POO: Weird Al original

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"Don't Wear Those Shoes"

Not for the funny, necessarily, but for sheer catchiness (the "Father Christmas" intro, the bass hook, the verse, etc). Polka Party is underrated.

― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Thursday, 19 October 2006 04:27 (nineteen years ago)

"One More Minute"

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 19 October 2006 04:34 (nineteen years ago)

"Dare to Be Stupid"

― Telephonething (Telephonething), Thursday, 19 October 2006 04:46 (nineteen years ago)

"Dare to Be Stupid" seconded. Awesome song.

― adam j (In Place of Something Clever), Thursday, 19 October 2006 06:44 (nineteen years ago)

"Dare to Be Stupid" thirded. Duty now, spuds!

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Thursday, 19 October 2006 10:24 (nineteen years ago)

Christmas at Ground Zero

― deusner (deusner), Thursday, 19 October 2006 10:32 (nineteen years ago)

"Christmas At Ground Zero", followed by "Dare To Be Stupid". Both genius.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Thursday, 19 October 2006 10:36 (nineteen years ago)

"One More Minute"..as a kid, i thought that the forced meter "i'd rather rip my heart right out of my rib cage with my bear hands and then throw it on the floor and stomp on it till i die" was the height of artistic expression.

― J. Grizzle (trainsmoke), Thursday, 19 October 2006 12:26 (nineteen years ago)

"'Cause I'm stranded all alone in the gas station of love, and I have to use the self-service pump."

At age 8, that line didn't quite resonate as humorously as it does now.

― Justin Shumaker (shueytexas), Thursday, 19 October 2006 13:30 (nineteen years ago)

LOL. That's about as explicit as Yankovic would ever want to be, but the subtleness of that line is still genius. :)

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Thursday, 19 October 2006 13:31 (nineteen years ago)

I am having a seriously difficult time deciding between "Dare To Be Stupid", "Good Old Days" and "One More Minute".

― Young Fresh Danny D (Dan Perry), Thursday, 19 October 2006 13:31 (nineteen years ago)

I'm gonna go with "Nature Trail to Hell (in 3-D)."

― Joseph McCombs (Joseph McCombs), Thursday, 19 October 2006 14:56 (nineteen years ago)

"dare to be stupid," duh. favorite use of the phrase "coffee achiever" in a pop song.

― your daughter is one (Jody Beth Rosen), Thursday, 19 October 2006 14:58 (nineteen years ago)

Always kinda liked "I'll be Mellow When I'm Dead."

― Eppy (Eppy), Thursday, 19 October 2006 14:59 (nineteen years ago)

"Dare To Be Stupid" is pretty great, admittedly, but like Dan says it's just not as easy a slam dunk as all that given other songs.

Oh, and honorable mention for "Germs." If Trent R. ever did that live, how many would get the joke?

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 19 October 2006 15:00 (nineteen years ago)

"mr. popeil" from 3D.

"you could even cut a tin can with it
but you wouldn't
want to!"

― andrew m. (andrewmorgan), Thursday, 19 October 2006 18:48 (nineteen years ago)

i wanna mend some leather

i wanna shine some pennies

― andrew m. (andrewmorgan), Thursday, 19 October 2006 18:49 (nineteen years ago)

"Nature Trail to Hell" seconded

― zaxxon25 (zaxxon25), Thursday, 19 October 2006 18:59 (nineteen years ago)

As I wrote on the C/D Weird Al thread this time last year:

"If they weren't "funny" tunes on records full of parodies, you can bet a lot more people would be talking about the following excellent rock and roll songs: "Dare To Be Stupid," "Mr. Popeil," "Attack of the Radioactive Hamsters From A Planet Near Mars," "I'll Be Mellow When I'm Dead," "Nature Trail To Hell," "You Make Me," "Velvet Elvis," "The Biggest Ball of Twine in Minnesota," "Trigger Happy," "Frank's 2000 Inch TV," "Waffle King," and maybe "Everything You Know Is Wrong.""

That would be my PO13, and from that, picking only one, wow. I think thread consensus is basically right - "Dare To Be Stupid," "Nature Trail To Hell" and "Mr. Popeil." It's a really, really tough choice though. I think "Dare To Be Stupid" might actually drop out for not actually being all that funny, although very, very catchy, with an amazing sonic assault. "Mr. Popeil" has the edge in this category for the Fred Schneider impression, which helps guarantee funniness all by itself. "I wanna crazy glue my head to the bottom...of a BIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIG steel girder!" "Look at that tomatooo!" Parodying a funny band might be cheating though. Ehhh, whatever, it's fabulous, and catchy as fuck. "I got I got I got to have it!"

― Doctor Casino (Doctor Casino), Thursday, 19 October 2006 19:10 (nineteen years ago)

I've loved "Dare To Be Stupid" since I first heard it during the Eric Idle love scene in Transformers: The Movie.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Thursday, 19 October 2006 19:20 (nineteen years ago)

Frank's 2000" TV is awesome! (and DTBS too, obv.)

― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Thursday, 19 October 2006 19:24 (nineteen years ago)

OMG "Slmie Creatures From Outer Space"! I totally forgot about that song.

― Young Fresh Danny D (Dan Perry), Thursday, 19 October 2006 19:33 (nineteen years ago)

mr. popeil always stuck in my head.

― the Adversary (but, still, a friend of yours) (Uri Frendimein), Thursday, 19 October 2006 19:49 (nineteen years ago)

velvet elvis...though i'm still not sure why...'pictures of Mexican kids with those really big eyes'

― le hague (le hague), Thursday, 19 October 2006 20:11 (nineteen years ago)

from 1985-1989: "Nature Trail to Hell (In 3-D)"
1989-1998: "Biggest Ball of Twine In Minnesota"
1998-present: "Nature Trail to Hell (In 3-D)"

― barefoot manthing (Garrett Martin), Thursday, 19 October 2006 20:15 (nineteen years ago)

I second those honorable mentions for "Germs". Perhaps his best ever style parody.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Thursday, 19 October 2006 20:51 (nineteen years ago)

The faux-Sparks "Virus Alert" off the new one is pretty ace as well.

― Telephonething (Telephonething), Thursday, 19 October 2006 20:55 (nineteen years ago)

I'd rather spend eternity eating shards of broken glass, than spend one more minute with you.

― got yourself a fish biscuit! (nickalicious), Thursday, 19 October 2006 21:01 (nineteen years ago)

"Bob"

― Mr. Snrub (Mr. Snrub), Thursday, 19 October 2006 21:45 (nineteen years ago)

Nature Trail to Hell for me.

― M@tt He1geson: Real Name, No Gimmicks (Matt Helgeson), Thursday, 19 October 2006 21:59 (nineteen years ago)

"Bob" seconded -- his best work by a country mile and then some.

― Colin Meeder (Mert), Friday, 20 October 2006 06:54 (nineteen years ago)

Dare To Be Stupid, out does Devo which is no small task.

― Rufus 3000 (Mr Noodles), Friday, 20 October 2006 16:05 (nineteen years ago)

Wow that self-service pump line totally went over my head as a wee tot.

Anyway, I have to go with Nature Trail, which isn't particularly funny but is just a flat-out good song, especially the long outro with the increasingly frantic backing vocals. And doesn't it end with a Day in the Life piano chord..? I need to listen to it again.

― Petroski (petroski), Friday, 20 October 2006 20:56 (nineteen years ago)

...the long outro with the increasingly frantic backing vocals

YA RLY, I love that.

― got yourself a fish biscuit! (nickalicious), Friday, 20 October 2006 21:09 (nineteen years ago)

I was just talking about this last night at M@tt's show. Odd. Fortunately, now I'm sober enough to remember the name of the goddamn song.

Nature Trail To Hell, no question.

― John Justen, Jeff's mom, a shetland pony, and fifteen packages of Jello. (johnju, Friday, 20 October 2006 21:35 (nineteen years ago)

I think I would also have to say "Bob." Saw the video yesterday on YouTube, and it cracked me right up. I mean, I suppose it counts as a parody, but not of a specific song... although the video sure is...

― Douglas (Douglas), Saturday, 21 October 2006 00:30 (nineteen years ago)

http://www.slate.com/id/2151657/?nav=tap3

― and what (ooo), Saturday, 21 October 2006 14:32 (nineteen years ago)

Okay, inspired by that article, I just watched an assload of Al videos on YouTube that I hadn't seen in ages, and my nerdy little heart swelled with pride when I saw an interocitor in the "Dare to Be Stupid" video a full ten years before Mystery Science Theater 3000 got their hands on it.

― Telephonething (Telephonething), Saturday, 21 October 2006 20:02 (nineteen years ago)

I just realized that the bride & groom in the "Dare to Be Stupid" video look a lot like my grandparents

― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Sunday, 22 October 2006 04:11 (nineteen years ago)

"Frank's 2000" TV" is simply an amazing song, it could have been a real hit and I find the "Hey now" breakdown even kind of emotionally affecting, before I remind myself that I'm listening to a comedy artist sing about a guy with a 300-foot-tall television.

― My name is Kenny (My name is Kenny), Thursday, 2 November 2006 03:53 (nineteen years ago)

OMG is "One of Those Days" really a parody of a Kinks song? I thought it was an original!

― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Thursday, 2 November 2006 05:48 (nineteen years ago)

I'm amazed at the lack of love for "Dog Eat Dog" on this thread.

― aldo_cowpat (aldo_cowpat), Thursday, 2 November 2006 07:58 (nineteen years ago)

fourteen years pass...

https://www.facebook.com/weirdal/posts/10158652817531005

― the serious avant-garde universalist right now (forksclovetofu), Thursday, 31 December 2020 00:39 (five years ago)

'Good Enough for Now' has always struck me as one of the most honest love songs ever written.

― Telly Salivas (Old Lunch), Thursday, 31 December 2020 01:09 (five years ago)

Rye or the Kaiser for my money

― maf you one two (maffew12), Thursday, 31 December 2020 01:41 (five years ago)

I always liked “This is the Life” from the Dare to be Stupid album. A perfect choice to open Amy Heckerling’s gangster movie send up “Johnny Dangerously” yet it’s also better than the movie.

― “Big” Don Abernathy, Thursday, 31 December 2020 01:52 (five years ago)

Rye or the Kaiser for my money

― maf you one two (maffew12), Wednesday, December 30, 2020 8:41 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

That’s not an original.

― longtime caller, first time listener (man alive), Thursday, 31 December 2020 03:29 (five years ago)

I really enjoy “Albuqurque”

― is right unfortunately (silby), Thursday, 31 December 2020 03:32 (five years ago)

(Sp?)

― is right unfortunately (silby), Thursday, 31 December 2020 03:33 (five years ago)

he even spells it in the song

― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Thursday, 31 December 2020 03:35 (five years ago)

― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Thursday, 31 December 2020 03:36 (five years ago)

....... querque!!!!!!!!!

― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Thursday, 31 December 2020 03:36 (five years ago)

Dare to be Stupid is my all-time favorite. I've always loved the line "You'd better squeeze all the Charmin you can when Mr. Whipple's not around/stick your head in the microwave and get yourself a tan"

However I think Biggest Ball of Twine in Minnesota is a really nice, original, and underappreciated bit of songwriting.

― longtime caller, first time listener (man alive), Thursday, 31 December 2020 05:46 (five years ago)

Now I kindaxwant to make an all-originals playlist...

"Biggest Ball of Twine" was like the secret password of my best friend and my nerd club of two, in 3rd grade.

― Soundslike, Thursday, 31 December 2020 07:44 (five years ago)

"You Don't Love Me Anymore"

― Lee626, Thursday, 31 December 2020 09:27 (five years ago)

Dare to be Stupid is also my pick but

Gotta Boogie!

― All cars are bad (Euler), Thursday, 31 December 2020 10:48 (five years ago)

"Everything You Know is Wrong" would be one of my favorite TMBG songs, if it actually was a TMBG song

― Vinnie, Thursday, 31 December 2020 11:20 (five years ago)

Al's story forks linked is amazing, thanks for that.

i got ready to work out a response to the thread question but it would seem i did so 14 years ago and there's not much i would change really. guy has a hell of a catalog.

― Doctor Casino, Thursday, 31 December 2020 13:01 (five years ago)

My all-time favorite Al song is Midnight Star. Nature Trail to Hell is also up there.

― peace, man, Thursday, 31 December 2020 14:25 (five years ago)

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