The Running Man: The Musical Says F*** You To The Hunger Games
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As you might guess from that headline, some of these videos are NSFW. Don’t watch them with your boss standing behind you.
YouTube is chock full of silly videos that use footage from existing movies or TV shows to create something funny or irreverent. There are so many, in fact, that it’s easy to get jaded, especially when you write for a website that requires you to, among other things, spend the day poking around the internet looking for silly videos that use footage from existing movies or TV shows to create something funny or irreverent. So when I run across something truly special, it makes that discovery all the more satisfying. I had that experience a few years back when I first encountered Total Recall: The Musical, created by the comedy duo of Jon and Al. It turns out they’ve been been busy in the years since, now serving up their musical take on the cheesy Schwarzenegger classic The Running Man, one which has some curt words for The Hunger Games. Check it out above if you haven’t already.
Given that The Hunger Games has taken up the mantle of Harry Potter and Twilight as the premiere YA book-to-movie series making the box office catch fire (ahem), it isn’t surprising that Jon and Al decided to skewer it. But these guys aren’t the sort to let a solid Schwarzenegger impression go to waste, so instead of just making a Hunger Games musical, they made a Running Man musical…about how much The Hunger Games rips off The Running Man. (They even name check Battle Royale.)
Amidst a sea of YouTube videos, Jon and Al really take things to the next level thanks to some serious musical chops. The way they incorporate musical themes from the scores of the movies they’re parodying is genius, and their musical arrangements are good enough for Broadway if you ask me. (Okay, so maybe Off-Broadway.) Listen to the way they work in the instantly recognizable musical stings in the Total Recall video linked above, as well as in their Aliens, Predator, and RoboCop vids below.
While those are all more or less in the same musical style, I also love one of their videos where they went for something different. Check out The Thing: The Musical, which takes John Carpenter’s sci-fi/horror classic and sprays it with a generous coating of Frank Sinatra class. Ol’ Blue Eyes is back! (Unless a blood test reveals him to be a shapeshifting extraterrestrial.)
What science fiction flicks would you like to see these guys tackle next? I’m putting in my vote for The Abyss and The Wrath of Khan.
