Hilarious Taylor Swift Parody ‘Bad Science’ Pokes Fun at Climate Deniers
NEW YORK: A new parody of Taylor Swift’s Bad Blood music video pokes fun at the
hypocrisy and absurdity of climate change deniers.
Titled ‘Bad Science’, the video stars YouTube science communicator Jayde Lovell as Swift, a
fembot named ‘The Educator’, designed to wage war against those who reject or misuse
scientific evidence.
Just like the real Bad Blood video, Bad Science comes complete with fight scenes and fiery
explosions. The Educator is accompanied by a squadron of females from different scientific
fields – including The Dissector (Medicine), Elektron (Physics), Femgyver (Engineering) and
Arsynic (Chemistry). Lovell’s team are shown training for combat together in an underground
lab, using scalpels, beakers and electrical cords as weapons.
The parody video was created by ScIQ, a new partner channel with TYT Network (the media
company behind the world’s largest online news channel, The Young Turks). ScIQ’s creators
– screenwriter Lovell and writer/producer Bec Susan Gill also wrote the lyrics.
“While a large majority of the American population accepts the science that proves humans
are causing global warming – somehow, half the U.S. Senate are climate deniers – and that’s
because people are voting them in,” said Lovell.
“We really wanted to say something about this, but the reality is, facts and logic don’t often
get people’s attention. But pop songs with girls in skintight leather pulling each other’s hair out
– that get’s people’s attention,” said Gill.
The video also features famed astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson’s character in place of
rapper Kenrick Lamar, accusing Republicans of believing the earth is flat. Bill Nye’s ‘The
Science Guy’ character also makes a cameo, claiming that grade schoolers grasp basic
science better than climate deniers.
In one scene, Gill (who also co-directed the video), provokes Lovell to fight by covering her
face with a cutout mask of Sarah Palin’s head. In another, Lovell compares climate denier’s
ignorance to the fast-acting virility of Chlamydia.
While the video is meant to be funny and entertaining, it contains serious political messages,
such as the chorus: “Now the Earth got problems / Don’t worry science can solve them / Just
don’t make anymore budget cuts / And keep your hands off NASA!”
The song’s bridge ponders the US’s administration’s devolving relationship with the life
sciences, which took a turn for the worse when NASA discovered man’s involvement in
climate change: “Evolution, gravity / Nukes, moon walks, electricity / You loved all these
discoveries / So how can you deny, global warming?”
The video was shot at YouTube Space New York, under the ‘World of Superheroes’ initiative
– a collaboration between Google and comics legend Stan Lee to encourage creators to
produce original content for the world’s biggest video destination. Lee’s Pow!
Entertainment set up “cinematic-quality sets” at YouTube Spaces five global studios –
allowing top creators opportunity to shoot in the sets including a secret lair with a high-tech
command centre, science lab and weapons locker.
“When we saw the Superheroes set– it reminded us so much of the Bad Blood video clip. We
had the idea to apply Taylor’s take-no-prisoners attitude to waging war against the enemies of
scientific reason. Which is essentially what we do everyday with our daily show on ScIQ. But
it was pretty fun to wage a make-believe war… all in the name of science, of course,” Lovell
said.
Lovell and Gill, both originally from Australia, have been making satirical science videos such
as Top 10 Tips To Survive The Climate Change Apocalypse! and The Truth About Aspartame
(A Mean Girls Parody) for almost a year under their former YouTube channel Did Someone
Say Science?. They launched their new channel, ScIQ, under the TYT Network earlier this
month.
For interviews or images, contact:
Jayde Lovell
jayde@tytnetwork.com
+1 347 698 3291 (NYC)
Bec Susan Gill
bec@tytnetwork.com
+1 646 595 7087 (NYC)
Bellman Agency
emelye.lovell@bellmanagency.com.au +61 400 004 110 (AUS)
ABOUT ‘THE YOUNG TURKS’ AND TYT NETWORK
TYT Network is the largest online news network in the world, covering politics, pop culture and
lifestyle. TYT Network is one of YouTube's top partner channels and has over 100 million views a
month and more than 2 billion total views on The Young Turks YouTube channel. The Young
Turks received the 2013, 2014, and 2015 People's Voice Webby Awards for best news and politics
series, 2011 News/Politics Shorty Award, Best Political Podcast 2009 at the Podcast Awards and
Best Political News Site 2009 at the Mashable Awards.