David Cameron is the latest victim of online pranksters Cassette Boy, whose previous targets have also included US President Barack Obama.
In this instance the comedy pair copied and pasted segments of Cameron’s speeches from the Conservative Party Conference, which is taking place this week.
David Cameron raps: The mask slips?
Over a backing track provided by Eminem’s hit ‘Lose Yourself’, David Cameron raps on jobs, privatizing the NHS and even weighs in on social mobility, claiming that “People rising from the bottom to the top has got to stop”.
Any Labour Party figures that still believe that these are direct quotes from Cameron will presumably be rubbing their hands in glee when Cameron announces: “I have made sure we are ready for class war.”
Before any of you start to hail a new wave of honesty from politicians, I unfortunately have to remind you that it is in fact a parody. Despite the fact that the lyrics appear to criticize the Prime Minister, the video was actually made in his honor.
New legislation
Parody artists and comedy writers have thanked Cameron for his revisions to existing copyright laws, which change the rules on parody videos such as this one.
Cassette Boy told the BBC’s Clive Coleman that previous rules had led to frustration because of legal action.
“It feels like our chosen form of expression is being censored,” he said. “It’s like being a painter in a country where paint is illegal. In the past, our work has just disappeared from the internet overnight.”
Under the old laws, any unauthorized use of copyright material could be subject to legal challenge. The changes will leave it to a judge to decide whether the video was sufficiently funny to avoid legal action.
You have to wonder quite what a scale of “funny” would look like, and whether it can be uniformly applied. One thing is for certain though, you would be hard pressed to find a judge who didn’t laugh at Cassetteboy’s latest clip.
