Harry Potter and the Magic of YouTube

Next up is another Harry Potter post, this time focusing on both musical spoofs of the series and songs that spoof pop hits or other songs but talk about the series or the fandom. There are a lot of videos in this post because there are a ton of good videos out there! There are bad ones, too, but I picked some pretty good ones.

"A Very Potter Musical"


This is probably the most famous of YouTube Harry Potter spoofs, and it's pretty darn awesome if you ask me! It was created by a group called Starkid, and they were students at the University of Michigan at the time. A lot of people know Darren Criss now because of his role as Blaine on "Glee," and that's where I first heard him. I watched AVPM after seeing him on "Glee," and I really liked it. There's a sequel also, but I don't like it as much. We'll come back to StarkidPotter at the end for my favorite video.

"Harry Potter vs. Voldemort Rap" - Backyard FX

I saw this video a couple of years ago, and I remembered it for this post. It's pretty funny, especially the end!

"Dumbledore" - Alex Carpenter, spoof of "Dynamite" by Taio Cruz

I thought this was a pretty good video. He kept the sound of the song pretty much the same but the lyrics are all about Harry Potter, pretty much the last major battle. I love Dancing Hagrid in the background!

"Good Morning Voldemort" - lyrics by Dylan White, spoof of "Good Morning Baltimore" from the movie/stage musical "Hairspray"

I didn't like this the first time I saw part of it, but I've watched more and it's actually pretty funny. I'm a fan of Hairspray and Harry Potter, but I would never think of combining them. This is basically Bellatrix Lestrange's theme song, pledging her love to Voldemort. Bellatrix loving Voldemort isn't necessarily in the books, but some people interpret their relationship that way and it's in fanfiction, I'm sure.

"The Last 10 Years" - EccentricTV, spoof of "Last Friday Night (TGIF)" by Katy Perry

This isn't the best spoof out there, but it's pretty funny. I mostly included it because the occasional cheesy dance moves (which were hopefully bad on purpose) seem to be used to reflect the pop genre that the original song comes from.

These next two videos all refer to the Harry Potter fandom specifically.

"We R Lightning Scars" - Alex Carpenter featuring Kri$tina, spoof of "We R Who We R" by Ke$ha

(Another song from Alex Carpenter, but what can I say, he's got good songs & videos!) I like how this song is about being proud of being a Harry Potter fan. Most people I know don't have a problem showing their love for the series, but it's still a fun song. I also like that it shows how fandoms intersect (there's a person wearing a red, yellow, & orange hat like Jayne Cobb, a character from the sci-fi series "Firefly") and how strong and connected the fandom is, like when the bullies try to pick a fight with the two main singers and then the rest of the Harry Potter fans show up and they run away.

"Hallows" - Mandy Maynard, spoof of "Halo" by Beyonce


We watched this in one of my classes because my professor is a major Harry Potter fan (which is part of why she's awesome!). It's about a fan's mixed feelings over seeing the final Harry Potter film, which is something I think most fans can related to. This one is also funny because because Hagrid is played by a girl.

To bring this post full-circle, I've got another StarkidPotter video. It's for "Goin' Back to Hogwarts," the song in the first video in the post and what starts AVPM.

This is from a Harry Potter convention of some sort in 2009, after AVPM but before Darren Criss got famous. The fans sing along with the cast members that are there, and they know every word. Not too surprising - I've got the soundtrack pretty much memorized too. My favorite parts are when Dumbledore doesn't sing his part quite as awesomely as in the original so they have him redo it for the fans, and when the Cho Chang part comes in and one of the fans gets really into it! It's just fun to see the StarkidPotter people interacting with their enthusiastic fans. Oh, there's an f-bomb at the end of this video and I've been linking only, but it's the only profanity so I'm letting it slide.

That's all I've got for Harry Potter spoofs. I could've used more, but I had to cut it off at some point or it would be out of control. This post was so fun to put together!