Let It Go: Hilarious Bar Mitzvah Invite Parodies Top 40 Hits [Video]
Soon-to-be 13-year-old Brody Criz isn’t your average tween teetering on the scary edge of teenage-hood. While most kids his age are worrying about pimples, clothes, and bullying, all Brody wants to do is let it go, so to speak. He wants to let it go by making people laugh, and having an awesome Bar Mitzvah party in the process. What he didn’t expect was all the attention and internet fame he would get from the invitation video that he made and released at the end of February, in which he parodies five Top 40 hits.
The songs “Happy” by Pharrell Williams, “Royals” by Lorde, “Let It Go” by Idina Menzel, “All Of Me” by John Legend, and “Blurred Lines” by Robin Thicke were adapted by Patrick De Nicola, who reworked the lyrics to fit into Brody’s Bar Mitzvah theme. De Nicola, who works for Xpress Video Productions, and was hired by Brody’s mom Ali, also directed the video, which stars Brody re-enacting the music videos to his chosen songs, but also features his mother, Ali; Father, Jesse; 14-year-old brother, Jared; 10-year-old sister, Simone, and one of the family’s two dogs, 7-month-old pug, Butch.
The lampooned lyrics include such hysterical lines as “Clap along if you just tried Manischewitz and it tastes like juice,” and “I’m gonna make my brother wear a dress/and put my sister in a cage just like my doggies,” but when it comes to that beloved (and over-played if you’re the parent of a young daughter) classic “Let It Go” from the movie Frozen, Brody says “I don’t really have any mitzvah jokes here. I just always wanted to try that,” after singing part of the actual song.
It was Brody’s mom who originally came up with the idea for the video invitation, “Brody is a hilarious kid, and I knew he might want to do something like that,” she said. They wanted to go with songs and videos that were popular in the last year, that people would know. Of his daring decision to parody the controversial Robin Thicke video “Blurred Lines,” Brody, who wore a bathing suit in the video, isn’t worried about any potential negativity.
“I don’t care; people can laugh. There’s always going to be positives and there’s going to be negatives, but I know people will love it.”
That kind of positivity isn’t only apparent in Brody’s sense of humor — though he ultimately wants to be a comedian when he grows up — he also spreads his infectious zest for life when volunteering for the Northern Suburban Special Recreation Association, which provides year-round recreation programs and services for people with disabilities.
It just goes to show that in the midst of a world filled with more than its share of negativity, all it takes is one little boy to “Let It Go”, and make the Internet smile.
[ Photo via YouTube/Today ]
