10 Worst Youtube Music Video Remakes

I’ll just go ahead and say it: thank God for Youtube. How did we ever entertain ourselves before Youtube? Reading? Horseshoes? Strip clubs? It’s hard to think about. It’s hard to think about what life was like before Youtube, before this crawled into our living rooms, or this made Romanian dance-pop cool, and reminded people that there was a country called Romania.  Youtube has this magical, persuasive power over people that makes them do stupid stuff on camera. They made a whole show about this phenomenon called Tosh.0. Music video remakes are not exempted from this power. Here’s a list of 10 remakes that will make you either laugh, cry, or maybe both at the same time.

10. I’m On A Boat (Lonely Island ft. T-Pain)

Dudes have never really needed Youtube to take their shirts off and bump & grind on a boat, but now at least they can be a little ironic about it thanks to Andy Samberg and T-Pain. These seem like the guys that are always at the lake the same time you are, no matter what.

9. We Built This City (Starship)

Apparently nobody told these kids ‘We built this city’ is one of the worst songs ever recorded. Even worse, their idea of improving it involves S & M leather. And what’s that guy in the background doing? Did he lose the coin flip to see who does cartwheels and plays the air drums? The text describing this video looks like German, which actually would actually explain everything quite neatly.

8. All the Single Ladies (Beyonce)

Maybe Precious didn’t have this kind of self-esteem as a fat girl because she couldn’t record herself dancing. You have to admit, though, that that’s an impressive splits at the end.

7. The Bad Touch (Bloodhound Gang)

The weird part is that this craptacular remake feels waaaaaay more appropriate for the song than the original video. The song is creepy and funny, just like guys bouncing around a strobe light in European suits, and wearing sun glasses in the dark. If the whole city of Miami would’ve stopped evolving aroung 1987, this it what it would look like today.

6. Put It On Me (Ja Rule ft. Vita & Lil MO)

Finally, the question of whether white girls can fake rap can be put to bed. Are they trying to make it onto Tosh.0? If so, well played.

5. Bad Romance (Lady Gaga)

And maybe this remake disproves the stereotype that all gay men are intrinsically stylish. What they say is that Lady Gaga has a huge gay following. What they don’t realize is that she’s making this same gay subculture become an even gayer parody of itself.

4. You Spin Me Round (Dead or Alive)

The thing that makes this remake bad is that the original was made for today’s equivalent of five Indian rupees, and it still looks like Avatar: The Musical compared to this. You don’t need money to improve on most 80s music videos, you just need to not be high or angry at the human race.

3. Untitled (Deangelo)

This looks like one of those home movies the bad guy from Silence of the Lambs (the one that’s not Hannibal Lector) would shoot in between lowering buckets of lotion down the well to his victims. It never makes another music video remake in its life, it does this when its told.

2. Video Killed the Radio Star (The Buggles)

This isn’t so much about a paucity of taste and creativity so much as it is a sacrilege against history. You don’t mess with the first ever music video played on MTV the same way you don’t mess with classic movies by remaking them…in a perfect world, anyway. And if you are going to remake, at least find some dance move better than the party boy.

1. Hey Ya! (Outkast)

The sad (or scary) part is you don’t know if this guy’s trying to be funny or if he’s serious. It’s confusing how to react safely. Ah YouTube, blurring the lines between comedy and tragedy so that eventually we don’t know whether to laugh, or cry at anything.

There’s thousands of video remakes out there. Surely there’s one I’m missing, and probably glad I’m missing it. Oh well, feel free to comment on videos you feel were wrongly not included, or if you disagree with the selection.