Dear Meme

April 28, 2007 12:26 PM

(Spoilers in most links). So an SNL digital short, Dear Sister spoofs the second season finale of the OC. Now the internets just don't know when to stop, with parodies (of the parody) playing on everything from the obvious like The Departed, LOST, Snatch, The Matrix, Reservoir Dogs, and Predator to the not-so-obvious like Lord of the Rings, Raging Bull, Monty Python, Duck Hunt (my favorite), Looney Toons, LazyTown, Smash Brothers, Office Space, and Bio-Ooze Super Soakers.
posted by ztdavis (65 comments total)

A youtube search for Dear Sister sorted by date yields tons more.

Just a few:
Seinfeld
Scrubs
President Truman to Japan
Deer Hunter
Grape Stomping
300
House
Pulp Fiction
posted by ztdavis at 12:40 PM on April 28, 2007

I kind of like the Lord of the Rings one.
posted by Justinian at 12:43 PM on April 28, 2007

for those of us wondering: Hide and Seek, by Imogen Heap.
posted by niles at 12:47 PM on April 28, 2007

I fucking hate shit like this.

*runs off to do own version, thank niles*

posted by phaedon at 12:50 PM on April 28, 2007

Thanks for providing the link to the original OC scene. I don't watch the show and the SNL Dear Sister sketch is even more funny after watching.
posted by saraswati at 1:02 PM on April 28, 2007

The SNL version gets the timing better than a lot of these. But I do like the 300 one.
posted by obvious at 1:09 PM on April 28, 2007

The Reservoir Dogs clip had so much potential, but it really fell flat. They totally missed the whole Super sounds of the 70's meme.
posted by three blind mice at 1:14 PM on April 28, 2007

I clicked the Lost link first (I haven't followed the OC) and was completely lost. Ok, Michael shoots two people, and then someone dubbed in music. WTF?

Next time I'll RTFP/CTFL.
posted by spikeleemajortomdickandharryconnickjrmints at 1:15 PM on April 28, 2007

The way the Predator one deals with machine gun fire gave me a real laugh.
posted by quin at 1:23 PM on April 28, 2007

I can't stop listening to Hide And Seek since I saw that SNL skit.
posted by kolophon at 1:33 PM on April 28, 2007

I leave it to someone braver than me to edit a Bud Dwyer version.
posted by JT at 1:52 PM on April 28, 2007

wow. WOW. I hate the OC.

The SnL skit was awesome before I saw the last 3min of the OC, can't say that it added anything to it. I did laugh at the OC a little, though.
posted by pkingdesign at 1:54 PM on April 28, 2007

The Duck Hunt one is pretty funny!
posted by JHarris at 2:00 PM on April 28, 2007

This seems like an appropriate time to link to The 'BU which is another OC-styled parody done by the The Lonely Island* for Channel 101.

*For those out of the loop, the three guys who make up The Lonely Island are the same people who're responsible for most for the SNL digital shorts. The only member who gets any real screen time, though, is Andy Samberg. In the "Dear Sister" clip, he's the second one to appear on screen (and the second to get shot).
posted by timelord at 2:15 PM on April 28, 2007 [1 favorite]

Props for Raging Bull!
posted by anthill at 2:33 PM on April 28, 2007

The Predator one is brilliant.
posted by good in a vacuum at 2:35 PM on April 28, 2007

huh, after hearing that song I figured imogen heap was some kind of boy band. But apparently not only is it just one person, it's a british woman.
posted by puke & cry at 2:39 PM on April 28, 2007 [1 favorite]

Hilarious. Good song too.
posted by CitrusFreak12 at 2:54 PM on April 28, 2007

This post pushed me over the Final Cut Express edge.

Installing...
posted by phaedon at 3:25 PM on April 28, 2007

I decided to quit watching. I didn't want "Hide and Seek" to be ruined for me. (I guess it doesn't help that I haven't had a television for a few years now.)

I'm amused by the joke, the first time, but as a meme? Meh.
posted by dhartung at 3:48 PM on April 28, 2007

For some reason, even though it's immediately obvious what the joke is 30 seconds into the SNL skit, I still watched, like, seven of the parodies.
posted by danb at 3:54 PM on April 28, 2007

The Truman one is pretty sick.
posted by phaedon at 4:01 PM on April 28, 2007

Don't watch the OC, but the Duck Hunt parody is one of those little things that keeps me sane.
posted by flotson at 4:59 PM on April 28, 2007

so, is the music's use in the OC finale really, really, really weird or has my perception of it been altered by watching the parodies first?
posted by pokermonk at 5:13 PM on April 28, 2007

I was wondering the same thing pokermonk, it seems to start too early in the scene, and the musical choice itself seems really odd.

I'm betting we aren't the only ones who found it to be a little off, as it obviously prompted the people at SNL to parody it.
posted by quin at 5:19 PM on April 28, 2007

I did watch The OC, and I was surprised when SNL did a parody of it since that episode aired, like, 2 years ago. But yes, the entire sequence of events was worth it to bring us the Duck Hunt video. The slow zoom on the shrieking duck was brilliant.

I bet The OC folks are pissed that all this parody attention is coming right after they were canceled, rather than before when it might've helped.
posted by brookedel at 5:24 PM on April 28, 2007

Hahaha! Yeah, the predator one was f'ing brilliant.
posted by mrnutty at 5:25 PM on April 28, 2007

(and by "f'ing" I mean "fucking")
posted by mrnutty at 5:26 PM on April 28, 2007

so, is the music's use in the OC finale really, really, really weird or has my perception of it been altered by watching the parodies first?

I think it comes across as extremely odd and cheesy in the two-minute YouTube clip, but in the context of the full episode it was surprisingly powerful. They had used the song earlier in the episode during a funeral sequence, so the callback had some emotional resonance. Also, I think the clip seems awkward because it jumps from no-music dialogue into crazy vocoder land seemingly out of nowhere. Since an actual OC episode is essentially a 45-minute indie-rock sampler CD, it didn't seem as weird.
posted by brookedel at 5:55 PM on April 28, 2007

Man, I love that song. Now it's all HURFDURFSNLDEARSISTER. Damn.
posted by quite unimportant at 5:58 PM on April 28, 2007

Randy Johnson
posted by jourman2 at 6:17 PM on April 28, 2007 [1 favorite]

I love that song. Can't watch any more of the vids for fear of ruining it. And kafziel, wtf is that?
posted by Hildegarde at 6:26 PM on April 28, 2007

quin: Agreed on the Predator clip's use of machine gun fire. I was surprised that the Matrix clip didn't do the lobby scene instead, but that may have it covered.
posted by Pronoiac at 6:39 PM on April 28, 2007

The other obviously missing thing (to me) is slowing down the audio for the slow motion bits.
posted by Pronoiac at 6:45 PM on April 28, 2007

Worth it for the Duck Hunt and Wabbit Season clips alone.
posted by defenestration at 7:41 PM on April 28, 2007

I don't watch OC, so I had no frame of reference for the SNL spoof. This makes it way funnier for me. Thanks for helping an old man understand a cultural reference.
posted by ColdChef at 7:47 PM on April 28, 2007

it's immediately obvious what the joke is 30 seconds into the SNL skit...

I've never heard of "the OC." I've got no idea what channel it's on, or what it's about. And while I can believe that the SNL short becomes funny if you get the joke, I'm amused to see people in this thread who (a) like me, didn't get the joke, yet (b) laughed at the short anyway.

That phenomenon always cracks me up — people who laugh at jokes they don't get, because somehow they recognize that they're supposed to laugh even if they don't understand why. There's a great bit about that in Waiting For Guffman, where Fred Willard is doing impressions for Catherine O'Hara, who laughs and laughs and then keeps laughing while she admits that she has no idea who he's mimicking.

Anyway. Kristen Wiig is saving SNL. And while I can't really stand either Seth Meyers or Amy Poehler individually, I have to admit that they've been rocking "Weekend Update." They're doing the best work I've seen since Norm.
posted by cribcage at 8:10 PM on April 28, 2007

Okay, this meme has now officially gone too far. I was in a store when that song came on over the Muzak speakers and somebody immediately screamed: "Oh my God! He's been shot!"
posted by wendell at 8:49 PM on April 28, 2007 [3 favorites]

Will someone post (well, actually link) to the original OC one?
posted by filmgeek at 9:04 PM on April 28, 2007

filmgeek: It's the second link in the post
posted by niles at 9:22 PM on April 28, 2007

Oh my God he's been shot!
posted by thirteenkiller at 9:58 PM on April 28, 2007 [1 favorite]

The Randy Johnson one made me spill my wine. Thanks for that!
posted by gummi at 10:10 PM on April 28, 2007

Also, now the memes appear to be inbreeding.
posted by gummi at 11:09 PM on April 28, 2007 [1 favorite]

I, too, had never watched the O.C. so I never made the connection. But the SNL skit still works without knowing the direct source of the spoof, because I had seen similar scenes in other shows and movies. Boromir's death is a good example, as shown above. Although, having now seen the O.C. clip, the musical choice makes much more sense.
Also, what cribcage said about Kristen Wiig. She's like Gold!
posted by bstreep at 11:17 PM on April 28, 2007

Well, this is apparently the original video for Imogen Heap's "Hide and Seek".
posted by phaedon at 1:05 AM on April 29, 2007

And boy does it suck.
posted by phaedon at 1:05 AM on April 29, 2007

The video sure does suck, but the song is very compelling. I've never heard it before today.

I'm hesitant to click on the link marked "Virginia Tech Shootings - Imogen Heap Hide and Seek." I figure I'll either be disgusted, or moved because of the song -- but then subsequently feel shallow for having been moved over footage from a truly tragic event reduced to a meme thanks to a Youtube rip-off of an SNL parody of an O.C. finale.

Fortunately, at that point the universe will implode and all will go quiet again. But I still think I'll wait till after I've had some tea.
posted by pineapple at 8:40 AM on April 29, 2007

The "Virginia Tech" clip is exactly what you'd think it would be.
posted by ColdChef at 9:01 AM on April 29, 2007 [1 favorite]

I shot a man in Reno just to listen Imogen Heap.
posted by darkripper at 9:17 AM on April 29, 2007 [6 favorites]

It is a cool song. Sorta harkens way back to "Oh Superman" by Laurie Anderson.
posted by Trochanter at 11:03 AM on April 29, 2007

So, I wasn't kidding about going out and buying Final Cut Express, and just as luck would have it, Amazon finally shipped me a movie that hasn't been available in a Region 1 DVD in the 12 years since it first came out in France. It also happens to be one of my favorites movies of all time. So without further ado, a shot across the bow to all one-link youtube posts:

La Haine
posted by phaedon at 11:29 AM on April 29, 2007

Who's the curly haired actor in the SNL skit? (the first shooter)
His "troubled" mugging for the camera was pretty well done.
posted by Tbola at 11:35 AM on April 29, 2007

Tbola, he is Andy Samberg.
posted by ill3 at 12:53 PM on April 29, 2007

Would someone more skilled than I please turn this video into a "Dear..." parody?
posted by aftermarketradio at 1:03 PM on April 29, 2007 [1 favorite]

That phenomenon always cracks me up — people who laugh at jokes they don't get, because somehow they recognize that they're supposed to laugh even if they don't understand why.

Sometimes a really good joke or parody can be reverse-engineered. By your brain. In real time.

Seriously. I've watched parodies where I didn't know the thing being parodied, but the parody was good enough that I could imagine the original, understand why it deserved mockery, and laugh at the joke.
posted by straight at 1:55 PM on April 29, 2007

Apparently, this song is used in quite a few TV shows, which is unsurprising considering how infectious it is.
posted by spiderskull at 1:58 PM on April 29, 2007

Dear Sister: Garbage Day edition
posted by c:\awesome at 2:04 PM on April 29, 2007

aftermarketradio, awesome idea I should have something up in a minute.
posted by ill3 at 2:36 PM on April 29, 2007

I present you DEA Sister.
posted by ill3 at 3:01 PM on April 29, 2007 [4 favorites]

La Haine
posted by phaedon at 11:29 AM on April 29 [+]
[!]
That scene is exactly what I thought of too!
posted by blasdelf at 3:37 PM on April 29, 2007

I've had that song on my i-Pod for eons... I didn't realize that it was a freaking meme! High-larious.
posted by kimdog at 6:53 PM on April 29, 2007

aftermarketradio, awesome idea I should have something up in a minute.

I thank you. /doffs hat
posted by aftermarketradio at 9:09 PM on April 29, 2007

When I first saw this I didn't know it was about the OC at all. I thought it was very funny but went on a bit too long---as do most SNL skits.

I took it to be a parody of certain types of movie death scenes. Looking at the original, it doesn't really work as a parody of the OC finale, for me, at all.
posted by who squared at 10:08 PM on April 29, 2007

Here's another request, ill3, or anybody else. Madtv has a spoof of The Sound of Music that would work really well with this. At about the 1:52 mark, on the video, Rolf shoots the Von Tramp family.
posted by who squared at 11:36 PM on April 29, 2007

Err, Von Trapp.
posted by who squared at 11:43 PM on April 29, 2007