Day 2: 365 Day Blog Challenge: Pa Pa Ra Pa Parodies-Brands Take Notice

This is Day 2 of the 365 Day Blog Challenge that I have taken up. Its a huge challenge to take up because its never about the numbers but about the quantity of the Blog in itself. Ideally I would love to come up with 365 pearls, but to qualify it as a pearl would be entirely the decision of the readers. I request you to kindly qualify, disqualify, dissect and pass on your kind feedback. Its not going to be easy- but that motivation of having reached out to a large audience that loves to read is enough for me to come back with a pearl each day.

I am a converted twitter freak. I love the conversations, would love to get into a healthy positive  debate and each time there is a RT, it does light my eyes brighter. I have been on Twitter the last five years and have seen simple mortals becoming celebrities thanks to Twitter. Last Year I noticed yet another trend, that of several Parodies coming into play especially from Chennai. I say Chennai because all of them have incorporated Tamil words into their tweets. Again This is my assumption. I can be wrong as well.  To elaborate further on what exactly is a Parody: Google does the best job of explaining the meaning, Parody- an imitation of the style of a particular writer, artist, or genre with deliberate exaggeration for comic effect.

The Parodies that I have come across have exceeded all expectation with their own comic imitation of a celebrity.I am not going to give any ranking as such, but trying to bring in front of my audience the very best selection of Parodies, in no particular order.  

SriniMama: He goes by the Twitter Handle @srinimama16 . He is an impersonation of ex BCCI Chief N.Srinivasan. I have seen a number of video interviews of Srinivasan. If you notice carefully, he comes off as a very serious person, talks very briefly and in measured tones. There is hardly any humour or sarcasm to his tone. However his Parody is doing a wonderful job out of it. I would say that he has given an added new dimension to the real Srinivasan. With his opening words like Pasangla or Badava he has endeared himselves to his followers. The Parody seems to be very articulate and knowledgeable as far as the game of cricket is concerned. This Parodies magic lies in getting Predictions spot on. Come IPL2018 I guess that @Srinimama16 will be a rage all across the globe. To check out samples of his tongue in cheek humour have a look at this tweet, where he takes on Sanjay Manjrekar and tears him to shreds about his partisan Mumbai attitude. I like him because he is straight, frank, loves his cricket as the original celeb, with humour being an added flavour. All Parodies I have noticed have acknowledged him as the King Maker. Perhaps the only Parody account in the world to have a fan club on Twitter. :)

@spindoctorLS is another parody account that I would love to talk about. This one is based on Indias Leg spinning wizard who loves sticking to the basics. His repeated use of the word basics is a trademark characterestic that he has taken off from the original Siva. Humour is his forte and is very chatty. He can strike a conversation with almost anyone at will. One good thing which I find about @spindoctorLS is that he replies to almost every tweet that tags him along.Have a look at this Tweet where his creativity comes to the fore based on his bowling action. 

The success or otherwise of a Parody will be judged by the ability to get into the skin of the character for which he/she has chosen to be represent as a Parody plus be creative with oodles of humour mixed as additional flavour. I have seen one Parody that comes very close to being the real character himself. This one is a very difficult Parody to enact because the original master is himself quite a humorist. I am talking about @krisscheeka here. This Parody takes on Legendary Former India Skipper, Former Chairman of Selectors, the inimitable Krish Srikkanth. The Parody is almost a replica of the original and masters his tweet to a perfection based on the legends Cricket Commentary in Tamil. If there were an award for Best Twitter Mimicry, I would hand it to him. Have a look at this tweet and you will agree with me. I have laughed myself to tears after seeing his Tweets. 

Up next is @is_inzybhai, again a top parody in terms of Humour. I rate this parody highly because of the closeness to the original, Ex Pakistan Skipper Inzamam-Ul-Huq . The Parody bears semblance to the original as he exposes the weakness of Inzi Bhai to converse in English. In his own style, he tries to strike a conversation with the use of broken English words, leaving the Twitter community in splits. 

Then there is @ravimaestri who has taken upon himself the coach of Team India-Cricket, Ravi Shastri. He is the go to man if you are looking out for data. He throws up all kind of data and match statistics. Not very much into humour, but impeccable as far as statistics is concerned. As the name suggests, he engineers his way based on data. This Parody does a good job out of analysing the best movies on show. 

Parodies can also be those that can work up emotions. In real life scenario, Sanjay Manjrekar has been a class batsman, but when it comes to social media typical footsu in the mouth disease. A Die Hard Mumbaikar, wants players from his zone to don national colours. Parody follows route, inviting a lot of trolls. This Parody is challenging to Handle because most of the time you are inviting hate trolls, so mentally you have to be either up to it, if the Parody is a Manjrekar Fan, or as a Parody through your Tweets, you want to invite trolls. Typical Tweet goes like this: 

Then there are the relatively newer wannabes, like @mvj260, Clearly new to the trade of parodies, will only get better with time. Whoever is the face behind @mvj260(Parody Of India Test Opener Murali Vijay) is doing a good job, will definitely be a force to reckon with in the new year. He is bound to get better with time, as he has the right attitude and right measures of humor.

Finally there is yet another Parody to watch out for in 2018 @MoveinAli clearly a take off on England All rounder Moeen Ali. Moeen has been having a tough time facing up to Australian Off Spinner Lyon in the ongoing Ashes series in Australia. Tweets currently lay centred on the English Batsmans weakness for spin, and how to get better, will have to move away from the oft repeated humor lines, else he can be perceived as boring. However an exciting new flavour towards the end of 2017. 

All a great set of individuals doing a wonderful job of Parodies, there is so much of potential in the months to come. There is a common thread that ties all the Parodies together besides humor, that of good, nice and genuine banter. If I were the owner of a Brand I would not mind punting my Marketing Dollars on these social media Influencers/Parodies....Brands Take Notice....

Finally what do these Parodies get out of being one, if managed well, fame is definitely up for the grabs and of course a huge following. My take on the Parody story is that being a Parody is a selfless job, the real man behind it taking no credit, except for entertaining millions of people online. As someone said and I quote "I'd like to say that parody is a celebration of a person's specific characteristics, as opposed to mockery. To provide meaningful architecture is not to parody history but to articulate it. It is old age, rather than death, that is to be contrasted with life. Satire is a lesson, parody is a game"