I know I know, I realize fair use and all… doesn’t mean it might not cause trouble… hostility from artists leads to hostility of record labels. beyond that even if no one wins sueing a new guy its quite possible that it will cause them enough trouble.
also a case could be made unless the person was careful that some of the parodys aren’t really parodies if they are far enough off topic and that they are just stealing the music
It was a live action show, and not bad for Saturday morning kiddie fare.
How can you not love Weird Al? Most of the time, once I’ve heard the parody, I can never hear the original without cracking up. Although I will say that I usually like his original songs better, especially for extended listening.
Anyone else get stuck on Midnight Star?
This sums up why I think he sucks. American Pie was a piece of shite whatever lyrics were attached to it. If he did a song that I liked, I’d prefer the original.
If he’s a musician, he fails musically. There are bands who do comedy far better. If he is a comedican, he fails in this field, too. There are comedians far more talented, and far funnier than he is.
And the part of JD, the broadcast executive, was played by none other than Stan Freberg.
Jealousy’s a damn ugly to parade out in public.
Mark Russell built his career on parody songs with political and sometimes more general pop culture themes. Of course, M.R. doesn’t do music videos like Weird Al–a big part of Weird Al’s appeal is not just the song parodies themselves, but the way he mimics the mannerisms of the pop star du jour, whether it be Michael Jackson, Kurt Cobain, or Coolio.
What’s this about relevance? Relevance–to something worth thinking about, anything at all–is what makes parody worth caring about. Futile Gesture and Marley 23 do a good job of explaining the difference between “funny” and “silly.”
F G: Parody is hard to keep doing if you really don’t have a relevant and interesting point to make.
M23: He’s never had a point, or anything even remotely resembling one. He just takes a popular song and makes something silly out of it.
Funny makes you think or at least reflects on something worth thinking about: it has an effect because it gets inside your head that way. Silly simply doesn’t. The difference is why the kids on Southpark think Terrance and Phillip’s fart jokes are funny, but the adult viewer doesn’t (but the adult might think the fact that the kids like fart jokes is itself funny, as it reflects on the childishness and bad taste all around us, or how stupid we were as kids, or how stupid our own kids are). A few of Weird Al’s early songs almost rose to the level of parody, but most are just silly. They’re no different than fart jokes.
PDQ Bach, on the other hand… (well, maybe he just makes GOOD fart jokes).
If the purpose of the parody is to make you think, then yes, relevance is relevant. If the purpose is to make you laugh, then it isn’t necessarily so.
Seems to me that you folks are asking Al to be a lot more serious than he needs to be.
I don’t understand what you are trying to say? Do you mean that I am somehow jealous of Weird Al because I think he’s talentless?
Can’t wait to see Al at the PNC Bank Arts Center in July is all I have to say
A prime example of this, IMO, is Al’s video for “Fat,” his parody of Michael Jackson’s “Bad.” Not only is the song a musical mimicry of the original, but the music video mimicked Jackson’s video, from camera shots to costumes to the same subway set.
MTV played both videos back-to-back for the world premiere of the “Fat” video, and that made Al’s video even more enjoyable. I wish someone could put those two together again…
He did the same thing with the video when he parodied Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit”. Great stuff.
Well we don’t sound
like Madonna
here we are now
We’re Nirvana
Eat jelly donuts and lose 20 pounds a day
hear the story of the man born without a head
and top psychics all agree
that the telephone company
will have a brand new service that lets you talk to the dead.