Lip syncing an Alanis Morissette song turned a Fort Worth police officer into a star
The year was 1995 when Canadian-American singer Alanis Morissette, who was already a star, released the third single, called "Ironic," from her worldwide smash-hit album "Jagged Little Pill" and it tore up billboard charts, eventually reaching 33 million sales.
It solidified Morissette's album as legendary; it's even become a musical, according to an NPR story.
"She just put so much emotion into her songs that I couldn't help but be a fan," Fort Worth Police Department Public Information Officer Bradley Perez said. "I knew that if I was going to (re-create) this video out of respect for her, she gave it her all so I have to at least do the same thing."
Twenty-three years later, Perez has re-created the smash hit video for "Ironic" as part of a viral in-car lip sync battle between local Texas police departments. The chunky cop lip sync's the words as Morissette's voice soars. As he drives along, his handcuffed double in the backseat of the squad car picks up the song. Then a second suspect in the backseat — Perez dressed in drag — chimes in. Before long, the cop's partner — Perez sporting a mustache — joins the band. It mimics Morissette's original video with Morissette playing all four parts.
Four days and 2 million views later, Perez and the Fort Worth Police Department are sitting on the viral video throne in the lip sync battle.
He said Tuesday that when he clicked the publish button to the Fort Worth police Facebook page on June 29, he had a sense of both fear and excitement.
"I was a little scared before I hit that post button," said Perez. "But I also knew this was going to be something really big or really lame; but I didn't know which.
"When it took off I was obviously relieved, but the best part was hearing all these people saying that they were singing along and that it brought them back ... singing this song at the top of their lungs 20-plus years ago," Perez said.
Perez's video mimics the original Morissette video which has a winter theme, with her playing different characters inside the car.
Perez laughed when asked about re-creating the winter look with a hat, jacket and gloves in 100-degree temperatures in late June in Fort Worth.
"I filmed it on Thursday and Friday. I completely re-enacted the music video because I wanted to keep it authentic," said Perez. "It made sense because all these lip sync videos were police officers singing inside of a vehicle."
But the viral success of his latest video pales in comparison with the 15-year Fort Worth police veteran's two previous videos.
He created two Star Wars-themed parody videos that included Chewbacca attempting to join the Fort Worth police force that hit the 2.6-million view mark and another about a Stormtrooper attempting to join that's been viewed 20 million times.
When he moved to the eight-member staff of the Fort Worth police's social media team in 2016, he said those videos were experiments that, ironically, went well.
"Honestly, I don't know if I'll ever make another video that tops that but I'll definitely keep trying," Perez said.
Judging from the positive comments on the Fort Worth police's Facebook post, it's a good bet this won't be the last video creation we'll see from Perez.
This story was originally published July 3, 2018 at 3:07 PM with the headline "Lip syncing an Alanis Morissette song turned a Fort Worth police officer into a star."