FIFTY SHADES OF Grey is the publishing sensation of the year, if not the decade.
EL James’s erotic trilogy has been read by everyone from shop assistants to stockbrokers to (probably) your mother. It’s the new Harry Potter, except with bondage instead of boarding school. (And no wizards.)
It’s even been credited with boosting sex toy sales in Cork, according to the Cork Independent.
And like any good phenomenon, Fifty Shades has sparked a melee of tributes, parodies and spin-offs. These are our favourites:
7. Fifty Sheds of Grey
The original and still one of the best. Like Fifty Shades of Grey, only with sheds.
6. 50 Shades: The Musical
“Mommy porn at women’s rights’ expense”. We think they’ve probably nailed it.*
YouTube/AVByte
* Ahem. No pun intended.
5. Fifty Shades of Grey Karaoke
Courtesy of comedian and talk show host Jimmy Fallon: passages from Fifty Shades, set to music and sung out of tune.
YouTube/latenight
4. 50 Shades of Suck
Not so much a parody actually, more of a rant. Badly-written sentences from the book, with annotations pointing out as much. Persuasive.
3. 50 Shades of SFW
Ellen DeGeneres reads Fifty Shades of Grey on daytime TV, working around the naughty bits. Which is most of it. Includes sound effects.
YouTube/TheEllenShow
2. 50 shades of Actual Grey
Courtesy of The Hairpin, who have exhaustively examined the book to determine the precise fifty shades of grey we’re really talking about here. A brief extract:
- Walrus body grey
- Steve Buscemi body grey
- Oops I forgot those English muffins were back there grey
- Nintendo box grey
- Tuna Salad grey
- Vomit after eating grey tuna salad grey
1. #IrishShadesofGrey
We really couldn’t have anything else at the top of the list. The hashtag that sustained many Irish people through much of early July, when they weren’t donning marine-grade oilskins or wringing the water out of their pets. A sample:
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