This is a comedy site, but rock God and androgynous British spaceman David Bowie is enough of a pop cultural icon with legitimate comedy chops — Extras, Zoolander, that video for “Dancing in the Streets” with Mick Jagger — for us to give him some recognition on his 66th birthday. (May we all be that cool when we are pensioners — because British.) Here then are 6 of the funniest Fake Bowies of all time, encompassing a number of Bowie’s many eras and alter egos.
Fake Space Allegory Bowie
This Flight of the Conchords highlight has about a thousand Bowie references, but the presentation is most reminiscent of Bowie when he’s doing songs about space that are really about drugs (as all songs about space are), such as “Space Oddity” and its sequel, “Ashes to Ashes.”
Fake Ziggy Stardust Bowie
Last sportsball season, Jimmy Fallon did a recurring bit on his show as Tebowie, a mashup between Bowie’s most recognizable character Ziggy Stardust, and lucky quarterback and outspoken Christian Tim Tebow. You probably saw it; it was bigger than Jesus, or, if you’re so inclined, Ziggy Stardust, who is a Christ figure.
Fake Labyrinth Bowie
Fat Guy Stuck in Internet, an Adult Swim show about a fat guy who gets stuck in the Internet and wanders around a bunch of crazy worlds, originated as a UCB project. The show’s most memorable moment comes then from UCB co-founder Matt Besser who stars as a thinly veiled parody of Bowie’s portrayal of Jareth the Goblin King from Labyrinth. Boogie, baby. Boogie.
Two Fake Christmas Bowies
In this meta 2002 Canadian Christmas special, The Kids in the Hall’s Dave Foley plays Dave Foley, who hosts a Christmas special in a snowy cabin a few feet away from a beach and learns about the real meaning of Christmas… specials. Foley meets and plays David Bowie, a Christmas tradition himself thanks to that weird, overly made-up, condescendingly scripted sketch and take on “The Little Drummer Boy” he did with Bing Crosby in 1977. Joe Flaherty plays Crosby as some kind of weird elf.
And in 2010, Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly did a complete reenactment of, although with the hostility between Crosby and Bowie, more than bubbling over, in this Funny or Die video.
Fake Mature Bowie
Bowie has lasted longer than most other rock stars, both physically and culturally, because he carries with him a gravitas and authority, a gravitas and authority that has helped him survive a public admission of bisexuality in the not-ready ‘70s, a vocal fascination with fascism, and worst of all, his metal band Tin Machine, whose performance on SNL was the worst performance on SNL until Lana Del Rey came along. Today, Bowie is a gentleman god, a cool rock star grandpa guy capable of near superhuman abilities. On The Venture Brothers, David Bowie, aka “The Soverign” (as portrayed by James Urbaniak) is that exactly.
And as a bonus, here’s his new song that was just released today, the first single off his upcoming album The Next Day, his first in a decade. Bowie!
Brian Boone knows it’s time to change the oil. (Ch-ch-changes.) Don’t wanna be an oily man.
