So I got Weird Al’s video collection DVD and was watching the video for “Bob” which was the only one I’d never seen before. It took me a few seconds to catch on that all of the lyrics were palindromes!
Who else but Al could be this clever?
Funny stuff.
Truely brilliant. I wanted it to go on forever and when it ended I actually went “awww!” heh.
Palindrome, you mean, like “Notlob”?
(if you don’t watch Python, please disregard above question.)
They Might Be Giants,
“I Palindrome I,” Apollo 18 (1992)
I made up a palindrome which I rather like:
In Eden, I? Never! Even in Eden, I.
(I forgot to add that I find that one especially pleasing because it’s a riff on the inscription in Poussin’s The Arcadian Shepherds.)
Yeah, I’m so clever I can even palindromically blow my own horn:
Toot, toot!
They’re clever alright, but I was thinking more of the fact that Al’s song is made up entirely of palindromes.
As is the title, unlike I, Palindrome, I. So there!
totally palindromic?
cool.
I originally thought it was just a parody of how Bob Dylan just has weird esoteric lyrics. On the second listening, I got it. So it’s both - make fun of Bob, plus a really clever idea for lyrics.
Special Agent John Steel strode into the headquarters of the National Security Agency with a determined look on his face.
“Someone find Professor Von Noodle,” he called out, “I want him in my office within two minutes.”
One hundred and nineteen seconds later, the elderly professor was seated before Steel’s desk.
“Professor, you’re the only man who can crack the new OMEGA code. We need to know where the terrorists will strike next.”
“I will do all I can, John. Let me read the coded message.”
The message read as follows:
WOLLO FSADA EREGA SSEME HTEGA SSEMD EDOCE HTDAE REMTE LNHOJ NACIL LAODL LIWIT XENEK IRTSL LIWST SIROR RETEH TEREH WWONK OTDEE NEWED OCAGE MOWEN EHTKC ARCNA COHWN AMYLN OEHTE RUOYR OSSEF ORPKS EDSLE ETSER OFEBD ETAES SAWRO SSEFO RPYLR EDLEE HTRET ALSDN OCESN EETEN INDNA DERDN UHENO SETUN IMOWT NIHTI WECIF FOYMN IMIHT NAWIT UODEL LACEH ELDOO NNOVR OSSEF ORPDN IFENO EMOSE CAFSI HNOKO OLDEN IMRET EDAHT IWYCN EGAYT IRUCE SLANO ITANE HTFOS RETRA UQDAE HEHTO TNIED ORTSL EETSN HOJTN EGAIA ICEPS
That’s cheating! That’s a big cheat and it disgusts me!
P.S. No, son. Onanism’s a gross orgasm sin. A no no, son!
.
100% bogus. BOO! For shame!
Plus, Little Nemo’s post is not a real palindrome.
Notice the second to last word: “EGAIA.”
Should be “EGALA.”
So there.
Weird Al’s “Bob” is truly genius. The only way it could be improved is if he had repeated all the sets of palindomic lyrics again in reverse order, thus making the ENTIRE SONG a palindrome as well! But it probably wouldn’t have been as good a song, or as good a Dylan parody. Oh well…
Did I say palindrome? No, I meant that other thing - a pun. It’s a pun.
And now for something completely different…
I have the Weird Al Yankovic video DVD. But I have no “Bob” video on mine. Is there more than one Weird Al collection on DVD?
Yes. The older DVD (WAY: The Videos) was released before Running With Scissors, so it doesn’t have “The Saga Begins”, “It’s All About the Pentiums”, or “Bob”. That one is now out of print, and in the last month or two a new DVD was released (WAY: The Ultimate Video Collection) containing all videos from the first DVD plus the three missing ones.
You mean Weird Al’s song isn’t a parody on NOFX’s song Bob?
Darn… Came here with false hopes…