Like I said, I haven't seen the new one, so I don't know if the parody is accurate but I'm thinking it is. It isn't so much that there was a lack of effort or that stars just don't care about charity, it's that there aren't any stars anymore. Sounds weird to say, sounds like a stupid "things aren't like the old days", but think about it, who's the modern day equivalent of Michael Jackson? Who are the people that if you got them all in a room you would say, "I can't believe they got all these big names in one room, this is unbelievable!". Puff Daddy? Eminem? Black Eyed Peas? HA! At the moment I can't think of any group of modern-day pop musicians that would impress me.
Back in the day, SNL spoofed the original "celebrity cause anthem" trend by doing a pro-free-range chicken song called "Set the Chickens Free". There was one while after that that sought to explain the Whitewater scandal. Those were classics. I hope someone gets them on the internet sometime.
I actually much preferred the "youtube singers" version, which consists of all the "famous" youtube stars. It was actually much much more well done than the "new" We are the World.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hhX0KkQBW4
To that end, there's an entire episode of the Simpsons that makes fun of We Are the World in the same vein as this SNL one. It's from the episode where Bart gets a radio transmitter and drops it to the bottom of a well, faking a fallen boy via microphone. All the musicians put together "sending our love down the well" for the boy. Then Bart falls down the well for real and it all goes to heck.
ReplyDeleteSide note: Why the hell was Vince Vaughn in this "new" We are the World (for real)?
It's been parodied many times I'm sure. Conan did his own parody here:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDTLqu5Lfx4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KV0rgOEsB2o
The reason Vince Vaughn is there is because of the precedent set in the original. The original had actors to "represent" Hollywood to show that everyone was helping out. If you watch the video again you'll Dan Aykroyd in the background to which many people will say, "What is Dan Aykroyd doing there?!"