"Performance parodies" of the Pet Shop Boys
(and some borderline cases)

1. Spitting Image - "How the Hell Do We Keep Getting Away with This?"

The most elaborate PSB parody ever, originally appearing as the closing bit on a late 1993 or early 1994 episode of the hugely popular U.K. satirical television show Spitting Image (which ran for eleven years starting in the mid-eighties). A pair of typically grotesque Spitting Image puppets of Neil and Chris perform this full-length original number, clearly based on "Go West" and its video, in which they marvel at how they keep "getting away" with having hit after hit, just doing what they do. The chorus includes these gems:

How the hell do we keep getting away with this?
How the hell did I make a career as a vocalist?
How the hell can we keep getting away with murder?
How the hell can our clothes get any absurder?
How the hell can all the songs be quite so duff?
How the hell can people actually like this stuff?

Despite the barbs, the Boys could only have been extremely pleased. As one commentator has put it, "You knew you'd arrived when you became a Spitting Image puppet."

2. French & Saunders - "It Pays Our Rent"

Simon Brint and Rowland Rivron, regulars as the duo "Raw Sex" on the U.K. French & Saunders show, performed an ingenious parody of "Rent" during the second series (1988). The chorus goes like this:

But you just stand behind me
With a TV and a keyboard
That someone has lent you
You're good at standing still
I'm quite good at singing
They love it
It pays our rent

The skit also featured the "Chris" character picking his nose out of boredom. Fortunately, the real Chris reportedly found it hilarious! And you can watch it, too.

3. Saturday Night Live - The "Napster Hearings" sketch

The premise of this sketch from the March 10, 2001 episode of the long-running U.S. comedy show is that a group of allegedly has-been eighties pop stars (including "David Lee Roth," "Toni Basil," and "Corey Hart," among others) are testifying before Congress about the harm done to their careers (and bank accounts) by illegal file-sharing on Napster. Program regular Jimmy Fallon appears as Neil Tennant, whose testimony begins—

Neil Tennant: I'm Neil Tennant. I used to be a part of the Pet Shop Boys.

Sen. Evan Bayh: Right. And what do you do now?

Neil Tennant: These days, I work in an actual pet shop. But I'm planning a big comeback. "In a west end town, a dead-end world. The east end boys and west end girls—"

Female Senator: Please, sir, stop singing.

Neil Tennant: "What have I—what have I—what have I done to deserve this?"

Female Senator: I said stop singing.

Neil Tennant: I wasn't singing! I'm flat broke, and I work in a pet shop! What have I done to deserve this?

Sen. Trent Lott: Next witness!

Of course, this portion of the sketch wouldn't make much sense in much of the world, where the Pet Shop Boys have continued to enjoy a hugely successful career well beyond the 1980s. It's only in the U.S. that they're considered a "has-been eighties band." In short, the sketch is provincial at best, and arguably downright ignorant. (And it's worth noting that in the live broadcast, Fallon mistakenly identifies himself as "Nigel Tennant." This has been corrected in the syndicated rebroadcasts of this episode, in which a superior dress-rehearsal version of the sketch is used instead.)

Incidentally, there were apparently no hard feelings since the Boys would turn up years later to perform "Love etc." on a 2009 episode of Jimmy Fallon's own late-night TV show.

4. Chris Morris - "The Unofficial Pet Shop Boys Xmas Record"

Morris is a highly controversial British satirist and media personality who broadcast this musical PSB parody in the early 1990s. Aside from opening with a few bars of "Good King Wenceslas" vaguely in the style of "It's a Sin" and making brief references in the third verse to "Noel" and Santa Claus, it's really not a "Christmas record." It probably is, however, the single most puerile item in this list. It makes unwarranted stabs at the Boys' musical talent, belabors such clichés as the similarity of Neil's voice to Al Stewart's (although the singer, whether it's Morris or a hireling, sounds like neither Tennant nor Stewart, thereby rendering the parody singularly ineffective on this point), and devotes the entire second verse to the already-by-then tired rumor about the alleged "kinky" origin of the name "Pet Shop Boys." I must admit that the outrageous pun referring to Richard Gere as "an officer and a gerbil-man" is both clever and mildly humorous, if borderline libelous. And the recurring line, "We litter our songs with this irritating noise"—accompanied by a few of those orchestral synth chord blasts so ubiquitous in the eighties—evokes a smile. Still, it's hardly worth more than a single listen.

5. The Mary Whitehouse Experience - on several occasions

In the early 1990s this British comedy show aired several PSB-related parodies. In one, comedian Rob Newman specifically parodies Chris in a sequence that alternates between him and actual TV footage of the Boys performing "So Hard." As Neil sings, "Chris" constantly whines and complains, trying to get Neil to switch places with him so that he can get to spend some time in the spotlight for a change. For instance, he mentions that he has recently had a talk with "the ugly one in Tears for Fears" and notes how he gets to sing now and then. (There were slightly different television and radio versions of this sketch. You can listen to the radio version online if you visit this site devoted to The Mary Whitehouse Experience and scroll down until you find the link to the October 20, 1990 episode. The PSB parody is at about 20:45, roughly two-thirds of the way through the recording.)

On another occasion, Newman again assume the role of Chris as a member of a "supergroup" consisting of the "other ones"the non-singing, keyboard-playing partners of the duos Pet Shop Boys, Erasure, Soft Cell, and Sparks. The joke is that, as the four of them just stand there playing a monotonous synth pattern, there's a microphone upfront without a singer, which ends up making them lost, irritable, and supremely unmelodic. "Chris" glances around, forlornly calling out, "Neil—Neil—!"

In addition, a 1992 novelty single titled "Take Me to the Fridge (Milky Milky)," performed by Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis (billed as "Mr. Strange and the Lactose Brotherhood")—with Dennis in the role of his recurring milk-obsessed Mary Whitehouse Experience character Mr. Strange—is also, from a stylistic standpoint, a Pet Shop Boys parody. In particular, it draws heavily upon "Left to My Own Devices" both for its arrangement and the lead vocalist's manner of "sing-speaking."

6. The Majesticons - "Brains Party"

Perhaps not so much a parody as a blatant appropriation for satirical purposes. Each of the fifteen tracks on Beauty Party, this rap act's 2003 exercise in relentless satire, is titled "[Something] Party." One of them, "Brains Party," boasts the following chorus borrowed and adapted from the Pet Shop Boys' "Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money)":

I've got the brains, you've got the looks
Let's make lots of money!
We have the game, we are the crooks
Let's take all their money!

This serves as part of a running commentary on both the extreme overuse of sampling in contemporary popular music (rap and hip-hop in particular) and the overarching materialism of the artists involved. By engaging in "lyrical sampling" while criticizing music sampling, the Majesticons pull the neat trick of backhandedly demonstrating the very thing that they're implicitly attacking—and getting away with it.

7. Steve Wright/BBC Radio 1 - "U2's Live PSB Medley"

Steve Wright, a popular BBC Radio DJ since 1979, has long been known for his on-the-air music parodies and practical jokes. One of them, from around 1991, simultaneously poked fun at U2 and the Pet Shop Boys. The premise of the parody was a live "retaliation" for PSB having recently recorded "Where the Streets Have No Name." Allegedly in concert at Madison Square Garden, U2—or, more accurately, a singer mimicking Bono—performs a medley of the PSB songs "Rent" and "Shopping" blended with the gay anthems "Y.M.C.A." and "It's Raining Men," thereby cleverly parodying Bono's singing style (breathily overdone just enough to be comic) while satirizing the scarcely concealed "gay undercurrent" of the Pet Shop Boys' music. Notably, this was a couple of years before Neil made that undercurrent "official" by coming out. And it may also have inspired U2 to satirize the Village People (not to mention themselves) in their 1997 video for "Discotheque." At any rate, Wright's parody was sufficiently well executed that it has managed (via online circulation) to deceive many into believing it's a genuine live U2 recording.

8. Steve Wright/BBC Radio 1 (again) - "The Pet Shop Boys at Home" and "It's the Same as the Last One"

For a while back in the late 1980s and early 1990s Wright also used to run on his afternoon radio show a recurring comedy sketch called "The Pet Shop Boys at Home." Apparently one of the running gags of the skits was that "Neil" (reportedly portrayed by one of Steve's "regulars," Richard Easter) would be very expressive—"effusive and over the top," as one writer has put it—while "Chris" just grunted or groaned from time to time. One edition in particular featured "the Boys" recording "Go West," but instead of the actual lyrics "Neil" simply listed a string of English towns.

Wright reportedly aired at least one other PSB parody in the late 1980s called "It's the Same as the Last One," credited to "Cat Shop Boys." Its chorus apparently resembled "What Have I Done to Deserve This?" with the lyrics "We never, we never, we never repeat things twice / No, we never, we never, we never repeat things twice.”

9. Walliams and Lucas - "I'm with Stupid" video

We can't very well ignore the Boys' own "self-induced parody"—their video for "I'm with Stupid," starring David Walliams and Matt Lucas, best known for their hit comedy series Little Britain. With Walliams as "Neil" and Lucas as "Chris," the two mime the song while parodying the famous Very-era videos for "Can You Forgive Her?" (complete with orange jumpsuits) and "Go West." Tennant and Lowe themselves appear "tied up" at the end, depicted literally as a captive audience. A sly commentary on their public role as pop stars, perhaps—as "captives" of their own image and/or fame?

10. Walliams and Lucas (again) - Rock Profile "Vox Pops"

Back in 2001, before they hit it really big, Walliams and Lucas made two series of programs on the UK Play network called Rock Profile, where they relentlessly spoofed rock and pop stars. Each episode focused on one or two particular artists, usually portrayed by Walliams and Lucas themselves (sometimes with the assistance of others). Considering that the two of them—and Walliams especially—are major fans, it's surprising they never did an episode focusing on the Pet Shop Boys. But on at least three occasions they portrayed our heroes in short vignettes called "Vox Pops," a regular feature in which "other stars" commented on those at the center of attention. "Neil" and "Chris" (Walliams and Lucas, respectively) appear briefly in three episodes focusing on Take That, Blur, and Duran Duran. In the latter they're pointedly complaining that they haven't had their own episode yet.

11. Walliams and Lucas (one more time) - "I'm Gay"

Yes, there's certainly an element of PSB parody in this 2006 novelty track, but since the Boys themselves were at least indirectly involved, it merits its own separate entry on this website.

12. Brainstopping/Cabaret Digitale - "England, We Can Win It"

Just in time for the 2006 World Cup matches came this delightful PSB parody by comic duo Brainstopping (Matt Bowdler and Ben Manning) in the guise of music duo Cabaret Digitale (Ian Significant and Dave Bass). Got that? The music itself is somewhat in an early Pets style, coming across as the slightly backward offspring of an illicit tryst between "What Have I Done to Deserve This?" and "Go West"—although Matt has cited "The End of the World" as the biggest influence. (It also bears the marks of—and parodies—past English World Cup anthems, most notably New Order's "World in Motion" from 1990 and, to a far lesser extent, the Lightning Seeds' "Three Lions" from 1996.) But it's the video that really plays it up with some good-natured ribbing of assorted bits of PSB imagery and iconography, such as "Chris" playing his keyboard with one finger. Check it out for yourself!

13. Fast Forward - "What Have I Done to Be Served This?

The popular Australian sketch-comedy show Fast Forward (1989-1992) once ran an "advertisement" for a "joke album" titled Pat Cash's Greatest Hits (Pat Cash being an Australian world-class tennis champion). One of the album's songs was a PSB parody titled "What Have I Done to Be Served This?" As a brief snippet of it played, we see "Pat Cash" swinging and badly missing a tennis serve.

14. Full Frontal - "Go Hetero"

After Fast Forward ended in 1992, it was succeeded by another sketch-comedy spinoff, Full Frontal, which aired from 1993 to 1997. In 1994 it ran a full-blown parody of "Go West" and its video—obviously popular targets for joshing—including tacit commentary about the homoeroticism of both the song and the video itself. But it does far more than poke good-humored fun at our heroes' "gayness." It's actually a double-edged satire that also levels a more barbed critique at Tasmania, which, unlike the rest of Australia, still at that time had laws on the books criminalizing homosexuality. Dubbed "Go Hetero," the premise of the satire is that "the Boys," in order to increase their popularity in Australia, are going to stop trading in "ambiguity," would "go hetero"—at least as far as their public image is concerned—and had decided to relocate to Tasmania in order to confirm their new "straight" status (or to deflect suspicion). A strange premise, to be sure, but it makes its point. I'm not sure whether this aired shortly before or after Neil's official "coming out" but, whatever the case, it was timely. And, fortunately, Tasmania finally got around to decriminalizing consenting adult same-sexual behavior within a few years after this parody was made. Incidentally, "Neil" is potrayed by the openly gay comedian Glenn Butcher, "Chris" is played by John Walker, and future film star Eric Bana appears as one of the "Russian marchers"; all three of them were Full Frontal regulars.

15. Adam & Joe - Pet Shop Droids

The comedy duo of Adam & Joe—Adam Buxton and Joe Cornish—had their own hit show on UK Channel 4 from 1996 to 2001. Self-confessed "popular culture junkies," they specialized in using toys to satirize various aspects of modern life and entertainment. In one particularly creative segment (most likely from 1996) they managed to parody scads of pop-culture icons in one fell swoop by using Star Wars action figures to lampoon Stars in Their Eyes, a popular game show in which contestants imitated famous entertainers. They called it Star Wars in Their Eyes. A Darth Vader figurine does a parody of Grace Jones's "Slave to the Rhythm," retitled "Slave to the Dark Side." And R2D2 and C3PO figurines, appearing under the moniker "Pet Shop Droids"—and wearing orange jumpsuits and pointy caps à la the "Can You Forgive Her?" video—perform a blatant takeoff of "Se A Vida É" seemingly titled "R2D2, Touch Me," with lyrics suggesting that C3PO is very much in love with his much shorter partner. Layers of satire at work there, folks! You can check it out on YouTube if you like.

16. Trilambs - "Gay Ass Club"

The 2001 album It Wasn't Not Funny by the Los Angeles comic hiphop/rap troupe Trilambs features liberal (and apparently unauthorized) samples and recreations of classic pop-music riffs from such artists as the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Madonna, Led Zeppelin, the Temptations, Dire Straits, U2, Simon and Garfunkel, Cyndi Lauper and, of all things, Sarah Brightman (in the hilarious "Smoover Jams," which satirizes hiphop makeout music). Included amongst this illustrious company are the Pet Shop Boys, whose "West End Girls" gets the appropriation treatment in a bit titled "Gay Ass Club." An openly gay member of Trilambs, who goes by the moniker Gay Jamie, sings to the familiar melody of the WEG chorus:

In a West Hollywood gay ass club
This is the song that you all love

The point of the track (if there really is one) seems to be a snide putdown of the dance/disco musical tastes of an older generation of gay men. Of course, the young always seem to rebel against the tastes and values of their elders, so why should gay youth be any different?

17. Flight of the Conchords - "Inner City Pressure"

Early in "Bret Gives Up the Dream," the second episode (first broadcast on June 24, 2007) of the HBO comedy series Flight of the Conchords, "New Zealand's fourth most popular folk-pop duo" launch into this delightful musical and visual parody of "West End Girls." Living in New York and forced by their desperate poverty to eat discarded sandwiches, they rap about contemplating prostitution and "second-hand underpants" as well as how "no one sympathizes—you just stay home and play synthesizers" (a flawed rhyme, but a terrific one nonetheless). At one point they even stand in front of a corrugated steel backdrop as Bret raps and Jemaine "fades" like Chris. Priceless! ("Inner City Pressure" can be found on the duo's 2008 eponymous debut album.)

18. Sniff Petrol as "Pit Stop Boys" - "(It's Just That You Remind Me of) Alain Prost"

According to Wikipedia, Sniff Petrol is "a satirical British online magazine written chiefly by Richard Porter, with contributions from James May and others, dedicated to automobile-related humour." Since early 2006, it has had a regular segment on the popular automotive-themed podcast Gareth Jones on Speed, hosted by Welsh producer and media personality Gareth Jones. The October 10, 2007 episode concluded with Sniff Petrol's performance, in the guise of the "Pit Stop Boys," of an affectionate PSB parody titled "(It's Just That You Remind Me of) Alain Prost." (Prost is a great French Formula One racecar driver of the 1980s and '90s, a four-time world champion.) Sniff Petrol makes little attempt actually to sound like the Pet Shop Boys; the vocal, for instance, sounds nothing like Neil Tennant. The music, which is entirely original, could be described as "primitive synthpop"—sort of how you might imagine an early PSB demo would sound—and the equally original lyrics nod to the literate yet offhanded insouciance that a casual observer might regard (superficially, to be sure) as typical PSB. The chorus goes:

Girl you know I love you
And without you I'd be lost
It's just that you remind me
Quite a lot of Alain Prost

The very existence of such a parody indicates just what an institution the Pet Shop Boys have become in contemporary British culture. Besides, Richard Porter and his cronies are professed "huge Pet Shop Boys fans" who have parlayed their Pit Stop Boys guise into an actual series of tribute/parodies available for your listening pleasure on Soundcloud.

19. Mel & Sue - "Decorating"

For several years the British comedy duo of Melanie "Mel" Giedroyc and Sue Perkins hosted an early evening show on U.K. Channel 4 titled Late Lunch, during which they performed comedy sketches, commented satirically on current events, and interviewed guests. Neil Tennant was one such guest—on their second episode, in fact, on April 1, 1998. In his honor (and quite appropriately enough considering it was April Fool's Day) they aired a brief video they had made of a song apparently titled "Decorating." An obvious takeoff on "Shopping," the music is virtually identical, while the running gag of the lyrics is the increasingly ludicrous (and lengthy) home-decorating terminology that they spell out, right down to S.P.O.N.G.E.E.F.F.E.C.T.I.N.G. Neil seemed to enjoy it thoroughly, commenting with typical understatement, "I thought it was quite amusing."

20. Die Prinzen - The video for "Alles Nur Geklaut"

The extremely clever music video for the German quintet Die Prinzen's 1993 single "Alles Nur Geklaut" parodies a wide assortment of famous pop acts, including AC/DC, Depeche Mode, Genesis, Peter Gabriel, Robert Palmer, Queen, U2, and ZZ Top, among others. They don't forget the Pet Shop Boys, either, with brief segments parodying their "Can You Forgive Her?" video. All of this borrowed imagery is highly appropriate considering that the lyrics of "Alles Nur Geklaut" (translated: "All Just Stolen") semi-satirically comment on how rock and pop stars invariably "steal" from their predecessors in the music business.

21. Chas 'n' Dave vs. PSB on The Ant & Dec Show

The Boys should have known—and they quite possibly did know—that their Very-era costuming would prove an irresistible draw for comedians. The May 2, 1996 episode of the U.K. TV program The Ant & Dec Show featured a unique bit where the comic/music duo of Chas 'n' Dave, dressed in those "Can You Forgive Her?" orange jumpsuits and pointy hats, pretend to be the Pet Shop Boys. Hosts Ant & Dec deny this, saying that they aren't PSB. But Chas 'n' Dave hold their ground, insisting that they are the Pet Shop Boys. To "prove" that they are, they proceed to perform portions of "West End Girls," "It's a Sin," and "Go West," heightening the absurdity of it all by sounding nothing like PSB but rather like typical Chas 'n' Dave. To cap it all off, the real Chris and Neil—not dressed, by the way, in orange jumpsuits and pointy hats—then make their entrance as guests on the show. When the Boys assert who they are, nobody onstage believes them.

22. Katy Brand - "It's a Song"

On the October 8, 2009 episode of Katy Brand's Big Ass Show, the British comedian and her cohorts conduct a dual parody of the Pet Shop Boys, visually mocking the "Go West" video while musically spoofing "It's a Sin." She sings, "When we consider our career we never cease to be amazed at just how much we've been praised." She even ludicrously suggests PSB songs "could be written by a child" and that "a chimp could do a better job." In one of two instances of bathroom humor—the lowest form of comedy, puns notwithstanding—she also asserts that they "could go Top 10 simply by farting." Perhaps someone should inform Katy that satires and parodies are generally most effective when their implicit charges are justifiable. Besides, could she be more dated? She treads extremely well-trod territory, drawing inspiration (as it were) from material 16 and 22 years old, respectively. It's already been "done"—repeatedly—and much, much better. But, worst of all, she commits the cardinal sin of omission when it comes to parodies: it's not funny. If this is a typical example of what appears on Katy Brand's Big Ass Show, then it's no wonder that critic James Donaghy of The Guardian (September 12, 2009) described it as "comedy's Pearl Harbor.… historically bad television."

23. El Especial del Humor - "Los Pitcho Boys"

A prime candidate for the single most bizarre PSB performance parody ever. On the October 24, 2009 episode of the Peruvian comedy show El Especial del Humor, comedians Carlos Alvarez and Jorge Benavides (in the guise of their recurring characters Don Bieto and Rómulo Ratón, themselves satirical portrayals of corrupt politicians) parodied an appearance by the Boys exactly one week earlier on another Peruvian show, El Show de los Sueños, right down to Chris's mirrored jacket. Brandishing long, thick, rat-tails (which the two of them do on a routine basis; after all, "ratón" does mean "rat"), they called themselves "Los Pitcho Boys," Pitcho being a nonsense word that makes fun of how less English-proficient Peruvians pronounce "Pet Shop." The entire skit is predicated on them being forced by circumstances into impersonating the real Pet Shop Boys. After cavorting with the host (a heavyset man in appallingly but quite intentionally bad drag), they badly mime a rendition of "Always on My Mind." It's all meant to be taken as totally ridiculous, so I would say they fully succeed on that count.

24. Nathan Jay - "The Pet Shop Boys Blocked Me on Twitter"

You don't have to dress up like them to create a first-rate parody. And Nathan Jay—a man who already had several PSB-inspired and Tennant-sampling tracks to his credit—has come up with one of the cleverest of all: his 2010 original (and absolutely delightful) song "The Pet Shop Boys Blocked Me on Twitter." Not only does he manage to sound quite a bit like Neil (if I do say so myself), but he also squeezes in numerous PSB song titles and references into some marvelously playful lyrics. You can watch it on YouTube—not so much for the largely irrelevant video, but rather for the audio and the printed lyrics—for at least as long as the link remains valid. I can virtually guarantee you'll enjoy it!

25. Shooting Stars - Sex Shop Boys, "Hot City Action"

The August 3, 2010 episode of the U.K. comedy show (disguised as a game show) Shooting Stars featured a brief skit by hosts Vic Reeves, Bob Mortimer, and Angelos Epithemiou portraying the "Sex Shop Boys"—a "man band" as opposed to a "boy band"—performing a crude electro-rap number called "Hot City Action." Even discounting that there were three of them, they didn't look or act a bit like the Pet Shop Boys, and the song (if you can call it that) didn't sound much like them, either. But considering the choice of moniker, there can be no doubt that PSB was an at least a glancing target of the joke. The real object, however—aside from the singularly strange humor routinely exhibited on this show—is anyone's guess.

26. Sex Shop Boys - "Big Tits" and "69"

More than two decades earlier, there actually was a real "Sex Shop Boys" that also strongly suggests parody at work. In 1987 and '88—during the height of the Pet Shop Boys' commercial success and popularity, their generally acknowledged (by them and others) "imperial phase"—a group of German musicians (Hayo Bauer, Hayo Lewerentz, Helmut Hoinkis, and Ingo Hauss) calling themselves, yes, Sex Shop Boys released a pair of relatively primitive techno-dance/pseudo-Italo-disco tracks of extremely dubious taste that became minor cult dance hits in Europe: "Big Tits" and "69." Does this, too, qualify as a "PSB performance parody"? Perhaps. No visuals of them seem to exist, but the music indeed sounds superficially somewhat like early PSB, only quite a few levels lower on the quality meter. Their chosen name alone, however, clearly indicates that they regarded themselves as a takeoff on (if not outright parody of) the Pet Shop Boys.

27. The Misdips - "No can dip"

Stepping back once again to the late 1980s, a TV commercial for the British snack confection Choc Dips was quite obviously a PSB parody, right down to the relative subtlety of the way the song's title is capitalized. Far less subtle was the performance itself, a nondescript synthpop mini-track by the ad's duo "The Misdips," playing up on the Pet Shop Boys' slightly geeky-cool image at the time. You can catch it on YouTube for as long as the link remains valid.

28. Russ Abbot - "The Plumbers Song"

U.K. comedian Russ Abbot parodied the PSB rendition and video of "Go West" on ITV's The Russ Abbot Show in 1994. The actual target of the parody seems more to be the plumbing profession (which doesn't come off looking very good at all) than our musical heroes, with the Boys being more the means to an end rather than the end itself. In fact, it's difficult to see why the "Go West" style and imagery was used at all—but it works, and that's what counts.

29. Eden - "If I Was a Pet Shop Boy"

Clearly working with a limited budget, these guys nevertheless manage to pull off a very effective and quite amusing parody of the Pet Shop Boys in their video for this song. In fact, you might say "parodies" plural since they do takeoffs of several "PSB looks" through the years, including the Actually cover, the "Can You Forgive Her?" video "cone hats," and the "Absolutely Fabulous" video "baker-dervish" costumes. It's a very affectionate parody, to say the least, one that might more accurately be termed a tribute. Speaking of which—

30. Crackòvia - "Mou, res!"

In April 2011, the Spanish/Catalan TV sketch comedy Crackòvia parodied both the "Go West" video (obviously a comedy favorite) and the football (soccer) manager José Mourinho—a Portuguese native but managing in Madrid—who's apparently notorious for his temper and at times controversial behavior. The repeated title (translated as "Mou, nothing!"; "Mou" is Mourinho's nickname) alludes to denying championships for his team that year. As for the parody itself, the main performers don't much bother trying to look or act like Neil and Chris, but they do a pretty good job of parodying the core imagery of the video.

31. Kruyf Shop Boys - "Mourinho on My Mind"

I know nothing about the origin of this one—only that it turned up on YouTube apparently in the wake of the Crackòvia parody just above and that it, too, comes from Spain. Again the satirical subject is soccer manager José Mourinho, and again PSB is the vehicle, but this time the parody springboards from "Always on My Mind." The perpetrators do a slightly better job of mimicking the Boys—but just slightly. It's billed as by the "Kruyf Shop Boys," an allusion to legendary soccer player and coach Johan Cruyff, who has a long history with Futbol Club Barcelona (as a star player in the 1970s and as an equally successful coach in the 1990s).

32. The Plum Thunder - "Boys Without Girls"

This Canadian comedy team unveiled their outstanding parody of the Boys—specifically of the "West End Girls" song and video—in 2012. If you like, you can see it on YouTube. The music is essentially identical to that of WEG, but the new lyrics are original—and absolutely delightful.

33. Harry Hill - "It's a Sild"

A March 2000 episode of the third series of the British sketch comedy show Harry Hill featured a brief bit in which Hill and one of his cronies assumed the Pet Shop Boys' recent Nightlife attire and performed a takeoff on "It's a Sin," substituting "sild" for "sin." (Sild—a type of sardine popular in Norway—was the source of a running joke on the show and could be counted on to be mentioned in at least one skit each week.)

34. Harry Hill/Little and Large - "Little and Large Sing the Pet Shop Boys"

On an earlier episode of Harry Hill, from October 30, 1998, there was a bit that really wasn't an outright parody, but close enough, I think, for inclusion here. The guests on that evening's show, the comedy duo of (Syd) Little and (Eddie) Large, did a brief rendition of "Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money)." They made no attempt whatsoever either to look like the Boys (if you don't count one bowtie) or actually to sound like them, noe was there any pretense of them "being" Chris and Neil. So it wasn't so much a parody as just a few rather silly moments. But I think I would be remiss not to make note of it.

35. The Pie Shop Boys- "Wigan Girls"

Under the category of "thoroughly non-professional but surprisingly good" we have a 2013 excerpt from what appears to be either a talent competition or some other sort of amateur variety show, in which a couple of guys calling themselves "The Pie Shop Boys" perform a takeoff on "West End Girls." You can catch it on YouTube, which was just made for things like this. Too bad the combo of setting and "Flasher Neil's" thick accent renders his vocals all but unintelligible to non-British ears like mine. Fortunately, one of my site visitors very kindly provided the lyrics, which include the chorus:

In a northwest town when t'pie shop's closed
Standish lads chase Wigan girls
In a northwest town when t'pie shop's closed
There's nowt as mucky as Wigan girls
Wigan girls

Wigan, incidentally, is a town in Greater Manchester in northern England, and Standish is another town nearby with which Wigan has a friendly rivalry.

36. Petshop Men - "Congratulations"

The April 10, 2013 episode of U.K. Channel 4's Anna & Katy show, starring comedians Anna Crilly and Katy Wix, concluded with a skit in which the hosts assumed the guise of morning show presenters. They introduced a "Pet Shop Boys tribute act" called "Petshop Men," who proceeded to perform a repetitive ditty (in a vaguely PSB style, of course) with the recurring line "Congratulations, you're the best. So much better than the rest," as Anna and Katy's characters indeed congratulated various people, including the crew who worked on the show. Cone-shaped hats rank right up there as "PSB signifiers," don't they?

37. The Sword and the Dope - "A Servant's Lot"

Written by Michael Horspool, the British stage musical comedy The Sword and the Dope (described by more than one critic as "Monty Pythonesque") includes a Pet Shop Boys takeoff in the form of the song "A Servant's Lot." Backed by a simple synth accompaniment, its two performers adopt an exaggeratedly deadpan/blasé "PSB demeanor" as they bemoan the hard life of a servant in medieval England and long for a better time—such as when a couple humble guys like them might be able to form a synthpop duo. A couple other guys, stepping outside the medieval setting, have also performed it on YouTube backed by what sounds for all the world like a Casio keyboard from the early 1980s. Mildly amusing, but missing its mark somewhat, it doesn't strike me as a particularly good parody. But that's only judging by this YouTube rendition, which I admit may be somewhat misleading.

38. Victoria Wood - "The Smile Song"

British comedian Victoria Wood released this song in 1991 as a Comic Relief charity single, in which she parodied an assortment of pop music artists, styles, and "looks" from the preceding decade. In both the track itself and its music video, the very first artist/style/look to receive such treatment is the Pet Shop Boys. Not only does the arrangement and mood of the song at that point make it quite obvious (being most evocative of "It Couldn't Happen Here" and "King's Cross"), but she also sends up the PSB visual style of the period as she plays the roles of both Neil and Chris. If there were any doubt about it, a couple years later she confirmed in an interview that, indeed, she was parodying PSB. She had even reportedly wanted to record it with them, but they didn't take her up on her suggestion. At any rate, she nails the eighties in general (not just the Boys) pretty darn well.

39. Pointless - "Nul Points"

Pointless is a popular British television game show that runs special editions from time to time. One such special edition airing on Saturday, May 10, 2014, was thematically devoted to the upcoming Eurovision Song Contest, during which hosts Alexander Armstrong and Richard Osman adopted a decidedly PSB-esque look and performed a somewhat PSB-esque number—though with a touch of Human League's "Keep Feeling Fascination" tossed in—titled "Nul Points." (That's what Eurovision contestants score if they fail to receive any votes from the judges, a fairly rare occurrrence.) Although this spoof was obviously done for comic effect, musically it actually wasn't half-bad.

40. Davro - "Winning Combination"

A 1991 episode of the British sketch comedy show Davro, starring comedian/impressionist Bobby Davro, included an infamous bit in which facsimiles of both Liza Minnelli and Dusty Springfield performed a song (I'm guessing its title as "Winning Combination") helmed by a similarly facsimiled "Neil" and "Chris" under the moniker "Prat Shop Boys." I say "infamous" not only because the skit clearly posited the "Boys" as gay (based on how they talk and what they say toward the end of the bit—and this was well before Neil publicly "came out"), but even more so because it quickly became the subject of a lawsuit filed by Ms. Springfield: it had depicted her as (literally) falling-down drunk. The case was settled out of court, with Dusty reportedly receiving roughly £75,000 in damages. All in all, it's one of the more vicious parodies listed here, although the "Boys" get off rather lightly compared to the "divas."

41. Comedy Club - "Сосите нашу нефть" ("Suck Our Oil!")

A September 2013 episode of the Russian TV show камеди клаб (Comedy Club) featured a rather loose takeoff on the PSB rendition of "Go West" titled "Сосите нашу нефть," which translates to "Suck Our Oil!" The gist of it is apparently that Russia may not be good at producing much of anything but petroleum products, but they're damn good at that, and anyone with complaints about Russia can—well, suck their oil. I've been told that it's quite vulgar (in keeping with the general style of the show) but also quite funny.

42. SuperGirly - "Pet Shop Boys"

Employing the melody of "West End Girls" and closely mimicking its instrumentation and arrangement, Australian actress/comedian Lulu McClatchy—in her guise as "SuperGirly, Pop Princess," with the help of her "boy toy Bradley Cooper"—seems at first to be simply covering the song. Well, that is, until you hear the lyrics. At that point it falls squarely in the realm of both parody and satire. The line about the Communards near the end is especially funny. True, it's badly dated with its very "eighties" view of the Boys (which is surprising considering that the other targets of her barbs include such stars of the new millennium as Katy Perry and Lorde), but it's no less delightful for the wear.

43. Oregón Television - "Teruel"

I'm not absolutely sure when this parody first aired on the Spanish/Aragonese comedy/music show Oregón Television, but it appears to have been as recently as November or December 2015. If that's indeed the case, then its takeoff on "Go West" would seem incredibly dated—but, then again, perhaps that's simply a testament to the indelibility of the original PSB video's imagery. It takes the familiar music and sets to it new Spanish or Aragonese lyrics (I'm not sure which since the two languages are so similar) that celebrate in a somewhat tongue-in-cheek manner the city of Teruel in eastern Spain. These guys actually do a good job of performing the music, and they have the PSB "Go West" costuming down pretty well, too, although they're clearly having the most fun with the embarrassingly clothed "Russian" background musician-singers, who demonstrate conclusively that the "video-styled" costuming (the bottom half rigged up from long-johns) does not look good on men who are out of shape.

44. Zapeando - "¿Lo Ves?"

To celebrate the November 18, 2016 third anniversary of its debut, the Spanish live afternoon TV talk/humor show Zapeando ("Zapping") aired a parody of "Go West"—not exactly the timeliest choice, but one that guaranteed audience recognition and appreciation—that incongruously took off from the Boys' "Fundamental era" look of more than a decade later. The lyrics were changed from "Go West" to "¿Lo Ves?" ("Do You See It?"), listed by name various support personnel for the show, and expressed gratitude to the viewers for watching. The show's host, Frank Blanco, assumed the "Neil role" on lead vocal, and assistant Quiche Peinado handled the "Chris role" behind the keyboard.

45. Pound Shop Boys

Surfacing in early 2017 and proclaiming themselves "Lancashire's premier synth duo," these guys are practitioners of "high-concept parody"—performance art with an ongoing multi-layered concept.* In an at least superficial way, they look and sound so much like the Pet Shop Boys that the term "parody" doesn't do them justice. It seems more like idolatry. The first Pound Shop Boys single, "Fireman Sam (It's Pontypandemonium)," is based on the theme song of a U.K. animated children's TV show, Fireman Sam, set in the fictional Welsh town of Pontypandy—hence the song's subtitle and its clear tip of the hat to the Pet Shop Boys' own "Pandemonium." It's unbelievably and quite knowingly silly, yet it's also as frothy and catchy a slice of synthpop as you're ever likely to hear in the second decade of the 21^st century. And the Pound Shop Boys' 2018 album Nostalgia (on which "Fireman Sam" appears) consists of tracks similarly derived from television shows and other pop-culture artifacts, followed by a 2020 album, Refuelled, which consists of remixes of selected tracks from the preceding album, thereby inviting comparisons to PSB's Disco. Yes, the Pound Shop Boys' high concept, at least to date, is just that: to perform TV themes and the like in a decidedly "Pet Shop Boys style," both musically and visually.

*Perhaps the most famous high-concept parody act in pop music history is Dread Zeppelin, a band that originally performed nothing but Led Zeppelin songs in a reggae style sung by a quite overweight Elvis Presley impersonator. They later incorporated covers by other artists into their repertoire as well.

46. Fantasy Football League

A June 25, 2004 episode of the U.K. TV show Fantasy Football League (1994-2004), featured hosts David Baddiel and Frank Skinner, along with their guest, retired football (soccer) star Nayim, in a skit that parodied the PSB take on "Go West." It was one of Baddiel and Skinner's recurring "Phoenix from the Flames" segments in which they comically recreate/rehash a famous moment in football history. In this case, it was Nayim's famed last-minute goal for Real Zaragoza in the 1995 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup Final against Arsenal. Donning costumes that mimic those worn by Chris and Neil in the "Go West" video, Nayim, Baddiel, and Skinner portray space aliens who manage to avoid a space-borne soccer ball that instead plummets back to earth and scores a goal. They celebrate with Nayim singing (badly) along with a recording of the song and the hosts dancing (also badly). OK, it's not much of a parody, but nobody said they have to be good. But wouldn't we love to know how Chris, a dedicated Arsenal fan, feels about this skit?

47. Los Supercívicos (in the guise of "Los Pet Drop Boys") - "Reciclar"

I hope I've got this right. Los Supercívicos (The Super Civilians) appears to be a Mexican group/organization that promotes socially progressive causes with large doses of humor. In February 2019 their video "Reciclar" ("Recycle") appeared online: musically a blatant ripoff/parody of "West End Girls"—same music, very similar arrangement—but with new lyrics (sung in Spanish) promoting recycling, especially of plastic. Its primary performers are a pair of guys calling themselves "Los Pet Drop Boys," clearly attempting to parody the Pet Shop Boys, albeit not too closely. That is, they take no pains to try actually to look, sound, or behave like them, although the overall "feel," with the hardhats and jumpsuits, draws upon the Very era.

48. The Various Assortments (in the guise of "Pie Shop Boys") - "(There Can Only Be) One Winner"

An elaborate parody posted online (including on YouTube) in 2012, this original song by the U.K. band The Various Assortments (Paul Program and Keiron Patrick Standfield, plus sometime-guitarist Chris Garnett)—who describe themselves as an "original unsigned ambient electronic rock music band from Liskeard in Cornwall"—is performed in a decidedly PSB style circa 1987, give or take. Lyrically, it celebrates competition with the repeated refrain "There can only be one winner." And while it mentions all manner of competitive endeavors, ranging from the Olympic Games and the New York Marathon to King Kong vs. Godzilla, it zeroes in (with a big, knowing wink) on pie-eating contests as its main point of interest; hence the "Pie Shop Boys." It's taken from a satirical musical titled Pies, composed by The Various Assortments themselves, though yet to be produced for the stage. The vocalist sounds nothing like Neil, but the music does a better than a passing job of evoking the style and mood of mid- to late-eighties Pet Shop Boys. That, along with the "Pie Shop Boys" moniker, qualifies it for inclusion here as a genuine PSB performance parody.

49. Galway Bay FM / Molly in the Morning / Sport GBFM - "West End Hurls"

It's really not much of a "parody" as far as I'm concerned, but there's no disputing it's at least a PSB "takeoff." On May 25, 2018 the show "Molly in the Morning" on Ireland's Galway Bay FM radio station aired a recording titled "West End Hurls": an adaptation of "West End Girls" given new lyrics concerning the upcoming championship hurling match between Galway and Kilkenny. (For those of you not familiar with hurling—as I certainly wasn't before researching the matter—it's an ancient Gaelic team sport that bears some similarities to lacrosse and field hockey.) The rappers/singers (and I use those terms very loosely) make no effort whatsoever to sound like Neil and Chris—the latter of whom is presumably meant to be joining in on vocals—despite "identifying" themselves as such at the start of the track. It's all rather mystifying to those of us utterly unfamiliar with hurling and/or the communities involved, but I'm sure it must have been quite amusing to anyone better acquainted with the relevant subject and parties.

50. Highways England - "Go Left"

I had some difficulty determining precisely where this rather bizarre item best belongs here on my website. It's an ad promoting highway safety, but it's not actually the Pet Shop Boys or even actually the song "Go West" (but rather a takeoff on it), so it doesn't belong in my list of PSB songs used in TV commercials. But since it does obviously parody the Boy's hit version of "Go West," with a virtually identical arrangement and a lead vocalist clearly intended to mimic Neil, I figure it belongs here. Highways England, a government agency charged with operating and improving England's major roads, unveiled in March 2021 a new public-service promo that encourages motorists experiencing automotive trouble to "go left"—that is, to pull over to the left side of the road at their first safe opportunity. The "performers" of the song in the spot are a pair of giant, singing bugs on the windshield wielding a boombox and a keytar.

51. Beard Meets Food - "Scoffing"

Adam Moran is a British professional competitive eater and a vlogger/YouTuber who is better known by his moniker "Beard Meats Food." One of his video postings from May 2021, which concerns a mixed-grill eating challenge in the U.K. town of Mansfield, starts with a brief but obvious parody of the PSB song "Shopping," only in this case it's "Scoffing." It's actually one of a long line of Moran's musical parodies, which invariably involve changing pop-song lyrics to involve food and/or eating. In case you're wondering, "scoffing" is indeed eating-related slang; instead of its standard meaning of mocking or ridiculing something or someone, its slang meaning is to eat to excess—that is, to stuff your face. He even gives the Pet Shop Boys a brief, good-natured shoutout by name at the end of his parody.

52. Almost Angelic - "Opportunities"

The British sketch comedy The Karen Dunbar Show had a recurring bit where a tribute band calling themselves Almost Angelic, portrayed by Dunbar herself and Tom Urie, offered frankly awful takeoffs—their sheer awfulness being the gist of the joke—on assorted musical acts. The first episode of the second series (which first aired on Feburary 20, 2004) featured Almost Angelic mimicking the Pet Shop Boys and Sonny and Cher, among others. Their PSB "tribute" involved a blessedly brief snippet of "Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money)." It's not so much a parody of the Boys themselves as it is of marginally talented people trying and failing to sound like them, but I'm counting it here nonetheless.

53. Zara Gladman - "West End Mums"

This inhabitant of Glasgow, Scotland with a Ph.D. in Ecology and experience in developing engaging video content for assorted projects earned a following on TikTok with her comic observations of the city and impressions of her fellow Glaswegians. One of her most popular videos is her takeoff on "West End Girls" retitled "West End Mums," set to the original PSB music (or an excellent replication of it) with her own "Scot rap" replacing Neil's "Brit rap." Making fun of her presumably fellow West End Mums, she raps about drinking wine and oat lattes, eating pastries, gossiping, and shopping. It's essentially not so much a parody of the Boys as a Glaswegian satire set to PSB music—a pastiche of sorts.

—plus some borderline cases:

Sometimes there's a fine line between "tribute" and "parody." While there's almost always at least some element of tribute, if only backhandedly, in any parody, elements of parody can also appear in even the most heartfelt tributes. Perhaps the chief signifier is humor.

• Back in 1993, shortly before the release of Very, the Pet Shop Boys were interviewed in their "Can You Forgive Her?" guises on the BBC2 music show The O-Zone. The interviewer, Andi Peters, wore an orange shirt and "dunce cap" while interacting with them in the video's computer-generated otherworld. As a result, he seems to be "semi-parodying" them—at least as they appear in that video—although, more than anything else, it simply comes across as some good-natured fun to which the Boys had given their complete blessing. By the way, it's a delightful interview, which for the time being you can watch on YouTube.

• I've never really thought of the 2008 single "Jizz in My Pants" by Andy Samberg's comedy-music group The Lonely Island as a PSB parody—it's too markedly different in style and (in the video) visuals—but many nevertheless regard it as such. And, to be sure, the faux standard British accents adopted by Samberg and partner Jorma Taccone (both Americans) suggest that there's at least an element of PSB parody underpinning this silly bit of vulgarly juvenile humor. But the fact that it has two vocalist/rappers, not one, trading off their bits in a way that Neil and Chris have never done, as well as other stylistic dissimilarities, firmly places it in the "borderline" category, at least in my book.

• Alastair Douglas and Rhys Evans, collectively known as The MFA—which reportedly stands for "Mother-F**king Allstars"—are a U.K. synth duo of a younger generation. The Pet Shop Boys have clearly served as inspirations to them. The MFA have paid tribute in various ways, including their music video for "Throw It Back (We Will Destroy You)," which is very clearly an homage to the "West End Girls" video. (It perhaps, to a much lesser extent, draws upon the "Love Comes Quickly" and "So Hard" vids as well.) Although visually it covers similar ground as the Flight of the Conchords' "Inner City Pressure," discussed above as an outright parody, the MFA song itself betrays no elements of PSB parody at all. That just leaves the video, which, at least to this observer, seems much too direct and affectionate to be called a "parody"—even if The MFA do have a reputation for being a bit "daft."

• All three members of the band Keane are professed PSB fans. In an extremely informal "mini-doc" that appeared both on the official Keane website and on YouTube in April 2009, lead singer Tom Chaplin does his off-camera vocal "impression" of Neil singing bits of "Opportunities," "Rent" (getting the latter lyrics wrong), and—if you stick around until the very end and the screen has gone black—"Always on My Mind." Frankly, I don't think he sounds much like Neil at all, but it certainly cracks up his bandmates. I guess you had to be there. It's an affectionate bit of goofing around, to be sure, though perhaps not elaborate enough to be considered a true "parody."

• Reportedly no longer active, the tribute band Pet Shop Noise clearly paid homage to the Boys, but from what I gather (I never saw nor heard them myself) overt humor wasn't a major aspect of their performances. So the term "parody" probably doesn't apply well to them.

• In the same category I'd place a comparatively new tribute band (apparently starting around 2009) who call themselves—are you ready for this?—Pet Shop Boys Tribute Band, or just Pet Shop Boys Tribute for short. I'd have to say that they make up in accuracy what they may lack in imagination. At least I've been able to find a picture of them—something I'd never been able to do for Pet Shop Noise. From what I've heard of them (on YouTube), they do a more than passable job of replicating the "PSB sound."

• And then there's the case of Isabelle and Rosanna, the West End Girls—a Swedish female duo who (at least to date) perform nothing but PSB covers, pattern themselves after Neil and Chris, and have adopted PSB iconography lock, stock, and tongue-in-cheek barrel. The transposition of "PSB semiotics" to women strongly suggests an inherently funny form of "faux drag," made all the more humorous by the intently straight-faced demeanor of the Girls in question, the occasional tongue-sticking-out-of-cheek notwithstanding. So is it tribute or parody? No law says that it can't be both. If you're interested, their debut album, Goes Petshopping (retitled We Love Pet Shop Boys in the U.S.), was released in June 2006. And it's not bad at all.

• It wasn't really a parody, and it was of only half of PSB, but I'd truly hate myself if I didn't mention TV writer Andy McNally's impersonation of Neil Tennant on a 1999 episode of the British TV show Stars in Their Eyes. Frankly, I don't think he actually looked or sounded much at all like Neil, but he had the costuming—borrowed from the final numbers of the Boys' classic Performance show—fabulously down pat. And, to his credit, I think his heart was in the right place. That is, he appears to display genuine affection for the subject of his impersonation. And apparently this wasn't the first time someone had paid tribute to Neil on Stars in the Eyes. One Adrian Pye reportedly appeared in the role of Neil singing "Go West" on a 1995 episode. I don't have any photos of his performance, however.

• The October 22, 2015 edition of the Sky 1 TV show Bring the Noise featured a guest appearance by former Doctor Who actor David Tennant, well known among his fellow PSB fans for having borrowed his stage surname from Neil. He paid further tribute to the Boys by teaming up with English rapper Tinie Tempah and Canadian actress-comedian Katherine Ryan for a comic rendition of "West End Girls." It didn't seem so much a parody of the Pet Shop Boys themselves as a parody of a performance of that particular song, if that makes sense. But it still deserves a mention here.

• Another quasi-parody/tribute occurred on the 1990s German television show Mini Playback, a weekly competition that featured children mimicking pop music stars and lipsynching to their music. The Pet Shop Boys were of course ripe for this sort of treatment. And, sure enough, one episode in December 1994 saw a couple of youngsters assume the costumed roles of Chris and Neil, accompanied by an equally "mini" black Statue of Liberty and, far more inexplicably, a cadre of dancing kids dressed in American football uniforms.

• The April 4, 2021 edition of the Russian television show Точь-в-точь (meaning "Exactly the Same"), which is based on the American 2013–14 TV show Sing Your Face Off, included a tribute/parody rendition of "It's a Sin" starring Russian pop singer Mitya Fomin in the role of Neil. (Fomin, very much a PSB fan, had previously in 2013 recorded a "quasi-cover" of "Paninaro '95" titled "Paninaro 2011 (Огни большого города).")

• In January 2014 the Italian sports/entertainment TV show Quelli che... il Calcio ("Those Who… Enjoy Football") featured an execrably bad parody—in fact, I'm not even sure it merits that desgination, which is why I'm listing it here among the questionable "also-rans"—again based on and miming to "Go West," only this time performed (and I use that word loosely) by adults. (What's up with the twenty-plus-year-old pop culture references?) It's so lame that I must assume it was meant to be "so bad that it's good." But, if that's the case, I don't believe they're very successful even in that. Maybe it was more amusing for the live studio audience, many of whom indeed seemed amused—though, to be sure, many others simply appeared bewildered.

• I'm not sure it actually qualifies (is it really a "PSB performance parody?"), but I nevertheless feel obliged to mention the "Go East" recording and video created by the staff of the Edinburgh Evening News to celebrate the 2012 all-Edinburgh Scottish Cup Finals (football/soccer). True, the video has little if anything to do with the Boys—unless you regard the two dancing pandas as their stand-ins—but the music is indisputably done in the style of their classic rendition of "Go West," which itself has long been a staple at U.K. sporting events.

• Virtually everybody who has ever written about "The Hairstyle of the Devil" by the Scottish artist Momus (né Nicholas Currie; friends call him Nick), from his 1989 album Don't Stop the Night, has observed its unmistakable Pet Shop Boyishness. Momus appears, in fact, to be very much a PSB fan, having contributed his cover of "So Hard" to the 2001 tribute album Very Introspective, Actually and writing or talking about them on various occasions. He even sampled them in his 1988 track "A Complete History of Sexual Jealousy (Parts 17–24)." So "The Hairstyle of the Devil" may not actually be a PSB parody or even a PSB tribute, but its PSB stylistic verisimilitude is so profound that it must be a PSB something. And from my perspective that makes it, at the very least, a borderline case well worth mentioning here. Oh, did I mention that it's an absolutely fantastic track?

• Finally, there's the unique tale of British songwriter and producer Jonathan King's 1987 remake of Cat Stevens's "Wild World" in the style of the Pet Shop Boys' "It's a Sin." King's point wasn't so much to parody PSB as to support his repeated public contention that Tennant and Lowe had plagiarized the melody of the Stevens song. To further his point, the single's cover art parodied the cover of Actually (with a "constructed" image of King himself and Stevens substituting for Chris and Neil) and featured the words "actually, It's a sin—to steal." (King also offered a bit of guilt-by-association evidence in the form of the b-side: the old Chiffons hit "He's So Fine" performed in the style of George Harrison's "My Sweet Lord." These two songs had been at the center of a notorious legal case more than a decade before, in which Harrison had been found guilty of unintentionally plagiarizing the older song.) At any rate, the Boys sued King and The Sun, which had published King's allegations. The case was settled out of court to the Boys' advantage, and they donated the undisclosed sum awarded them to charity. All this aside, although parody may not have been the objective, it was, in essence, a side-effect.*

*By the way, in case you're wondering whether I believe King's allegations had any merit, let me put it like this. His rendition of "Wild World" à la "It's a Sin" underscores both the similarities and the differences of the two melodies. That is, yes, they're similar—there's no getting around it. But they're also sufficiently different to completely absolve Neil and Chris of plagiarism. In fact, I believe that King's quasi-parody, if anything, truly weakened his case. And in case you're also wondering, the composer of "Wild World" himself remained publicly silent and neutral during the entire affair, although Neil has stated, "Yusuf Islam [the former Cat Stevens] wrote us a very charming letter offering to mediate at one point." Years later, King himself would maintain that he never actually accused the Boys of "stealing" anything, which sounds to me like an attempt at historical revisionism, albeit perhaps an understandable one. After all, at the very start of King's "Wild World" recording in the style of "It's a Sin," a voice repeatedly intones, "You're not getting away with it." Getting away with what, pray tell? Of course there was that statement right there on the cover, "actually, it's a sin—to steal."