We did something like this ten years ago, but in honor of the Weird Al movie, let’s do it again.
In this round I invite one and all to nominate Weird Al PARODIES. Weird Al originals like “Albuquerque” or “One More Minute” will get their own category.
For the purposes of this competition we will count the polka compilations as parodies, so you can nominate them, but please specifically name them if you wish to nominate them.
Please nominate up to SEVEN Weird Al parodies. You don’t have to rank them; all nomination mentions are one point. You may nominate fewer than seven if you wish but full ballots are appreciated.
To help you out, because there’s a lot of them, Weird Al’s website has a list of parodies:
I’m putting Eat It at number one. I remember sitting in the restaurant attached to the P/X in Munich back in 1984, and being excited that the song on the jukebox was Eat It instead of Beat It. I know it’s not Weird Al’s first song, but it’s the first big hit of his that I was aware of.
Agreed (though Amish Paradise is a close #2 IMO). Weird Al largely put the song together from internet rumors about the movie before it was out, and needed almost no alterations once it did come out.
If we’re going to go that direction, how many of Weird Al’s songs are actually parodies? The legal definition of a parody is that it’s humurous social commentary or literary criticism in which one work imitates another. Does that sound right for a lot of Al’s songs? What’s Eat It a parody of? Beat It would be the obvious answer, but what social commentary or criticism is Al making there? Does it even have to be a specific song to be parody? Christmas at Ground Zero is a parody of Christmas Songs. One More Minute is a parody of those 50s love songs.