YouTube’s 5 Can’t-Miss Social Media Parodies

Sometimes it’s just too easy to make fun of the social media phenomenon: the poking, the following, the inane status updates. Check out these five fun and creative videos that put the idiosyncrasies of Facebook, Twitter and MySpace in perspective—guaranteeing you a good laugh.  

1. SNL Episode – Your Mom on Facebook Skit

It’s a common Gen-Y fear: You wake up in the morning to find a friend request haunting your e-mail inbox from…your mom. Last weekend’s Saturday Night Live spoofed that scenario and offered one fix: the “Damnit My Mom Is On Facebook Filter” which “does what you do naturally—it lies to your mom!”

2. “Twouble with Twitters”

Why would anyone want to join Twitter? Isn’t it just a stream of mindless thoughts shouted into an empty space? These are the questions protagonist Craig faces in convincing his coworker, Derek, that he is “a young, hip, tech-savvy twenty-something and I will NOT let you turn into my father!” Craig takes Derek on a journey into the twittersphere to help him better understand Twitter…until the Fail Whale appears…

3. “The New Dork”

Set to Jay-Z’s “New York State of Mind,” this music video pays tribute to Silicon Valley, its venture capitalists, Mark Zuckerberg, social networks and the techies who “used to be in the basement / back at my mom’s place / building Web traffic so that we could sell an ad space…”

4. “Social Media Addicts Association Meeting”

Do you spend too much time on social networks? Own multiple Twitter accounts? Can’t stop writing on your friends’ walls? Have a problem with rejected friend requests? This advertisement for Visio showcases a “Social Media Addicts Association” meeting where its members confront their unnatural inclinations toward poking, friending and following. The first step, after all, is admitting you have a problem…

5. “The Death of MySpace”

Remember when MySpace was the social network? In this video, protagonist Craig is torn between shamefully confessing to his coworkers that he still has a MySpace profile and confronting the ghosts of profiles past to put an end to his MySpace account. “MySpace pages are like the Dead Sea Scrolls of the Internet.” Will Craig go through with it?

Kristin Burnham covers Consumer Technology, SaaS, Social Networking and Web 2.0 for CIO.com. Follow Kristin on Twitter @kmburnham. Follow everything from CIO.com on Twitter @CIOonline. Email Kristin at kburnham@cio.com.