The enthusiasm at GalleyCat for the “newsicals” of Ben Greenman (right) is well-documented, so there’s no need to feign objectivity here. Early last week, Greenman unveiled his latest: “Palin! The Musical.” A few days later, a Daily Kos contributor posted another parody with the same title. The two are highly similar in tone, though they differ in emphasis—Greenman plays up the Palin family drama more than “Shelbyville Manhattan,” who leans hard on the political maneuvering that led to the nomination; Greenman ends with Palin refuting the criticisms of “an army of winged, fanged DEMOCRATIC OPERATIVES,” while the other version pokes fun at her acceptance speech.
Greenman is taking the arrival of an imitator in stride. “I want attention focused on trivial things (someone boosting my musical style) so that it will then be focused on important things (the election),” he emailed. And then he helped us imaging how it all might have gone down:
[DAILY KOS guy steals Ben’s musical format]DAILY KOS GUY
[BEN reads the guy’s musical]
Though I am a thief
I’ll create the belief
That I am an honest man
Deception is my master planBEN
The sincerest form of flattery is inadequate imitation
That guy should not relinquish his diurnal vocation
(Honestly, though, Shelbyville’s opening Palin’s speech with “I come from the land of the ice and snow” was a cute touch.)