Imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery, but it's a safe bet Kanye West and Kim Kardashian aren't overly thrilled about two comic actors making fun of their romance in a new music-video parody.
Us magazine reports that James Franco and Canada's own Seth Rogen have created their own parody version of West's racy Bound 2 music video, in which the controversial rapper professes his love for his reality-TV baby mama and shows it by riding through the desert on a motorcycle with a seemingly naked Kardashian.
To say that West and Kardashian simulate having sex in the Bound 2 video is probably a huge understatement. You can watch the original version here.
The raunchy video obviously made an impression on Franco and Rogen, who created their own version, titled Bound 3, and shared it through Facebook on Monday morning.
To get the word out, Rogen took to Twitter to post the following comment: "Hey @KimKardashian & @kanyewest check out what me and @JamesFrancoTV did on the set of @TheInterview."
Franco chimed in with his own tweet referring to the remake as, "A little video Seth and I made in our down time."
What they made was one of the funniest music parodies in a long time. The video opens with the following message: "While on the set of their movie, The Interview, James Franco and Seth Rogen felt inspired to recreate their favourite new video. Shot. For. Shot."
Which is exactly what they did. The Franco-Rogen version is literally a replica of the West-Kardashian video, and even uses the same audio track, except that in place of the randy rapper and his lady love, it's two comic actors playing it dead serious in their expression of love for each other, which only makes it funnier.
In the parody version, Franco assumes the Kanye position and manfully drives a motorcycle down a desert highway as he lip-synchs his way through West's lyrics ("You remember when we first met?").
In the Kardashian role, Rogen goes shirtless and holds nothing back in expressing his physical affection for his friend and frequent co-star. The pair cuddle and caress each other and as in the original, it appears they're having relations on the moving motorcycle.
As of late Monday, neither Kanye (10 million Twitter followers) nor Kardashian (18 million followers) have deigned to respond to the parody, but it's possible they may be saving their opinion for a talk show or their coming nuptials, which may or may not be a TV event.
So far, the Bound 3 video parody has garnered more than 150,000 views on YouTube, with the most accurate review coming from Slate: "James Franco looks appropriately world-weary in the role of Kanye West, but the real star of this 'Bound 2' send-up is definitely Seth Rogen's back hair.