Bad Lip Reading is a YouTube channel created and run by an anonymous producer who intentionally lip-reads video clips poorly, for comedic effect. Rolling Stone described the channel as "the breakout hit" of the 2012 United States presidential cycle.[2] As of August 2023, the channel had amassed over 8.17 million subscribers and over a billion video views.[3] Some of the channel's original songs are available on Spotify and Apple Music.[4]
The "Bad Lip Reader" behind the channel is an anonymous music and video producer from Texas.[5] The first Bad Lip Reading video released was a spoof of Rebecca Black's song "Friday", titled "Gang Fight".[6] New music and lyrics were matched to Black's video to make it appear as though she were singing about gang warfare. The "Gang Fight" YouTube video, released in March 2011, earned BLR a million hits and thousands of subscribers.[2]
In September 2011, BLR branched out from pop singers to politicians with a "bad lip-reading" of Texas governor and US Presidential hopeful Rick Perry. BLR replaced clips of Perry with invented dialogue matched to his lip movements. After airing on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, the video was featured by news and media outlets across the United States, leading to a sudden surge in Bad Lip Reading's popularity. Following the Perry spoof, BLR released bad lip-readings of President Obama,[10] Republican presidential candidates Michele Bachmann,[11]Mitt Romney, Herman Cain, Ron Paul, Newt Gingrich, and Rick Santorum.[citation needed]
In November 2012 the channel began overdubbing popular movie and television shows. BLR's version of Twilight quickly went viral, followed by parodies of The Hunger Games; The Walking Dead; and Game of Thrones (such as their song "Carl Poppa"[12].) videos have been well-received not only by the public, but also by the cast and creators of the properties being spoofed. In her online blog, Elizabeth Banks—Jennifer Lawrence's co-star in The Hunger Games—said, "Bad Lip Reading is awesome. I was introduced to it by none other than Jennifer Lawrence. Yup — she saw this, people. And she laughed. And so did I. A lot."[13] Lawrence's co-star Josh Hutcherson also praised the video, tweeting it to his fans.
In January 2013 BLR released a bad lip reading of National Football League players, coaches, and referees, which became the channel's most popular video. A second NFL video followed in 2014,[14][15] and a third was released in 2015.[16] The NFL Bad Lip Reading video became an annual event for the channel, with each video being released shortly before the Super Bowl.[citation needed]
In a Rolling Stone interview, the producer behind the Bad Lip Reading videos said that he first encountered the technique of lip reading when his mother, then in her 40s, lost her hearing due to unknown causes. While she excelled at lip reading, he was unable to pick up the skill despite trying: "I was terrible at it."[2]
In 2013, Bad Lip Reading won the Webby Awards' People's Voice Award for "Comedy: Long Form or Series". In April 2014, BLR won the American Comedy Award for Best Viral Video for its "NFL: A Bad Lip Reading" video. Patrick Stewart accepted the award on BLR's behalf during the televised ceremony on NBC.[citation needed]
On June 8, 2014 the BLR Facebook page announced the release of the full version of "Modify" by Kniles, a song that has been used in multiple BLR productions. The fact that this song was used without previous attribution, as well as stylistic similarities to other BLR-produced songs, have prompted speculation that Kniles is another pseudonym for the individual behind Bad Lip Reading.[17]
In December 2015, Bad Lip Reading simultaneously released three new videos, one for each of the three films in the original Star Wars trilogy. These videos used guest voices for the first time, featuring Jack Black as Darth Vader, Maya Rudolph as Princess Leia, and Bill Hader in multiple roles.[18] The Empire Strikes Back BLR video featured a scene of Yoda singing to Luke Skywalker about an unfortunate encounter with a seagull on the beach. BLR later expanded this scene into a full-length stand-alone song called "Seagulls! (Stop It Now)", which was released in November 2016 (eventually hitting #1 on the Billboard Comedy Digital Tracks chart.[19]) As of December 2018, the video for "Seagulls! (Stop It Now)" is Bad Lip Reading's most viewed YouTube upload and most popular musical production. In the song, Yoda sings to Luke Skywalker about the dangers posed by vicious seagulls if one dares to go to the beach. Mark Hamill, who played Luke Skywalker in the Star Wars films, publicly praised "Seagulls!" (and Bad Lip Reading in general) while speaking at Star Wars Celebration in 2017: "I love them, and I showed Carrie [Fisher] the Yoda one... we were dying. I showed it to her in her trailer. She loved it. I retweeted it... and [BLR] contacted me and said ‘Do you want to do Bad Lip Reading?’ And I said, ‘I'd love to...’”. Hamill and Bad Lip Reading collaborated on Bad Lip Reading's version of The Force Awakens, with Hamill providing the voice of Han Solo.[20] As of July 16, 2020, the video has more than 111 million views.[citation needed]
The Star Wars Trilogy Bad Lip Reading videos led to a second musical number, "Bushes of Love", which featured Ben Kenobi singing to Luke Skywalker about the perils of love. The song hit #2 on the Billboard Comedy Digital Tracks chart.[21]Hamilton creator and star Lin-Manuel Miranda described the song as "THE summer jam of 2017".[22]
In January 2017, BLR released a Bad Lip Reading of Donald Trump's inauguration, which quickly went viral, amassing over 36 million views in 2017 alone. YouTube ranked the video at #7 on its list of the Top Ten Trending Videos of 2017.[23]
In May 2018, BLR released "Royal Wedding", a Bad Lip Reading of the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. The video quickly went viral, amassing millions of hits. When YouTube revealed the top trending videos of 2018, "Royal Wedding" ranked third in the UK, just behind the actual wedding itself.[citation needed]
In March 2019, BLR released "Chocolate Lagoon", a Bad Lip Reading of the live performance of "Shallow" by Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga at the 91st Academy Awards ceremony.[24][25] On Christmas Day, 25 December 2019, they released another Star Wars-themed music video, "My Stick", which is a sequel to "Seagulls! (Stop It Now)".[citation needed]
In July 2022, BLR released a five-part interpretation of the musical Hamilton.[26] Re-imagined as "Axe-Assassin Albertson", the project revolves around a post-apocalyptic backstory in which an Artificial Intelligence in the year 2122 attempts to restore the missing soundtrack to Hamilton by analyzing the lips of the performers. In addition to replacing several of the production's musical numbers with original songs featuring nonsensical lyrics, many songs were transformed into spoken word dialogue scenes. Upon its release, Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda shared the video with his fans: "Thanks @badlipreading. You've made my life."[27] Bad Lip Reading himself tweeted that the project was begun as a way of personally coping with the COVID-19 pandemic.[28] An accompanying 10-song Axe-Assassin Albertson album was released on July 17, 2022, featuring full-length versions of all the songs heard in the video series.[citation needed]
Copyright issues
One of Bad Lip Reading's works, "Dirty Spaceman", a redubbing of "Check It Out" by Will.i.am featuring Nicki Minaj, was taken down[when?] due to a claim of copyright infringement. It is unclear whether Universal Music issued a formal DMCAtakedown request or YouTube's Content ID Match system detected the work and removed it automatically.[29]
In March 2012, the video "Beard With Glue", a bad lip reading of "You're Beautiful" by James Blunt, was taken down by Warner Music Group on a copyright claim. Unlike "Dirty Spaceman", the claim was soon released, however, and the video was returned in October 2011.[30] "Gang Fight" had been similarly taken down the previous year, in 2011, but returned.[when?] UMG has also taken down "(Rockin') All Nite Long", the Taylor Swift spoof that features Wiz Khalifa. BLR's parody of "Hot Problems", "Time to Rock", was also taken down, but later returned.[when?][clarification needed][citation needed]
BLR did a redubbing of "Girls Like You" by Maroon 5 called "Haiku", released on 12 October 2018, but the video was taken down later the same day.[citation needed]
Cypress Ranch High School is a secondary school located in Cypress, which is an unincorporated area in Harris County, Texas, near Houston. It is a part of the Cypress-Fairbanks Independent School District.
Rhett James McLaughlin and Charles Lincoln "Link" Neal III are an American comedy duo. Self-styled as "Internetainers", they are known for creating and hosting the YouTube series Good Mythical Morning. Their other notable projects include comedic songs and sketches, their IFC series Rhett & Link: Commercial Kings, their YouTube Premium series Rhett & Link's Buddy System, their podcast Ear Biscuits, their YouTube series Wonderhole, and their novel The Lost Causes of Bleak Creek.
Amber Lee Ettinger is an American actress, Internet celebrity, model, and singer.
Mark Richard Hamill is an American actor. He starred as Luke Skywalker in the Star Wars franchise, in the original and sequel trilogies.
Keyboard Cat is a video-based internet meme. Its original form was a video made in 1984 by Charlie Schmidt of his cat Fatso seemingly playing a musical keyboard to a cheery tune. While Schmidt had uploaded the video himself to YouTube in 2007, Brad O'Farrell, with Schmidt's permission, appended the video to the end of a blooper video uploaded in 2009 as if to have the cat "play" the person offstage after the gaffe as they had done in vaudeville. The idea of this quickly expanded on the Internet by numerous other users, typically under the name "Play Him Off, Keyboard Cat", and became a popular meme on YouTube.
Stuckey & Murray is a comedy music duo from Brooklyn, New York.
The Gregory Brothers are an American musical quartet, specializing in comedy music and auto-tuning recorded speech through their YouTube channel Schmoyoho. After the success of their songs "Chrissy Wake Up" and "It's Corn" in the summer of 2022, NPR reported that they "are responsible for some of the biggest viral songs of the past decade."
"Haven't Met You Yet" is the first single from Canadian singer Michael Bublé's fourth studio album, Crazy Love, released on August 31, 2009. According to Bublé, the single and its official music video are "about everyone's dream of finding a relationship and love." Bublé co-wrote "Haven't Met You Yet" with Alan Chang and Amy Foster-Gillies, and dedicated it to his wife, Luisana Lopilato.
The Rubberbandits are an Irish comedy hip-hop duo from Limerick city. They consist of Blindboy Boatclub and Mr Chrome. During performances and interviews, they conceal their identities with masks made from plastic shopping bags. They are often accompanied by DJ Willie O'DJ, a silent masked caricature of local politician Willie O'Dea. The group describe themselves as artists, and have dubbed their movement as "Gas Cuntism".
Brett Domino is the alter-ego of British musician and comedian Rob J Madin. As Brett Domino, he is a musician and internet celebrity from Leeds, although Madin is actually from Chesterfield, Derbyshire. He is best known for his YouTube videos, in which he plays covers and original songs on various musical instruments, most notably the keytar. His band, The Brett Domino Trio, currently consists of only two members, Domino and "Steven Peavis", having only been a three-piece for around a year. "Mitch Hutchinson" left the band in 2009, allegedly to become a forklift truck driver; he later returned to celebrate the band's fifth anniversary and appear on the finale of Brett Domino's Weekly YouTube Thing.
"Bed Intruder Song" is a song by the Gregory Brothers and Antoine Dodson, featuring Kelly Dodson. The song, created for Auto-Tune the News, features processed vocals of a WAFF-48 news interview with Antoine Dodson, who was talking to a reporter about a home invasion and attempted rape of his sister Kelly, mixed with a self-created backing track and, eventually, a video which incorporated clips from the news broadcast. The song peaked at number 89 in the Billboard Hot 100, the only song that week to enter the chart on iTunes downloads only.
"Friday" is the debut single by American pop singer Rebecca Black, written and produced by Los Angeles record producers Clarence Jey and Patrice Wilson. The song's music video was released on February 10, 2011; it was officially released as a single on the iTunes Store on March 14, 2011. The song features a rap verse from Wilson, which was uncredited on the single. Its music video caught a sudden surge of hits after Mystery Science Theater 3000 and RiffTrax comedian Michael J. Nelson called it "the worst video ever made" on Twitter and the song was featured on the Tosh.0 blog. The song's reception was highly negative, and it was parodied by numerous artists and comedians.
Comedy hip hop or comedy rap is a subgenre of hip hop music designed to be amusing or comedic, compared to artists who incorporate humor into their more serious, purist hip hop styles.
DWV was an American pop group based in Los Angeles, consisting of drag queens Detox, Willam Belli, and Vicky Vox. They found fame with the release of "Chow Down " in March 2012, a parody of "Hold On" by Wilson Phillips, satirizing Chick-fil-A's controversial stance on gay marriage. The single's music video went viral online. They followed this up with the January 2013 release of "Boy Is a Bottom", a parody of the Alicia Keys song "Girl on Fire", which proved to be even more popular, amassing 25.8 million views on YouTube, as of 2022.
Vania Heymann is an Israeli artist and film director. His work includes music videos for artists such as Coldplay, Dua Lipa, DJ Snake, Selena Gomez, and Bob Dylan. His music videos were nominated for two Grammys in the Best Music Video category, and multiple VMA awards. Heymann also directs commercials, including spots for Apple, Nike and the Toyota.
George Kusunoki Miller, known professionally as Joji and formerly as Filthy Frank and Pink Guy, is a Japanese-Australian singer-songwriter, rapper, and record producer. Miller's music has been described as a mix between R&B, lo-fi, and trip hop.
David Paul Brown, known professionally as Boyinaband, is an English musician, songwriter, rapper, and YouTuber. Brown is known for his song "Don't Stay in School" and collaborations with other YouTubers such as iDubbbz, Roomie, Andrew Huang, TheOdd1sOut, Jaiden Animations, Emma Blackery, Dan Bull, Corpse Husband, and PewDiePie. His work spans various genres including electronic, hip hop and heavy metal as a producer, vocalist, rapper, songwriter, DJ and instrumentalist.
"Fuck It Up" is a song recorded by Australian rapper Iggy Azalea for her second studio album In My Defense (2019). It was released as the third and final single on 19 July 2019, the day of the album's release. The song features vocals from American rapper Kash Doll and was produced by J. White Did It, who served as an executive producer on In My Defense and produced the album's previous two singles, "Sally Walker" and "Started". It was released by Bad Dreams Records and Empire Distribution
"Lola" is a song by Australian rapper Iggy Azalea, released as the lead single from her fifth extended play Wicked Lips (2019). The song is a collaboration with British singer Alice Chater, and is included in her 2020 extended play Aries. It was released by Bad Dreams Records and Empire Distribution on 8 November 2019. The song contains a sample of "Mambo Italiano".
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
