Hey, Vsauce! Michael here. Except, wait. This
isn’t Vsauce, and this isn’t Michael.
But this is a parody. A parody is an imitation,
a caricature of another’s work, usually
in a satirical or humorous fashion. But, where
did this come from? What was the first parody?
In the treats “poetics,” Aristotle claims
that subjects of imitations are always portrayed
as better, worse, or as they are in real life.
And one imitator who portrayed others as worse
was Hegemon of Thasos. By altering certain
words from epic poems, Hegemon would turn
the noble into the absurd. To describe Hegemon’s
work, Aristotle combined the Greek word “para,”
meaning counter or against, with “oide,”
song. Parodia. Counter-song. Parody. So wait,
is this really a parody? I am imitating Vsauce,
yes, but I’m not mocking or satirizing his
work. I have great respect for what he does.
Well the greek word “para” does mean “counter,”
or “against.” But it also means “beside.”
A parodia, then, is also a “beside-song,”
a work that imitates the style or content
of another, simply to imitate. But even though
parody can just be a simple imitation, it’s
not usually understood, or used, that way.
This video would more accurately be called
a “pastiche,” an imitative work meant
to honor and respect the style of the original
creator. But this video isn’t just a pastiche
of Vsauce, it also features…well, say hello
to-
Hello Internet. So as Vsauce mentioned, parody:
send-up, raillery, spoof, lampoon, satire.
Parodies were traditionally used to imitate
or mock something of value, and after Hegemon
created the parody, Greece sure had fun with
it. Ancient Greek parodies have included portraying
the demi-god Hercules as a glutton; the god
of drama Dionysus as cowardly and unintelligent—though
nowadays that’s often an accurate depiction
of overly-dramatic people; and they even parodied
tragic plays by having actors dress up as
Satyrs—mythical companions known for being
horse-like and…[sigh]…ithyphallic. But
before Aristotle coined parody to describe
Hegemon’s work, Greek singers had actually
been making parodies for a while. The word
parodia just wasn’t made for them. Despite
this subtle backward, musical parody continued
to grow throughout the years. First, there
were parody masses where churches would imitate
the style of Renaissance music. But that wasn’t
exactly the hit sensation to draw in the masses.
After the churches, parody then ventured into
where it’s best known today: popular music,
where it’s ranged from adding silly sound
effects to literally making up long-last members
of famous, musical families. And when done
well, these parodies of popular songs come,
well, popular. Indeed, some artists are able
to create parodies for a living, and when
combined with a clever marketing scheme and
8 new music videos in a week [COUGH COUGH],
they make for very entertaining media. But
parodies really exploded with this thing called
“YouTube,” which allowed anyone with an
idea, or a cat, to make anything awesome.
A quick search reveals hundreds of creative,
funny parodies. Some add silly lyrics or make
fun of strange performance styles. Others
make fun of musical structure, turning the
predictability of many modern tunes into an
actually enjoyable experience. And we’ll
even see brave souls who parody themselves
in a brazenly fantastic way—sometimes without
even trying to. I could really go on and on
about this, because there are so many great
parodies out there. And YouTube has allowed
them to proliferate to an unbelievable extent.
But now with all these parodies filling our
lives, we should probably consider their potential,
and if they can be used for more than just
having a good time. And I happen to know someone
who thinks they can!
Good morning Hank, it’s Tuesday and today
we are going to do some piggybacking! But
wait a second, am I parodying John or Hank
here? I feel like I’m doing John right now
but if I want to be Hank all I really have
to do is wave my arms and raise my voice.
Hm…oh, I got it! Good morning brother, it’s
weekday and today we’re going to do some
piggybacking! Right, like CGP Grey said, there
are tons of parodies out there. So can we
use them for good? And that’s kind of assuming
that making people laugh isn’t good, but
you know what I mean. Brother, there are a
bunch of silly and ridiculous parodies out
there. But some also are legitimate critiques
of problems we face in this world. Some can
critique a prevailing culture, like the book
Naked Came the Stranger, which was intentionally
written poorly but expected to sell well because
it include a lot of sex. I became a best-seller.
Brother, what I thinks so funny about this
example is that it was written in 1969. But
if it were applied to today’s culture, I
have 50 shades of a feeling we’d see a similar
response. Anyway, another thing parodies can
do besides critique existing structures are
educate and support people. The Colbert Report
is a great example of this. This show was
literally started as an enormous parody of
pundit shows like the O’Reilly Factor, and
whether or not you believe in his views, there
are a lot of objective, great things Colbert
has done. A recent CNN report found that he
educated the public more about campaign finance
laws than any other news source as able to.
And by selling his wrist strong bracelet,
a parody of the live strong ones, he raised
over $170,000 for the Yellow Ribbon Fund,
a charity for injured service members. And
I feel like I kinda had to mention the Colbert
Report because one of us was on it. What’s
really crazy about these examples, brother,
is that these have been really before YouTube
became big and powerful. Which means that
we probably haven’t even harnessed the full
potential of YouTube parody power, which is…amazing!
I have no doubt that we’re gonna continue
seeing awesome things come from YouTube that
will help society, and I’m excited! Brother,
I’ll see you on weekday.
Hey there, my name is Matt, and I just did
the Vsauce, CGP Grey, vlogbrothers parody
you saw. I did these parodies for fun but
also these three YouTubers were huge inspirations
for me, starting an education YouTube channel.
And I just…really respect them and think
their work is great. If you haven’t heard
of these people, please go check them out.
Click on the screen I think is…in one of
these directions. And consider subscribing
to my channel, too. Thanks :)
