that it began
06:46a recurring skit involving other musical theater parodies.
06:49Do you hear the lobster scream?
06:52Spinning a scream of strolling face!
06:54Diner Lobster simply stands out as a rival to a revolutionary classic of the stage.
07:00Boxers, you know what I'm in my house!
07:11Number 4.
07:12Royal Jelly, John C. Reilly
07:15Walk Hard, The Dewey Cox Story ingeniously spoofs Johnny Cash, though The Man in Black still
07:21outshines the film's soundtrack.
07:31Royal Jelly, though, nails a less commercial shift for another folk legend.
07:36Bob Dylan's work in the mid-1960s was a polarizing mix of Americana and avant-garde.
07:42Look out, the saints are coming through
07:47For every track that's now widely recognized as a masterpiece, there are some that get a
07:53little too wordy and whimsical.
07:55The albums Bring It All Back Home and Blonde on Blonde are particularly open to parody,
08:00and you can hear that more clearly in Royal Jelly than the lyrics.
08:12Such hysterical self-awareness ironically made it one of the biggest songs on the soundtrack,
08:17even among Dylan enthusiasts who know how perfect John C. Reilly's parody was.
08:23You're a liar!
08:25Number 3.
08:26Basketball Jones Featuring Tyrone Shoelaces, Cheech and Chong
08:30Stoner comedy pioneers Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong were also leaders in novelty music in
08:35the 1970s.
08:36The closing track on the album Los Cochinos is notably so popular that many have forgotten
08:42it was a direct parody of a serious hit.
08:45Well, serious may be a flattering word for Brighter Side of Darkness' over-the-top mostly
08:57spoken word soul ballad, Love Jones.
09:00Marin goes full falsetto as young Tyrone Shoelaces expresses that kind of feverish passion to basketball.
09:07Ever since I was a little baby, I always be drippin'.
09:11Building behind him is a choral rock crescendo that frankly puts Love Jones to shame.
09:24So too has the legacy of Basketball Jones as a slam dunk in 70s novelty pop that actually
09:30kind of rocks.
09:38Number 2.
09:39White and Nerdy Weird Al Yankovic, not even.
09:43The undisputed king of parody music can reliably overshadow his inspirations.
09:48Weird Al Yankovic's biggest hit for over 20 years was Eat It, which obviously couldn't
09:53compete with Michael Jackson's Beat It.
09:55It doesn't matter if it's oil or fry, just eat it, eat it, just eat it.
10:01Then, he unexpectedly hit a major market when he spoofed Chameleon Air's 2005 gem,
10:07Ryden.
10:08They see me rolling, they hating, patrolling and trying to catch me riding, nerdy.
10:14White and Nerdy may not have been seriously comparing one form of prejudice to another,
10:20but it resonated enough with nerd culture to go platinum.
10:23My class here at MIT.
10:24Got skills, I'm a champion of D&D.
10:26MC Ezra, that's my favorite MC.
10:27Keep your 40 out, just have an Earl Grey team.
10:29Chameleon Air himself loved the spoof so much that he personally thanked Weird Al for promoting
10:35Ryden after it won a Grammy.
10:37White and Nerdy may still be much lower on the charts, but pop culture is at least just
10:42as conscious of it at this point.
10:44It's true, Ryden.
10:46Look at me, I'm white and nerdy.
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11:051.
11:06Hello Mudda, Hello Fada, a letter from camp.
11:09Alan Sherman
11:10Some music was considered too sacred to parody until Alan Sherman came along.
11:15It was one thing, for when I was a lad to poke fun at the Gilbert and Sullivan Light Opera,
11:20HMS Pinafore.
11:21That suit was a part of a great intrigue, for it proved I was a member of the Ivy League.
11:26But Hello Mudda, Hello Fada, actually, had the nerve to score a child's summer camp blues
11:32with the climactic ballet sequence in Ponchielli's La Jocanda.
11:36And listeners love it.
11:46Sherman's play on the self-seriousness of opera became its biggest hit, and is even preserved
11:51in the National Recording Registry.
11:53I went hiking with Joe Spivey, who developed Poison Ivy.
12:00For better or worse, it's now hard to hear Dance of the Hours without thinking of a letter
12:06from camp.
12:07You won't hear anyone complaining about yucking it up to a great parody song's longevity.
12:16So how would you do it?
12:17Shut this ladder.
12:18.
12:19.
12:20.
12:21.
12:22.
12:23.