35 Comments

Al's fantastic!

But come on, Andrew, we all know why you really wrote this: "Weird Al"? Everyone knows lowercase "l" looks exactly like capital "I" (SEE?!)

So this entire post is an attempt to piggyback on the AI (artificial intelligence) hype train.

Everyone wants to know what's so strange about AI, and here you are, telling them.

What I'm trying to say is: Well played, good sir!

Expand full comment

A tip of my hat to you, sir. I briefly considered including this joke in my piece.

Expand full comment

Like a Surgeon is pretty funny.

Expand full comment

Yes! Easily one of his funniest parodies.

I could write something 10 times this long about Weird Al, seriously.

Expand full comment

He's always been a favorite of mine.

Expand full comment

I knew I liked you for some reason!

Expand full comment

He wasn't the first guy to have hits with song parodies- Spike Jones, Stan Freberg and Allan Sherman all had success in earlier decades. But his career has far outlasted theirs.

His ability to restructure all sorts of popular songs to fit his madness amazes me, and his original tunes are themselves masterful comic pieces. So I don't begrudge him any of the success he's had.

Expand full comment

Yeah dude, I mean people played rock and roll music before the Beatles, right?

Expand full comment

Loved Dr. D and was probably listening when My Bologna first aired for Weird Al. I was in HS then and curfew was 10, which was the same time Dr. D show came on, so the timing likely saved from being grounded more. 😉 Lola/Yoda makes me smile every time! Wishing you and yours a Happy New Year!

Expand full comment

Fantastic!! I love those old songs so much. You'd probably really appreciate Brad's writeup of Dr D if you didn't already get a chance to read it.

Expand full comment

Will do, just refilling the coffee cup before I tap that, Thank you!

Expand full comment

Now you're talking! Enjoying my coffee.

Expand full comment

Ee gads... now I have a Fish heads ear worm, jolly, jolly NOT 😋!

Expand full comment

Will do. The trailer looked really good.

Expand full comment

For the title alone, I love "Angry White Boy Polka". *L*

It's funny how untranslatable Weird Al is. A lot of pop gets played outside of the US, but Weird Al is almost unheard of because of all the cultural context in parodies. I mentioned just this past Saturday how it was amazing to see the YouTuber Roomie (who is Swedish and lives in LA) didn't seem to "get" a lot of what makes Weird Al funny in his first "Weird Al or the original artist?" video.

Al's songs stand on their own, both the originals and the parodies, but many of the parodies are of songs that totally got overplayed on the radio. To have had to live through, Michael Jackson and Madonna and the Backstreet Boys and Miley Cyrus and Green Day and then hear someone goof on them is like a breath of fresh air.

Expand full comment

Agree 100%, especially the pop culture getting lost in context. I am close with several friends and colleagues who have ESL, and it's tough to connect with them by way of humor references sometimes. I realize that a lot of my pushback into comedy has been because of the ridiculousness of American pop culture.

Expand full comment

I loved in Germany for 4 1/2 years, and had 2 or 3 Weird Al CDs with me (early 2000s). I could explain the songs well enough that the songs were funny, but there was no way of conveying how hilarious they truly were to the American ear.

Expand full comment

Indeed. Even something like "The Office" or (especially) "Always Sunny" requires a dozen deep-dive cultural references in just about every episode. You don't really think so much about how embedded this sort of critique and commentary is within our entertainment media until you talk to someone who's not so deeply immersed!

Expand full comment

Great job, Andrew, and thanks again for pushing and encouraging me to slap my Dr. D knowledge and experiences onto virtual paper! In ghetto gambling parlance, I reckon we're just givin' in a gangsta's pair o' dice!

Expand full comment

Great job, Brad! These 2 pieces came together like satire and polka.

Expand full comment

Nice...........Thanks, Andrew (but, mostly for your inspiration, flexibility, and guidance)! I just slapped "my" Dr. D post on several FB groups (like '70s rock, classic rock, etc), including a "Weird Al" fan group, and a Dr. D one! Hopefully, more traffic for us both!

Expand full comment

Great article! I'm looking forward to seeing the movie.

Expand full comment

Awesome! Let me know what you think. I liked the way they played it.

Expand full comment

Amish Paradise. I just love how he flipped the gangsta genre on its head.

Expand full comment

Yes!

Expand full comment

Should have posted my post on it!

https://open.substack.com/pub/songoftheday/p/amish-paradise

Expand full comment

I love Stevie's original, but confess that I heard Gangsta's Paradise first. What a cool mishmash of past music, though!

Expand full comment

It’s from a couple of years ago, but this episode of 60 Songs That Explain the 90s on Weird Al and Coolio is pretty great. I also wrote about Coolio when he passed.

https://www.theringer.com/2021/7/7/22566059/coolio-gangstas-paradise-amish-paradise-weird-al

https://open.substack.com/pub/earworm/p/rip-coolio?r=1046qe&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

Expand full comment

Andrew ... what fun to connect with Weird Al ... wish I had grown up under his influence ... his mad freeness is contagious and maybe I wouldn't have taken life so seriously. One question though ... could he have been Weird Al without the hair? Thanks for starting my day on a "be your own imperfect self" note.

Expand full comment

Yay! I love those kinds of notes.

That hair certainly is iconic. I would note that his moustache also used to be part and parcel of the persona that is Weird Al, but that seems to have disappeared without too much protest. Perhaps the hair will do the same, now that Al is in his 60s.

Expand full comment

Bald Weird Al ... now that's a thought. ;-)

Expand full comment

BTW Joyce, I really love my "about" page, and you helped me get there!

Expand full comment

Thanks ... definitely a fun experience.

Expand full comment

Feel free to quote me if that's helpful! I can probably say gushier things if needed.

Expand full comment

we could have a mutual gush society! maybe that's what the world needs.

Expand full comment