Say it ain't so I will not go.

April 12, 2010 11:47 AM

What music videos are imitated in the video for "All the small things"?

I am trying to get a list of the each of the videos imitated. It seems like for the most part each cut in the video is making fun of a specific video, but it is possible that some are combining features of several different videos.

Ideally could you list the video name and what scenes from it are parodied.

Here are some of the ones I could recognize:
Cristina Agulara - Genie in a Bottle
98 Degrees - I Do Cherish you
Ricky Martin - La Vida Loca
Britney Spears - Sometimes
Backstreet Boys - I want it that way

I looked at the wikipedia page, page but it doesn't list exactly which songs are used.

In particular I can't figure out where the camo pants and black vests (10 seconds into the video) are from.

posted by vegetableagony to Media & Arts (8 answers total)

Here's a link to the video.
posted by box at 12:44 PM on April 12, 2010 [1 favorite]

I think the camo/vests might be from a TLC video, but I could definitely be mistaken about that.
posted by box at 12:46 PM on April 12, 2010

I was thinking it was Destiny's Child "Survivor" but I'm at work and can't confirm.
posted by rabbitrabbit at 1:09 PM on April 12, 2010

Response by poster: In Survivor they wear camo pants but they don't have vests on, so maybe.

I started watching TLC videos, I think the flowing brightly colored shirts at 0:27 are from "Creep"
posted by vegetableagony at 2:07 PM on April 12, 2010

Ha, I remember sitting down and figuring this out when that video first came out.

I think the early part with the guys in white running on the beach is the same beach as the video in Destiny's Child Survivor (and about a million other commercials and videos).
The part where they're all in brightly colored shirts is making fun of a Westlife video but I don't know which one.
The part with the girl rolling around on the sand is Chris Isaak's Wicked Game
The bullet proof vests are 5ive- youtube says it's probably If Ya Getting Down
I think the camo cargo pants are just parodying every-girlband-dance-routine-from-the-90s
posted by fshgrl at 4:46 PM on April 12, 2010

Relying solely on my memory of being a teenage girl who saw this video 1000 times when it came out, I remember distinctly associating the vests/camo pants part with a Destiny's Child video.

I also remember thinking the bright flowy shirts was from the first Nsync video "I Want You Back." I remember bright shirts with kind of a windy/moving around background, and in this video they're wearing bright coats in front of a shimmy background. It's not a perfect fit, but in my 12/13 year old mind it was quite a clear reference. (And it came right back to me the second I watched the Blink 182 video... I can't remember I'm wasting brain space on this.)

I'd question the "Creep" reference simply because that seems a little too old -- the video came out in 1994 while "All the Small Things" was from 2000. I don't think the target market, namely junior high kids, for Blink 182 would have that sort of institutional memory to catch a reference like. All the other music videos parodied here are very contemporary, having come out in the last year or so when the Blink video was made. It also wouldn't fit with the "Blink 182 is the anti-bubble gum pop!" message they had going.

Have you watched the Making of the Video episode about this video?
posted by lilac girl at 5:16 PM on April 12, 2010

Upon watching the Making of the Video episode, it looks like the camo/vests comes from a 98 Degrees video. I'm not sure which one, but that's what they claim directly in the show.
posted by lilac girl at 5:24 PM on April 12, 2010

So should the Wikipedia page be bolstered with any newfound info uncovered here?

(I also noticed a typo in the part about it being nominated for a "Video of the Year" award, only to find out it doesn't specify which Video of the Year award...)
posted by TheSecretDecoderRing at 10:49 PM on April 12, 2010