I have been checking out some of the parodies on amiright, and a lot of them are hillarious, but some obviously need work. I'm not saying this as a slam to anybody, just a few people have rated below 3's for their work. This could be very discouraging to someone who thinks they have written a masterpiece, and then gets bombarded with 1's and 2's. I don't think the people submitting these parodies are neccesarily untalented. I just think some of them just need a guiding hand to write universally funny material.  Let's try to turn those low marks into 5's with some hints to help these people out. Anybody that has a track record of high marks is welcome to drop off advice that may be helpful to these people. I'll start:

1. ALWAYS be original. Don't send anything in that you've heard anywhere else. If you've heard a funny song elsewhere, and try to rewrite the song and submit it, you will eventually be found out. Be creative. Nobody can take your originality from you.

2. Watch the language and attitude. Although much funnier to some people, blue humor may offend some of your audience. It's much harder to get people to laugh at clean material, as is featured in amiright, but it can be done. Just believe in yourself. Also, watch it when slamming somebody. Funny is one thing, but if your song comes off as hateful, this may rub some people the wrong way. A vindictive comment in your parody may be all that it takes to turn a potential set of 5's into 1's real quick.

3. Write write write and don't be afraid to rewrite. If something you create doesn't make you laugh, then how is it supposed to make anybody else laugh? Always try to show your parodies to someone objective, and watch for a response. Never critique your own work. Let others do it.

4. Always keep your eyes open. Life is a perfect place to get your lyrics from. If you see something that could be funny in your daily travels, like a dog peeing on someones leg, or something, make a mental note, or write it down, and try to weave into your parody. Life is full of LMAO moments.

5. Watch your timing. Count out how many syllables there are per line, and try to create funny lyrics around the alotted syllables. If the original line, let's say, has only 5 syllables, and you try to shimmy 15 or so in there, it's gonna be lost on the reader. Try to make it flow along as best as you can with the OS.

Any more advice?
 

I'll add my thoughts......

While syllable count is good, make sure that the lyrics time well enough to it. Also don't stress different* syllables unless it doesn't mess up the timing, I know this from personal experience and have rewrote a few parodies later to have better versions up on this site.

*As in changing a phrase from a 3, 2, 4, 1 syllable line to a 2, 4, 1, 3 line for example, but using smaller words and bigger words that flow well usually doesn't hurt.

Also....

Humor isn't something that everyone always tries to aim for on this site, I'm one of the authors on here that prefers to do plays on the songs or homages more than funny parodies at least over 50% of the time. If humor isn't what you're aiming for on a particular idea, it's good to make sure you're pleased with how it came out and make sure it it's well written.

Definetly don't go by lyrics alone, unless you know the song like the back of your hand, it's not going to come out right. I also know this from personal experience, I did it to Avril Lagvine's song "Complicated" and it ended up being a mess. Someone on here warned me about this.

Which brings me to another point, which I learned the hard way.....

If an idea to a certain song sounds obvious, make sure and check to see it anyone else has done it before you, I didn't do a thorough check on the Complicated parodies and after I started writing the parody I found out from someone that the "Constipated" theme had been done many times before me, since I had already spent around 2 1/2-3 hours(it was hard without the song and I didn't want the wasted time to be for nothing) on it, I still finished it and submitted it. If I had had checked before even starting, I would have most likely had changed my mind.

I'll add alittle more here later. :)

Also....

Early on, it's good to go with the bands you're the most familiar with(and have the albums to). Then spread out alittle(or alot) for more variety later.

It's also good to do rare songs from time to time, as you will most likely be the first to think up the idea for the song. Whenever you do a rare song, make sure that you also post a link of lyrics and/or a recording if possible, that will increase your chances of getting votes alittle.

Also make sure to do some voting/commenting on the days you're parodies are up.(and on some other days as well) This helps to get some votes from others part of the time.

But most of all, do the songs/artists that you like the most, while I do some other bands as well, most of my parodies are to Nirvana songs. It's also good to do parodies about some of your favorite hobbies.



I hope you didn't mind some of the more obvious suggestions.

I agree 100% with your rare song comment.  It is also important that when doing "syllable count" you remember it doesn't always have to be 100% on the counts. . .sometimes certain syllables are very quick--almost non-existant in songs.  Stu is the best at explaining stress syllables, but all in all not bad advice step-chan.  Although they haven't been recording (too rare to have midis) I often parody japanese pop songs and brazil pop songs that aren't well known here in the U.S., I also parody video game songs that have words, like those in Dance Dance Revolution.

I agree 100% with your rare song comment.  It is also important that when doing "syllable count" you remember it doesn't always have to be 100% on the counts. . .sometimes certain syllables are very quick--almost non-existant in songs.  Stu is the best at explaining stress syllables, but all in all not bad advice step-chan.  Although they haven't been recording (too rare to have midis) I often parody japanese pop songs and brazil pop songs that aren't well known here in the U.S., I also parody video game songs that have words, like those in Dance Dance Revolution.


With quick syllables like that I usually see what I can fit, a word like "every" for instance can be timed as either two or three syllables, for me it just depends on the word, the rarest song parody I did goes to a song from Urusei Yatsura called "Rock The Planet", the chorus is in english, but the verses are in Japanese, so doing the verses was alittle tricky. I try to as often as I can put up a link for the song, nowadays. Which is what I'm doing with my next one.