Parody Music Videos

Another common style of music video is to parody existing pieces of media or stars that are well known to the target audience. Parody is where something is imitated in order to mock it, often by exaggerating features. Eminem uses lots of parody in his music videos, often by dressing up as well known celebrities and stars and making a mockery of them.

In the video for Just Lose It, Eminem dresses up like Michael Jackson in order to mimic and mock him. His nose falls off (a reference to Jackson’s plastic surgery) and he has children jumping up and down on his bed (a reference to his alleged child abuse). Eminem also dresses up like MC Hammer in the iconic trousers he wears and he even parodies his own film 8 Mile and the music video for Lose Yourself which accompanied it. Eminem’s lyrics are often offensive to other pop stars and therefore this style of video suits his persona, image and songs perfectly. His fans will find the parody funny and hopefully spread the word about the video and the silliness within it.

Blink 182 also parody boy band music videos, specifically the Backstreet Boys in their video for All the Small Things. They dress in the same clothes; dance and lip synch in the same locations but also undermine the sexiness of the boy band stars by messing with their appearance and sitting on the toilet while singing.

Another example of a parody music video is Pink’s Stupid Girls in which she dresses up as Beyonce and Jessica Simpson and imitates their music videos in order to put across her message that many female stars are silly for exploiting their sexuality in their videos. This parody has a clear message and is designed to make young women see the silliness of trying to be like certain women in the media.

A final example is the sensation Gangnam Style. This video went viral and became the most watched video on YouTube ever due to its iconic dance moves and tongue in cheek humour. Psy copies many music video conventions such as having wind and fake snow blown in his face to make him look cool and attractive but then the fake snow fills his mouth and eyes and makes it comical. The whole video is in essence mocking people who think they are Gangnam Style (wealthy, upper class) but actually are not.

Weird Al Yankovic is also known for creating parody songs and his videos also often parody the original music video of the song he is mocking. A good example of this is I’m Fat that parodies the Bad video.

What are your favourite parody music videos?

Check out my other posts:

• Surrealist music videos 
• Narrative music videos
• music genres
• as live/in concert
• animated music videos