(If you haven't seen the show or you don't know my opinions on it, let me say that I do not give the show as a whole my fullest endorsement. There is a good chance that you won't like their style of humor. When it comes on TV, I'm never hesitant to change the channel if my TV-watching partner doesn't care for it. Just sayin'.)
A parody song is a song that is intended to closely resemble a more famous song without infringing a copyright. If it's done right, the original song should be recognized immediately and unmistakably. Sometimes, it is a particular artist that will be parodied, as in Will Farrel's impression of Robert Goulet. (That's not the best example, since most people wouldn't be able to identify a song of Goulet's. A better example is the frequent parody/tribute/mockery of Michael Jackson's unique voice, mannerisms, and music.) Often, this technique will be used in comedy shows as a montage, often when interviewing a washed-up artist or in a parody of commercials for those "Best of the 90s" albums they sell on TV.
I want to crack that code! Uncovering that secret would be an eclectiphile's dream; it would combine the study of music, psychology, sociology, performing arts, and even law! Talk about Fecundity!
And the Robot Chicken example is perfect, though not because of the quality of the parody. I want to study it in particular specifically because it's kinda crappy. Because even with the show's self-imposed limitations, I was still able to tell exactly which song they were doing almost immediately. It's like that experiment where you jumble up the letters of a word, leaving the first and last letters unmoved, and people can read the words just as fast as if they were unjumbled. Plus, there are more than one of them in a row; that's a higher sample size.
If you've got any other good examples of parody songs, let me know so I can add them to my list!
No comments:
Post a Comment