The odd persistance of parody
When watching some great old Weird Al videos on YouTube yesterday, I realized something odd. For a lot of these songs, the Weird Al version seems more relevant. Not only that, but for some, I cant even remember the song he was parodying. Why is that?
Good goofs are persistent. They are general enough so that they outlast the original but specific enough that you know what they’re talking about. Weird Al is a master of this. He makes use a sort of nerdy irony to completely turn a song on its head, and instead of mocking the artist he uses their song as a vehicle to mock himself (see White and Nerdy) or pop culture (see On Ebay=).
I have a strange feeling that in 2050, our culture will have a better recollection of some of these Weird versions then the Backstreet Boys.
Side Note: Watch a very confused but constantly polite young Yankovic in Japan
Photo Credit : http://www.flickr.com/photos/toxickaty/76066460/
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