Online video parodies of Gangnam Style, Taylor Swift, and Call Me Maybe aren’t original content. They are taking up space where originality should be. I’m aware of how much of an old man I sound like right now, but I don’t want the cover of Mashable to be filled with five different parodies of entertainment content. It’s complete garbage and it isn’t news.

Here is a Minecraft video of Gangnam Style with over a million views:

How about a Taylor Swift parody of her actual love life? This one has 830,000 views.

So that’s two million views that are from online video parodies. Can you imagine if you were a content creator and woke up to find 50,000 views? Maybe even 10,000? Online video parodies are leeching from supernova performing content. I’m not saying all parodies need to stop, but the rate of their release is not just a coincidence.

People now know to get their own content exposure they have to parody content that has already been deemed as successful. It’s a science in social media and it is being exploited. It needs to stop.

We need to remember that as an audience we can control what we give the power to. If we get enough people involved than we can reward a content creator with original content. Instead, we have become lazy and they have become aware. They put out some online video parodies and we gravitate towards it knowing that it’s easier to connect with content we’ve agreed on before.

This is embarrassing! Why can’t we allow content to breathe and grow in this space? Performers have been aware of this for quite sometime (hence why the online video parodies have such high production value). It’s original filmmakers and content creators that have decided, “This is how I’ll get views.”

Lets give them some faith and consideration in their own content. Lets try and stop the rate of these parodies coming out and lets not talk about them on the news sites like Mashable and Tech Crunch.

Lets give the internet some originality back.

Shaun Hinklein

Shaun is a Social Media and SEO/SEM consultant based in New York City and is the Editor of Social Marvels. He's also the Digital Director for CA Creative, a social media services agency for fashion and luxury brands. When he's not immersed as a social media consultant or a search marketing guy he's usually playing guitar and reading.

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