YouTubers have tumblr gay surprised walked in on gay sex videofound a new way to make fun of TikToks without getting hit by copyright claims, and it makes cringeworthy videos actually funny.
Reaction video culture thrives off of making fun of TikTok. Since the app was Musical.ly, YouTubers garnered millions of views from curating bad lip syncs and pointing out how embarrassing they are, from the overtly sexual, sped-up dancing to the bizarre song selection. But thanks to copyright takedowns, YouTubers who make these videos ether risk losing a monetized video and dealing with hefty fines, or avoiding any coverage of viral TikToks that use copyrighted music.
SEE ALSO: TikTok fined $5.7 million for collecting children's dataBut some trends are just too awful to notreact to — which is why YouTubers like Kurtis Conner and Danny Gonzalez supplement copyrighted audio with hilariously terrible covers.
In a video diving into the bizarre divorce trend (think YouTube's breakup videos, but instead of heartfelt explanations of a broken relationship, it's just a pop punk lip sync) Connor replaced copyrighted music with mostly in-tune a capella. The result: grown men fighting tears while dramatically tossing their wedding rings to what sounds like a particularly unfortunate American Idol audition from 2008.
Gonzalez's criticism of a TikTok mom took a deliciously weird turn when he replaced Linkin Park's "In The End" with a monotone, beatboxed version of his own. Instead of a video of an angsty mother rejecting cigarettes and pills, it becomes a surreal depiction of a woman who can't figure out how to eat vitamins while driving through an empty parking lot.
There are two copyrights involved in TikTok videos that use songs like Travis Scott's "Sicko Mode" or Falling In Reverse's "Good Girls Bad Guys. Pitchfork explains it as one, "The right to public performance (the composition of the song, which is typically owned by the songwriter or their publisher)" and two, "the right to mechanical reproduction (the recording itself, usually owned by the label."
Because individual users can upload anyaudio clip in the massive sound bank, which can be accessed and used by anyone on the app, the legality gets hazy. The incredibly popular "Mia Khalifa" diss track, for example, was used hundreds of thousands of times without permission from the original artist.
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Criticizing TikToks technically falls under Fair Use laws, which dictate that copyrighted content can be used in certain scenarios including criticism, news reporting, teaching, and research, without the permission of the copyright holder. But like vlogger PayMoneyWubby's saga with YouTube's takedown of his video "What kids really do on Musical.ly" and the dozens of reaction videos to Billion Surprise Toys' terrifying Johny Johny Yes Papa series, YouTube doesn't mess with Fair Use laws.
While some YouTubers have fought the takedowns — even making content off of their attempts — others just avoid TikToks with copyrighted music entirely. Memeulous, another reaction video creator, put out a call for TikToks without music and called the corresponding video "TIKTOK TRY NOT TO GET CLAIMED CHALLENGE."
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But there are few things funnier than replacing the audio of already-cringe inducing TikToks with shitty covers of emo songs. A cappella punk rock adds a surreal layer of humor that makes the videos seem beautifully meaningless, and turns awkward dancing into a work of modern art.
It's only a matter of time before the covers make their way to TikTok itself.
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