Brilliant! That Lady Gaga Bad Romance parody
I saw the Zheng Lab – Lady Gaga parody (Bad Project) viral YouTube video just a week ago and can’t stop thinking about it! I’ve contributed at least five of the 2.6M hits, tweeted about it, and forwarded the link to four people! Hopefully blogging about it will finally get it out of my system.
You see, I’ve spent a lot of time working in or near a molecular biology lab so this video was the perfect combination of science references, research angst, use of all the equipment I’ve used, weird dancing, and funny head-bobbing Asians! Items so prosaic to me from my own experience could be incorporated into the frantic yet glamourous “monsters” universe: tight blue nitrile gloves, lab smocks, and manic shakers.
NPY does not usually follow through with watching all of what I show him but he stuck it out, in no small part due to the brilliance of the parody of a song he already loves. He totally cracked up when the Chinese lab tech (male) echoed the lead female’s lament, in Mandarin:
我要工作 I want a job / 我要自由 I wanna have freedom
我要工作 I want a job / 但我沒有學位 But I’ve got no degree
(Hey, is it just me or did he keep singing yǒu instead of yào?)
Well, to answer that question, the three lines do not at all correspond to potential labels for samples. Rather they echoed the themes of the lyrics–
First line: Liar/deception
Second line: Experiment is not cool, not given result
Third line: No prospects/future
You know me (obsessive) and I admired how the group did the whole five-minute song with different content throughout. So I transcribed the lyrics for your follow-along pleasure in the following. Enjoy!
Oh oh oh… caught in bad project (x2)
x2
Why why why oh why
Do I waste my time?
Why why why oh why
Hate this bad project
In my rotation, you said guaranteed
One year (=) first author, is all I would need
But you just lied,
Lied lied lied but you just lied
You were defending, out foot out the door
I got your project and its problems galore
I hate my life,
Life life life I hate my life (x2)
You know that I want you
And you know that I need you
I got a bad, bad project
I want good data,
A paper in Cell
But I got a project straight from hell
I wanna graduate in less than 5 years
But there ain’t no getting out of here
Oh oh oh… caught in bad project (x2)
Why why why oh why
Do I waste my time?
Why why why oh why
Got a bad project
Your tubes aren’t labeled,
Your lab book’s a mess
And all this gives me such incredible stress
What is that smell?
Cells cells cells just lost brain cells
I got your psycho,
Your crazy ass mice
Can’t read your protocol it’s written in Thai
What’s in this box?
What what what what’s in this box?
You know that I want you
And you know that I need you
I got a bad, bad project
I want good data,
A paper in Cell
But I got a project straight from hell
I wanna graduate in less than 5 years
But there ain’t no getting out of here
Oh oh oh… caught in bad project (x2)
Why why why oh why
Did I chose this life?
Why why why oh why
Hate this bad project
Blot blot Western baby
Figure one will be amazing
Blot blot Western baby
Transfer – this exposure’s hazy
Blot blot Western baby
Got no bands this shit is crazy
Blot blot Wesern baby
Work it blot that bitch crazy
I want a job
And I wanna be free
I want a job
But I ain’t got no degree
Wo you gong zou
Wo he you zee you
Wo you gong zou
Dan wo mei yao xue wei
But I got no degree
I don’t wanna be poor
Got your bad project (x2)
Commitee’s angry and my PI is bored
She don’t want to fund me anymore
I wanna give up and I want outta here
Gotta find an alternate career
Got your bad project (x3)
Why why why oh why
Want my mice to die
And I want to cry
Hate this bad project
You are wrong. It is really yǒu. Think in context of the song. She’s singing in Chinese (to mirror Lady Gaga’s French) that she wants to work (as opposed to being a grad student forever) and wants to be free (out of the jail cell of a research facility), but she has no degree. yǒu means have. She has no degree. I’m sure she wants a degree, though. Hence yǒu.