Today, we are here to talk about song parodies. At best, they are mostly tolerable. At worst, they are…(gestures dismissively at the Holderness Family). Love them or hate them, the coronavirus quarantine has brought aspiring spoofers out of the woodwork. And, it would appear that we have a weird mix of raising public awareness and mass boredom to thank for these coronavirus parody songs taking over the internet.
There are coronavirus parodies about washing your hands, parodies about social distancing, Zoom meetings, binge-watching—you name it. Some tunes lend themselves better to coronavirus song parodies, such as the 1998 hit “One Week,” by the Canadian rock band Barenaked Ladies, for obvious reasons!
This coronavirus parody, which comes to us from the Pepper Coyote YouTube account, makes pandemic jokes while at the same time seriously encouraging people to stay at home so we can get out of the damn mess sooner rather than later.
New Zealand school principal and freelance musician Shirley Șerban executed this flawless coronavirus parody of “Do-Re-Mi” from The Sound of Music, starring Julie Andrews, to encourage people to social distance like the Von Trapp family. In just a few short days, the video went insanely viral, accumulating over five million views.
While we’re on the subject of Julie Andrews throwbacks, here’s a rendition of “Super Bad Transmittable Contagious Awful Virus,” inspired by the song “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” from Disney’s 1964 adaptation of Mary Poppins.
For anyone who enjoys dark humor, look no further than this parody of “Coronavirus Rhapsody,” featuring hilariously morbid lyrics such as: “Mama, I just killed a man / I didn’t stay inside in bed / I walked past him, now he’s dead.”
Legendary singer-songwriter Neil Diamond popped up from quarantine with a coronavirus-inspired take on his own 1969 classic hit “Sweet Caroline,” in an equally-as-sweet PSA. (Unfortunately, backup singers would almost definitely violate social distancing guidelines.)
The Voice finalist Chris Mann found himself a bonafide hit (at six million views and counting) with a parody of “Hello (from the Inside)” based on Adele’s single from her 2015 album, 25.
And yes, also by Mann, your obligatory “My Corona.” (No thanks necessary, just doing my job, ma’am.)
Although we’re sorely missing an entry from the king of parodies himself, Jimmy Fallon tracked down “Weird Al” Yankovic to perform a quarantine rendition of “One More Minute,” from his 1985 album, Dare to be Stupid. The Elvis Presley doo-wop style tune is one of Yankovic’s original, non-parody songs—but all things considered, as Fallon points out, it feels pretty timely right now!
And while these have largely been—dare we even say—good coronavirus parodies, we did mention the Holdernesses up top and we can’t help it if they appear when you evoke the family’s name.
Stay safe and indoors, everyone. Thankfully coronavirus parodies, like the virus itself, will eventually start to fade away.
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