Friday 16 September 2011

Music Video Anaylsis: Spoof Video

In 1984 Weird Al Yankovic created the spoof "Eat It", which was a take on Michael Jackson's "Beat It".This video is intended to almost identically mimic the Michael Jackson video but it includes a comedic interpretation. Weird Al Yankovic did this to gain the attention of mainstream audiences because of the popularity of Michael Jackson.

The video does engage the audience as it has comic value. The original video is well known so viewers have an expectation of the narrative and the lyrics, therefore the spoof contrasts with and it causes the audience to hear the changes. Also it brings Weird Al Yankovic's audience to the attention of Michael Jackson, and the "Beat It" video in particular. So in a way, both artists share their audiences with each other and show different interpretations of the same video.

The video is fairly successful as it does what a spoof is meant to do, it is comical and follows the original music video very closely. However, the production company would have to pay quite a lot of royalties to Michael Jackson and therefore it wouldn't make Weird Al Yankovic much money. But it was probably used as more a viral marketing stunt, used to get his name out there and to bring in a larger audience for his work.

Below is the spoof video and original "Beat It" video for comparison.

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