Don't know if this is a hot take or whatever, but the modern reappraisal of the Star Wars prequel trilogy isn't because the sequel trilogy was so "bad" it made the prequels look better by comparison. It's a result of three factors that all happened more or less simultaneously
The basement-dwelling manbabies who based their entire personalities off of hating the prequels eventually getting over it and moving on with their lives
The people who were still kids when the prequels came out and genuinely liked them all along growing up and being old enough to have a seat at the table
The disaffected adolescent meme-lords who thought the prequels were so-bad-they're-good eventually becoming deeply entrenched in so many layers of hipster irony that their sardonic enjoyment has looped back around to being (or at least seeming) genuine
4. The Clone Wars TV show is genuinely quite good and added soem much needed character depth and development to characters like Padme and also majorly helped bridge the gap between the second and third movies in a way that made the movies look better in conjuction with the show.
Don't know if this is a hot take or whatever, but the modern reappraisal of the Star Wars prequel trilogy isn't because the sequel trilogy was so "bad" it made the prequels look better by comparison. It's a result of three factors that all happened more or less simultaneously
The basement-dwelling manbabies who based their entire personalities off of hating the prequels eventually getting over it and moving on with their lives
The people who were still kids when the prequels came out and genuinely liked them all along growing up and being old enough to have a seat at the table
The disaffected adolescent meme-lords who thought the prequels were so-bad-they're-good eventually becoming deeply entrenched in so many layers of hipster irony that their sardonic enjoyment has looped back around to being (or at least seeming) genuine
can I just say that we all owe Kojima an apology for Metal Gear Solid 2? He looked right into the camera and said “the future of information control will not be censorship, it will be drowning people in trivial noise and misinformation until people partition themselves into their own separate realities” in TWO THOUSAND AND ONE. Three years before Facebook existed. Kojima gave us the biggest Babe-Ruth-pointing-at-the-sky called shot of all time and we weren’t ready for it.
I have no trouble understanding figures of speech. I use them all the time. I always have. I understand why they're useful. If I've never heard one before, it's generally easy for me to puzzle out what it's supposed to mean based on the context.
That said, just because I understand what a figure of speech is supposed to mean, that doesn't mean it makes sense. Some of them are just nonsensical when you actually think about them for more than a few seconds. So, with your kind indulgence, I would like to channel my inner Giacchio and run through a list of phrases, sayings, idioms, metaphors, similes, and figures of speech that I find egregiously bizarre.
"The Sky Opened Up": Whenever there is a heavy rain, it's said that "the sky opened up". This never made any sense to me. When it's raining, our usually clear view of the blue sky is blocked off by clouds; wouldn't it be more accurate to say that the sky closed up?
"A Likely Story": You see this one a lot in cop shows and parodies thereof. Whenever the suspect of a crime gives an alibi the police/detectives/whoever don't quite believe, someone will respond "A likely story!" Hey, buddy, if the story by your own admission is likely to have happened, shouldn't that be all the more reason to believe it? "Well, Mr. Smith, your alibi is airtight and there is no possible way you could be guilty. GET THE PADDY WAGON!" I know we as a society really like to throw people in jail (so much for "land of the free", am I right?), but you're kinda saying the quiet part out loud when you admit that someone being provably innocent only makes you want to imprison them even more.
"Irish Goodbye": This is an old one, most likely inspired by old-timey racism: an Irish goodbye is the name for when someone leaves a social gathering without telling anyone or actually saying goodbye. Maybe I'm biased because of my own Irish roots, but it doesn't even make sense from the perspectives of people who hold those prejudices! Isn't the common stereotype about us that we're loud and boisterous? Why would you name something that involves not talking to people after us? If you're going to insult my heritage, at least be consistent about it!
"Crying Poor Mouth": Another idiom that sounds like it has prejudiced roots, to "cry poor mouth" is to complain habitually about being poor. Classist undertones aside, the phrase is a grammatical nightmare, with the inclusion of both "cry" and "mouth" in the same phrase making it come across as redundant because, in this context, they both refer to the same action. Taken on its face, the statement can read as someone crying about having a poor mouth, when they're actually complaining about their entire body being poor. I get the impression that the phrase started out as two separate ones — "crying poor" and "poor mouthing", maybe — and they got spliced together because too many people kept mixing their metaphors.
"Before it was Cool": You see this one a lot in relation to hipsters. Whenever someone does a mocking impression of a hipster, it will invariably lead to some variant of the sentence "I was into X before it was cool!" (I don't know if any actual hipster has ever said this, because I have never willingly spoken to one). Again, this never made sense to me. Since hipsters are known for their love of vintage and retro stuff, shouldn't it be "I was into X after it was cool?"
"Cutting Off Your Nose to Spite Your Face": We've all heard this one: it's a very common idiom referring to self-destructive actions taken in pursuit of revenge, where you harm yourself as much as or more than the target. One teensy problem: at no point in the idiom itself is that implied to be the case. The person described in it is only hurting themself — mutilating themself to get back at a specific part of their own body — with no mention of another person at all and no explanation of why this would hurt anyone else but the person doing it. A more apt version of the idiom might be "cutting off your dick to spite your ex".
"Quiet as a Church Mouse": The meaning of this simile is self-explanatory to be sure, but I can't help but nitpick: what is it about church mice specifically that makes them quieter than regular mice? Am I expected to believe that, because these mice live in a church, that automatically means they understand and respect the sanctity of God's domain enough not to make too much noise? Speaking as someone who grew up with pets all their life, I can assure you that just because an animal lives in a certain building, that does NOT mean it respects the humans' rules.
Michael After Midnight: The Career of "Weird Al" Yankovic, Part 2 (The 90s)
Read Part 1 here!
The 90s aren’t usually what people think of when they think Weird Al, but it’s actually the decade where I think he really came into his own artistically. From the mid 90s onwards, Al managed to produce nothing but solid work even at his worst, with the extra time he got between albums to work on things paying off. Unfortunately, he had to get through at least one colossal low to get there… but boy was it worth it, because he bounced back with some of the best work of his entire career.
Oh, and not to disappoint... I can't cover The Weird Al Show because I never watched it. I'm sorry if the picture up there misled you.
OFF THE DEEP END
This was the only album I hadn’t listened to before doing this review, so it was interesting to see how Al dived into the 90s after his career kind of hit a wall at the end of the 80s. Starting recording for this wasn’t exactly fun and games either; both Michael Jackson and Paul McCartney reluctantly denied Al the ability to parody “Black or White” and “Live and Let Die” respectively, leaving Al at a momentary loss… until a grunge band from Seattle by the name of Nirvana exploded in popularity, and inspiration struck him like a bolt from the blue. A phone call to Kurt where he assured him the song was not about food later, and Al crafted one of the finest parodies of his career: “Smells Like Nirvana.”
The song is an absolute joy, the best of Al’s parodies that take a direct jab at the artist it’s spoofing. The lyrical content is entirely about how cryptic and indecipherable the lyrics of “Smells Like Teen Spirit” are, to the point where there’s a line in the song that even has the music video’s subtitles stumped. It’s an amazing song… and unfortunately, like “Eat It” before it, it kind of overshadows the rest of the album.
But again, these are not bad songs. “I Can’t Watch This” is a borderline case, as Al is clearly not confident with parodying rap quite yet, but I think some of the puns in the lyrics really help make it worthwhile (my favorite being his line regarding Twin Peaks where he says “I wish they’d Lynch those doughnut eating freaks”). “The White Stuff” is a solid song, but it’s also a parody of an incredibly mediocre NKOTB song so your enjoyment really hinges on if you think Al’s Oreo-themed lyrics make up for everything else. “Taco Grande” is the rare parody that is leagues better than the song it’s spoofing—in this case “Rico Suave”—and is impossible to listen to without wanting a fat burrito afterwards. But the most interesting parody is one of Al’s few double parodies, the Milli Vanilli spoof “The Plumbing Song,” which spoofs both “Baby Don’t Forget My Number” and “Blame It On the Rain.” Considering how that band is one of the only musical acts to be successfully canceled despite their crimes being far less egregious than someone like Chris Brown, the song almost feels like an original at this point with how the songs it lampoons have been unpersoned from the radios. It feels like foreshadowing for “Handy” decades later, so I kind of love it. They ought to toss it onto a Mario movie’s soundtrack. There’s also a brief, secret parody of Nirvana’s hidden track “Endless, Nameless” on the CD and record versions of the album, a little snippet called “Bite Me” that plays ten minutes after the final song just to be sure you’re still awake.
The polka medley here, “Polka Your Eyes Out,” is definitely one of his better medleys; a good rule is that if the medley starts off sounding exactly like one of the songs in it to the point where it tricks you, it’s probably good. It’s a very solid lineup of songs, with Billy Idol and Vanilla Ice coexisting in the same list… but really, it’s worth it for the completely out of left field inclusion of “I Touch Myself.” Not since he included “Relax” in the medley from Dare to be Stupid has a song so unashamedly raunchy been tossed in. And it’s not even the closer! He just throws that chorus in a few songs before the end so you can barely process it before “Ice Ice Baby” hits! Brilliant work of art.
The originals here are mostly solid, though they don’t stand out quite as much as I’d like. “Trigger Happy,” his Beach Boys pastiche about being a gun nut is a lot of fun, as is “When I Was Your Age,” but songs like “Airline Amy” and “You Don’t Love Me Anymore” just don’t hit as hard for me (though they’re still solid songs). I think the best original song here is “I Was Only Kidding,” which is the anthem for every “It’s just a prank, bro” jerk to ever exist. It’s a riot and it has aged like fine wine, and it makes “You Don’t Love Me Anymore” even better if you view that as a sequel to this song.
Overall, this is really solid start to the 90s, nothing more and nothing less. It definitely got Al back and track and gave him a chance to evolve, but I don’t think this is his best work by any stretch even if it’s all very good stuff.
Best Tracks:
1. “Smells Like Nirvana” – A really great parody that has aged very well, but it unfortunately eclipses most of the rest of the album.
2. "When I Was Your Age" - One of the most rocking songs Al ever made, and it's him channeling his inner boomer.
3. “I Was Only Kidding” – “It’s just a prank, bro!” stretched out into a hilarious song.
THE FOOD ALBUM
The first of two compilation albums that Al absolutely despises, seeing them as cheap money grabs that existed only to make the label money. This, of course, is what makes them worth talking about; Al is a famously chill guy, so him having contempt for something is pretty interesting. Still, there’s not really much one can say about an album that is quite literally just reheated leftovers.
One may notice that “Girls Just Wanna Have Lunch” isn’t here, which is for two major reasons: The first is that Al had to pick one song to leave off the album for it to be profitable due to a “royalty ceiling.” The second is tied into the first; this was an easy pick to leave off because Al hates the song for having its recording forced onto him by his label. “Waffle King” was also left off despite being recorded for Off the Deep End, but that’s mainly due to scheduling issues and not anything malicious.
I think the best thing about this compilation is the artwork, a passive-aggressive protest on Al’s part showing a grotesque monster picking him clean for its gluttonous satisfaction (gee, wonder what that could be a metaphor for). Said artwork was done by Doug Lawrence, who you may know better as Mr. Lawrence, a writer and voice actor who probably helped mold your childhood if you’re a millennial and who is most easily recognized as the voice of Sheldon J. Plankton himself.
Other than that… I mean, I hate to say it, but this is actually a pretty solid compilation album. Yes, it’s forced and unnecessary, and I totally get why Al dislikes it, but getting an entire buffet of his food-related songs and being able to listen to “Addicted to Spuds” without having to endure the rest of Polka Party’s parodies is pretty great. “Eat It” is on here, but because there’s so many other bangers it doesn’t overshadow the whole thing like it did in In 3-D and songs like “Lasagna” and “Spam” really get to shine in ways they weren’t able to on their original CDs. I don’t think this is truly necessary to own unless you’re a completionist, but I think it’s decent enough where you aren’t going to regret it if you do pick it up. A good collection of songs is still good even if the circumstances around it aren’t.
ALAPALOOZA
I am not going to mince words here: This is the worst album of Al’s career, bar none.
This is a bold statement considering I already talked about Polka Party, but as weak as that album was I was still able to find a handful of really strong original songs buried under the lackluster parodies and mediocre polka medley. Here? I genuinely struggled to recommend anything save for the most famous song on the album, because it really is just excessively weak.
“Jurassic Park” is the shining star of this album, with a stop-motion music video and a great summary of the plot of the film set to the deliciously melodramatic tune of “MacArthur Park.” It’s almost worth the price of admission for this song alone. Almost. There’s also “Livin’ in the Fridge,” a food-themed Aerosmith parody that deals with what happens when you live food in the fridge too long. Of the four parodies on the album, these two stand out as being exceptional entries in Al’s catalogue, and yet they are sadly overshadowed by two of his most abysmal. “Achy Breaky Song” is the less offensive one; a parody of Billy Ray’s one hit, it’s all about how listening to that song is an absolutely torturous experience that the singer would rather not endure. It is one of the most nasty and mean-spirited songs Al has ever done, eclipsed only by “It’s Still Billy Joel to Me,” so much so he made it so all songwriting proceeds went to the United Cerebral Palsy Association. Considering Cyrus has become a pretty unpleasant guy as the years have gone on I’m not too broken up by him being put through the wringer, but some of the other artists who catch strays as the less painful alternatives in the song rub me the wrong way. ABBA and the Bee Gees? Really?
But while that song is a bit of a middling but still partly amusing song, there is nothing remotely defensible about Al’s “Bedrock Anthem.” A double parody, with the opening spoofing “Under the Bridge” before going into a parody of “Give It Away” (both by the Red Hot Chili Peppers), the song is about The Flintstones… and it is not particularly inspired whatsoever. It just feels very lazy and cynical, like Al really wanted to get on the soundtrack of the 1994 movie (which he did). This is one of the few times an artist responded negatively to a parody; while they did like his work, RHCP were not impressed by the parody, and Flea would even say this about it: “I didn't think it was very good. I enjoy Weird Al's things, but I found it unimaginative. It wasn't that great. Yabba Dabba Doo. I like Weird Al and everything. But you know everyone is hit or miss, except for me, of course.”
The only things worth mentioning about this song are that the music video was Al’s first full video directing debut, and the Bee Girl from Blind Melon’s “No Rain” music video reprises her role in the opening. That’s it. Beyond that the song is just a lazy hodgepodge of references to the show with little rhyme or reason, and the chorus is gratingly cliché. “Girls Just Wanna Have Lunch” at least has the excuse of being intentionally bad; this is bad by complete accident, and that makes it 100% worse.
Now, this is where I would say the originals save this like they did with Polka Party but… no, honestly they don’t, even if they’re mostly pretty good. “Traffic Jam” especially frustrates me since it’s a style parody of Prince, and you can feel Al’s frustration with Prince’s legendarily humorlessness; you know he wanted to do a full, actual parody and not just a stylistic pastiche. “Talk Soup” is one of the better ones, a wholly original song that kind of feels like a riff on “Dirty Laundry” except Al wasn’t taking shots at people criticizing him for letting an underage girl overdose in his house like Don Henley was. “Young, Dumb & Ugly” is a fun little style parody of AC/DC that wouldn’t feel too out of place in their discography, and “Frank’s 2000” TV” is a pleasant stylistic riff on R.E.M.’s early stuff, and “Waffle King” is a solid take on Peter Gabriel. My issue isn’t that these are bad songs—I think they’re pretty fun—but none of them are good enough to make up for how genuinely awful “Bedrock Anthem” is. Nothing here is quite on the level of “Christmas at Ground Zero” or “Dog Eat Dog,” which unfortunately really holds this back. This album really needed a genuinely great original or two to put it over Polka Party, and it just lacks that. At the very least, it does close out with one of the most unique polkas in his career: “Bohemian Polka,” a full cover of “Bohemian Rhapsody.” If you’ve ever wanted to listen to that song but don’t have five and a half minutes to spare, this is for you!
While this isn’t a wholly irredeemable album, I think it’s shockingly lackluster with the lowest low of Al’s career that is only barely ameliorated by highs that just aren’t high enough. This album needed a genuinely big parody smash hit or a stellar original to save it from the bottom of the barrel, and it just doesn’t provide that. It’s a shame, but they can’t all be winners.
Best Tracks:
1. “Jurassic Park” – Perhaps the only genuinely great song on the whole album. It’s kind of sad it had to be stuck on this CD, because I’m a sucker for the Al parodies where he recaps a whole movie.
2. “Livin’ in the Fridge” – It kind of surprises me Al only did one Aerosmith parody in his career, but this is a pretty fun one. I wouldn’t call it a soaring height of his career or anything, but I think this would’ve fit nicely on The Food Album.
3. “Bohemian Polka” – Maybe it’s not intentional, but this comes off as a nice tribute to Freddie Mercury in the wake of his passing. It’s also pretty novel to see a polka cover of a song like this.
PERMANENT RECORD: AL IN THE BOX
Yet another compilation album, this time of Al’s favorite songs from his first eight albums. Considering I have already talked about all of those albums, why even bother bringing this up? Well, for some reason, this album was the debut of the single “Headline News,” and said song would not appear on an actual album until Medium Rarities in the Squeeze Box set in 2017—which, funnily enough, was another box set.
“Headline News” is a parody of the Crash Test Dummies 1993 hit “Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm,” which you may remember for its use in Dumb & Dumber or perhaps for it being one of the quintessential 90s one-hit wonders (though only by the technicality of having a single remembered hit in the United States, as they had more success in Canada and the UK). The song’s subject is three of the biggest tabloid stories of the time, much as the original song told the story of three different bizarre kids; Al sings of Michael Fay being caned in Singapore, the Tonya Harding incident, and Lorena Bobbitt emasculating her husband. Now, you might look at these and think there is an obvious issue: All these stories are incredibly dated now, and even when the song was made these were oversaturated in the news.
I do think that’s kind of the point, though, that the gag is that Al is just contributing to this nonsense getting more airtime under the guise of it being ‘headline news’ when it’s anything but. Al has said as much, joking that he "wanted to write a song about these people because he didn't think they're getting quite enough media attention." As time has shown, the latter two stories actually had a bit of staying power, with the Harding incident spawning an acclaimed film starring Margot Robbie and Sebastian Stan while Bobbitt got a bristle worm named after her and the dubious honor of being mentioned in Fall Out Boy’s atrocious “We Didn’t Start the Fire.” Also her ex did porn. The only one of these stories that has really faded from public consciousness is the first, but thanks to that it does make the song escalate pretty nicely.
Overall, this is a really good song and it’s a shame its entire existence has been relegated to a bonus track on box sets. It’s definitely worth seeking out, especially for the wacky video (keep your eyes peeled for that Dr. Demento cameo).
THE TV ALBUM
While it’s clear Al isn’t fond of this one either, it seems he has a bit more of a positive outlook on this compilation, saying "the record company was a whole lot nicer when they asked the second time" and that there was "more groveling [and] less demanding" when it came to throwing this compilation together. Still, you can see Al’s opinion of this plain as day on the album art (courtesy of Mad magazine cartoonist Jack Davis), which shows Al gleefully detonating a television set.
Because of the lack of drama, this leaves little to talk about here besides the track list which is… honestly not too amazing. Al’s early songs about television were not exactly his most inspired output, and while it’s nice hearing “Frank’s 2000” TV” free from the sludge of Alapalooza and seeing “I Lost on Jeopardy” outside of the shadow of “Eat It,” I don’t think either thing is worth suffering through “Bedrock Anthem” or “Here’s Johnny” to get to. The lack of “Isle Thing” has always baffled me, as both “Ricky” and “The Brady Bunch” are on here and there’s no indication he had to cut something like last time. The far more scattershot quality of these songs than on the previous themed compilation also leads to the good stuff being dragged down; sure, maybe it was good on its own album, but when you have to listen to it crammed in with the scraps of Al’s weakest output it just doesn’t work. Not helping matters is that unlike with food, Al doesn’t really have a big, definitive TV song. Sure, there’s “UHF” or “Beverly Hillbillies,” but as much as I like both of those I can’t really argue they’re on the level of “Eat It” or “Fat.”
I think the issue here is a lack of cohesion. The Food Album at the very least has a consistent theme—every song is about food or eating food with the exception of “Fat,” which is not only at least related but cleverly leads into the rest of the album. Why is Al fat? Here’s your answer! This album starts off with Al’s worst parody ever, “Bedrock Anthem,” before going into “I Can’t Watch This,” a song that would have served way better as either the intro (to set a tone of Al flipping through channels) or outtro (to kind of show Al has given up on watching TV). The whole thing even more than The Food Album comes off as a cheap, lazy cash grab with little to no thought put into it. I can’t really recommend this one, unless you really want that cool artwork on your shelf.
BAD HAIR DAY
Now THIS is a true Al-bum! This is the moment where Al truly achieved his perfect form, a parody artist who can make funny spoofs and great original works across the board. The increased time he had to work on this made this his most polished work up to this point, and he would continue to deliver incredibly solid work from this point on—no album after this point is something I would call bad. Al brings some seriously strong songwriting to the table here, and nowhere is that more clear than with the song that opens the album: “Amish Paradise.” Despite the minor beef it caused with Coolio due to a miscommunication that led Al to believe he got the blessing from the man himself to parody “Gangsta’s Paradise” (which he doesn’t even need, Al’s just a class act), this is genuinely one of his finest parody songs ever. It is just an absolute riot, a lighthearted ribbing of the Amish community that feels like a precursor to how South Park would end up treating Mormons.
Of course, the other parodies are no slouch either, even though they definitely ran the risk of an “Eat It” situation! While not his most well-known tracks, his U2 spoof “Cavity Search” and his TLC sendup “Phony Calls” are very fun, and his “Syndicated, Inc.” which is a parody of “Misery” by Soul Asylum is a truly underrated track that would have easily made The TV Album worthwhile if it had been on it. Then there's "Gump," where he sums up the movie Forest Gump to the tune of "Lump" by the Presidents of the United States of America, and it is genuinely one of his best "sum up a movie" songs, surpassing "Jurassic Park" and maybe even "Yoda." “The Alternative Polka” is also one of his better medleys; while it is sorely missing that “Buddy Holly” clip, it does have Al singing the chorus of Nine Inch Nail’s “Closer.” Yes, you get to hear Al say he wants to *BOINK* you like an animal, and that’s no exaggeration because he pulls out some wacky sound effects to keep his mouth clean for this one.
But this album also has some of his best original work to date, a true harbinger of how good his originals would be going forward. In fact, this really is the moment that cements him in my mind as an artist who could easily do a whole album of originals and no parodies and still have it be good. “I Remember Larry” is a personal favorite, a tale of a childhood bully that veers into beautifully cathartic black comedy in the final verse, and of course how could I not love Al’s take on the style of They Might Be Giants that is “Everything You Know is Wrong?” “Callin’ in Sick” is a fun style parody of the entire grunge movement right as it was going out the door, and “Since You’ve Been Gone” and “I’m So Sick of You” are fun little anti-love songs.
The crown jewel, of course, is his second coal-black Christmas comedy track, “The Night Santa Went Crazy.” A style parody of Soul Asylum that sounds so close to their song “Black Gold” it might as well be a straight up parody, it tells the tale of a drunken Santa going on a bloody rampage through the North Pole. It is extremely gruesome and messed up, doubly so if you’re listening to the special cut that ends with Santa getting Kirked, and it is an absolute riot. It might actually be better than “Christmas at Ground Zero,” which is a truly impressive bar to clear if I’m being honest.
Overall, a fantastic album with no real weak spots that heralded a new age where Al pretty handily put all killer and new filler on his albums. This also marked the end of his classic look, as he’d grow out his hair and get laser eye surgery for his next album. We are truly in the golden era of Al now, one where he gets more time and care to craft the best comedy songs you’ve ever heard. And boy, does that really show on the next album...
Best Tracks:
1. “Amish Paradise” – Mild controversy aside, it’s really hard to say this isn’t one of his funniest parodies ever.
2. “The Night Santa Went Crazy” – Pitch-perfect Christmas black comedy from Al yet again. I think he should just release one deranged Christmas song every decade, because he’s so damn good at it.
3. “Everything You Know is Wrong” – The closest that Al and They Might Be Giants will ever come to crossing over.
RUNNING WITH SCISSORS
Once again, I will not mince words: I think this is Al’s best work, his magnum opus. This album is almost entirely comprised of bangers, to the point where picking three to recommend was a tall order—this album is that good. But why is it such a good album? Well, the way I see it, it’s because this is Al’s edgiest work to date, with black comedy and general humor edging into the hard PG or light PG-13 territory. As always, there’s nothing worse than what you’d see on The Simpsons or in Mad magazine, but some of the jokes here are a bit more colorful than Al’s usual fare which helps this album stand out in a good way.
To demonstrate that, I am going to go song by song and give my thoughts on each of them (as opposed to quick and broad reviews), because to really understand this album we need to dive into all it has to offer.
The album opens insanely strongly with “The Saga Begins,” Al’s musical recap of The Phantom Menace set to the tune of “American Pie.” This is, without a doubt, one of his best parodies ever and deserves to held up alongside “Eat It” and “Amish Paradise.” Not only is it a funny and topical reimagining of a classic song to summarize a film with pinpoint accuracy, it is genuinely far superior to the movie it’s about! You could genuinely listen to this as a substitute for watching The Phantom Menace and all you’d be missing would be the pod race and the final duel with Maul (which you can easily look up on YouTube). Just an incredible way to open an album, he really hooks you from the first minute.
Next up is an original, “My Baby’s In Love With Eddie Vedder,” an original and accordion-heavy song about a man whose lover has become romantically obsessed with the Pearl Jam frontman. I used to skip this one a lot, but upon relistening I honestly found it absolutely delightful how it lampoons the angst of grunge singers despite their absurd success while also being a showcase of Al’s accordion skills and how they’ve improved over the years. Despite the seemingly harsh jabs to Vedder, it’s pretty obvious this is just playful ribbing, especially once we reach the song’s punchline. Not a highlight of the album by any means, but it is a fun little number.
Now we move on to another parodic masterpiece: “Pretty Fly for a Rabbi.” If you’re worried about this song seeming too offensive, don’t; Jewish people apparently love this song, adopting it as their own to the point it has fueled rumors Al is Jewish. It helps that the stereotypes present in the song are all pretty positive to neutral and are delivered in a way that establishes that the subject is pretty fly (for a rabbi), and the whole thing really plays into the self-deprecation that is part of Jewish culture. I almost want to say this is better than the original; that song had vocal backup from Chum-Chum, this one has prolific voice actress Tress MacNeille and Sheila Broflovski herself (Mary Kay Bergman) giving vocal cameos. I think we know which set of voice actors comes out on top here.
Next we come to “The Weird Al Show Theme,” and… this one is pretty self-explanatory. It’s the theme song from The Weird Al Show. Not the strongest track on the album, but it is a funny theme song and, if it had come out early enough to make it on The TV Album, it would have improved that compilation significantly.
Now comes one of the more contentious tracks on the album, “Jerry Springer.” A parody of the Barenaked Ladies’ smash hit “One Week,” this is about the schlockfest hosted by former Cincinnati mayor that pioneered trash TV and helped keep the spirit of freak shows alive in the living rooms of people in the 90s. Because of this, Al uses some rather outdated terminology, such as “Hermaphrodite,” “shemale,” and “midget” within the song; while these are pretty offensive these days, at the time they were… not great, but less seen as awful, and within the context of the song they actually fit very well because this is the kind of stuff that would be said on a normal episode. To his credit, Al no longer performs it because of the aforementioned terms, but I still think this is a genuinely great song, and it is absolutely the song The TV Album needed to be worthwhile; this is to Al’s TV songs what “Eat It” is to his food ones.
“Germs” is a song I overlooked so much as a kid, but I think it’s because I didn’t appreciate Nine Inch Nails as much as I do now. A stylistic parody of “Terrible Lie” with a bit of “Closer” sprinkled in, this captures Reznor’s style perfectly while delivering a hilarious tale of a paranoid germophobe. I honestly think Reznor could perform this live and nail it, that’s how well Al replicates his style. Definitely one of my favorite of Al’s originals nowadays.
“Polka Power!” is an unassuming sleeper hit for the album, and a large part of that is because you wouldn’t normally expect one of his tried and true polka medleys to be this good. But by some miracle, he picked the perfect batch of contemporary hits to throw together in a way that flows beautifully together and sounds amazing. Spice Girls into Harvey Danger, Backstreet Boys into Smash Mouth (and not the obvious song, either), “Semi-Charmed Life” and “Sex and Candy” sneak into the song, and it all wraps up with “Closing Time.” Maybe the reason I adore this so much is because back in the day I saw a truly impressive AMV set to this song. It brings back very fond memories of a better time on the internet every time I hear it, but even that aside it’s just a pretty perfect medley—the only flaw is that Marilyn Manson is in it, but his music sounds better when someone with talent and no history of domestic abuse sings it.
Maybe it’s just because of my fondness for Sailor Moon, which was a huge part of my childhood and had a lot of AMVs for songs from this album including this one (“Jerry Springer” has a good one as well). Maybe it’s just because 90s ska is really cool. Whatever the case may be, “Your Horoscope for Today” has always been one of my personal favorites when it comes to his originals. It’s just a fun and brutal lampooning of the absurdity of horoscopes with tons of Al’s delightful black comedy and absurd humor mixed in. Great, great song.
Al’s topical humor does lead to some of his songs becoming incredibly dated as the years go on, and few cases are quite as extreme as “It's All About the Pentiums”—and yet, it is that same datedness that makes it so endearing. The very title is an artifact of its time, as it wouldn’t be long before the Pentium brand went the way of the dodo, but the rest of the song has Al boasting about so many absurd, baffling specs for his computer that it manages to still be pretty ahead of the curve. We still don’t have flatscreen monitors 40” wide or 100 gigabytes of RAM as the norm, after all. If nothing else, this song lets you listen to a Diddy song guilt-free, so it gets major points for that alone, but it really does coast by on how charmingly late 90s it is (and again, I find that the core appeal of the album as a whole).
Now we get to the single most controversial track on the album: “Truck Drivin’ Song.” It’s exactly what it sounds like—a truck driving country song—with a twist. Said twist is that the driver is either trans or a drag queen. At first glance this seems shockingly cruel for Al, but in all honesty the song isn’t nearly as awful as the 90s could get to those who walked outside of gender norms. In fact, the subject of the song is pretty cheerful and well-adjusted by any read of the lyrics; they’re just a truck driver who loves wearing women’s clothing and mascara and so on. It’s sort of a modern day spiritual successor to “The Lumberjack Song.” I think the song is trying to go for the sheer absurdity of a queer person in a manly profession singing a manly country song, and that dates it pretty badly as this sort of heteronormativity is challenged, but if taken at face value it is actually a very positive anthem to rally behind. You go girl, drive that big ol’ truck with your high heels on!
Now we’re on to yet another song that would have greatly improved one of the forced compilations with its presence. “Grapefruit Diet,” a parody of Cherry Popppin’ Daddies’ swing revival one-hit wonder, is kind of a sequel to “Fat” in which our protagonist gives up fatty food and goes on the titular diet to lose some weight. Naturally, this means it would have been a perfect way to end The Food Album and bring things full circle. It definitely helps the song he’s parodying is such a fun little tune, which makes this a lot more listenable than you’d expect. I actually never liked this one much as a kid, but now that I enjoy some swing and eating grapefruits (and also have been losing weight to counteract years of unhealthy eating), it definitely speaks more to me.
And finally we reach the final track of the album, and what might very well be Al’s original song magnum opus: “Albuquerque,” an 11-minute epic that is like The Odyssey if it was absolutely insane. The song is a style parody of the Rugburns, specifically their epic-length song “Dick’s Automotive.” Now I need you to go listen to that song, and then listen to “Albuquerque,” because let me tell you it is one of the most bizarre experiences you will ever have. There are so many sequences from that song that are directly spoofed that this one is almost a direct parody. Despite its length, you never really feel it thanks to the absurd twists and turns Al’s story takes from his youth being forced to eat nothing but sauerkraut to his ill-fated plane trip to Albuquerque to all the nonsense he gets into when he finally arrives in New Mexico. The only contentious bit of the song is where he describes an encounter with a “big fat hermaphrodite with a Flock of Seagulls haircut and only one nostril.” Again, it was a neutral term that is incredibly outdated and kind of offensive today, and frankly them being a hermaphrodite is less egregious than having a Flock of Seagulls haircut, so it kind of flies right by. And once more, to Al’s credit, when he performs this song live he decides to go off on a side tangent apologizing for the use of the word and explaining why he used it back then, adding on to the song’s colossal length. The twists, the turns, the absurd scenarios, and that final punchline… This is arguably one of the crowning achievements of Al’s career.
This album is incredible, and it’s incredible because it could only be made by Al at that one specific point in time. This is something that could only come out in the twilight of the 90s, the end of the decade of anti-political correctness and edginess. This is as dark and edgy as Al would ever be willing to go in his music, and frankly it isn’t all too egregious even with that in mind. It’s just a fun, wacky reminder of better and weirder times punctuated by a few moments that are just a bit too dated for their own good, where even the weaker songs are still pretty darn good. Maybe it’s a hot take, but I really, genuinely believe this is his finest work.
Best Tracks:
1. “Albuquerque” – This might actually be Al’s magnum opus. It is an epic-length odyssey of pure absurdity and insanity.
2. “The Saga Begins” – A parody so good, you can actually substitute watching the movie it recaps with listening to it and nothing will be lost.
3. “Polka Power!” – Perhaps Al’s best polka medley ever. Every song just flows into each other so well.
And now, here’s how these albums rank:
6. Alapalooza
Genuinely Al’s worst album. It has one truly abysmal low and then nothing good enough to pull the album out of the muck like Polka Party did.
5. The TV Album
A truly monumental waste of potential that would have benefited from being released in the mid 2000s, where “Jerry Springer” and “Couch Potato” could give the album something to write home about.
4. The Food Album
The better of the two pointless filler compilation albums. Great album art, all bangers, and even songs that I wish could be on it that came out too late wouldn’t really make the album much better than it already is—they’d just be overkill.
3. Off the Deep End
A very solid start to the 90s that unfortunately has a similar issue to In 3-D--the big song kind of overrode the while the other tracks kind of languish in its shadow.
2. Bad Hair Day
This is where Al achieved creative perfection. This is Al as he should be, with nothing but solid songs all across the album.
1. Running With Scissors
Al’s magnum opus. A beautiful snapshot of 90s humor filtered through the mind of Al Yankovic, with some of the strongest writing of his career.
Michael After Midnight: The Career of "Weird Al" Yankovic, Part 1 (The 80s)
A long time ago, my parents bought a Dr. Demento CD that compiled some of the most popular songs from his show to expose my brother and I to the world of comedy music. It had a variety of classics on there, such as “Fish Heads” and “Star Trekkin,” but the real draw of the CD was a little song called “Yoda.” That was my first ever exposure to the king of parodies himself, Weird Al Yankovic.
Weird Al is an anomaly among comedy musicians, as he has had a successful career spanning five decades at this point. Most novelty artists are lucky if they can succeed for a year or two, and this curly-haired goober is out here running from the 80s to the 2020s like it was the easiest thing in the world. And through it all, the guy has had the most normal, wholesome, unproblematic career of any artist ever. There’s no unsavory accusations, no scandals, no reveals he’s secretly a jerk… literally the worst things that can be said is that he made a couple of underperforming albums and he recorded a parody that caused a minor beef due to miscommunication. And when he’s not making music, the guy has dabbled in voice acting and even assisted other musicians with their own projects. Dude is a living legend.
For years now I’ve wanted to kind of do a look into his discography, talk about what I think of all his albums, give my thoughts on the quality of the songs… It’s no easy task, because as these are comedy songs explaining them just doesn’t hit the same as giving them a listen (which I recommend you do for all of these songs). But I’ve tried my best to give my thoughts and feelings on each albums, the parodies and originals, and how the whole thing comes together. It was interesting going through these and hearing songs I’d never actually heard before, finding hidden gems and, uh, some hidden turds as well. I think people tend to look at the 80s as Al’s golden age, but I’m not sure I agree; yes, it’s when he first became popular, but a lot of his early work you can feel he’s trying to figure out just what it is he wants to do. Thankfully, by the end of the decade, he had done just that, though not without a few bumps in the roads.
I’m not going to give the albums some kind of numerical score, because I don’t see the point, but I will be ranking them all at the end. I’ve also picked three of the best songs from each album, and they’re the ones I recommend giving a listen to the most, though some of these albums it’s very hard to pick just three. Grab your accordions, make yourself a Twinkie wiener sandwich, and get ready to see what I thought of Al’s 80s ouevre.
“WEIRD AL” YANKOVIC
This is an album that is most interesting in hindsight. Listening through it, you can see the Weird Al we know and love today coming slowly into focus, but it never quite gets there. Everything on the album is just fine, it’s a solid debut but the writing isn’t as funny or sharp as Al would be later.
Still, like I said, you can see the true Al’s outline even if he’s rough around the edges. The parodies in particular are all very good if not nearly as clever as later works; “My Bologna,” “I Love Rocky Road,” and “Another One Rides the Bus” are all well done, though they’re a lot more accordion heavy and less concerned with sounding alike to what they’re spoofing. I do appreciate the silly sound effects Al slips in, though; a lot of armpit fart sounds, it’s silly stuff. I think the biggest harbinger of his future is the song “Stop Draggin’ My Car Around,” his Tom Petty and Stevie Nicks sendup that is somewhere in between an accordion cover and a spoof imitation.
The originals on this album are the real low point, as they are not indicative of his later work. I don’t think any of them really stand out as being awful or anything, but few of them are particularly inspired either. “Such a Groovy Guy” and “Mr. Frump in the Iron Lung” are the real stand out original tracks here, with the former being a well-aged anthem for “nice guys,” while the latter is genuinely one of the most laugh out loud funny instances of black comedy in Al’s discography. The issue is the other originals are just… meh. “Happy Birthday” and “Buckingham Blues” just aren’t really all too funny, and “Gotta Boogie” might be one of the worst songs in Al’s discography due to how juvenile and lowbrow it is. I mean, Al isn’t exactly some pretentious artist or anything, but a song about boogers just feels beneath him, y’know?
I see this album as growing pains, so it’s hard to be too harsh on it. There’s an idea of Weird Al here, it just isn’t fully formed quite yet.
Best Tracks
1. “My Bologna” – The original, the alpha parody. It has aged remarkably well all things considered, and might be one of the few parody songs Al has done that’s better than the original. I’d rather listen to a man sing about his love of crappy lunch meat than hear a guy sing about how he gets hot and bothered by underage girls.
2. “I Love Rocky Road” – The goofy sounds, the heavy accordion, Al’s vocals… This is a classic.
3. “Stop Draggin’ My Car Around” – I wasn’t kidding, this really feels like a harbinger of Al’s later work. For that reason, it earns the spotlight here, though I can also see why this isn’t one of his more well-known parodies.
“WEIRD AL” YANKOVIC IN 3-D
This is where Al as we know him becomes fully formed. Obviously this isn’t his peak, but this is where Al truly became as weird as his name would imply.
While I say he didn’t peak here—I don’t think this album is all around amazing by any means—it does have what is arguably his best parody of all: “Eat It.” Even today, this holds up as some of his strongest work, which unfortunately means every other parody on the album is living in its shadow. “The Brady Bunch” and “King of Suede” are enjoyable enough, but they don’t really reach the highs of “Eat It,” but “I Lost on Jeopardy” does. Or, well, it comes very close, especially when you factor in its fantastic music video and the guest appearance of former Jeopardy host Don Pardo. “Theme from Rocky XIII” AKA “The Rye or the Kaiser” is also pretty solid, and is definitely leagues better than the other Rocky song parody he’d do later.
This is also the first ever time Al did a polka medley, combining popular songs together and playing them polka-style. It’s one of his best traditions, and while this is not even close to my favorite medley it is a pretty good foot forward. It’s honestly rather strange looking back at it now, as it doesn’t use contemporary songs and is instead big hits from the 60s and 70s. Still, he picked the right songs, and it’s hard to fault the thing that established a trend for not following the rules it would only set later.
I think where this album falters a bit is the originals. “Midnight Star” is exempt from my ire, as it’s an entertaining ode to tabloid magazines and I’m kind of fond of “Nature Trail to Hell,” a funny song about the absurd slasher slop that proliferated the 80s. But the B-52s pastiche “Mr. Popeil” is not particularly memorable, and “Buy Me a Condo” is genuinely a contender for Al’s worst song ever between its repetitive lyrics and the stereotypical accent Al puts on. It quite frankly drags the whole thing down, though not very far I will say.
This isn’t an awful album or anything, but it is an album almost totally overshadowed by one single song off of it. Even the other decent tracks aren’t really ones I see people bring up much, because they’re all living under the enormous shadow that “Eat It” casts. It’s just not balanced very well.
Best Tracks
1. “Eat It” – Obvious pick is obvious, but this is the obvious pick for a reason. It is still, to this day, one of his best parody songs, the song that made people really take notice as well as the peak of his food-obsessed lyricism. The music video kicks a lot of ass too. Just an all-around banger.
2. “I Lost on Jeopardy” – This is one really served well by its video, but thankfully it’s a lot of fun even without it. Again, it’s hardly close to “Eat It,” but it’s still arguably better than the song it’s spoofing.
3. “Nature Trail to Hell” – As someone who loves horror movies and is well aware of how much schlock the 80s pumped out, this song mocking those trends tickled my fancy.
DARE TO BE STUPID
This is one of the first Al-bums I listened to all the way through from start to finish, so I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t fond of this one. That being said, putting my nostalgia aside, it’s kind of strange looking back at this and seeing how… weird this tracklist is. It’s very front loaded when it comes to classics, with three all-timers, a solid original, and a kind of mediocre Huey Lewis Parody. The second half is where the cracks start to show as while his cover of “George of the Jungle” is fun (but ultimately unremarkable) and “Slime Creatures from Outer Space” is an underrated gem, we then trip over one of the worst songs in his discograpghy: “Girls Just Want to Have Lunch.”
This was mandated by his label, and you can hear the contempt and irritation in every line of the song. As a work of spite, it’s pretty impressive, but judging it as a song it just isn’t pleasant to listen to. We thankfully swerve back into decent songs with his theme song to the somewhat obscure comedy Johnny Dangerously and the dated but amusing Elton John pastiche “Cable TV” before ending strong with “Hooked on Polkas,” his second ever medley and a decent enough one, though it isn’t one I often find myself revisiting. In my opinion Al didn’t really hit his stride with his medleys until the 90s, and the 80s ones—despite having tons of songs I love in them—just never really hit right for me.
This is a remarkably solid album, but I think it looks more impressive than it is. It has one single blemish that really isn’t that big a deal in the grand scheme of things, but I also don’t think the second half of the album has anything truly impressive or stand out compared to the first half. It has incredibly high highs and only middling lows, so I still definitely recommend this one.
Best Tracks
1. “Dare to be Stupid” – When the band you’re parodying the style of is jealous they didn’t make the song first, you know you’ve done something great. A wonderful ode to absolute idiocy and a great riff on Devo, it’s perhaps one of the greatest title tracks ever made and one of Al’s most stellar original songs.
2. “Like a Surgeon” – The rare time when Al actually parodied something at the suggestion of the original artist, this is black comedy gold. It’s so good it truly makes you wonder why Madonna felt the need to assassinate Al after his big win.
3. “Yoda” – Another no-brainer. This is a parodic masterpiece, a beautiful summary of the Yoda plotline of The Empire Strikes Back with some cheeky humor tossed in. It’s also weirdly prophetic; they are making these movies until they’re old and gray.
THE COMPLEAT AL
Al’s first foray into film was not UHF. A few years earlier, he took part in this silly little mockumentary detailing his rise to fame and showcasing his biggest music videos. As mockumentaries weren’t really a big genre yet (This is Spinal Tap had only just released the previous year), a lot of people accepted some of the claims in this film at face value… at least, that’s what Wikipedia says. Who knows if it’s actually true.
As for the substance of the film, it’s basically just a humorous recounting of his early life and career with Al-style comedy painted on. If you like Al’s humor, you’ll enjoy this, especially if you love his 80s work and his personality back then. Al aficionados have no reason not to check it out either, because it is available for free on YouTube.
POLKA PARTY
This album has a reputation as being one of Al’s weakest, and… yeah, it’s hard to really deny it. This was a bit of a slump, though I think the reputation is really overblown. While I don’t think the parodies on this album are particularly good or memorable, the original songs tend to be fantastic—and some are easily Al’s best work of the 80s.
Let’s talk about those parodies. The album starts with “Living with a Hernia,” another Rocky song parody, and this one does not live up to the previous one whatsoever. “Here’s Johnny” is a horribly dated song and just isn’t particularly funny, “Toothless People” is likewise unfunny and unpleasant, and even the polka medley feels a bit lackluster—which is insane for an album called POLKA PARTY, and doubly crazy because all the songs in the medley individually are bangers. About the only semi-decent parody on the album is “Addicted to Spuds,” and even then I wouldn’t rank it among Al’s best work.
The originals and style parodies are where it’s at with this album. When the worst original is an amusing mediocre romance country ballad, you know you’re in for a treat. In fact, the album ends with what might be one of his best originals ever, the Christmas classic that is “Christmas at Ground Zero” (no, not that Ground Zero). I will say, though, that as much as I enjoyed the other originals and think they’re hidden gems, I’m not sure if I’d say they’re good enough to totally redeem the entire album. When the best parody song on the Parody Song Guy’s album is mid at best, it kind of deflates the whole thing a fair bit no matter how good the rest is. Hell, this is probably why these originals weren’t on my radar until writing this; the album’s poor reception hasn’t made it stick out enough for people to sing anything’s praises.
Al used this as a learning experience, that every career has its peaks and valleys. He managed to bounce back in an incredible way, so with that in mind and the passage of time I think it’s safe to say this album isn’t really that bad. It’s not good, mind you, but it does have a lot of value if you dig through it.
Best Tracks
1. “Christmas at Ground Zero” – This is unironically one of my favorite Christmas songs ever. It’s just beautifully bleak and terrifying, but you never really feel it because Al is singing this with sincere holly jolly cheerfulness. I’m pretty sure his label forced him to do a Christmas song, and if that really is the case then I really hope they regretted it sincerely. This is the definition of a diamond in the rough.
2. “One of Those Days” – Al is great with comedic juxtapositions, and this song is a prime example. Every chorus is filled to the brim with horrific, painful, and agonizing experiences Al is going through, and then it’s capped off with a mild annoyance he finds on an equal level. It’s not quite as funny black comedy as the song above, but this was a pleasant find on this album.
3. “Dog Eat Dog” – Who knew Al could do such a good David Byrne impression (at least of his singing mannerisms)? It’s a fun little song about the ‘joys’ of office life in the style of Talking Heads. It’s hard not to like it, even if I don’t think this is his best or funniest original work. This is definitely a case where the delivery and how good Al is at replicating an artist’s style really elevates material that might be a bit trite otherwise.
EVEN WORSE
It is genuinely insane how good this album is. You’d think after the underperformance of the previous album it might be a sign Al was just a novelty who would fade into obscurity like so many acts before him, but surprise! Here comes his absolute best work of the 80s! This album has so many gems, both in terms of parody and original work.
The album comes out swinging, delivering his second iconic MJ parody “Fat,” and while “Stuck in the Closet with Vanna White” is a bit dated both in the subject of the song and the glam rock style it’s still not so bad and is then immediately followed up with “(This Song is Just) Six Words Long,” an amusing George Harrison parody. After that, the album is almost all gas, no brakes. The parodies are a lot of fun, the originals are solid, and even the weaker tracks like “Velvet Elvis” are enjoyable enough.
I think if I have any criticism, it’s that the parodies here aren’t quite as memorable as stuff like “Eat It” or “Yoda,” with the exception of “Fat.” As much as I love “I Think I’m a Clone Now” and “Lasagna,” those aren’t exactly the first things that come to mind when thinking of Al’s best parodies (even if the former song is way better than the song it’s spoofing). I think this is made up for by the fact that the original songs on this album are so good, especially the black comedy ones; “Melanie” and “The Good Old Days” really show that mild edginess can be worth a few chuckles if delivered right.
This may not be the album that defined Al, but it definitely is the one that cemented his legacy. This guy wasn’t just going to be a one-off gag act, oh no! He was going the distance!
Best Tracks
1. “You Make Me” – Weird Al and Oingo Boingo… what a match made in heaven. This stylistic riff on “Grey Matter” is a fun little wacky ode to the insane things love will drive a man to do. And of course, as this isn’t “Normal Al” Yankovic, I do mean insane.
2. “The Good Old Days” – A soft rock ditty that starts out completely normal, and then it takes a shocking swerve as it’s revealed the narrator is a complete psychopath. This and “Melanie” are some of his best black comedy, but I think this one has the edge due to being a sendup of James Taylor’s soft rock, which accentuates the subject matter with the ironic juxtaposition of the music with the lyrics.
3. “Fat” – I’d be remiss to not put this on here, but if I’m being honest, this one has never been one of my favorites. Now, that being said, the music video is easily one of Al’s best, and that might be where the disconnect comes from; this song just doesn’t hit the same when you can’t see Al gallivanting about in a fat suit. Still, it’s a great parody either way.
PETER & THE WOLF
What’s this? You didn’t know about this one? It’s not surprising; this is rare, long out of print, and not one of the albums included in Al’s canon discography. Still, do you think I’m just going to not talk about the time Weird Al collaborated with Wendy Carlos?
The album is half a comical adaptation of “Peter and the Wolf” by Sergei Prokofiev and half a comedic sequel to Camille Saint-Saëns’ “The Carnival of Animals.” Al narrates the story with funny updates over Carlos’ arrangements in the former, and reads off silly spoken word poetry about odd life forms in the latter before Carlos kicks in with some music. It’s really fun, simple stuff.
By all accounts Carlos loved this project, saying "the project was a chance for some musical fun and tomfoolery, working with a bright, witty collaborator, before getting back to more adventurous tuning and timbre projects." And it’s hard not to love it too; it’s one of the most out there collaborations of all time, and yet it somehow works. It’s a shame it’s not readily available for listening, because this is an incredibly charming and exceedingly well made little comedy album.
UHF
Al wrapped up his run in the 80s with his first (and sadly only) starring role. While Even Worse is his best album of the 80s and a better achievement within the context of his career, I think this movie might be his best work of that decade. It is pretty much everything Al was about in the 80s, from off the wall humor to silly parodies, wrapped up in a cinematic package… and this right here is probably precisely why it was doomed to being a cult classic.
Look, I love this film and have since I was a kid, but it is a Weird Al movie through and through. It can have a fantastically hammy villain portrayal from Kevin McCarthy and a young, prime Michael Richards and some of the zaniest gags you could possibly imagine, it was still a celebrity vehicle for a guy who sang food-themed parodies of Michael Jackson songs. It was never going to be the easiest sell, so it bombing is not a shock. If you don’t vibe with Al’s humor, you’re not gonna vibe with this, and you might even find this painful. But if you’re an Al guy (like me) you are in for one heck of a good time.
And of course, an Al movie would not be an Al movie at all without a soundtrack from the man himself, and thankfully it does deliver for the most part! The parodies on here are pretty uniformly fantastic; “Money for Nothing/Beverly Hillbillies” is a contender for one of his best parodies of the 80s, and “Spam” is likewise a fantastic spoof of R.E.M. that pays tribute to the titular canned meat. While those two are pretty handily the best parodies on the album, the lesser known ones are fun as well; his sendup of Fine Young Cannibals, “She Drives Like Crazy,” is a particularly fun number where Al does some impressively goofy voices, while “Isle Thing” is a Tone Loc parody about Gilligan’s Isle that is at any rate very interesting. I’ve always found it to be one of the most obscure songs in his discography, one that I rarely see mentioned and that I hadn’t heard of for years due to its odd exclusion from The TV Album. It’s the earliest example of Al parodying rap music, and so it does lack the care and skill he’d display much later in his career when spoofing rap, but it’s an interesting starting point at any rate.
“Hot Rocks Polka” is perhaps one of the most interesting medleys he’s ever done, because instead of throwing a bunch of contemporary hits together he exclusively sings Rolling Stones songs. It’s a risky thing only doing a single artist for a medley, as it can come off as lazy and repetitive with a lack of variety, but thankfully he was using music from a band with a diverse roster of songs ripe for riffing on. Still not one of my most favorite polkas, but I definitely respect its vision and think it’s worth checking out, especially if you like the Stones.
Then we have the original songs, and they’re pretty solid as well! In particular, the film’s title track is a stylistic spoof of Jagger and Jackson’s “State of Shock” with a fantastic music video where Al lampoons several contemporary artists interspersed with clips of the movie; it’s an absolute blast, though I think how much you enjoy it hinges on how you feel about the movie itself. “Generic Blues” is honestly pretty amazing, and goes unnecessarily hard; it frankly sounds more like his 90s material than his 80s stuff. “The Biggest Ball of Twine in Minnesota” is a lot of fun, a silly little ode to ridiculous roadside attractions, and “Attack of the Radioactive Hamsters from a Planet Near Mars” is as delightfully absurd as its title is long. But of course, everything here pales in comparison to Al’s magnum opus, “Let Me Be Your Hog.” A true masterpiece of songwriting and lyricism, you’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you may even need to use the bathroom. It’s simply divine.
Oh, and some of the skits from the movie are on the album too. Have you ever wanted to listen to “Spatula City” while you’re on the train? Well, you can! Lucky you!
This is a pretty impressive album to end the 80s on, but it’s a shame the movie didn’t do well because it made the album not do so hot. A lot of these songs aren’t really discussed when people bring up Al’s classic work, and it’s truly a tragedy because there’s some really good work here.
Best Tracks
0. “Let Me Be Your Hog” – A true masterpiece, it transcends even normal numbering schemes.
1. “UHF” – Al really went all out for the title track, and it’s hard to deny the results.
2. “Money for Nothing/Beverly Hillbillies” – Mark Knopfler and Guy Fletcher of Dire Straits played guitar and synth respectively on this song, meaning it’s a parody so good the original band wanted to be part of it.
3. “Generic Blues” – It’s exactly what it says it is: A generic blues song with all of the tropes of the genre cranked up to absurd extremes.
And now that we’ve looked at all of his albums, here’s how I’d rank them:
7. Polka Party
Perhaps the least shocking choice I could make, but I’m sorry, this album just really isn’t all that good. It has its gems but it is by and large a very tired album with some of the most half-baked parodies of Al’s career.
6. “Weird Al” Yankovic
Al’s debut is not really exceptionally weak, but it isn’t exceptionally impressive outside of a few tracks. It feels more like a solid rough draft for his career than an actual full-fledged Weird Al experience.
5. “Weird Al” Yankovic in 3-D
This album is genuinely overshadowed by “Eat It.” I don’t think this album would be remembered well at all if it didn’t have that song on it, especially since it also contains one of the single worst songs Al ever did.
4. Peter and the Wolf
It’s not canonically part of Al’s discography, but did you really think I wasn’t going to rank the collab between Weird Al and Wendy Carlos? Come on now.
3. UHF
The soundtrack for the motion picture event of the 80s is surprisingly solid work, with some of Al’s most interesting originals and fun parodies that have sadly languished in obscurity due to the movie’s failure.
2. Dare to be Stupid
While the album is extremely front loaded with the good stuff, what a front load it is! There are three all-timers in the first half of the album, which is more than enough to rocket it to second place.
1. Even Worse
This is 80s Al at peak performance. The parodies range from solid to stellar, the original songs are almost uniformly great, and everything we’d come to expect from the guy is truly cemented here. This is “Weird Al” Yankovic fully formed.
It would be a few years after the 80s before Al released anything again, but the 90s would be quite an interesting time for Al… but that’s for another day.
I think that Elon Musk is an object lesson in moral philosophy.
Like, he's the epitome of self-interest; the closest thing real life can produce to a Randian hero. And by any reasonable standard, he's won at life! He's the richest man ever to live, and he's getting richer; he controls the channels of information and communication; the government of what remains the world's only superpower waits on his command. If capitalism had a victory condition, he would surely have achieved it. And yet...
He's empty. He's an absolute sucking void of neediness. His own children hate his guts. He pays professional gamers to run up impossibly high scores in every game under the sun because the pale glow of being praised by epic bacon chuds online is the closest thing that he can feel to love.
Like. I can't tell you what a soul is, but I think you neglect it at your peril.
#He has such a vile anti-personality that even CONVICTED PEDOPHILES thought him insufferable
He has such a vile anti-personality that his own children would rather forego half a trillion dollars in inheritance than maintain a relationship with him.
if i had a time machine, first thing id do is obviously kill hitler. even if germanys fascism was caused by complex socioeconomic factors itd still be worth doing for the bit. then id go even further back to the early 20th century and become one of those old timey bank robbers, when they had names like 'pretty boy floyd' and 'baby face nelson' and id make sure people knew me as 'sweet baby ray' just to see how it fucks with barbeque sauce history
