Кассетбой: Юмор и музыка из британских медиа

English electronic music and comedy duo

Cassetteboy are an English electronic music and comedy duo. The pair have achieved success with their cut ups of celebrities such as Alan Sugar and David Cameron to make parodies of their subjects. Several of the duo's videos have gone viral, with 50 millions views on their own YouTube alone. Despite their success, Cassetteboy made no money from their videos due to their questionable legal status, until a revision of UK copyright law in 2014.

Cassetteboy is a duo of Mark Bolton and Steve Warlin, though the pair prefer to remain anonymous. Bolton has worked writing audio descriptions for the blind, while Warlin has worked in various Irish pubs and in an art gallery. Their initial appearance was on the Di and Dodi Do Die 7" Record released in 2000 on the Spymania offshoot Barry's Bootlegs, owned by a mysterious character known as Barry Evans, thought to be a pseudonym. As well as producing two albums of their own, they have recorded on an album with DJ Rubbish entitled Inside A Whale's Cock Vol 1, which includes humorous cover versions of songs by Alanis Morissette and Jennifer Lopez (a skiffle cover of "Jenny from the Block"), along with a parodical take on a song by The Streets. Their 2008 album, Carry On Breathing, was a concept album that "tells the story of human life through the medium of EastEnders samples".

In 2008, the duo progressed to using videos and the internet, in order to teach themselves video editing. They initially struggled with new technology; the "Cassetteboy" page on Facebook and feed on Twitter were owned by other people. The first video uploaded to YouTube was a mashup of then Prime Minister Gordon Brown. As of October 2014, the video has had over 5 million views on YouTube. Cassetteboy contributed some of the video clips for spoof clip show 2009 Unwrapped with Miranda Hart, and is credited on at least one episode of BBC Radio 4's spoof clip show Listen Against. In 2010, the duo helped judge entries for London Recut, a project to encourage amateur filmmakers to produce their own work about the city. In October 2014, Cassetteboy released "Cameron's Conference Rap", featuring cut up clips of British Prime Minister David Cameron speaking at the annual Conservative Party Conference, set to Eminem's "Lose Yourself". During the following week, the video was viewed 3.5 million times, while Cameron's official speech video only had 44,000. In September 2015, Cassetteboy responded to the "Piggate" scandal (the claim that Cameron had once inserted "a private part of his anatomy" into the mouth of a dead pig's head in an initiation ritual) with the viral hit Gettin' Piggy With It. In April 2016, Cassetteboy released "Cassetteboy vs Jeremy Hunt", in response to strike action by NHS junior doctors over contract changes introduced by Jeremy Hunt, the current UK Health Secretary. The video contains mashups of Hunt's recent speeches over the tune of YMCA by the Village People.

The duo have started to perform live concerts, which feature a variety of video mashups and other satirical material. They favour performing pop hits with additional voices for humorous effect, such as 50 Cent's "In Da Club" with Jeremy Paxman overdubbed.

The context of their work is often political, but always maintains a humorous aspect. The duo describe themselves as left leaning politically and think that "it’s good to have a point of view and too much comedy these days is bland and inoffensive". The duo have been approached by advertising agencies to make videos, but have been forced to refuse due to the resulting work being illegal. In an interview for The Guardian, Cassetteboy said "There’s obviously public demand for our videos, but it was more or less impossible for people to pay us to actually make them". The duo compared their edited parody of Dragon's Den to the live action sketch by Harry and Paul, noting that the content was similar but the legal status significantly different. which was in the running to become the Christmas Number One slot alongside LadBaby's "Sausage Rolls for Everyone". After LadBaby's Mark Hoyle criticised the song in an interview, Cassetteboy joined the discussion stating that "Looks like 'Boris Johnson is Still a F***ing C***' getting to number one would annoy LadBaby too, who seems to be tough on food poverty, completely f***ing oblivious to the causes of food poverty."