Estimated reading time 4 minutes
Table of Contents
Introduction
Do you want to write a parody song? Dav Pilkey asserts, “You can’t just steal someone else’s idea… but you can make a parody” (Cat Kid Comic Club: Collaborations 68 – 69). Keep reading How to Write a Parody Song without Being Sued to find out what it is and how it works.
This post is for informational purposes only. It does not constitute legal counsel. For legal advice consult an attorney.
How to Write a Parody Song #1: How Do You Avoid Being Sued?
So, what is a parody song? The New Harvard Dictionary of Music defines it as:
Parody. [It.] (1) A work that, with humorous or satirical aims, makes distorted or exaggerated use of the features of some other work or type of work. (608)
In other words, it’s a song that pokes fun at another song.
However, is just writing a funny version of a song enough to avoid being sued? The Berkman Klein Center states:
Usually, if someone’s work is copyrighted, you need their permission to use it. However, a parody of a copyrighted work can qualify as a Fair Use, which means you don’t need the copyright owner’s permission to make and share your parody. (Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University)
Then, they go on to say that there are four points to keep in mind when figuring out if your version is a Fair Use parody:
- Have you substantially altered the work instead of just making a copy of it?
- Is it intended mostly to educate vs just for entertainment?
- How much of the original song did you use? The less you use the better.
- Does your version of the work out monetize the original. If the original work is more popular, that’s better.
The more of these factors you can check off the list, the more likely your version will come under the Fair Use umbrella.
How to Write a Parody Song #2: Who’s The King of Lampooned Songs?
Weird Al Yankovic is the unrivaled king of parody songs:
- This Grammy Award winning songwriter got his start on the Dr. Dimento Show in the 1970s.
- Since that time, he’s lampooned songs across four gold and six platinum albums, making him an excellent model for how to write parody songs.
- When making a video, he tries to model it as closely as possible to the original, even as he alters it to make it funny.
The following two videos compare the songs “Beat It” to “Eat It” to help you understand how a parody works:
- The first video shows Michael Jackson’s Beat It, and the second shows a side-by-side video comparison of Weird Al Yankovic’s Eat It with Beat It.
- Compare Beat It to Eat It. How are they similar and how are they different?
- In addition, compare the lyrics. How much does Yankovic follow Beat It, and how much is original to him?
- Notice that Yankovic follows the sound, cadence, and rhyme scheme of the lyrics from Beat It relatively closely while having the meaning of the words be entirely different.
- The yellow eyes at the end of Eat It are a reference to the ending of Michael Jackson’s Thriller video, adding an additional joke.
Mobile users: for best results viewing the videos, rotate your screen 90o to the right.
Video: Beat It
Beat It lyrics:
Video: Eat It
Eat It lyrics:
How to Write a Parody Song #3: What’s the Most Lampooned Song?
The Christmas carol The Twelve Days of Christmas has probably been lampooned more times than any other lyric in existence:
- Also, this carol is in the public domain. In other words, it’s so old that no one owns the copyright anymore.
- Therefore, you don’t have to write a parody. You can legally make any alterations to it that you want as long as you can prove it’s based on a public domain version.
- This means that you don’t have to figure out if your song is a Fair Use parody, because in essence, everybody already owns the lyrics and music. That makes public domain songs the safest to lampoon without being sued.
Here are three funny versions of The Twelve Days of Christmas:
Video: The Chipmunk’s The Twelve Days of Christmas
It makes fun of the carol’s length.
Video: Straight No Chaser’s The Twelve Days of Christmas
It does a mashup of holiday and pop music.
Video: The Muppet’s The Twelve Days of Christmas
It has the usual Muppet silliness.
Here’s my version:
The Twelve Courses of Christmas
The twelfth course of Christmas our waiter served to us:
Twelve turkey drumsticks
Eleven pies hot piping
Ten platters heaping
Nine ladyfingers
Eight malted milkshakes
Seven sausage sizzling
Six greasy bacons
Five onion rings
Four roasting birds
Three French toast
Two turtle soups
And a partridge in a pear sauce
(Boy, we’re full. Burp!)
© 2002 Geoffrey Keith
In this version I tried to match the sound and cadence of the original with an entirely different meaning. All the parody songs in this post try to surprise you with somethings funny, with something that you don’t expect.
Now it’s your turn. See if you can write your own parody version of The Twelve Days of Christmas:
Final Thoughts
Takeaway points:
- A parody is a funny version of someone else’s work.
- Parody songs surprise you with somethings funny that you don’t expect.
- There are four factors that determine if your version will be covered by the Fair Use clause of the copyright law.
- In addition, if the work is in the public domain, you can use it however you want even if your version does not lampoon the original work. This makes using public domain material the saftest option to avoid being sued.
- Alternatively, you can do what Weird Al did to avoid being sued. You can get permission from the copyright owner before making a parody of the original work.
Have fun writing!
Related Posts
- Writing Well Crafted Songs
- How to Orchestrate Enchanting and Powerful Music
- What Is Assonance and How Do You Best Use it in Writing
© 2025 Geoffrey Keith
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