Saturday, June 24, 2006

Parody of a parody?

These two guys lipsynching Barbie Girl are funny, I guess, but are they parodying the song? Maybe the argument is that it's a ridiculous song. If it's supposed to be ridiculous, does pointing that out count as critical and thus transformative? In a parodic, constantly quoting culture, the parody/satire line for fair use is not ultimately very helpful. (By contrast, the two guys lipsynching to the Backstreet Boys do seem to me to work as commentary on the scripted nature of the BSB performance.)

In related news, Henry Jenkins now has a blog. He's been posting on the RIAA and YouTube, as well as other aspects of "convergence culture."

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