While the unfortunate reality of COVID-19 still plagues the world, uniting society against the politically neutral virus is a lot harder than it should be. With the United States being one of the worst affected countries by the pandemic, you would think that it would be easy for Americans to agree on the utility of wearing face masks in public.
However, there is a large contingent of Americans who are refusing to wear face masks, citing orders to wear one as a breach of their civil liberties. Despite medical science supporting the importance of face masks in curbing the spread of the virus, plenty of people are disputing the authoritative advice of health professionals and ‘rebelling’ against mandates to wear them.
Sketchy Characters (Armando Leduc and Keith Manasco), creators of the “More Than Words” parody song “Back To Work”, are now back with another parody cover, all to do with this debate about face masks.
Now parodying Billy Joel’s “The Longest Time”, Armando and Keith have come up with a new music video for their collaboration titled “Where The Hell’s Your Mask”.
Just like their “More Than Words” parody, Armando and Keith expertly capture the original performance with impressive production values, with the only difference being the comedic lyrics commenting on the mask debate. Replacing the hook of the original song with “Where The Hells Your Mask”, they also cleverly replicate the choir responsible for the catchy “Oh oh oh” backing vocals by combining several recordings of themselves, displayed in adjacent tiles reminiscent of the Brady Bunch intro.
The parody takes the form of a duet shared between a stereotypical left-wing American (performed by Keith Manasco, with a subtle effeminacy) and a stereotypical right-wing American (performed by Armando Leduc wearing a suggestive red cap).
They each take a share of the lyrics that argue for and against wearing a protective face mask during the COVID pandemic.
The parody is a light-hearted take on the ridiculousness of the debate around wearing face masks and cites some other absurd developments (like Donald Trump’s speculation that disinfectant could be injected internally to kill COVID within the body). While the parody is silly when taken at face-value, it carries with it an important message that all Americans need to hear.