Best YouTube Rip-Offs of Other People’s Work

There’s a fine line between imitating and plagiarizing and YouTubers seems to know how to make the distinction. Here are the best examples of YouTubers ripping off other people, getting away with it and doing it well. There are plenty of remixes on YouTube and redos of popular memes and cultural items. This list, however, is compiled of those Copycats who took someone else’s material and made it their own in such a unique fashion that it became something else entirely.
 

Benny Lava

The work that comes out of Bollywood is amazing. The movement, the colours, the scenery, the music; it all comes together to form a story complimented by very dramatic and inventive camera zooms. Also great: poking fun at other cultures while celebrating your own ignorance. This video walks that line with pride and skill. The result is a highly entertaining video that puts a smile on the stiffest person’s face.

Benelax ripped off this film and decided to subtitle the lyrics to clarify what the singers must be saying. The result: hilarity. Benny Lava is an enjoyable piece on its own – certainly. But I have to admit that I would vote for the subtitled version every time if I had to.
Why it’s a good rip off:
Because of the inventive use of subtitles. Good ideas should always be rewarded.
 

Total Eclipse of the Heart

When it comes to Literal Videos, you have to put a few important ingredients together in order to get quality rip-offage.
Step 1: Popular song that is not old enough to not have a music video to accompany it, of course, but not new enough for most people to know more than a few lines out of the chorus that they sing very loudly before filtering off into mumbles and hums.
Step 2: Ridiculous visual content, the more nonsensical the better – this is where your lyrics will be coming from. When in doubt, check the ’80s.
Step 3: Don’t do your warm-up vocals for this, it ain’t about talent. One could even go as far as saying that the aim it to actually sneer at talent and berate it while still keeping a decent rhyme structure.
This music video from Bonny Tyler is already so weird that nothing could make it weirder other than a person narrating just how weird it is. Bonny must have been hopped up on something really strong and this video only makes that trip more hilarious.
Why it’s a good rip off:
It takes something crazy and makes it even crazier by simply pointing and saying: Gee, isn’t that odd?
 

 

AutoTune The News

The news is boring. The news is depressing. It talks about things that really matter, uses big words and doesn’t have any jokes – it’s as if they don’t want viewers. Take all that negative energy and the only way to balance that scale of gloom and doom is to put AutoTune on the other side: because AutoTune makes everything awesome. So if you’re going to take other people’s stuff – namely their image and voices in this case – then you have to make sure you put out something pretty fantastic. And that’s why the Gregory Brothers try to do.
Why it’s a good rip off:
Cause everything sounds better AutoTuned.
&nsbp;

 

JaboOody Dubs

These guys are really rude but I adore their videos, always pretty funny even if a lot of the humour is derived from slightly juvenile stuff. They dub over infomercials so Billy Mays was the source of their wealth until his death. They still do dubs but you should check out their older videos.
Why it’s a good rip off:
Because most infomercials are pretty ridiculous anyway so one step further can’t hurt. Ever seen those actors getting stressed out by average, everyday appliances and solutions that the rest of us get by just fine with? “Oh this doorknob is so slippery, I can’t open it! If only there were some device being mass-produced that could help me!” – so convincing.
 

Alex Day reads Twilight

Everybody is obsessed with Twilight, Robert Pattinson’s jawline and Kirsten Stewart’s blinking (sorry to mention it but once someone pointed it out it became like mentioning “The Game,” it’s all you think about.) Alex Day, a popular YouTuber has taken it upon himself to read the famous series and as he does he films it and puts together a video of his comments and thoughts. Speaking as someone who had once been a part of the hype when the series was more lowkey, then growing up to find the whole thing kind of unhealthy, these videos are not only funny but give a lot of perspective.
Why it’s a good rip off:
Cause it’s fun to play “Hipster” and despise whatever the masses like. Also he takes a melodrama and turns it into a comedy.
 

 

The Ricky Gervais Show Animations

Even before they got an animated series on HBO youtubers had been busy animating the Ricky Gervais podcast series. With Karl’s visual descriptions it’s pretty easy to amplify the hilarity of the podcast with images.
 
Why it’s a good rip-off
Because while it may be fun to imagine what Karl’s face would look like as he said some ridiculous fallacy, it’s even better to have a image of it.
 

 
Can you think of any more examples or are you upset that I made you lose the game?? Leave a comment!