The boom of YouTube and other video clip sharing channels has allowed youths to join a host of online community entertainment activities in Vietnam, including making parody clips, many of which have become must-sees and caused quite a stir among young people in recent years.

Parody clips, or a piece of art which deliberately copies another work in a comic way, were supposedly first made by Americans and started appearing on YouTube in 2006.

The most common parodies are imitations of current, hot music videos and films. The parodies are usually just for fun and do not include humiliating content, political or religious elements.

Countless parody versions of top-notch international singers such as Rihanna, Britney Spears, Adele and local celebrities can be easily found on the Internet these days and have held young netizens the world over spellbound thanks to their rich creativity and humor.

Many clips even draw a larger number of viewers and comments than the original versions and receive millions of views or comments.

Vietnamese youths ‘crazy’ about parodies

Over recent years, several Vietnamese-made parody clips have been released and enthusiastically embraced by local youths.

The trend saw its boom in late 2013, when a number of local youths made and released various versions of the music clip “Anh khong doi qua” (I wouldn't ask for my gifts back).

The clips are parody versions of an 'original one' released earlier by two singers. That 'original one' was actually an imitation of Make The Girl Dance 'Baby Baby Baby' that can be easily found on YouTube.

Dozens of such clips were made in Hanoi, Nam Dinh Province, Nghe An Province, Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province, and Khanh Hoa Province, and went viral on the Internet.

A junior version made in Buon Ma Thuot in Dac Lac Province in the Central Highlands in which a little girl strips off her clothes on the street was also released.

The 'original' clip was inspired by a video a girl in Hanoi made and posted on Facebook in mid-November.

It shows a man, sent to her house by her rich ex-boyfriend, listing all the gifts she was given by her ex during their time together. The man demands that she gives them all back.

In the 'original' music clip and parodies, a sexy young girl walks down the street, taking off her accessories one by one until she is almost naked, wearing only a pair of underwear.

Several parodies have drawn up to 2.9 million views each, which is higher than the 'original'.

Its Gao Supermen and BB&BG parodies attracted some 6.5 and 8.7 million views, respectively.

Most recently, “Happy”, a music video by American recorder/ music producer Pharrell Williams, which has topped several world charts, has been parodied by a group of Vietnamese youths.

The clip drew over 130,000 views only after three weeks of being launched.

The trend of making parody clips is also increasingly felt in schools and at students’ contests. Several schools have held parody making competitions for their students.

Plusses of parody clips

There are several reasons for Vietnamese youths’ increasing fascination with parody clips.

“We find parodies hugely appealing as they’re both creative and extremely fun. It’s a great way to unwind after a hard day of work,” shared Nguyen Tran Song Ngan, 22, from Ho Chi Minh City’s District 10.

Meanwhile, Pham Nguyen Quoc Trung, 21, a member of the group creating the Gao Supermen “Anh khong doi qua” parody clip, shared that apart from the laughter and fun that these clips bring to viewers, they also allow youths like himself to express their own opinions on current social maladies.

His group had earlier made a parody titled “Thoi quen Facebook” (Facebook habits) to criticize youths’ addiction to social networks.

According to Nguyen Tien Dung, member of a group called H3 Media, satirical parodies which humorously criticize such social matters as public hoarding and social discrimination can leave a lasting impression and have a greater educational effect.

Dat, from Roar, the group which created the Vietnamese parody of “Happy”, noted that the clips also aim at passing on optimistic, positive messages to their peers. “While our ‘Happy’ parody encourages youths to stay confident regardless of their outside appearance and focus on their own inner values, our next parody clip will express our support for the local community of lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transsexuals,” Dat added.

Another plus of parody clips is limited finance, energy and time needed to create them.

Trung said that the Gao Supermen “Anh khong doi qua” parody clip, which has enjoyed views well beyond their expectations, took his group only one morning to finish filming.

The group members took care of their own acting outfits and only paid for refreshments.

Roar group members also revealed that the filming of their “Happy” parody, which has been considered well-invested by most viewers, only took two or three days and almost no expenses.

However, the most daunting challenge faced by most groups is idea brainstorming and scriptwriting.

Roar group members spent three weeks on these two phases of their “Happy” parody.

“Vietnamese people aren’t used to expressing themselves in public, so our group encountered some difficulty persuading each other to laugh out loud and dance merrily to the music. In addition, as our group members are all students from different schools, we also found it hard to find the time for everyone to join in with the filming,” Dung noted.

Possible minuses of parody clips

Despite the parodies’ strengths and positive effects, many mature adults and experts have expressed concerns over local youths’ engagement in making parody clips.

Sociologist Nguyen Diep Quy Vy, lecturer at the HCMC University of Social Sciences and Humanities, noted that parody clips are a wholesome, intriguing entertainment form and a good way to promote individuals or groups’ images, as the youngsters and their clips can easily gain popularity though they have yet to appear on the orthodox mass media.

However, she stressed that undue engagement in making such clips may seriously distract youths from their studies and work.

Eager to gain fame, they may create culturally inappropriate clips and cause offense.

Late last year, Cai Rang District police in southern Can Tho City mulled fining the seven young girls who made the “Anh khong doi qua” clip for disrupting a civilized lifestyle, and notified their families and local officials of the violations to prevent them from committing similar offenses in the future.

“The line between creativity, entertainment and defaming and adversely affecting others is really thin. Thus discretion really counts for both makers and viewers of such parody clips,” stressed psychologist Tran Thi Thanh Tra, lecturer at HCMC Open University.

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