Music

11 of the jankiest Shreds parody videos

by Daniel Gerichter

We all love taking the piss out of Nickelback and Creed. It’s fun, harmless, and cosmically just. The Shreds series has become one of the internet’s most enduring memes by taking it to the next level—redubbing live performances and music videos with purposely atrocious or wholly misplaced audio. But the Shreds series doesn’t just discriminate against easy targets – critical darlings get theirs too.

Created by Finnish user StSanders (real name – Santeri Ojala), the first of the Shreds videos appeared on Youtube in 2007. StSanders has even appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live, providing a live shredding of a hero of his hero – Slash. Bonus: Slash was actually there in studio. Bummer: the clip is pretty impossible to find online anymore.

Here are a few our favourite Shreds videos.

Creed

With the recent news about front man Scott Stapp’s troubles, these videos are either wildly inappropriate, or a stark reminder of the love/hate (mostly hate) relationship the internet had/has with Creed. Creed Shreds is this series’ White Album; a testament to everything that makes them funny and relevant. Each part of these videos viciously and accurately lampoons Scott Stapp’s yarling melodrama. Because of these videos, you can (and absolutely should) buy a YASSEAH t-shirt.

Nickelback

If the next Nickelback single featured lyrics like “EEWW BLOP! Don’t talk ’bout mama dat wayyyyyy/ DEewwww da bak dar dar pit” would anyone notice?

KISS

Here’s what’s so absurd about KISS: if you’ve only heard (but have never seen) them, their songs may as well be by a denim-clad bar band. If you’ve only seen (but have never heard) them, they might as well be performing amped-up polka at a kid’s birthday party. The weirdest thing about this video? The dubbed audio doesn’t ever feel out of place.

Slipknot

Slipknot’s all about the optics: nightmarish costumes, ultra-aggro instrumentation, and crowds that are one drop-D solo away from wanton acts of murder or cannibalism. WE ASSUME. So it’d be completely out of place to have singer Corey Taylor belting out a Michael MacDonald esque ballad. OR WOULD IT?

Rage Against the Machine

Would it be funny if Rage Against the Machine suddenly replaced Zach De La Rocha with Adam Sandler? Yes. Yes it would.

Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg

Every one of hip-hop’s tropes are skewered by this video, which supplants everything about West coast G-funk with free jazz. Yes, that’s an actual Charlie Parker tune thrown in there. Giraffe guitar!

Eminem

Say what you will about this video, but I’ll take “ooga chaka yeah yeah yeah” over “Ass like that” any day.

The Beach Boys

This video is how I like to imagine the Beach Boys’ first few demos sounded. This is also one of the rare cases where the poster used the band’s actual material. If you cook brunch while a vinyl of Pet Sounds plays every Sunday, YOU NEED THIS.

Pearl Jam

Pearl Jam has their imitators, which is of itself a great target in the Shreds series. But Eddie Vedder, eye-rolling, convulsing innovator of the yarl, is himself a source of comedy gold – as illustrated here.

Phish

If you’ve been to a Phish show, you know that it’s a three-hour affair, where their short studio songs mutate into unending, masturbatory epochs that can only truly be appreciated under the influence of weapons-grade hallucinogens. Even if you love that sort of thing, it’s undeniably absurd and this video hits that point beautifully.

Michael Bolton & Kenny G

Michael Bolton & Kenny G. That’s the joke. You might argue that it’s unnecessary to make fun of them anymore than time and memory have, but you’d be wrong.