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Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and these parodies took it to another level! Join us as we count down our picks for the best parody songs that were actually loved by the original artists! From "White & Nerdy" to "Smells Like Nirvana" and "Cheese and Onions," these spoofs earned genuine praise. Which parody do you think deserves the most credit? Let us know!
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00:00I wanna bowl with the gangsters, but oh well it's obvious I'm white and nerdy,
00:06I'm just too white and nerdy. Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks
00:12for parody songs that were most notably praised by their stylistic and musical inspiration.
00:17Hey, me just met you, and this is crazy, but you got cookies, so share it maybe.
00:2520. Down With a Sickness Richard Cheese and Lounge Against the Machine
00:30Many people were introduced to Lounge Against the Machine by the end of the world. Zack Snyder
00:35fought to have a jazz rendition of Disturbs' Down With a Sickness played during a montage in 2004's
00:41Dawn of the Dead. He compromised with the studio by playing the new metal banger over the film's
00:53closing credits. Against their expectations, the earlier needle drop became just as iconic.
01:04In 2010, Disturbed frontman David Draymond gushed to Metal Injection about loving
01:09that version before it was cool. He was also eager to promote the whole act of treating
01:19even the most disturbing songs like Jazz Standards. With Draymond and Snyder's endorsement,
01:25a huge cult following now gets down with Richard Cheese.
01:29Get up, come on, get down with the sickness. You mother, get up, come on, get down with the sickness.
01:3719. All Too Well – Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt
01:41Can you believe that two serious actors made a joke out of one of Taylor Swift's most serious songs?
01:55It would be natural for Saturday Night Live,
01:58but it was a surprise when Emily Blunt hijacked Ryan Gosling's musical monologue in 2024.
02:04My clothes were tight, but something about that spandex felt so right.
02:10They both ended up hijacking their promotion of the Fall Guy by reflecting on Barbie and Oppenheimer
02:15in the style of All Too Well. The Barbenheimer phenomenon blew up once again.
02:27And Swift fanned the flames by posting on Instagram that she'll now have trouble singing
02:32her own lyrics to All Too Well. Gosling and Blunt may still pine for that Barbenheimer glory,
02:37but Miss Americana made this moment legendary.
02:42Farewell…
02:5018. Thank You Jeff – James Corden
03:00For all the controversy about his character, James Corden always lit up the night on The Late Late Show.
03:06Having Jeff Goldblum as a guest was so special that the episode
03:10opened with a musical parody of Ariana Grande's Thank You Next.
03:14He taught me patience, he taught me pain, Jeff Goldblum's amazing, he's our silver box.
03:22Corden's ode to the beloved actor was so unhinged yet relatable,
03:26that Grande also had to express her gratitude. She took to Twitter to ask for the scrapbook
03:31featured in Thank You Jeff – at least, for a friend.
03:35Thank you, Jeff, Jeff, thank you, Jeff, Jeff, thank you, Jeff.
03:40Grande got the greater gift of starring alongside Jeff Goldblum in the Wicked films several years later.
03:47Do you think she still had Thank You Jeff stuck in her head by then?
03:50You can't bet that he has tons of sex, thank you, Jeff, thank you, Jeff.
03:5617. TikTok – The Midnight Beast
04:00Kesha's chart-topping party anthem TikTok inspired a treasure trove of online spoofs and trends.
04:09It was on this wave that YouTube comedy group The Midnight Beast captured everyone's attention with
04:14their hilariously irreverent take on the hit. They were nothing short of beastly in the way
04:23they flipped Kesha's chaotic glamorization of excessive partying. The original artist was not
04:28only cool with this, she shared it on Twitter with the caption, this is better than my version.
04:41This helped launch The Midnight Beast to stardom and a bigger budget for a 10th anniversary revamp
04:46of their TikTok video. Hopefully, Kesha had another laugh about her wilder days as a cultural phenomenon.
04:52I'm mad, really bad, but don't tell my mom and dad.
04:5616. Share It Maybe – Sesame Street
05:00Kids everywhere were singing Carly Rae Jepsen's Call Me Maybe by 2012.
05:04I just met here, and this is crazy, but here's my number, so call me maybe.
05:12It was then that Sesame Street shared it with little kids through a Cookie Monster music video.
05:16Share It Maybe sees him asking for his favorite treat at an office party,
05:20only to inevitably go on a cookie rampage.
05:31It's not the best lesson on charity, but Jepsen was charitable enough to share the spoof during
05:36an interview on The Ellen DeGeneres Show. She also included it in her playlist of summer jams that
05:41year. With all the parodies of her songs at the time, it meant a lot for her to call out
05:45Share It Maybe
05:46as one of her favorites.
05:5515. Stew Pete Davidson
05:59It's hard to go harder than Eminem's tragic masterpiece about toxic fandom.
06:03Send two letters back in autumn, you must not have got them.
06:06There probably was a problem in the post office or something.
06:09Leave it to Pete Davidson, who did a Christmas-themed spoof of Stan for Saturday Night Live.
06:14Dear Santa, I can't believe the year is almost over. It's getting colder, I'm a year older,
06:19but I'm still your soldier.
06:20Stew's harrowing and hilarious letter to Santa Claus is punctuated by a cameo from the real Slim Shady.
06:25While that sounds like a seal of approval, Eminem told Apple Music in 2020 that he wasn't sure the
06:31skit would work when he heard the pitch. He was so impressed with the final product that he appeared
06:39in Forgot About Lorne, a follow-up to commemorate Davidson's departure from SNL. We can assume Em
06:45liked this version of Forget About Dre better than his cameo suggested.
06:49Nowadays, everybody wanna act like they're breaking the form,
06:51but every time I'm looking online, it seems it's just a bunch of old memes,
06:54all these motherf***** acts forgot about me.
06:5614. Frying Pan
07:05There are heavy metal trivia bands, and then there are fast food heavy metal tribute bands.
07:10Or at least there's the Los Angeles-based Max Sabbath, who put on a private show for Black
07:15Sabath's first frontman, and an unaired clip from the reality show, Ozzy and Jack's World Detour.
07:23I am frying pan!
07:28From the moment they used Iron Man to grill the food service industry,
07:32Ozzy Osbourne was blown away by the bizarre spectacle. It was a pleasant surprise cooked up by his son Jack.
07:38Oh, I have a gall of a million specks me for!
07:44After this fiery performance of Frying Pan, singer Ronald Osbourne sang his praises of the Prince of
07:50Darkness. And he was still singing his praises for Max Sabbath in a video testimonial.
07:55Everybody wants a
07:58A damn straight-powered way!
08:0113. Tacky
08:03Weird Al Yankovic
08:09Back in 2013, Pharrell Williams' bubbly super hit Happy was pretty much impossible to get away from.
08:17Its infectiously optimistic lyrics and catchy groove were an instant hit, with it eventually
08:22peaking at number one in several different countries.
08:31Naturally, it didn't take long until a stream of parodies hit the internet, and sure enough,
08:36the king of the spoof, Weird Al Yankovic, was quick to get involved.
08:40Yankovic always pays the artist the courtesy of asking permission to parody their songs first,
08:46despite not needing any legal clearance to do so. Not only was Pharrell happy to let him do his thing,
08:51he spoke very highly of the end product, Tacky, and declared he was honored to get the Weird Al treatment.
09:03Number 12. How do you milk a cow?
09:06Cletus T. Judd.
09:15It was a badge of honor in country music to be spoofed by Cletus T. Judd.
09:20But the honor was all his when he did How Do You Like Me Now.
09:23I was always a lazy one, a Southern Californian, but I've got some kinfolk on the Mason Dixon line.
09:31A city slicker experiencing farm life is definitely more modest than Toby Keith's Bar Brawl anthem.
09:43When he responded to How Do You Milk a Cow by starring in the music video, it bulked up Judd's
09:48career.
09:48So, too, did Keith's guest vocals on the I Love This Bar parody, I Love NASCAR.
09:54How about you, Toby?
09:55But I love NASCAR, it's my kind of rain.
10:02How Do You Milk a Cow led to a deep professional and personal connection between two country icons.
10:08Judd even took a reverent twist on Don't Let the Old Man In after Keith's passing, titled,
10:13I'm Gonna Miss You, Old Friend.
10:22Number 11.
10:23The Thing That Should Not Let It Be
10:26Metallica
10:35Metallica famously doesn't take too kindly to Music Thieves.
10:39But drummer Lars Ulrich supported Metallica through their 2005 legal battle with Sony
10:44Music over the Beatles' catalog.
10:53The Milwaukee-based tribute band almost uncannily combines the thrash metal giant's style with the
10:59more upbeat songwriting of another Fab Four. Perhaps their most famous song, The Thing That
11:04Should Not Let It Be even throws One and Unforgiven into the titular mix.
11:18Although Metallica hasn't named a favorite track in particular,
11:22they've praised such creativity and entertainment value on several occasions.
11:26Whether Paul McCartney thinks of Beatallica challenging his own mastery at medleys,
11:30Metallica will always stand with them in times of trouble.
11:39Number 10.
11:40Black Dog Slash Hound Dog Dread Zeppelin
11:50A Led Zeppelin tribute band that combines heavy metal, reggae, and Elvis Presley seems like
11:56something worth talking about.
11:57Hey mama said the way you move gonna make you sweat and gonna make you groove.
12:06Singer Robert Plant has been eager to talk about them, particularly their rendition of Black Dog
12:11that features elements of Elvis' Hound Dog.
12:14Black dog!
12:16Black dog!
12:18Hooooooo!
12:22That's a very reductive description of a composition too sophisticated to be called a novelty act.
12:28Plant was so vocal in his support of Dred Zeppelin following their breakout in 1990 that
12:33he wore their band t-shirt on the cover of Kerrang! magazine.
12:36That credible endorsement of imagination and talent has been key to their legacy enduring
12:41for decades.
12:50Number 9 Cups and Cakes – Spinal Tap
12:54The original track Cups and Cakes by Spinal Tap appeared on the soundtrack album to the
13:071984 film This Is Spinal Tap.
13:16It was very clearly a parody of British experimental folk of the 1960s, specifically works by Paul
13:24McCartney during the mid-to-late Beatles years.
13:27Decades later, Maka himself gave the track the ultimate seal of approval by doing a feature
13:33on the re-recorded version for the band's film sequel.
13:36McCartney has been around the block enough times to know not to take himself too seriously,
13:41and this appearance alongside Spinal Tap in 2025 proved it.
13:51Number 8 Like a Surgeon – Weird Al Yankovic
14:02There is only one known time where Weird Al Yankovic has openly accepted a song idea directly
14:08from another artist.
14:10Madonna was apparently walking around with a friend when she openly wondered whether Yankovic
14:14could ever parody her song.
14:16She even brought the title Like a Surgeon to Weird Al's management through a mutual contact.
14:21Yankovic was happy to do the rest, conceptualizing a song that would go on to be one of his most
14:27beloved creations.
14:39Madonna pretty much breathed life into this one single-handedly, and she was supposedly quite
14:45happy with the result.
14:47I can hear your heart beat for the very last time.
14:53Number 7 Photograph – Nickelback
14:57After years and years of being one of the most memed-on bands of all time, it's pretty cool
15:02to see that Nickelback are not unwilling to laugh at themselves.
15:13When Chad Krueger and company were approached by Google to perform a modified version of
15:18their song Photograph, they seemingly accepted without hesitation.
15:22The song's lyrics were altered by Google to advertise new features on Google Photos,
15:26while keeping the tone of the widely ridiculed and overly sentimental song.
15:31Every memory of looking out the back door, I have a photo of them spread out of my bedroom
15:37door.
15:37Writing a parody and performing it yourself, or giving it to a third party, is good and
15:41all, but if you can actually get the original artist to poke fun at themselves, that's a
15:45different level.
15:47Nickelback were at least proud of their self-aware work.
15:50It's hard to breathe, it's time to shave it, goodbye, I like…
15:57Number 6 Push – Feeling good on a Wednesday
16:00South Park
16:02For many die-hard South Park fans, nothing tops the Randy-centric episodes, even by Trey Parker
16:08and Matt Stone's lofty standards.
16:10Having Randy reveal that he is secretly alternative pop star Lorde is a wild premise for an episode.
16:16The chick that wrote the theme song to the new Hunger Games movie is you?
16:20Yeah, the record company messed it all up.
16:23It was supposed to go, Hunger Games, ya-ya-ya, ya-ya-ya, Hunger Games, but they just do what
16:28they want with my songs.
16:29Wait, Lorde sounds like a girl.
16:32Auto-tune.
16:33You wanna see how I do it?
16:34In this specific story, he reveals that with the help of a little auto-tune, he is able
16:39to record and release music without anyone suspecting his true identity.
16:43I am Lorde, ya-ya-ya, ya-ya-ya, I am Lorde.
16:49When the real Lorde heard about it, she revealed that she got a good laugh out of the whole thing,
16:54understanding that being mocked by South Park is a pretty clear sign that you've made it.
16:58You can call me Green Bees, and baby, I'll rule, I'll rule, I'll rule.
17:04Number five, Head Over Heels, Weather Version, Jimmy Fallon and Kevin Bacon.
17:11There has been no shortage of song parodies over the years that have featured Jimmy Fallon
17:16and random celebrities.
17:17Is that they're horses, that's the one thing.
17:23We'll always have a soft spot for the talk show host's meteorological take on the Tears for
17:28Fears classic Head Over Heels alongside Kevin Bacon.
17:38Like Fallon, the veteran actor Bacon is no slouch in the musical department.
17:42In this case, their Tears for Fears cover was an instant success.
17:46There's so fog overnight, so if you go, you, you, you, you might need a sweater.
17:55And as it turned out, the band themselves enjoyed it a lot, too.
17:59The Roland, Orzabal, and Kurt Smith fronted group took to social media to give the spoof their
18:05own personal seal of approval.
18:06It likely introduced the song to a whole new generation, too, which is pretty cool when you
18:11think about it.
18:16Number 4.
18:17Smells Like Nirvana
18:19Weird Al Yankovic
18:28Kurt Cobain was approached by Weird Al Yankovic about the prospect of him doing a parody of Nirvana's
18:34earth-shattering hit, Smells Like Teen Spirit.
18:45When he heard that Yankovic would be making a joke about how hard it is to decipher the lyrics,
18:51he was sold.
18:52Now I'm mumbling, and I'm screaming, and I don't know what I'm singing.
18:59After it came out and proved to be a huge success, Cobain would double down on his approval,
19:04citing the song as proof that the band had made it.
19:07It went on to become his biggest hit in years, sparking a comeback that carried him through
19:12the rest of the 1990s.
19:14What's the message I'm conveying?
19:18Can't you tell me what I'm saying?
19:21Number 3.
19:22The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air theme, Jimmy Fallon
19:25Neil Young might not generally give off an overly comedic vibe, but when the time came
19:30for him to step up and poke fun at himself and his idiosyncratic style, he exceeded expectations.
19:36If anything I could say, this kid was rare.
19:40Jimmy Fallon scored a pretty big viral hit by performing the theme song to The Fresh Prince of
19:45Bel-Air in the style of the Canadian Troubadour.
19:57Will Smith had no public response to this interpretation, but Young made his feelings clear.
20:02He made two separate appearances on The Tonight Show to perform with Fallon.
20:06The highly revered Neil Young was just that happy to do harmonies with someone doing an impression of him.
20:11I am you, you are me, love is love.
20:18Number 2.
20:19Cheese and Onions
20:20The Ruttles
20:22I have always thought that the world was unkind cheese and onions.
20:31When it comes to movie spoofs, The Ruttles were never trying to be overly subtle about their
20:37attempts to lampoon The Beatles.
20:38Their film All You Need Is Cash has since gone on to become a cult classic, spawning a
20:43soundtrack album and even a sequel.
20:46Out, don't deserve you, out, please don't hurt me, out.
20:51John Lennon was very enthused by the whole thing, while Ringo and Paul took a little longer to come
20:57around.
20:57However, George Harrison, who was friends with creator Eric Idle, actually beat them all to
21:02the punch, appearing in a cameo role in the film.
21:05That's just about as clear a seal of approval as you'll ever find.
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21:41Number one, white and nerdy, Weird Al Yankovic.
21:44As popular as Weird Al is, he spent over two decades chasing a top 10 hit.
21:50Then Chameleon Air handed in the keys with Raiden.
21:53My music's so loud, I'm slangin', they hopin' that they gon' catch me ridin' dirty.
22:00White and Nerdy tricked out this anthem for lowrider culture with a rapid rundown of geek culture.
22:05They see me bowin' my front lawn. I know they're all thinkin' I'm so white and nerdy.
22:12They're just too white and nerdy.
22:13Chameleon Air didn't think this was the work of a poser,
22:16phrasing the parodies fun and flow all the way to the Grammys.
22:20When Raiden won Best Rap Performance, he thanked Weird Al in his acceptance speech.
22:25It may be a stretch to say that White and Nerdy popularized the original song that much.
22:30I'm nerdy in the extreme and whiter than sour cream.
22:33I was in AV Club and Glee Club and even the chess team.
22:36Still, Chameleon Air's praise, as much as the parody itself,
22:40show how music icons are even cooler when they know how to laugh at themselves.
22:52What are your favorite covers and your favorite reactions to them?
22:56Laugh with us in the comments!
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