You may have seen some of the videos for the new Weird Al Yankovic album Mandatory Fun on social media. I saw the video for "Tacky"-a parody of Pharrell's "Happy"-staring Eric Stonestreet, Jack Black, and other comedians a couple of days ago and it made me laugh. I researched Weird Al as I hadn't thought of his music since 1988's Even Worse. In addition to being a talking head on VH1's I Love.. series, he's been consistantly releasing albums that mock the songs of the times.
I knew every word to every song on 1985's Dare To Be Stupid when I was 8-10 years old. "Like A Surgeon" "I Want a New Duck," and my favorite, a parody of The Kinks "Lola," "Yoda." I never heard the Dr. Demento show, so these songs based on real radio songs were (and still are) hilarious to me. Yankovic is a great writer. Take the song "Happy." In his parody he's not just replacing the word happy with tacky. With the lyrics: "It might seem crazy wearing stripes and plaid
I Instagram every meal I've had…" the entire song is about "tacky" behavior.
Polka Party came out in 1986, which I don't really remember. I mean I remember "Living With a Hernia," based on James Brown's "Living In America," but looking at the whole album, I don't think I had the cassette. I did have 1988's Even Worse, released after Michael Jackson's Bad. The parody of the song "Bad" is "Fat." Remember Yankovic in the fat suit in the video on MTV?
Weird Al didn't release another album until 1992's Off The Deep End. In 1992 I was a sophomore in high school. I was too cool to listen to Weird Al in 10th grade. The cover of the album is a spoof of Nirvana's Nevermind, so grunge music had reached Minnesota by then, and I was too wrapped up in my Pearl Jam and Temple of the Dog to want to hear some yahoo make fun of them. Going back now and listening to "Smells Like Nirvana" drives home how Weird Al stays on top of what's popular and points and laughs at it.
From 1992 to 2011 he released seven albums. You could pick up a 1999 greatest hits album and listen to The Offspring and Barenaked Ladies songs that you've heard a million times (and now hear in waiting rooms), or get a copy of Weird Al's Running With Scissors instead and smile as you listen to "Pretty Fly for a Rabbi." You can relive all of the music you loved around the time his albums came out with spot-on parodies of the tunes.
Each album includes a medley of popular songs for the time in a polka. In these medleys he doesn't change the words of the songs, but deftly arranges them to accordion and tubas. On Mandatory Fun a few of the songs that make the cut are Miley's Cyrus's "Wrecking Ball," Psy's "Gangnam Style," and Daft Punk's "Get Lucky."
In addition to "Tacky," the other standouts on the new album are "Foil" to the tune of Lorde's "Royals." It's about wrapping up your leftovers in aluminum foil. The writer in me loves the song "Word Crimes," from Robin Thicke's "Blurred Lines." It's about using correct grammar. "Word Crimes" is a 3:43 English lesson. And "First World Problems" is in the style of The Pixies. It starts with the unmistakable bass that "Debaser" starts with, but the number isn't a direct spoof of one Pixies song.
Part of me wishes that I didn't take myself so seriously and miss out on the Weird Al records that I did at the time, but another part of me is excited to go back and listen to some new-to-me comedy/albums. I'm impressed with Mandatory Fun, and hope that the 54-year-old Weird Al has more to come as Ozzie grows up.
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