Before the Key of Awesome, BarelyPolitical was known for its popular "Obama Girl" series. The first video of the series, "I've got a Crush...On Obama" went viral shortly after it was posted in June of 2007. It currently has over 20 million views. The vocals were provided by Leah Kauffman. When asked about this video, Obama stated, "It's just one more example of the fertile imagination of the Internet. More stuff like this will be popping up all the time."
The Key of Awesome series began on October 19th 2009 and is currently ongoing, updating on a weekly basis. The videos in the series consists of song parodies and a small number of original songs, all created for the sole purpose of comedy and entertainment. Their videos are mainly directed at an American audience, for the vast majority of their parodies are spoofing American singers/celebrities, and movies. The list of people they have parodied thus far contains pop singers like Lady Gaga, Justin Beiber, Katy Perry, and so on.
The group is located in New York, New York. The music for the parodies is done by Jake Chudnow and Mark Douglas. Mark and Anastasia Douglas provide most of the vocals. Tom Small films and directs the videos. Some people who have appeared in the series are Todd Womack as Pitt Bull, Lauren Francesca as Lady Gaga, Andrea Feczko as Ke$ha, Amber Lee Ettinger (known mostly for her role as Obama Girl in an earlier barelypolitical series) as Jennifer Lopez, Kelli Mandruk as Katy Perry, Reginald L Barnes as Kanye, and Mark Douglas as Eminem, Batman, Bruno Mars, as well as various other roles.
The Key of Awesome Logo with Mark Douglas (right)
Top 3 Viewed Videos on BarelyPolitical’s Channel
TIK TOK KESHA Parody: Glitter Puke - Key of Awe$ome #13
85,616,760 views - 1 year ago
A parody of Ke$ha’s song, “Tik Tok.” In this video, instead of going out and partying, Ke$ha is stopped by her parents who want to talk to her about her behavior.
Andrea Feczko takes the role of Ke$ha, Mike Birch & Melinda play as her parents, and Jan Uczkowsk appears as her little brother. Vocals are provided by Anastasia Douglas, Jan Uczkowsk, Mike Birch, and Melinda.
Justin Bieber Parody "Sleep on You": Key Of Awesome #10
45,393,600 views - 1 year ago
A parody of multiple Justin Beiber songs with an original melody. In this video, Justin Beiber tries to “woo” a couple of older women, only to be unsuccessful in each of his attempts.
Justin Beiber is played by Jan Uczkowsk. Justin Beiber’s Dad is played by Mark Douglas. Vocals are provided by Anastasia and Mark Douglas.
Eminem - Love the Way You Lie ft Rihanna Parody: Key of Awesome #27
42,553,333 views - 1 year ago
A parody of Eminem’s song, “Love the Way You Lie” ft. Rihanna. The video is about the relationship between two elementary school kids.
Rihanna is played by Bobbi Jo Kitchen and Eminem is played by Mark Douglas. The kids in the video are Eva, Jordan, and David. The vocals are by Anastasia and Mark Douglas.
Top Rated KOA Parody Videos
PitBull - Give Me Everything PARODY! Key Of Awesome #43
6,179,192 views - 2 months ago
A parody of PitBull’s song, “Give Me Everything” ft. Ne-yo and Nayer.
In the video, PitBull is throwing a party, but no one shows up. Neo is trapped in an elevator for the majority of the video.
PitBull is played by Todd Womack, Ne-yo is played by Ras, and Nayer is played by Lauren Francesca. Mark Douglas plays many roles in the video, such a Waldo, Regis, Dave Mathews, Neo, etc. Vocals are provided by Todd Womack, and Mark and Anastasia Douglas.
Maroon 5 - Moves Like Jagger PARODY! Key of Awesome #46
838,681 views - 1 week ago
A parody of “Moves Like Jagger” by Maroon 5. In the video, Mark tries to pull off the role of Maroon 5, only to be showed up by Todd, who also fails after a short attempt.
Lauren Francesca plays Christina Aguilera, Todd and Mark play as themselves trying to be Maroon 5. Vocals are provided by Anastasia and Mark Douglas, as well as Todd Womack and Tom Small.
Bruno Mars Grenade PARODY! Key of Awesome #35!
10,355,535 views - 7 months agoA parody of Bruno Mars’s song “Grenade.” In the video Bruno is trying to show his affection to his girlfriend in odd and crazy ways, but ends up leaving her when he finds that she just wants a normal relationship.
Vocals are provided by Mark and Anastasia Douglas. Bruno Mars is played by Mark. Bruno’s girlfriend is played by Elle.
Considering the importance of audience and our ability to impact that, why did you choose to have a list of videos made by this group? Was it effective to your audience to not break this post up into different sections? I believe that this post could have been extended, with giving more information about this group, and the individual members of this group. I believe that it was ended too fast, leaving the reader left hanging. The organization of this post can be fixed as well, but with more description in the different layers. Like i believe you could make a whole section about History and giving examples of where this group has been nationally recognized and the impact they have left on their audience. I like the topic of this post and believe that you could write a lot about this group and maybe give examples about the acts they have done, and how people responded to them. Overall i think this post has a lot of potential but the work has to be done.
ReplyDeleteHello, Aria.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Shawn and would like you to consider the purpose of listing the names of all the videos. I think this has value, but considering your information could be expanded, I'd rather see you take the time and space to provide more background information or responses/attitudes concerning your topic.
D. Kopp
Going off of what Shawn said, I think what your post lacks most is content. I don't see a problem with a list of videos but I do think that list should be shortened up considerably and be incorporated within the text to provide examples of what you're talking about. i.e. if you're talking about the series' first shows, u could list 2-3 examples of some of the first episodes that the show released. I like that you provided links at the bottom to the show and it's creators at the bottom. This would avoid copyright issues later and provides an easy way for the reader to search the show and the group behind it. From the look of it, it seems that you wrote solely on personal knowledge of the show. I would do a little bit of research on its history and talk more about the Barely Political group which I am interested about. In all, I think this post has a lot of potential to be one of the more interesting posts in the class and I can't wait to see how it turns out :)
ReplyDeleteAs most people already mentioned, more content would make this article very good. It is already a very well-written post, it would just reach the level of excellence with a little more text. For example, I would maybe go a little farther and describe specific videos, like their most popular, to give the audience an idea about the videos. Coming from a person who hasn't seen these videos, I was intrigued and a little more description would have really helped!
ReplyDeleteOverall, I thought your post was very well done, organized very nicely and aesthetically appealing. Just a few more tweaks and this would be a great article!