Alyssa alerted me to this crazy MTV West Side Story parody, and after watching it twice, I actually kind of enjoy it. It's ridiculous, and I find the Katy Perry section incomprehensible--she's hacking at those bushes like they're about to attack her--but that's part of the fun. Something about its weirdness reminds me of how MTV used to be, or at least how I thought of it from the late '80s to mid-'90s. It was definitely cool and mainstream, but there was a kind of off-beat, countercultural element. The largely music video-based programming had a lot to do with that, and so did the shows: pretty much everyone around my age misses Daria.
I think maybe the unexpectedness of this ad and the complete dedication to the song's highly performative nature brought back some of that quirkiness for me. I mean, West Side Story is incredibly well-known and loved even by people who aren't theatre fans, but it's never been exactly cool. For MTV to use musical theatre in this way is kind of awesome. I even think a lot of it is well done. The opening vamp sounds fantastic, and I love the musical differences between the "Jets" and the "Sharks." And it's not making fun of the song, the show, or theatre in general; if anything, MTV is making a little fun of itself.
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I suppose this would be funnier if I recognized who even half those people are.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I couldn't recognize any of them, either.
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