World of Weird Al Yankovic

It's a pretty song.

Loads of pop songs have dumb lyrics but this *isn't* one of them. OK it may not be a load of laughs, but it's clever and it's not "baby baby baby" crud. It has a great bit of accordion in it, some great harmonies and awesome musicianship and arrangement. I cannot think of many Al songs that are a belly laugh everytime anyway, so I really don't se any problem with it.
And Couch Potato is AWESOME. I have no idea why I busted it down to #5 in my top all time Al songs because I have frequently posted that it is my all time fave on this forum in the past

I just listened to it on YouTube, and it wasn't bad.

ludovica64 @ Aug 12 2008, 11:42 PM wrote: It's a pretty song.

Loads of pop songs have dumb lyrics but this *isn't* one of them. OK it may not be a load of laughs, but it's clever and it's not "baby baby baby" crud. It has a great bit of accordion in it, some great harmonies and awesome musicianship and arrangement. I cannot think of many Al songs that are a belly laugh everytime anyway, so I really don't se any problem with it.
And Couch Potato is AWESOME. I have no idea why I busted it down to #5 in my top all time Al songs because I have frequently posted that it is my all time fave on this forum in the past

It's got great musicianship, yes. But the very first time you listen to it, it's not a funny song. A comedy song is supposed to make you laugh. Not say "The music is good."

I've defended it, but it's not a good example of a GREAT parody.

To each their own, I suppose.

I'd definitely rank Couch Potato just above this. Couch Potato at least had some jokes thrown into the list of tv shows.

Thank you, HG. I'm tired of explaining why the song is so substandard, so I'm glad you stepped up to the plate.

I don't know that I'd put CP "JUST" above "Syndicated Inc." though. CP is a decent song. The only problem with it is that it doesn't stand up overtime and structurally, it's all over the place. Al couldn't seem to find a "theme" for what the song was about. And the strange placement of "Welcome Back Kotter" and "The Muppet Show" in a song that is focused on (then) current television trends doesn't help it at all. But I'd definitely still rank it way higher than "Syndicated Inc." I don't even think CP would make my bottom 20 songs.

The other thing I find better about CP is it has actual jokes in it, like the "all pig latin episode of Drew Carey" and the "TiVo now thinks I'm gay" line.

Bruce the Duck @ Aug 4 2008, 06:13 AM wrote: Thank you, BS, LN, and Grom! High praise indeed. Especially Grom.

High praise indeed? Please tell me you've never seen Footloose, the musical.

It was a line for my character, and I've yet to hear "High praise, indeed" to be said out of that context...

Anyway...



Not that this is really on topic, but I agree. CP is pretty good. Some of the TV shows (Ozzy Osbourne show, etc) and parodies (Everybody Tolerates Raymond, Touched By an Uncle) became dated quickly, but, alas, such is the nature of pop culture. The only truly flawed references, as has been stated, is the random throwbacks to Kotter, Muppets, etc.

Anyway, SI has been a skip song for me ever since I bought the album. I also do not know the original song to any extent. I may have heard it at some point, but I don't know it. That may affect my opinion. I just find the vocals of the verses kind of boring, even drowse-inducing (Is that a word?) and the words did not make up for it to me.

Bruce the Duck @ Aug 13 2008, 12:22 AM wrote: Thank you, HG.  I'm tired of explaining why the song is so substandard, so I'm glad you stepped up to the plate. 

I don't know that I'd put CP "JUST" above "Syndicated Inc." though.  CP is a decent song.  The only problem with it is that it doesn't stand up overtime and structurally, it's all over the place.  Al couldn't seem to find a "theme" for what the song was about.  And the strange placement of "Welcome Back Kotter" and "The Muppet Show" in a song that is focused on (then) current television trends doesn't help it at all.  But I'd definitely still rank it way higher than "Syndicated Inc."  I don't even think CP would make my bottom 20 songs.

Only reason I said "just" above is only due to the fact that it doesn't hold up as well five years later after repeated listenings.

It's not horrible by any means, but I wouldn't list it in the top ten either. It's in the middle.

But the jokes in CP are funny, but like you said, it's just structually wrong. I quite like the "Pig Latin/Drew Carey" line and a few others. The E! True Hollywood Story of twelve actors named Corey had me laughing a bit as well.

The third verse of "Couch Potato" is excellent. A lot of rapid-fire, strong jokes and it seems to all flow as well as Eminem's version. The first verse is alright - focusing on mainly just two shows and getting some great lines in about both. But the end of that verse is really bizarre the way he suddenly just starts rattling off other unrelated shows and then the whole "Look ma, no cavities" bit that just seemed like he ran out of shows to list. The second verse is the worst, though. It starts out strong with the NASCAR and 60 Minutes stuff, but then goes off on these completely convoluted tangents of "Mad Magazine" style TV show parodies, random listing of shows, and shows that have no business even being in the song at all. If the whole thing could have been as consistent as the third verse, it'd be one of my favorite songs, I'm sure.

Bruce the Duck @ Aug 13 2008, 01:05 AM wrote: The third verse of "Couch Potato" is excellent. A lot of rapid-fire, strong jokes and it seems to all flow as well as Eminem's version. The first verse is alright - focusing on mainly just two shows and getting some great lines in about both. But the end of that verse is really bizarre the way he suddenly just starts rattling off other unrelated shows and then the whole "Look ma, no cavities" bit that just seemed like he ran out of shows to list. The second verse is the worst, though. It starts out strong with the NASCAR and 60 Minutes stuff, but then goes off on these completely convoluted tangents of "Mad Magazine" style TV show parodies, random listing of shows, and shows that have no business even being in the song at all. If the whole thing could have been as consistent as the third verse, it'd be one of my favorite songs, I'm sure.

That's what killed it for me, honestly, the whole second verse. He started strong, stumbled in the whole middle section, and finished fantastically. That's what knocked it down for me. Again, I don't "Hate" the song, just get frustrated that it had a promising idea that he stumbled with for a bit before finishing out strongly with.

meh, not a fan.