World of Weird Al Yankovic

So that would explain why it fails for me. Not being knowledgeable about FF, there's basically nothing here for me to grasp.

There are always songs on Al's albums whose source material I'm not familiar with, but usually his lyrics make the song great even if one has never heard the original. I don't have to know anything about Robin Thicke (and indeed I did not) to enjoy Word Crimes, nor did my ignorance of SCOTS get in the way of immediately loving Lame Claim. Those fans who are well-versed, of course, get even more out of the parody than I do, and rightly so. But I can still sit around the outskirts of the cool kids and enjoy the concert, because Al usually puts so much craftsmanship and comedy into the part of the song that is uniquely his, that they are winners for fans and non-fans alike.

But with MOE, that part just seems missing. From the outside perspective, the lyrics don't seem funny, just stupid. (Note that I said seem; this is all perception here.) I guess the lyrics seem to be missing the "Al magic" because it's pretty easy for us mere mortals to do something that sounds equally pointless:

I saw a weasel buying Nair
I saw a zombie spank his mama
I saw a penguin shoot a bear
Outside the office of Obama

I saw a woman at the vet
Her hands and feet were made of leather
She cashed her saving bonds to get
An interview with Jarrett Heather

I saw a skinny hippo
Singing end-to-end protestations to a bat
I probably could've gone my whole life without seeing that

That took less (fewer?) than 10 minutes. Was it funny? Not really. I did make myself almost chuckle with the JH reference, but that's only because I have just the right inside information. 99% of the English-speaking world would get nothing from my lyrics. They're just randomly stupid and unskilled; lacking in comedic handles. My lyrics rhyme and more or less fit the rhythm, but that's about all we can say for them.

Now, you may rightly argue that Al's lyrics have interesting connections to the source material (I don't know, but I should give the benefit of the doubt) whereas mine don't. Even if that's true, though, it makes no difference to the mere mortal schlubs like me. Just not funny either way. Or maybe my lyrics are genius hilarity too and I just don't know it?

Anyway, I guess we're always gonna have a song or two that fall flat for us personally. The great thing is that the number of "misses" has been pretty low for many albums now. Al's come a long way since Polka Party.

Mission statement

Just a Bill wrote:Or maybe my lyrics are genius hilarity too and I just don't know it?

Write something as funny as "I saw a mime get hacked to death with an imaginary cleaver" and we'll talk.

If you don't like My Own Eyes you are wrong and banned.

I guess my response to you would just be, imagine someone coming in here and typing up half-assed palindromes and saying "See, this is just as funny as Bob!"

I don't understand why your enjoyment of it is hindered by your lack of FF knowledge. I hate the Foo Fighters, but get how it's a style parody...

As for not being able to make out the lyrics, check yo hearin, boy! I could hear every line the first time I listened.

I saw two drag queens trying to see how many crackers
They could shove up each other's nose
I'd like to erase my mind completely but I suppose
That's just the way it goes

^genius

Okay folks, message received. Wrong clubhouse for me.

Just a Bill - for what it's worth, I actually sang your lyrics out loud and laughed, which proves at least one of your points. Many of Al's lyrics are just "wacky" non sequiturs and different people will find different "random" things funny. I'm sure the things I don't laugh at in "Everything You Know Is Wrong" are somebody's favorite lines, and vice versa. I understand what you're saying about "My Own Eyes" - though I happen to really like the song, I see exactly what he was going for with the Foo Fighters pastiche, including their "deep" lyrics - if the song itself doesn't appeal to you and the lyrics don't strike you as funny, what's there to enjoy? (oh man, "I saw a baby drive a truck" still makes me laugh and the fact that we got a video for "Sports Song" instead of this frustrates me to no end - I WANT TO SEE A BABY DRIVE A DAMN TRUCK!)

You know what? I saw an amazing headline on one of those video screens at the mall today: "Child, 3, drives jeep into neighbor's house, runs home to watch cartoons."

Anyway, I see where you're coming from, even if you don't like the song. I hope it eventually grows on you, but if not, I hope you continue to slam it in future threads with more goofy lyrical substitutions.

My least favorite is "Inactive." The lyrics are on point, and it's hilarious, but the music and vocal effects make it really hard for me to listen to. It's the only song on the album that I've only listened to once.

So after two full weeks of listening to this album at least once a day (and usually much more than that,) I have to say that the concept of a "least favorite song" is completely irrelevant for me. I have yet to skip any song because I didn't want to listen to it. I have immediately repeated a song or two, I have intentionally started with "Word Crimes" a few times, I have skipped JPX when I knew I didn't have time to listen to the whole thing. But I've never been listening to one song and thinking about the next one.

"Handy," as much as I didn't care for it in the beginning, has become a very fun song to (try to) sing along with and has really grown on me. It's much funnier than I noticed at first. "Inactive" has faults, but I still always listen to it, even though "First World Problems" is next.

The point is: I don't think I have a "least favorite" song on this album. One day I might, but for now, they're all great. I don't think I've ever felt that way about an album after listening to it this much. Usually there's at least one song that I just don't care for right off the bat. I just can't believe how good this this album is, and I'm so happy it hit #1.