A Window Into My Parody-Writing Process

This coming October I will have two performances scheduled, from two churches that want to hear my parody songs.  I look forward to doing these, and many more in the future.

Now, it would be quite easy to rest on my laurels and to perform the songs that I’ve already written and recorded.  But I know that comedy loses its umph over time.  You can only tell the same jokes so many times before the joke cannot muster even a smile.  It is in this regard that–noting the new influx of “seminal songs” each year, I take it to task to write a new parody or two.

This morning I began the process.  This blog post is to share my thoughts as to how I would go about it.

First off, I will heartily admit to being somewhat in the dark regarding today’s music scene.  There are artists I admire, but most of the songs I’m aware of are not the sort that play well on today’s pop radio.  I have to take a deep breath and re-educate myself to those songs that, according to many others, would be remembered by.

Step 1: Do a google search on “Songs of Summer 2013”.

From this I get a list of ten articles, all of which I open in separate tabs.

Step 2: I start listening, and in the listen, I have to pay attention.  It usually takes me up to the second verse before I get a sense of three things:

1. Do I like the song (lyrical content notwithstanding)?
2. Does the song lend itself to be covered easily by my limited means (vocals/acoustic guitar)?
3. Does the song have enough lyrical weight (that is, not overly repetitious)?

And from this I come up with a list of five potential songs to parody–all of which are current, familiar, which I can perform easily, and have enough lyrical weight.

This is all before I can come up with a narrative alternate hook–something that can allow me to get into the song, find those musical/lyrical cruxes that the song hinges upon, and an alternate point of departure of the song itself, that sounds natural and logical?

Step 3: Concurrent to this, make sure I rediscover my sincere comic voice. 

Part of what makes my comedy work is that I am a guy who wants to live for God, in a world that thrives upon pop expressions.  I want to stay true to my very self, albeit, slightly exaggerated for comic effect.  The jokes have to come from my own story, my own experiences, in my journey towards holiness and being a father/convert/worship-leader/disciple/on-fire-for-God.

Part of this also means that I have to constantly keep afresh on what comedy is, how it works, what makes people laugh, and knowing the tools and techniques to make it alive.  While this may seem like the most fun part of the job, it’s also quite labor-intensive; does a certain word work better here than another word?  Are there phrases that stop the jokes altogether?

Step 4: Über-familiarize myself with those five songs.  Learn them.  Re-learn them.  Sing them under my breath.  Find their chords.  Come up with an understanding of those songs, of their tones.

Step 5: Sing out different combinations of alternate phrases, over the seminal parts of those songs. And it will sound nonsensical.  You are to keep trying until you find a hook: an approach to the song that unites the tone of the original song, with an alternate lyric, that matches something comically that you personally understand and can exploit for comedy.

Step 6: Refine, rewrite, refine, rewrite.  Once you get a sense of what the major alternate lyrics will be, the job is then to craft a story around the rest of the song–matching the original song’s tone–and, bonus, to craft the lyrics so that the punch lines of little asides will land on the last word of each lyrical phrase.   Great songs aren’t written–they’re re-written.

Step 7: Practice, practice, and maximize performance.  Find little ways for the song to stand out.  Is there a costume/wig I would have to don?  Is there an image I can project on Powerpoint?  Do I need to master that silly cup-dance that Anna Kendrick had performed?  Stuff like that.

Once I go through these steps, I am almost always assured that I would have a new parody or two to foist upon the public.

For the record: after spending a couple hours listening to these songs of the summer, I have limited my upcoming parodies to these five songs:

• Cups by Anna Kendrick
• I Love It by Icona Pop
• We Own the Night by The Wanted
• Blurred Lines by Robin Thicke
• Get Lucky by Daft Punk .

Artists I did not include: Justin Timberlake, Miley Cyrus, Mariah Carey, Selena Gomez, and most hip-hop/rap.  Deep apologies to all fans of these artists.  Happy you like them–they’re not for me.

The above-mentioned songs fit the criteria of what I mentioned earlier: they’re songs I like, first and foremost (regardless of lyrical content), and they’re also songs that might–might–work well with my limited musical means.  With “Cups,” I don’t even need my guitar.  With “Get Lucky”–the song is terribly repetitious, so if I were to parody this at all, it may be just a snippet of the chorus, tagged on to another song.

I am aware that some of these songs are not “family-friendly” (and in Robin Thicke’s case, embroiled in controversy).  Which may or may not make a difference in the long run.  My goal is to find the melodic and lyrical hook and play around with a couple of ideas with them.

If you see me singing nonsensical stuff over the next few weeks, that is what I’ll be doing.