One of the unexpected consequences of YouTube’s runaway growth since 2005 is the elevation of sketch comedy, and in particular viral music parodies, to the level of something like a mainstream art form.
‘Incredibad’, the debut album by ‘Saturday Night Live’ comedy troupe The Lonely Island, recently debuted at Number 1 on the US iTunes chart. It received little paid-for marketing: the act’s profile was established almost entirely through YouTube. Their best-known track, the R&B spoof ‘Dick In A Box’ (featuring Justin Timberlake) has been viewed almost 10 million times.
The Lonely Island’s success continues a crossover trend begun by Flight Of The Conchords, who found themselves unlikely pop stars in America last year on the back of their HBO TV show. The Kiwi duo’s album of musical parodies, ‘The Distant Future’ even won a Grammy. Their next move is a mammoth US tour, which kicks off in April.
Comedy might not be (sigh) ‘the new rock’n’roll’, but, in America at least, it’s certainly giving it a run for its money. It’s as good a time as any, then, to round up some of the funniest/cleverest/daftest parody songs of all. As ever (and keeping in mind that, as Katy Brand proves, nothing on earth is less funny than a musical spoof that doesn’t work) you can boost our list by making your own suggestions.
The Mighty Boosh – Love Games
We could easily have gone for the Gary Numan-esque ‘Electro Boy’ or the psychobilly spoof ‘Nanageddon’ – but the sight of Old Gregg in a tutu dispensing Jamiroquai-style funk-lite before flashing his mangina at Howard Moon is too deeply, indelibly seared into our brains to overlook. Ever.
Alanis Morissette – My Humps
In turning Fergie’s bragging sex-babble into a mournful piano ballad, Morissette teased out the latent existential horror in lines such as “Tryin’ a feel my hump, hump/Lookin’ at my lump, lump.”
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Bad News – Warriors Of Genghis Khan
Airing on British TV one year before the release of ‘This Is Spinal Tap’, The Comic Strip’s spoof metal band Bad News arguably provided more pure belly laughs than Nigel Tufnel and co. On this track frontman Vim Fuego, played by Ade Edmonson, lampoons the gung-ho medievalisms of Led Zeppelin: “Burning looting, raping shooting!”
The Lonely Island – Jizz In My Pants
The humourless braggadocio of modern R&B makes it a prime target for parody – and this tale of hair-trigger premature ejaculation is a neat inversion of the priapic boasting of Akon, T-Pain et al.
Spinal Tap – Sex Farm
Nominally a spoof, although you could argue that the parade of agricultural double entendres (“Ploughing through your bean field/Planting my seed”) is actually no sillier than, say, ‘Big Balls’ by AC/DC.
Weird Al Yankovic – White And Nerdy
With getting on for 50 million views, Weird Al’s parody of Chamillionaire’s ‘Ridin” might be a bit cheesy for British tastes, but it clearly struck a chord with a generation too young to remember The Offspring’s ‘Pretty Fly For A White Guy’ (which Weird Al also parodied).
[Watch ‘White And Nerdy’]
The Mary Whitehouse Experience – The Laughing Policeman
Rob Newman and David Baddiel’s early sketches have mostly dated badly, but Newman’s affectionate Cure parodies still raise a smile.
Mitch Benn – Everything Sounds Like Coldplay Now
“This could be Embrace, Keane or Snow Patrol/Thirteen Senses sound like this as well I’m told”, croons stand-up comic Benn in lugubrious, Chris Martin-esque fashion. Well, it seemed funny in 2005.
The Fast Show – Mr Wells
Another 90s flashback: a surly bunch of Oasis clones pour out their anger at an unsuspecting A&R man. Also see The Fast Show’s music journo piss-take, ‘Indie Club’.
Flight Of The Conchords – Inner City Pressure
My favourite FOTC song changes all the time, but right now it’s this Pet Shop Boys spoof, in which Bret and Jemaine send up the synth-drenched miserablism of ‘West End Girls’: “You want to sit down but you’ve sold your chair/So you just… stand there”.