Anybody else out there think so? Let’s talk.
I’ve been a huge fan of his since I was about five (about 18 years now), and I wholeheartedly agree. Admitadely, some of his stuff is just plain stupid, but it’s all good fun. Satire and spoof is hard to pull off, and I think he does a great job of both. And his videos are funny as all shit.
UHF is one of the greatest movies ever made. Pure, utter genius.
I agree!
I particularly like his early stuff, but part of my bias may be that I know (and love) more of the songs he was parodying then, and the similarity to / duplication of the original song is part of what makes it so funny.
I remember when he performed “Another One Rides the Bus” on Dr. Demento so many years ago, and I think those exposures on Dr. Demento’s shows got his career rolling.
Another One Rides the Bus, I Love Rocky Road, Eat It, so many others…
I also thought UHF was very funny, although I wouldn’t go so far as to call it genius. Wheel of Fish… We don’t need no stinkin’ badgers…
I caught his act once (again, this is many years ago) here at The Greek Theater in Los Angeles. At the time, I couldn’t find any of my friends who could go that particular night, so I said screw it and just went by myself. Glad I did. Among the songs he performed on stage were “Like a Surgeon” and “Hey Lucy.”
I ran into him one time at a grocery store. I couldn’t believe it, but there he was, with the hair and the hawaiian shirt. I went up to him and said hello, and though he clearly wasn’t comfortable striking up a friendship with a complete stranger, he still seemed like a nice guy.
Dang funny, if you ask me.
I’ve got all of his CD’s. None on vinyl, though.
I’ve seen him in concert a few times. GrizzWife smilingly goes with me. I think that she likes going to a “rock” type concert where people aren’t getting all drunk and disorderly.
Absolutely. Comic AND musical genius. His “style parodies” like “Everything you know is wrong,” “Dare to be stupid,” and “Germs” cement it for me. He makes a song that sounds EXACTLY like it should be a Devo or TMBG or NIN song, despite not being directly based on any particular song, and still makes it funny, to boot. Genius.
Seen him twice in concert. Have all the albums on either cd or cassette.
Al rocks. I’ve seen him in concert 3 times and have all his CDs. I just got UHF on DVD also, and I already have his music video collection on DVD (though it doesn’t have any videos made after ‘Headline News’).
It’s amazing how he can make funny songs without ever making them with profanity or sex references. It takes true talent to pull that off, IMO.
I tried to tape Weird Al a little while ago at the Skyline Stage (Chicago Navy Pier). Back when his Star Wars Ep 1 song to the tune of “American Pie” was brand new. My one and only complete failure at stealth taping.
The evening started out great. Skyline Stage is a nice venue. Right on the lakefront, every seat is a good one, excellent concessions. A friend of mine was hotly anticipating the show. In fact, I think there were two the same day and he went to both. And he asked me to tape with my stealthy mics. He was really very excited about getting a tape of Weird Al live. I was happy to do him the favor.
The seats were only half full, so I walked up a ways to get away from the crowd noise and checked my levels. The mics are fed into a DAT recorder about the size of a Walkman. You wear the mics on your head (attached to glasses), and they are virtually undetectable unless you make a scene with the recorder. If I had just stayed in my seat and watched the show like a sober person, everything would have been fine. But that wasn’t the case. I had been liberally imbibing the boilermakers. I was feeling no pain.
So some assistant soundboard geek spots me fiddling with the DAT, and busted me. He blurted something about “Do you know this is copyrighted material…” and tried to take the machine away. I was having none of that, so he stamped his foot and went and got a cop. I got dragged off to the side by the cop, who twisted my arm to wrench the DAT machine away from me when I was too slow removing the tape.
All in all, I didn’t get in trouble. I got to watch the rest of the show. I just failed. Screwed the pooch. Shit the bed. Totally got busted taping Weird Frickin Al, and Petey didn’t get his live record. Curses!
So the Weird Al comedy revue got a little serious for me. Even the fat suit didn’t really cheer me up. Brown liquor got the best of me once again.
The first time that my buddy Zette came down to hang at my house for the day, she brought Weird Al’s videos on DVD that she’s rented from Netflix. We were both in tears watching Al’s “Living With a Hernia” video. Absolute spot-on impersonation of James Brown, and when he clutches himself after trying to bowl, we both lost it.
Classic stuff. Heh.
Weird Al rules! I first saw him at the Spirit Club in San Diego in 81 or 82. He was number 3 on a six-act bill. Nobody had ever heard of him except me and my Dr. D. geek buddies.
Saw him many times again, always a winner…Timmy
Anyone heard his version of Peter and the Wolf? No Weird Al collection is complete without. Definitely one of my favorites, it’s filled with all the Weirdness you’ve come to know and love:
“The part of the Duck will be played by the oboe, and the part of the Grandfather will be played by…Don Ameche.” It’s a must have.
I’d heard his stuff on the radio growing up, but I have a good high-school friend (Hi Loretta!) to thank for introducing me to his albums. The first time I heard “Mr. Frump and His Iron Lung” … wow! Someone just as twisted as me, but with much more talent!
I think Mr. Pol & I have most all the albums except Peter and the Wolf. Also have the 2 video collections: Weird Al Yankovic: Alapalooza The Videos (1993) & Weird Al Yankovic: The Videos(1996) along with Weird Al Yankovic: Live! (2000). Somewhere in the VHS collection we’ve even got a couple of “AlTV” shows. Nothing from the Saturday morning show tho 
.
Hard to say which songs are my favorites - the parodies, the style parodies (does anyone else think “Good Old Days” sounds like James Taylor?) or the originals. I agree with Richardb that it’s much more fun when you know the song that is being parodied.
Mr. Pol & I have seen Weird Al in concert three times - on the “Bad Hair Day” tour at a biker bar in Roseville MI :eek: and twice on the “Running With Scissors” tour. Was thrilled to see UHF finally released on DVD - our VHS tape was getting pretty worn out.
Not to drizzle on the Al Appreciation Parade (hey, I was the first Doper to go orgasmic over the UHF DVD), but am I the only one who thinks some of his more recent songs have a bit of a (slightly) sadistic edge to them?
I mean, I love “Christmas at Ground Zero,” just because it’s a zany juxtaposition of two different events. But “The Night Santa Went Crazy” struck me as merely being gory for the sake of shocking the audience, and I can’t stand it as a result. Similarly, a cold reading of “I’m So Sick of You” comes off as a nonstop insult-a-thon to unattractive women, and I have a hard time finding the comedy in that (though I imagine a music video starring a supermodel in the female lead role would probably work). And the ending of “I Remember Larry”… urgh. Anyone else feel the same way?
Al’s always had some sadistic songs. It just one of his many flavors that he does: “Nature Trail to Hell”, “Good Enough For Now”, “I Was Only Kidding” and “One More Minute” off the top of my head. So I wouldn’t say it’s a recent thing.
I rather enjoy those songs. I guess Al has a little something for everybody.
Nature trail to hell…
in 3d…
Wanders off, whistling.
Weird Al is my hero and my heartbreak. I cried for days when he cancelled the show in my town that was scheduled FOR MY BIRTHDAY. He broke my heart, but I love him anyway. UHF is an awesome movie, all of his CDs rock, and Jadis and I both almost pissed ourselved laughing over “Living With a Hernia”- twice in one day, in fact!
Zette
Just in case you couldn’t tell from my username, as everyone else in the thread, I am a big Weird Al fan, although I didn’t much care for “UHF”. I also found “Bad Hair Day” to be a bit of a letdown (except for “Amish Paradise”), but he more than made up for it with “Running With Scissors”.
And speaking of “Amish Paradise”, has anyone seen the VH1 Behind the Music Weird Al episode? If it hadn’t been for “Amish Paradise” they couldn’t have made it. It was the first time there was ever a sliver of anything controversial about Al. Apparently Coolio didn’t like the song, and made his (mild, it seemed to me) displeasure known at some kind of press conference. In the Weird Al BTM episode they played the living hell out of that clip, showing it some 6 or 8 times.
I just can’t believe we’ve had this many responses without a link to his website.
So here it is.
And for those of you in the Orange County area, Weird Al will have an almost daily presence at the Orange County Fair, along with Dr. Demento.
<----------Big Weird Al fan checking in here.
WEIRD AL RULES!!!
I LOVE Weird Al.
And I think without the glasses and the 'stache, he’s pretty handsome, if I do say so myself.
Yeah, but the early sadistic songs were more innocent fun IMO, and the later ones seem to be skirting the line of outright rudeness. “Nature Trail to Hell” was obviously a movie commercial, for instance, and “Good Enough For Now” and “I Was Only Kidding” poked fun at the singer, not the recipient.
Eh, maybe I’m just getting old. There are some things one should not mess with IMO, and that includes Santa Claus. 