Corsets, Crystals, & Condoms???
The Condom Packed Parody You Have To See To Believe
Calling all fans of Chicago (the musical), drag, comedy, music, and dance. Have you seen the hilarious new parody “When You Wear a Condom” from AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF)? The parody is a riff on the number “When You’re Good To Mama” from the Broadway musical Chicago.
You may be most familiar with Queen Latifah’s version from the Academy Award-winning movie adaption. “When You Wear a Condom” is the latest in a yearly tradition of parodies put out by AHF every year on International Condom Day (ICD). And yes, International Condom Day is an actual day created by AHF to promote condom use. ICD conveniently lands on February 13th, the day before Valentine’s Day (wink, wink, nudge, nudge).
“When You Wear a Condom” stars Netflix is a Joke’s Flame Monroe and features Rupaul’s Drag Race Season Seven Winner Violet Chachki. With a cast like that, you already know it’s good, but let’s go over some highlights. The parody is a vaudeville-inspired music video with a modern-day twist. The drag looks alone will have you scooping your jaw off the floor, and if you want to catch all of the stunning details in the background, you’ll have to watch more than once. Condoms are the other star of the show, and AHF’s signature Love and Icon condoms are quite literally thrown around the entire video.
At this moment in time, our daily lives have changed in innumerable ways, but people are still having sex. A recent survey by Bankrate found that 1 in 3 Americans are skipping the doctor (where they are most likely to get tested for HIV and STIs) because of cost. That was back in March of 2020 when COVID-19 cases had just topped 1,000 with 29 reported deaths.
Since then, COVID-19 cases and deaths have skyrocketed, only giving people more reason not to go to the doctor or visit a clinic for fear of exposure. On top of that, the most recent statistics from the CDC indicate that 1 in 5 people in the U.S. has a sexually transmitted infection (STI). Because of this decrease in doctor visits and staggering STI rates, it is more important than ever to encourage the use of condoms to prevent sexually transmitted infections.
Remember that this is a parody for a cause, so the entirety of “When You Wear a Condom” is jam-packed with comedic innuendo and candid advice on safer sex practices.
The reimagined lyrics call upon listeners to “just wrap it with a rubber” and are told, “damn it wear a condom.” Not the typical sterile advice you’d get from your high school sex-ed teacher or the local clinic, but that’s precisely the point.
“When You Wear a Condom” has already wracked in nearly 100,000 views since its premiere on International Condom Day. Its success may not come as much of a surprise considering its star-studded cast and popular references, but the music to AHF’s ears is that thousands of people are being encouraged to practice safer sex.
When it comes to promoting safer sex, it’s not easy to meet people at their level and get through in a way that truly resonates with the masses. By doing away with the conservative approach that so many other public health agencies subscribe to, AHF can make a genuine connection with people who have drowned out sterile public service announcements. That power to connect is the power of AHF and message yielding parodies like “When You Wear a Condom.”
