In an election year, it’s often easy to become buried in cynicism. Which is what makes a Broadway musical like Hamilton so special. It’s the kind of soundtrack one can listen to and simultaneously feel engaged in American history and surrounded by rhythmic entertainment. It’s hard to listen to the masterful music and lyrics from Lin-Manuel Miranda and not feel a little bit better about anything and everything that’s happening around you. I know that’s a happy place in which I find myself often.
One of the core themes of Hamilton, which follows the rise of American Founding Father Alexander Hamilton, is the notion that he was a man of ambition. Nary an opportunity was wasted for Hamilton, a man who began his life as an orphan and rose to become one of the most influential individuals in the history of the United States. One song in particular, “My Shot,” is dedicated to this idea that Hamilton refused to pass on the opportunities laid in front of him. Performed by Miranda, Anthony Ramos, Daveed Diggs, Okieriete Onaodowan, and Leslie Odom, Jr., the original broadway recording goes something like this:
Try listening to that song a few times and not feeling inspired to go out and carpe some diem. Just like any great lyrical accomplishment, it was inevitable that a song like “My Shot” would eventually find itself parodied. It’s exactly what YouTuber Jackson Lanzing has done with “My Spock.” He’s taking Miranda’s beat and created a rhyme that focuses on Star Trek‘s Mr. Spock from the 2009 J.J. Abrams reboot. We get the lyrical stylings of Mr. Spock, Captain Kirk and even Nero.
It’s a particularly nerdy turn on Hamilton that would probably delight even Lin-Manuel Miranda, who reportedly worked on some music for the Cantina scene in Star Wars: The Force Awakens. For Miranda, the next place film fans will experience his work (unless you’re lucky enough to see Hamilton on Broadway) is composing and singing on the soundtrack for Disney’s Moana, which is out in November.
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