Imitation is said to be the best form of flattery, and it certainly worked for several artists who made parodies of Psy's Gangnam Style MTV which had reached 1 billion views on YouTube on Dec 21.

Based on latest YouTube data, here are the top five parodies of 2012's monster hit dance and MTV.

1. Minecraft Style - 37,763,409 views

Minecraft is actually a sandbox indie game created by Markus "Notch" Persson, a Swedish programmer. The game allows players to build constructions from textured cubes in a 3D procedurally generated world as well as perform other activities such as exploration, gathering resources, crafting and combat.

The Gangnam style parody was made by Jordan Maron who had previously crafted other Minecraft parodies. While the MTV was released Oct 21, 2012, his spoof of Psy's hit was blocked in 99.9 per cent of countries due to copyright technicalities, according to Wikipedia. However, that didn't stop the parody from reaching over 37 million hits..

2. Deadpool vs Gangman Style - 34,302,256 views

Made by critiques4geeks, this MTV parody features Korean language lyrics and describes the parody as Deadpool riding the invisible horse, Gangnam Style. Deadpool is a fictional character, a mercenary and anti-hero who appears in Marvel Comics. He is a disfigured and mentally unstable mercenary who first came out as villain in issued 98 of The New Mutants which was released February 1991.

3. Mitt Romney Style - 31,912,668 views

Even if running mate Barack Obama has his own parody, Mr Romney's version is ahead by more than 22 million views compared to the top Obama parody by Reggie Brown which has 9,506,217 views

4. Asian Western Parody - 26,970,416 views

Featuring babes in bikinis and men in cowboy costumes, this parody was made by Jervy Hou, who describes himself as a seasoned producer, musician, writer and filmmaker responsible for multimillion hits on YouTube.

5. Kim Jong Style - 16,831,759 views

This is not only a tribute to Psy, but a political satire on North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, the supreme leader of North Korea from 1994 to 2011. He succeeded his father, Kim Il-sung, who founded North Korea.

Metro made another listing of top Gangnam Style parodies, not based on hits but the best version. Its top five are the Eton Style, which featured the famous boarding school; Al Weiwei Style, made by a Chinese artist and dissident; Spice Girl Melanie B, who danced with Psy in X Factor Australia; Parrot Style, which featured a parrot singing Gangnam Style while atop a laptop; and Crystal Palace cheerleaders dancing the hit song at the Selhurst Park ground with Pete the Eagle.

Psy has his own favourites in this YouTube video.

However, not all these parodies are funny. One such parody, made by the Sunnybrook Hospital in Toronto, Canada, pulled out on Tuesday its obstetrics-themed parody of Psy's hits after a birth group found the following video offensive.