Top 20 Music Video Parodies of All Time
#20: “When Will the Bass Drop?” (2014)
Top 10 Music Video Parodies of All Time
The Lonely Island feat. Lil Jon Taking dance music to task, the SNL crew gets very surreal to poke fun at Avicii. Hyping up the crowd, Davvincii hovers his hand over the bass button while playing on his computer. Cooking and even playing with toy skateboards, he’s clearly not taking his job seriously. But hey, he’s got all the power, and he milks it for all it’s worth. With some help from Lil Jon, he finally drops the bass, causing the crowd to literally lose their minds. Thanks to the crazy visuals and supporting cast, this video is way weirder than expected.
#19: “Bowie” [aka “Bowie’s in Space”] (2007)
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Flight of the Conchords Though it’s set in space and starts with a riff clearly inspired by the song “Space Oddity,” this music video manages to pay homage to a wide range of David Bowie material and characters. Not only do Bret and Jemaine give nods to Bowie’s filmography with shots reminiscent of “The Man Who Fell to Earth;” they also pay lip service to memorable tracks like “John, I’m Only Dancing” and “Sound and Vision” with their cheeky lyrics. But things really take off when their version of Halloween Jack appears. Of course, the ending, which pairs outfits and moves from “Modern Love” with music inspired by “Let’s Dance,” cements this video as a truly inspired parody.
#18: “My Band” (2004)
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D12 D12 takes all the misconceptions about them and goes to town – mocking bad fans in the process. They make Eminem the star of the show, and he gets special treatment like massages – when he’s not being mobbed by groupies who also happen to be played by Eminem. After getting riled up, Bizarre decides to get in shape by working out on the set of 50 Cent’s “In da Club.” Claiming his importance to Eminem’s career, Bizarre then goes on to claim he was in “Lose Yourself” and “Superman.” Next up, they try to start a boy band and turn into a vulgar version of the Backstreet Boys. With plenty of parody and self-deprecation, D12 closes on Eminem’s Latin take on “Milkshake” by Kelis.
#17: “Repeat Stuff” (2014)
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Bo Burnham Bo Burnham is clearly not aiming for subtly with this shot at commercialized music. Setting the stage for his critique, he dresses up as Justin Bieber and pulls a variety of visuals from pop videos, then proceeds to rip into vapid listeners who relate to cliché lyrics and overused chords. While the extras act increasingly brain dead, satanic visuals slowly come into focus. Then there’s the subliminal messaging flashing onscreen: for example, instructions like “consume” and “accept convenience fees” are littered throughout the video.
#16: “Girls / Girls / Boys” (2013)
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Panic! at the Disco Here’s an example of how a parody can simultaneously be both funny and a heartfelt homage to the original. For their free love anthem “Girls / Girls / Boys,” Panic! at the Disco remade D’Angelo’s iconic “Untitled” music video. Directed by DJay Brawner, the video is one long shot, just like the original, and, with the camera zooming in and out, it revisits that classic navel shot more than once. Brendon Urie’s physique is significantly less muscular than D’angelo’s, but by bringing his unique energy and distinct dance moves to the party, the frontman gives a captivating performance in his own way. The clever concept earned the group more than 50 million views.
#15: “Hey Ya!” (2003)
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OutKast Set up to be The Love Below’s British performance, this video is a clear play on the Beatles’ historic Ed Sullivan appearance. Putting in overtime to bring the concept to life, André 3000 reportedly performed the song 23 times to get all the shots, but the end result is certainly worth it - he’s a one-man band in a group made up of eight members. Just like its inspiration, cheering can be heard throughout most of the video, while Ryan Phillippe delivers a spot-on imitation of the deadpan announcer. Credit where credit is due: Nirvana spoofed Ed Sullivan first, but hey, this concept is clearly good enough to support multiple parodies.
#14: “Girl All the Bad Guys Want” (2002)
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Bowling for Soup This pop punk group has a real penchant for parodies, but they’re at their best in this video, which sees them taking their overly serious alt-rock and nu-metal contemporaries to task. Starting by taking on Staind, they replace the lover photos with dog photos, and hand-written lyrics with tic-tac-toe. The funniest lampooning comes from the wide shots of the pained singer, revealing he’s actually on the toilet. Switching to Limp Bizkit’s “Break Stuff,” the video then sees guitarist Chris Burney dressing in Wes Borland’s kooky make-up and robes. With fake Slipknot members attacking Jaret’s Fred Durst, Bowling for Soup even tackles the feuds between bands, proving that when this group does parody, they don’t hold back.
#13: “Don’t Lose My Number” (1985)
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Phil Collins If you can’t pick a subject to parody in your video, why not just do them all? Dueling through a Western and driving the deserts of Mad Max, Collins feels out of place. When the black and white close-ups of “Every Breath You Take” don’t work out, he attempts to emulate David Lee Roth instead. Clearly reaching for ideas, he even tries his hand a samurai film. After giving the fly from “You Might Think” a good swat, he finally decides to work on an ending instead. Funnily enough, this clever meta concept actually came from Collins’ inability to decide on a video idea, so they shot a mock version of the process behind it instead.
#12: “Pork and Beans” (2008)
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Weezer In the post 2020-era internet, memes are so ingrained in daily life, you don’t really bat an eye when one pops up. But they weren’t so ubiquitous in 2008, which makes “Pork and Beans” such a fun parody. When the band was encouraged by their label to make more ‘commercial-sounding’ tracks, they took a tongue in cheek approach by sending up the most popular memes of the era with a Weezer twist. What really makes this video work is the contrast of early YouTube classics like “Chocolate Rain” and “Numa Numa” with the lyrics giving the opposite message of ‘I ain't gonna wear the clothes that you like’ and ‘I ain't got a thing to prove to you’. It’s a great time capsule of early internet culture and ironically became one of Weezer’s biggest songs.
#11: “Hopeless Wanderer” (2013)
Mumford & Sons It takes real character to parody yourself. The boys of Mumford and Sons were so committed to this joke, they didn’t even appear in the video, letting comedians Jason Sudeikis, Jason Bateman, Ed Helms and Will Forte play them instead. Rocking out in fields and barns, the comedians play up the band’s rustic aesthetic. Of course, things get uncomfortably intimate fast when the boys start wiping and tasting each others’ tears. Shredding their hearts out in the finale, they destroy all their instruments in the excitement. Surprising and delighting fans with the hilarious casting switch, this video garnered millions view within a matter of days.
#10: "40oz. On Repeat" (2015)
Fidlar Sometimes quantity over quality is the way to go. Instead of doing a high-budget parody of a single video, Fidlar decided that remaking 20 in low budget magic was better. Covering everyone from Missy Elliot to Sugar Ray and even the Hives and George Michael, the video seamlessly transitions from reference to reference, and it's surprisingly entertaining thanks to its cheap charm. What's even more impressive than their ability to parody several videos in one take is how they manage to recreate technical videos like Jamiroquai's "Virtual Insanity" accurately, all with their lo-fi approach. And just in case you wanted to figure out all their references, they even sneak the list of songs onto the jukebox at the start of the video.
#9: "Irresistible" (2015)
Fall Out Boy feat. Demi Lovato If you want every detail of your parody to be perfect, who better to hire than the original director. When Fall Out Boy decided they were going to parody *NSYNC's video for "It's Gonna Be Me," they wanted the best people for the job. Enlisting the directing talents of Wayne Isham, who directed the video for *NSYNC, the band instead play a bunch of dolls left in a bargain bin who come to life. With some choice cameos by Joey Fatone and Chris Kirkpatrick, both with their own toys from the *NSYNC video, it comes together as a clever sequel to a new millennium classic.
#8: "Just Lose It" (2004)
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Eminem Parody has always been a favorite in Eminem’s bag of tricks. It was basically how he introduced himself to the world with “The Real Slim Shady” . In “Just Lose it” though, Eminem pokes fun at Michael Jackson, Madonna, MC Hammer and even Pee-wee Herman with his classically over-the-top satire. He goes so far as making a "Bad Santa" reference complete with actor Tony Cox as his elf, but Eminem really surprises when he parodies himself, re-framing scenes from "8-Mile,". His self-deprecating humour continues as he accidentally hits on Dr. Dre at a bar, who rolls his eyes at him later in the video when he catches Eminem running through the streets naked. Thanks to a little controversy with Michael Jackson, the video also became a top request on MTV.
#7: "I'm On A Boat" (2009)
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The Lonely Island feat T-Pain Ever notice that one little trope that doesn't seem to go away? Why not make a whole video about it? After seeing countless hip-hop videos with artists dancing around on boats, The Lonely Island made their boat video to finally end the fad. With comically dumb lines glamorizing buoys, flip flops and engine noises, the video hits the low hanging fruit with everything the trio's got. Thanks to some hilarious additions from T-Pain including a run-in with a mermaid, and a nod to George W. Bush's “mission accomplished” speech, the video makes some deep cuts proving that no detail is too small poke fun at.
#6: "Make Some Noise" (2011)
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Beastie Boys Instead of remaking someone else's video, why not make a sequel to your own? Following in the aftermath of "Fight For Your Right", "Make Some Noise" continues their mocking of party sprees with Seth Rogen, Danny McBride and Elijah Wood taking over their personas. With an almost nauseating amount of celebrity cameos from Kirsten Dunst to Ted Danson- who's the only person actually named in the song- the video is a star clustered dash through the streets of New York. If that wasn't enough, the video ends with them having a showdown with their future selves arriving in a DeLorean, leaving viewers with a cliffhanger.
#5: "Dani California" (2006)
Red Hot Chili Peppers Every decade has a couple videos that have survived the passing of time, for better or for worse. Thanks to some clever shooting and a stellar costume department, the RHCP boys play everyone from Elvis to Danzig to Cream and even the Beatles. Retelling the history of rock and roll through their satirical shenanigans, they actually cover a shocking amount of artists in their limited time. The self-aware, over-the-top finale shows the band finally arriving at the present as themselves, while also embodying their former heroes with new found intensity and humor, displaying John Lennon shredding and Flea going nuts on a stand-up bass.
#4: "I Feel Better" (2010)
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Hot Chip Don't expect another simple boy band parody with Hot Chip calling the shots. Known for some deranged creativity in their music videos, it almost seems too simple when the band open on just a boy band for a satire, as funny as it is. But things get weird when the generic gimmicks are interrupted by a strange alien who joins the band on stage, quickly going from welcoming to hostile as he decimates the band. Much to the crowd's chagrin he revives them with some dance moves of his own but not before a floating head comes along to kill him, the crowd and even the actual members of Hot Chip before laughing to close the video on a very strange note.
#3: "Still Waiting" (2002)
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Sum 41 Sum 41 is probably the last band you'd ask to do what's popular, unless you want some trouble on your hands. The band gets very meta, opening with a boardroom meeting with a label executive trying to tell them how to stay current. They even throw in some self-deprecating humour before being dubbed The Sums to be more like the garage rock bands that were exploding at the time. Launch into the music and the band thrashes through their song on a set spoofing the Strokes, among others, complete with video game cutaways to nail the look. Just when it looks like the guys have given up, they tear down the whole set, reminding fans they're not changing any time soon.
#2: "All The Small Things" (2000)
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Blink-182 Ironically, standing out sometimes means doing what everyone else is doing, with just a few minor tweaks. Taking every popular video cliché of the 90s the band made their mark by spoofing every one of their pop contemporaries in goofy fashion. Lampooning boy-bands like the Backstreet Boys and 98 Degrees were obvious choices but that didn't stop them from throwing Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera into the mix, with the boys in drag to fit the bill. While the zooms and wipes would still make the video seem dated, it's all part of the look that cemented Blink-182 in video history.
#1. “Amish Paradise”
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“Weird Al” Yankovic If you didn’t predict “Weird Al” to be in our top spot, you must have lived under a rock. The man all but invented the genre of music video parody and has enough of them to fill out several Top 10s. But while 1988’s “Fat” was a hilarious spin on Michael Jackson’s “Bad”, and “White and Nerdy” was the perfect contrast to Chamillionaire’s “Ridin'”, today’s winner is the iconic “Amish Paradise”. Closely mimicking Coolio’s “Gangsta’s Paradise”, Al puts the most non-gangster twist on this hip hop classic. From butter churning to barn-raising and everything in between, “Amish Paradise” is a master parody that provided a catchy and comedic crash course in the Amish lifestyle. And the rest, is history.
