Classic or Dud: Weird Al Yankovic

Weird Al is obviously a good guy which is why it’s gobsmacking to see an Instagram post of his taken down. Who among us has not cozied up to a murderous drug lord?

Weird was pretty good, but UHF is one of the best comedies of all time. Two films in two different leagues.

Opposite for me. I loved UHF when I was 15, but I revisited it 3 or 4 years ago and it was agonizing to get through. otoh WEIRD was absurd and hilarious and met me exactly where I am right now.

UHF was great for its time. Weird is great now.

I love UHF, there are still gags that come to mind all the time.

Here's Al doing a classic rock garage jam with a bunch of comedians from the State:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LdrhWm2mRRE

i think ilxor is otm... will be interesting to try UHF again soon.

UHF holds up fuiud

I first saw UHF at the age of 14 and thought it was the funniest movie ever made

Saw it later at 17 and was embarrassed that ever I liked it in the first place

But I recently caught about half of it on TV and thought it was really funny again

I still think it's funny, but I think one of the things that made it even funnier when I was a kid was not being familiar with a lot of the stuff it was spoofing. Like, I remember being kind of disappointed when I saw Close Encounters later and found out what UHF's the mashed potatoes scene was referencing.

Loved Weird too.

I also didn't understand many of the references when I watched UHF but that movie has so many non-sequitors I never assumed anything was a reference!

ditto for the "Dare to be Stupid" video, which as a kid just looked like a pile of funny and random stuff but I've now come to realize contains like four dozen Devo references. he must've been a real fan. it's pretty awesome that he must've heard Oh, No! It's Devo and been like, "okay, THAT I can do" and proceeded to whip up a tune better than anything on the album (and I really like that album!)

I think I may have said this before, but I generally prefer his songs that take on an artist's style like "Dare to be Stupid", "Mr. Popeil", "Velvet Elvis" vs the straight up parodies of existing songs.

Which is the genius twist of the movie.

yeah a lot of his style parodies are straight up brilliant. they walk a fine line between tribute and parody while also being generally good songs on their own. I remember a buddy of mine who hated CAKE thinking "Close But No Cigar" was really great because "that's what all their songs sound like to me". but those of us who liked them thought it was a good tune too. I imagine that's not easy to do.

With the style parodies he usually gets to heart of the band's subject matter and tone. Casual listeners who maybe only know a handful of Devo songs would be unaware that so much of their post-Whip It output was dominated by these kind of advice songs where the lyrics use mangled aphorisms to say you gotta do this and you gotta do that or else this thing will happen. Ditto with his They Might Be Giants one - you can tell he's more than a casual fan. "Frank's 2000 inch TV" really kind of gets Michael Stipe in his yearning stream of consciousness style, like the opening lines and the bit where Al sings he's "going to get one of my own real soon" which (other than being ridiculous) is both upliftingly hopeful and quite sad, because you know he won't.

On the other hand, "Ringtone" isn't really a particularly good Queen parody but it's still a great, funny song.

“Virus Alert” nails glam era Sparks so perfectly.

I'm still waiting for a Primus one

Self-parody: the bane of parodists throughout history.

what makes the TMBG one so weird is I think he actually does get to the heart of what makes Linnell's songwriting so unique - but the lyrics are just a stream of goofy shit. so he gets the difficult part right, but whiffs on the easy part.

Feels like with the accordion solo Al is having fun challenging them a bit on the virtuosity.

otm re his style parodies being sublime, sometimes to a point that must frighten the artists. mothersbaugh called dare to be stupid "the most beautiful thing i had ever heard". (my fave song about reaganism, too, tho i'm sure it isn't meant to be.) similarly-- this is v dorky of me-- i think i prefer "germs" to both "closer" and "terrible lie".

Maybe this is over-thinking it but hear me out. The lyrics and the vocals are more typical of Gerald Casale songs - esp. on New Traditionalists, so maybe that's why Mothersbaugh gave that response.