Lady Gaga is a polarizing force. Both because you either love her or hate her and also because she is possibly made out of metal or some kind of magnetic space item. Due to the popularity of her tricked-out, crazy lady videos, it was inevitable that a million and one parodies would pop up on the internet. Well, pop up they have, taking every imaginable angle and ranging from extremely low-budget to whatever passes for high quality on YouTube these days.
We think her videos already verge on the parodic and referential, if not on purpose then definitely in practice, but there’s always one more step to take into the depths of the absurd. And remember, imitation is the highest form of flattery. After the jump, peep our guide to creating the perfect Lady Gaga parody video, and watch our favorite spoofs of the moment.
Five steps to a successful Lady Gaga parody:
1. Decide whether you want to comment on Lady Gaga herself or use her melodies to back your own idea, like talking about your favorite typeface.
2. Get some sweet costumes. ‘Sweet’ is highly subjective, but we prefer the elaborate to the dismal.
3. Write a song to go along with the music of your chosen song. Preferably it will rhyme and make sense, though these rules are flexible.
4. Make sure you reference the original video with some visual cues or dance moves. Otherwise you’re just another douchey Young Republican sitting in a tree wearing a wifebeater.
4a. Because it’s best if you’re making fun of her, yourself, or both. Otherwise why do we even care?
5. Get someone patient (maybe your dad?) to shoot your video and post it on the internet! Voila. Lady Gaga will now probably look at your face through her computer screen. We feel you shiver.
Also, if you’re not visually inclined, feel free to use your pen to imagine a perfect world of Gaga — for inspiration, check out What a Fool Believes‘s proposal for a seasonal TV special entitled A Gaga Xmas. We will be highly impressed if anyone turns this into video for us (READ: Video of the Day, people).
But enough! Behold, our favorite parody videos of the Age of Gaga. You’ve seen some of them before, but we think they’re more powerful when they’re all in one place.
Neutra Face (A Bearded Poker Face Parody)
We love this. A perfect example of making a video about something unrelated to Ms. Gaga but still referencing her. Very well done, except for the unconvincing party scene, and about a typeface, which is about the nerdiest you can get while still being universally charming. Also, it seriously does not hurt this video that it is full of sexy beardy guys in wet t-shirts and that other dude who looks like the lovechild of Chuck Bass and Harry Potter.
Bad Romance by Lady Gaga ft. Lord Gaga
Now this one is definitely our favorite. The writing is great and the jabs spot-on (“Blah blah blah. Hoo hoo hee. Everybody look at me. Random stuff. Random stuff. Tell me have you had enough?”), plus it looks like a whole lot of work went into those costumes. Plus they figured out how to do the thing with the eyes! That is freaking impressive. We’ve always wished we could pair the Queen of Absurdity with some good lyrics, and it looks like this is the closest we’re going to get. Lady Gaga + smart writing = the best thing ever this video.
UCB’s Noteworthy sings ‘Poker Face’
Okay, okay. So this isn’t exactly a parody. It is, however, is the first a cappella song we’ve gotten through smiling since sophomore year of college. A bunch of dudes in shiny vests singing “Poker Face” and gyrating their hips? Irresistible.
Butterface
Oh… burn. This one is topical, if really mean. We don’t think she’s particularly ugly, but the supposed incongruity between face and body has indeed been mentioned more than once — whatever though. We’re thinking, let the homely girls know they can grow up to be psychotic pop stars! It’s the American dream.
Outer Space
This one’s another winner based on making fun of a particular aspect of Lady Gaga’s persona — that fact that she’s so batshit crazy it seems like she’s from another planet. Okay, the vocals aren’t as good as they could be, but this is another video with high effort put in, and oh my is that girl a looker or what? We want to go to her planet.
Rad Bromance
Worth watching if only for the intro. Even with all the Judd Apatow hype, bro love really hasn’t been getting anywhere with the music world (boy bands are never, never coming back. Sorry NKOTB). And we’ve seriously worn out JD and Turk, so we’ve been waiting for a new YouTube bromance staple. Could this be it?
Just Tax
Oh, sigh. This has Michael Steele all over it. The Republican party needs to stop this madness and go back to targeting voters they have something in common with (money?), not GaGa fans. Just a note: we are not holding this up as an example of a good parody video, but we’re definitely laughing. Just maybe not for the reasons they want us to.
Carlo’s Bad Romance Remake
Do we even have to say anything about this? You just gotta love it.
Bonus: These are not quite parodies, but if you really can’t get enough of other people pretending to be Lady Gaga, check out Urlesque’s compilation of mini Gagas singing Poker Face in their bathrooms, ostensibly to put on their MySpace pages. We want to know where their parents are.