Grandma Made Me This Dumb Jacket: In Living Color Music Video Parodies

I lived out in the sticks as a kid, so I didn't have cable until 1994, when my family was one of the first people to buy a DirectTV satellite. which made my first real exposure to Urban Culture the Fox TV series In Living Color. During its four year run, In Living Color made a lot of video parodies of then-popular music videos.

Recently, I've been rewatching a lot of them on YouTube, and I'd like to share them with you.

Tommy Davidson as MCHammer: "You Can't Touch This"

Mc Hammer getting lost in his pants made an impression on me the first time I saw it. I waited for years to see it afterward. My only wish is that it had been longer.

Jim Carrey as Vanilla Ice: "White White Baby"

Jim Carrey takes Vanilla Ice's mannerisms to the extreme (pun intended). The sad part is, as exaggerated as Jim Carrey takes it, he's actually more entertaining the real Vanilla Ice. Best line? "I told the world I was stabbed in the butt, but it was a toilet paper cut, yeeeeeowsh!" Check out what the Vanilla's jacket reads.

Tommy Davidson as Michael Jackson: "Am I Black or White?"

Ahh...the days when the weirdest thing Michael Jackson did was grab his crotch and smash the windows of a police car. When we knew of his friendship with Macaulay Culkin, but didn't know of the extent of...well...

Jim Carrey as Snow: "Imposter"

Another "white rapper" video with Jim Carrey. This time, Carrey is playing Snow, who we all thought was a Jamaican til we saw him in his video and discovered he was Canadian. I think Snow was actually sent to prison about the time his song actually became a hit. I loved the real version because I was 12 when it came out...I loved the parody then and now.

Kelly Coffield as Paula Abdul: "Promise of a Thin Me"

I remember when I first saw this one. I don't remember this being on any of the DVDs, so I thought it was lost in my memory forever.

The original video had Paula Abdul all stretched out, and I'm almost certain the original video came out after her Vibeology debacle. Could you imagine if the internet was as well developed in 1991 as it is now? The "Vibeology" video would've been all over the internet.

Kim Wayans as Crystal Waters: "My Songs Are Mindless"

This is the video that inspired me to make a post devoted to In Living Color video parodies. I actually don't remember this one when it came out, but I saw it last weekend for the first time. Anyone who has heard the original song will have a good laugh at Wayans' lampooning of the repetitiveness of the lyrics. "Yabba Dabba Doo, Yabba Dabba Doo, Yabba Dabba Doo, Yabba Dabba Doo..."