Will.i.am & Cody Wise Recreate Viral Vines For “It’s My Birthday” Video: Watch

Forget casting calls. For their new “It’s My Birthday” video, will.i.am and protege Cody Wise found the biggest Vine and YouTube stars to recreate their most viral skits and clips. Just how big are they? One star, King Bach, was on the cover of New York last month. He has 6.6 million followers on Vine, partially for realizing that fights and people getting injured are what’s most popular there.

As a result, “It’s My Birthday” is just bonkers. There’s a birthday party gone wrong, twerking in a room decorated with pizzas and Claymation. will.i.am poses as a priest in one scene, then Jesus in another. At one point, he’s in the delivery room, taking a selfie while a woman gives birth – to a baby that looks like will.i.am. We had to warn you.

Casting and crowd-sourcing this way is a smart move, for sure. Being inspired by Vines, clips meant to grab your attention in just seconds, seems like a surefire way to get noticed online; already, the video’s been viewed more than 16,000 times. But it’s rather telling that not even the most bizarre parts of “It’s My Birthday” can distract from the cringeworthy lyrics (“Que bonita, que bonita / I can speak in Japanese / Kawaii, kawaii / Kawaii, I want your body”) of this A.R. Rahman remake.

These Vine and YouTube stars may well be the future of entertainment. For now though, they deserve to be part of a song that’s way better than this one.

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