Key of Awesome

"The Key of Awesome!" "What does that mean, you fool?" "The Key of Awesome!" "I don't know, but it sounds cool."

The Key of Awesome is a spin-off creation of Barely Political, which creates low-budget but funny parodies of current pop hits, movies or other pop culture phenomena. All things Key of Awesome can be found here.

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Tropes used in Key of Awesome include:

• Ambiguous Gender: The Bearded Nun. It Makes Just As Much Sense in Context.
• A Wild Rapper Appears: Mocked in the "E.T." parody.
• Alternate Character Interpretation:
  • Ke$ha's drunken stupidity is a carefully crafted act by her record label; she often worries about not being "drunk" enough.
  • Don't f**k with the Gaga.
  • Justin Bieber is actually The Antichrist who will bring about The End of the World as We Know It. The streets will flow red with the blood of the non-believers! [1]
  • Eminem is an Armored Closet Gay.
  • Adele is actually a Stalker Without a Crush. She doesn't have romantic feelings for (the fictional) Tim Matthews anymore, but is titanically pissed at him for dumping her, so she begins stalking him, hiding under his bed at night, threatens to decapitate his new girlfriend, and manages to rally the entire population of Great Britain (even the Queen!) to help her stalk him and make his life miserable.
• And You Were There: The episode centering about the creation of the show ends with Mark saying this to his friends after waking up.
• Applied Phlebotinum: The show's creation was supposedly the result of freaky dreams caused by nachos the creator ate right before bed.
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Cookie Muncher will sneak into your house, rape your daughters and steal your cookies.
• Bored with Insanity: Lady Gaga, as of the "Bored this Way" video.
• Butt Monkey: Poor Katy Perry becomes one at the hands of Executive Meddling and Kanye West during the "ET" video.
  • Justin Bieber's girlfriend in the "Mistletoe" parody.
• Casanova Wannabe: Pitbull in the "On the Floor" parody.
• Celebrity Endorsement: Katy Perry loves the show, according to a recent online interview: [2].
• Continuity Nod: Anyone notice some scenes in the "Someone Like You" parody?
• Cloudcuckoolander: Lady Gaga. When Donald Trump asks her opinion of who he should fire from The Celebrity Apprentice, Gaga responds by activating a machine that plays her voice, declaring that "Thermal clouds shatter the dreams of a thousand burrito-makers." The others in the room are absolutely clueless as to what this has to do with Trump's question.
• Creepy Child: Justin Bieber in "Bieber Fever." In fact, the end of the video implies that he may very well be bringing about The End of the World as We Know It.
• Don't Explain the Joke: From "Twilight Sucks":

"So wake me up ven the vorld grows a pair...of fangs! Ha, you thought I was going to say balls, didn't you?"

• Dawson Casting: Inverted with Justin Bieber, whose actor is thirteen.
• Dude, She's Like, in a Coma: Eminem towards Dr Dre.
• Ear Worm: Invoked when One Direction sings "Na na na na" multiple times.

You'll wake up at night screaming, "na na na na!"

• Fan Disservice: Mark is somewhat cute, until he takes his shirt off...which is often.
• Fan Service: Lauren and Andrea, two people associated with Barely Political, are considered this by most fans. Heck, they even lable Lauren as the Babe Of Awesome. Especially some of the videos she's associated with.
• Hypnotic Eyes: The reason behind Justin Bieber's success.
• Incredibly Lame Pun: "Da Key of Awesoooome!" is "sung" by a rubber duckie.
• I'm A Humanitarian: In the "Give Me Everything" parody, Ne-Yo ate the woman he was stuck in the elevator with.
• Kawaiiko: Genderflipped with their version of Justin Bieber. "I'm made of cupcakes, icecream and flowers!"
• Only Sane Man: Will.i.am is the Only Sane Man among the Black Eyed Peas in the parody about them.
• Or Was It a Dream?: "The Origin of Awesome"—"Lady Gaga" turns her head around and her eyes dilate, à la "Thriller", complete with the Vincent Price evil laugh.
• Product Placement: Pointed out in their parodies of "Telephone" ("P-p-p-p-p-p-p-product placement!") and "Give Me Everything" ("Capture that with a Polaoid/Just take it and shake it/Wait, they no longer make it?/Then try Preparation H for your hemorrhoids/Just made a million on that").
• Refuge in Audacity: The "Fireworks" parody has Katy Perry encourage random men not to suppress their Raging Stiffies, but instead proudly show them off to those watching. Pyrotechnics emerge from their crotches as they do so.
• Rule of Cool: At the end of Commissioner Gordon's Title Drop speech: "'What's that even mean, Dad?'" "'I don't know, son, but it sure sounds cool.'" Not to mention, the page quote.
  • Also used in the Justin Bieber parody: "Let's go to my dad's car and make the windows steam. I really hope that sounded cool 'cause I dont know what it means."
• Running Gag: Nuns.
  • Bearded nuns. The bearded nun is no more, as of episode 42. Time will show whether the Bearded Pope takes over...
  • The Gnomes.
  • Spanking.
• Rhyming with Itself: The "Telephone" parody rhymes "bastard" with itself.
• Satellite Character: In the Black Eyed Peas parody, Apl brags that his entire role in the band is to be a clone of Will I. Am.
• Self-Deprecation: The "Moves Like Jagger" parody has Mark sing about his being overweight, and Todd about his lack of muscle.
• Serious Business: "It's Trick-or-Treat or Die!"
• Shout-Out: In "Adele PARODY ft. Angry Birds", when Adele starts becoming one of the Angry Birds, there is a reference to Black Swan when she takes a huge black feather out from her back.
• Stylistic Suck: Inevitable at times, with the low-budget production values.
• Subverted Rhyme Every Occasion:
  • From "The Dark Knight Is Confused": Joker, are you busy/Let's call a truce/I need you to help explain the plot to...Batman."
  • "California Gurls": 'Nose jobs, tummy tucks/These are the girls I like to—hang out with.'
• Take That: To an extent, all the spoofs, but the "Emo Vampire Song" does this especially, being sung as a tirade against Twilight by an angry "old-school" vampire.
  • And the Glee episode is a big one.
  • There are also plenty of Take Thats at Eminem. "Afraid" calls him out for being a Jerkass, and in the "Love the Way You Lie" spoof, he tells Rihanna "I dressed up as Weasley and you were Hermione...you said you had spells that could make me less whiny!"
• The Tetris Effect: In "Adele PARODY ft. Angry Birds", when Adele starts seeing the game in Real Life.
• This Trope Is Bleep: Part of the "Moves Like Jagger" parody censors the F-word with seven bleeps, each higher-pitched than the one before it.
• Timmy in a Well: After Ne-Yo gets trapped in an elevator, Lassie is the one who notifies Pitbull so he can be rescued in the "Give Me Everything" parody.