Editor's note: This is a nostalgic theater.

Li Weiwei, an Anhui girl born in the 1990s, whose real name is Li Ruru, has a beauty that makes Xiao S jealous. She can hold ten coins in her collarbone. Liu Yan also praised her for her sex appeal. She showed her excellent acting ability by imitating TVB's classic lines and characters. Gained tens of millions of fans within a year and a half. Her collections "My Bulk Voice" and "Mrs. Ho and Mrs. Chung" both have over 1 billion views.

Screenshot of Li Weiwei's spoof video imitating many artists in the second season of "Infinity Class"

Reply to Xiang Zuo's comment "You roll your eyes better than me"

Recently, she used hot search topics to imitate 6 people at once, including Yao Anna and Xiang Zuo, which aroused heated discussions and imitations among netizens. Even Xiang Zuo himself expressed "100%" to Li Weiwei's performance and said that her eye roll was better than his own.

Speaking of the history of imitation shows, imitation shows have entered mainland variety shows, starting with Southeast TV's flagship variety show "Happy 100". In the late 1990s, this was a variety show comparable to "Happy Camp". There is a link in "Happy 100" called "Happy Celebrity Face", which allows ordinary people to imitate celebrities, and it once became a center for "celebrity faces". Many "copycat stars" have emerged here, and some real stars have also been discovered. For example, Ye Yiqian once imitated Carina Lau and Fan Xiaoxuan in the show.

Ye Yiqian (left) in the "Happy 100" program

Another show also featured a parody show. In 1998, Beijing TV Station and Shanghai TV Station produced "Happy Story".

The popularity of "Jolly Story" back then is definitely beyond the imagination of many viewers today. Among them, the trump card column "Super Imitation Show" invites various folk masters to sing the songs of celebrities.

In the super imitation show, the star's original singing video is usually played first, which is called "original sound reproduction", and then the imitator appears again to achieve the effect of shocking everyone. Happy Story is broadcast once a week, and the "Super Imitation Show" segment has five or six imitators participating. The winner of the current period becomes the weekly champion, the weekly champion of each month, and then participates in the monthly championship competition at the end of the month. At the end of the year, the monthly champions of each month will compete for the overall championship of the annual super imitation show.

The "FUN! 1" entry contains traces of Yuan Yawei's works when she was still called Yuan Juan.

Jing Feng, the 2000 champion, is famous for imitating Zhang Xinzhe, and his voice is very similar. The runner-up that year, Yuan Juan, is now the current singer Yuan Yawei. At that time, Yuan Juan, Jing Feng and others were signed. They jointly released an album "FUN! 1", and the producer was Gao Xiaosong. It can be seen that this imitation show is also a hidden dragon and a crouching tiger.

Mr. Ai Jun, a sociologist and folklorist, believes that the expressions of imitation shows are imitation, learning, reference, and shaping. In terms of expressions, they can be divided into: "those with sound and image", "those with appearance" and "those with both voice and appearance". "three parts.

At that time, the rapid popularity of imitation in variety shows also inspired more people with dreams of becoming stars.

China's largest imitation show art troupe, the China Copycat Star Art Troupe, was founded in 2006. So far, the troupe has created more than 300 copycat versions of male and female celebrities across the country. In terms of performance content, these "copycat stars" can be divided into: special actors in performance works, imitation shows, film and television stand-ins, and commercial image spokespersons, etc. However, such copycat performances are also on the verge of legal infringement, especially some commercial performances that deliberately obscure the performers and use the likeness of the imitated person to defraud consumers.

In the entertainment industry, if you want to talk about the level of the ancestors of the imitation industry, Fei Yuliang is the number one. Fei Yuqing performed imitation performances of many singers in the show, including Ling Feng, Feng Feifei, Chen Xiaoyun, Tsai Qin, etc. He is good at grasping the most prominent points of the character's temperament, and then presenting it with exaggerated body language, sometimes even one movement or one The expressions are vivid, and I have to say that since Fei Yuqing retired, there has indeed been a lot less joy on the stage.

Fei Yuqing (right) imitates singer Chen Xiaoyun

The talented Tibetan comedian Luosang not only has excellent language imitation skills, but also has outstanding performance in dancing and singing. He can be called a talented all-round entertainer. Luosang is always able to bring the older generation of cross talk masters to life, which makes people stunned.

Screenshot of "Study in Lausanne"

In 1993, Lausanne was invited to appear on CCTV's "Quyuan Zatan" and launched the well-known and widely praised program "Lausanne Academy".

In 1994, Luosang and Yin Bolin joined hands on the stage of the CCTV Spring Festival Gala. That night, with Lausanne's astonishing ability to imitate, he could imitate any celebrity's voice lifelikely. The program aroused a strong response across the country, leading to a wave of imitation that became all the rage. But it is a pity that Lausanne's untimely death due to a car accident left a regret to the comedy world. If he were still alive, I believe he would have brought us more works and joy.

On the stage of "Avenue of Stars" in 2007, Yang Guang, a 28-year-old "Beijing grassroots old singer", became a blockbuster and won the annual championship in one fell swoop. What was shocking was that he was still blind.

Perhaps it is precisely because he has lost his vision that his hearing is sharper. He will carefully study the position of each person's voice, the degree of nasal sound, the position of the mouth, and the stars he imitates such as Shan Tianfang, Ma Sanli, Liu Huan, and Dai Yuqiang are very lifelike. Confuse the real with the fake.

Yang Guang has become an inspirational label on "Avenue of Stars" with his unique experience and talent. However, as his reputation grew, his attitude and behavior aroused controversy, and he gradually faded away from the stage.

In addition, in the "China Got Talent" program, imitation expert Yang Dongyu imitated the singing styles of many singers, including Andy Lau, Leon Lai, Aaron Kwok, Jacky Cheung, Zhang Yu, Tong Ange, Zhou Huajian, Li Zongsheng, Qi Qin, Zhang Yusheng, Alan Tam, Zheng Zhihua wait.

In another program, a vegetable farmer Yao Da also imitated the singing voices of more than 50 celebrities in one breath, including Luo Dayou, Wang Jie, Zhou Huajian, Jiang Yuheng, Fei Yuqing, etc., demonstrating his talent in imitating celebrities.

To promote imitation shows, there is one variety show that I have to mention, and that is "The Variety Show". "The Variety Show" is introduced from the foreign original variety show "Your Face Sounds Familiar". It is different from previous programs where ordinary people imitate celebrities. It allows celebrities to imitate celebrities. When "The Variety Show" was first launched in 2012, its competition system was also based on this. The participating stars were divided into "Style Cafe Team" and "Sound Cafe Team".

The ones who stand out in the show are Wang Zulan, Qu Ying, Shen Ling, Da Zhangwei, Jia Ling, Bai Kainan and Xie Na. This is really a show that you shouldn’t watch while eating, because you’ll laugh out loud at any time.

Da Zhangwei and Shen Ling imitated "Meet Me in 1998" sung by Na Ying and Faye Wong in the Spring Festival Gala

Da Zhangwei imitated Yi Zhongtian, Bai Kainan imitated Ji Lianhai

Shen Ling and Jia Ling imitated Phoenix Legend to sing "Fly Free"

The show often invites the imitator to the scene, allowing the imitator and the original person to perform on the same stage. This contrast between the seller's show and the buyer's show also creates another "laughing fruit".

The show has been broadcast for five seasons, and each season's Douban score is above 8 points. It is a rare high-scoring series for domestic variety shows. In 2021, the "Various Master Show" will be restarted, and it will also feature famous scenes such as Wang Zulan imitating Hua Chenyu, Shen Mengchen, Wang Zhi and others cross-dressing in F4. Unfortunately, it will be difficult to continue the glory of the Master Show.

From infancy, we have mastered the skill of imitation, such as babbling. Through imitation, we come into contact with the world and learn about it. Many comedians start by observing life and imitating ordinary characters, and gradually create more stylized characters. At that time, a pair of twin acrobatic troupe actors used mirrors as their theme, and they stood on the international stage and won gold medals with identical funny performances. Nowadays, more imitators have emerged on the Internet, making the tight life more relaxed. After all, happiness is guilt-free without hurting others.