# Recommend 8-year-old friendly Weird Al Yankovic songs
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-8-year-old-friendly-weird-al-yankovic-songs/832004
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [April 3, 2019, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-8-year-old-friendly-weird-al-yankovic-songs/832004 "2019-04-03T21:26:58Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2019, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-8-year-old-friendly-weird-al-yankovic-songs/832004/21 "2019-04-04T00:12:10Z")
> [@Ethilrist](#):
>
> I was going to suggest “Like a Surgeon,” but I just read through the lyrics and wow, that gets kinda dark…
Third graders are super dark.
I don’t know of any Weird Al that I wouldn’t let third graders listen to–even Nature Trail to Hell (in 3D!) is absurdist horror:
> [@](#):
>
> Coming this Christmas to a theater near you
> The most horrifying film that hit the screen.
> There’s a homicidal maniac who finds a cub-scout troop
> and he hacks up two or three in every scene.
> Please don’t reveal the secret ending to your friends
> Don’t spoil the big surprise
> You won’t believe your eyes when you see
But it may not be great wake-up music. (And also, revisiting Melanie, yeah, maybe not that one).
For waking up, I think Tacky, the polkas, and Eat It would all be great (I mean, not for me, that’d drive me insane, but they’re upbeat and bouncy). If your kid is autistic in the “likes wordplay” way, I second SmartAleq’s “Bob” recommendation: I show it to my third graders a lot, and I always share their delight in its layers of genius.
---
### Author:  [@emmaliminal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/emmaliminal)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2019, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-8-year-old-friendly-weird-al-yankovic-songs/832004/22 "2019-04-04T00:21:12Z")
**Reindeer Flotilla** , two point penalty for not reading the OP… 🙂
OK, for tomorrow morning, I’ve loaded up, in no particular order (\*why, \*little iPod, _why?_ would alphabetical order grieve you in some way??)
[ul]
[li]I Lost on Jeapardy[/li][li]Fat[/li][li]Foil[/li][li]Word Crimes[/li][li]Tacky[/li][li]The Saga Begins[/li][li]White & Nerdy[/li][li]My Bologna[/li][li]Eat It[/li][/ul]
Tomorrow I will seek out
[ul]
[li]Gotta Boogie[/li][li]Virus Alert[/li][li]eBay[/li][li]I Love Rocky Road[/li][li](This Song’s Just) Six Sords Long[/li][li]Slime Creatures from Outer Space[/li][li]Attack of the Radioactive Hamsters…[/li][li]The Biggest Ball of Twine in Minnesota[/li][li]Bob[/li][li]Harvey the Wonder Hamster[/li][li]Mission Statement[/li]and maybe even [li]Like a Surgeon[/li][/ul]
Many continuing thanks!
---
### Author:  [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2019, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-8-year-old-friendly-weird-al-yankovic-songs/832004/23 "2019-04-04T00:25:48Z")
> [@nightshadea](#):
>
> another **not** to play is “those were the good ol’ days” that song and melanie made 12 year old me realize al goes to some funny but dark as hell places
[That’s the one I meant](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=19955105&postcount=97)! _Melanie_ is still pretty bad, too, though.
---
### Author:  [@ataraxy22](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ataraxy22)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2019, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-8-year-old-friendly-weird-al-yankovic-songs/832004/24 "2019-04-04T00:27:23Z")
Anything from UHF.
Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk
---
### Author:  [@Reindeer\_Flotilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reindeer_Flotilla)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2019, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-8-year-old-friendly-weird-al-yankovic-songs/832004/25 "2019-04-04T00:28:58Z")
> [@emmaliminal](#):
>
> **Reindeer Flotilla** , two point penalty for not reading the OP… 🙂
Well, crap. I may have to demand my money back from Evelyn Wood.
Wait, she’s what?!!
---
### Author:  [@neofishboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/neofishboy)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2019, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-8-year-old-friendly-weird-al-yankovic-songs/832004/26 "2019-04-04T00:35:52Z")
Just occurred to me that [Don’t Wear Those Shoes](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hoae0lWeUac) would also be a fun, energetic wake-up song for an 8-year old. Also the very similar (musically but not lyrically) [Midnight Star.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A42ZYNno5oQ)
---
### Author:  [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2019, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-8-year-old-friendly-weird-al-yankovic-songs/832004/27 "2019-04-04T00:36:01Z")
Girls just wanna have lunch
Waffle King
King of Suede
Amish Paradise
I think I’m a Clone Now
---
### Author:  [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2019, 6:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-8-year-old-friendly-weird-al-yankovic-songs/832004/28 "2019-04-04T06:38:28Z")
> [@emmaliminal](#):
>
> **Reindeer Flotilla** , two point penalty for not reading the OP… 🙂
>
> OK, for tomorrow morning, I’ve loaded up, in no particular order (\*why, \*little iPod, _why?_ would alphabetical order grieve you in some way??)
> [ul]
> [li]I Lost on Jeapardy[/li][li]Fat[/li][li]Foil[/li][li]Word Crimes[/li][li]Tacky[/li][li]The Saga Begins[/li][li]White & Nerdy[/li][li]My Bologna[/li][li]Eat It[/li][/ul]
> Tomorrow I will seek out
> [ul]
> [li]Gotta Boogie[/li][li]Virus Alert[/li][li]eBay[/li][li]I Love Rocky Road[/li][li](This Song’s Just) Six Sords Long[/li][li]Slime Creatures from Outer Space[/li][li]Attack of the Radioactive Hamsters…[/li][li]The Biggest Ball of Twine in Minnesota[/li][li]Bob[/li][li]Harvey the Wonder Hamster[/li][li]Mission Statement[/li]and maybe even [li]Like a Surgeon[/li][/ul]
> Many continuing thanks!
Sounds like a great playlist.
Let us know how it goes!
---
### Author:  [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2019, 7:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-8-year-old-friendly-weird-al-yankovic-songs/832004/29 "2019-04-04T07:59:48Z")
Weird Al songs are all much funnier if you know the original song. Maybe you could make an album of the originals and play that to him. Once he’s heard that give him Al’s versions.
---
### Author:  [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2019, 8:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-8-year-old-friendly-weird-al-yankovic-songs/832004/30 "2019-04-04T08:42:18Z")
> [@Peter\_Morris](#):
>
> Weird Al songs are all much funnier if you know the original song. Maybe you could make an album of the originals and play that to him. Once he’s heard that give him Al’s versions.
Actually, as a kid some of my favorites from Weird Al were parodies of songs I wasn’t familiar with. I’m not sure if this is necessary.
---
### Author:  [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2019, 8:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-8-year-old-friendly-weird-al-yankovic-songs/832004/31 "2019-04-04T08:59:35Z")
He writes good originals too. “Virus Alert” is an original I believe. So Is “First World Problems” (which is screamingly funny IMO but you possibly have to be a grown up to really appreciate)
---
### Author:  [@N9IWP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/N9IWP)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2019, 10:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-8-year-old-friendly-weird-al-yankovic-songs/832004/32 "2019-04-04T10:48:12Z")
After “The Saga Begins” my favorite song on \*Running with Scissors \* is “Your Horoscope for Today”, though it references people an 8-year old may not know (Ernest Borgnine and Meryl Streep)
Brian
---
### Author:  [@emmaliminal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/emmaliminal)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2019, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-8-year-old-friendly-weird-al-yankovic-songs/832004/33 "2019-04-04T12:10:38Z")
Okay — so this morning we started with “The Saga Begins” which, no surprise, he loved. Within a few bars, he’d assessed that it must be Obi-Wan singing (“except that it’s really Weird Al doing the _actual_ singing”) even though he’s never seen any Star Wars movie except _A New Hope_ because his parents are not monsters and we don’t think he’s old enough for crap prequels yet (he gets to see the sequels pretty soon, though his father is grumpy about even those). But dissemination via playground means he knows all the details already anyway, and he broke into a dissertation on how Jedi mind tricks don’t work on whichever kind of wasplike alien Watta is. or something. For the second song, I had “My Bologna” all cued up, but he rejected it based on the intro alone! He wouldn’t give it a chance! So we listened to “White & Nerdy” again and then (again, again) “Yoda”.
Small steps. :rolleyes:
---
### Author:  [@emmaliminal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/emmaliminal)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2019, 12:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-8-year-old-friendly-weird-al-yankovic-songs/832004/34 "2019-04-04T12:18:22Z")
Just noticed that “Another One Rides the Bus” somehow fell off my lists — gotta get that one; I even remember it from back in the day. Props to **icantdraw**.
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### Author:  [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2019, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-8-year-old-friendly-weird-al-yankovic-songs/832004/35 "2019-04-04T12:27:08Z")
BTW, if he likes White and Nerdy there is [a video of Donny Osmond just dancing around in front of a green screen while Al lipsyncs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YoDGBPjLQbw)- there’s a few snippets in the final song video but this is just Donny as dancing fool.
---
### Author:  [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2019, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-8-year-old-friendly-weird-al-yankovic-songs/832004/36 "2019-04-04T13:58:42Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#):
>
> Actually, as a kid some of my favorites from Weird Al were parodies of songs I wasn’t familiar with. I’m not sure if this is necessary.
Word. I’d had _I Want a New Duck_ memorized for more than a year before I first heard _I Want a New Drug_.
Speaking of which: [I Want a New Duck](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTEygId8UwE).
---
### Author:  [@emmaliminal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/emmaliminal)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2019, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-8-year-old-friendly-weird-al-yankovic-songs/832004/37 "2019-04-04T15:38:01Z")
> [@Gyrate](#):
>
> BTW, if he likes White and Nerdy there is [a video of Donny Osmond just dancing around in front of a green screen while Al lipsyncs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YoDGBPjLQbw)- there’s a few snippets in the final song video but this is just Donny as dancing fool.
BWAAAAAHAAAAHAAAHAAAAAA
love it!
---
### Author:  [@emmaliminal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/emmaliminal)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2019, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-8-year-old-friendly-weird-al-yankovic-songs/832004/38 "2019-04-04T18:42:08Z")
> [@neofishboy](#):
>
> …[Mission Statement](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GyV_UG60dD4) is mostly corporate-speak which may go over his head, but it’s damn catchy…
Aaaaugh! VIVID flashbacks to my corporate hell-job, five years gone now but FOREVER ETCHED IN MY BRAIN
(Oh that’s good; thanks, **neofishboy** )
---
### Author:  [@Quercus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quercus)
#### Post date: [April 5, 2019, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-8-year-old-friendly-weird-al-yankovic-songs/832004/39 "2019-04-05T14:43:16Z")
> [@emmaliminal](#):
>
> […] he’s never seen any Star Wars movie except _A New Hope_ because his parents are not monsters […]
He likes Star Wars and you haven’t shown him _Empire Strikes Back_ and you claim you’re not monsters? :dubious:
Frankly, in my not-at-all-judgemental opinion, if you haven’t shown him Lego Droid Tales and all of the Lego Star Wars Freemaker adventures, Social Services should probably be intervening by now (I mean, he likes Lego right?).
Anyway, “Word Crimes” is a high-rotation song for the Sprout. We’re so proud of our little grammar-nitpicker. We do wish we’d intercepted “Party in the CIA” before he heard it though.
Also, on the subject of Star Wars song parodies, if he knows Anakin’s story and has seen _Frozen_ there’s a great version of “Let it Go” on youtube (I think called “Let it Flow”) with Anakin singing. Also a version of “You’re Welcome” from _Moanna_ as _Last Jedi_ Luke. Assuming you stop being monsters and let him see that movie.
Finally, if he likes Weird Al rapping, it might be time to turn him on to _Hamilton_, which was super-extra-high rotation around here for a while.
---
### Author:  [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)
#### Post date: [April 5, 2019, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-8-year-old-friendly-weird-al-yankovic-songs/832004/40 "2019-04-05T14:59:58Z")
> [@Quercus](#):
>
> He likes Star Wars and you haven’t shown him _Empire Strikes Back_ and you claim you’re not monsters? :dubious:
He should have to wait three years between episodes, like I did.
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