World of Weird Al Yankovic

Bruce the Duck wrote:I think we've derailed this thread long enough, so let's get back on topic.

Hmm, I actually don't agree that we're off topic at all! We're discussing possibilities for the song Word Crimes. If a moderator disagrees, I assume they'll ask us to knock it off.

Anyway, it really seems to me like you're ignoring a core part of what Al does. A lot of the time, the topic of the parody is itself a commentary - not a skewering, mocking, or teardown, per se - on the original song.

Examples:
Canadian Idiot - The original is a criticism of the Bush Administration; the last verse of the parody is a critique/satire of the Bush Doctrine.
Whatever You Like - The original is a celebration of consumerism and excess; the parody takes the same idea in the opposite direction.
Most of the rap songs (White & Nerdy, Pentiums, Amish Paradise) turn the image of the hardened gangsta rapper and make it about an inherently nerdy/un-gangsta topic.

There are a lot of Weird Al parodies that follow this formula. It's the most subversive part of his comedy, so I appreciate this type of satire a lot more than songs like Perform This Way and Achy Breaky Song, where he is being quite explicit about his commentary on the original. That doesn't mean the commentary isn't there in other cases.

To parody Blurred Lines, there almost has to be a hint of this type of humor, even if it's quite minor. For example, the narrator could be complaining that his woman of interest has bad grammatical skills (really bad example: "you're a smart girl...") I really hope the song at least somewhat goes in that direction of mocking the concept of Blurred Lines/Robin Thicke.

Bruce the Duck wrote:Well, right. It's meant to be tongue in cheek the whole time. Somehow most people miss that.

I actually meant that the song is awful. You know, in the way that people say "That guy's nothing but a joke. His follow up album sold less than 600 copies in its first week."

I know this is getting off-topic, but to comment on Thicke's sales: In the U.S., he sold 24k in the first week, which is still pretty bad. But it was good enough for a #9 debut. You might remember that Alpocalypse debuted at #9 as well, with 44k copies sold.

Just saying.

TMBJon wrote:Anyway, it really seems to me like you're ignoring a core part of what Al does. A lot of the time, the topic of the parody is itself a commentary - not a skewering, mocking, or teardown, per se - on the original song.

Examples:

I don't need examples, I'm quite aware of what Al does in his songs and how many of his parodies (in fact most) make reference to the originals by parodying the tone of the songs. I mentioned that in my previous posts.

The point I was making is that there is a big difference between making reference to and parodying the tone of a song and directly mocking an artist or song. I didn't say one was better than the other, just pointing out that there's a big difference.

To bring this back to the topic of this thread, "Word Crimes" will clearly not be a song that directly mocks or "skewers" the original or Robin Thicke. It will likely parody the tone of the original, but the subject of the song will be grammar, not Robin Thicke.

One more time:

TMBJon wrote: A lot of the time, the topic of the parody is itself a commentary - not a skewering, mocking, or teardown, per se - on the original song.

That's exactly the point that I was making to the original comment that started this discussion, which was someone hoping that Al "skewers" Robin Thicke. My point was simply that the song will not "skewer" Robin Thicke (in the way that only three or four other songs have "skewered" their subjects), but will be about grammar errors. So your point above actually agrees with what I said originally. Thanks you!

Bruce the Duck wrote:Thanks you!

#wordcrimes

TMBJon wrote:

Bruce the Duck wrote:Thanks you!

#wordcrimes

That's what I get for posting that myself so many times!

BTW, we still need a Word Crimes Smilie (or is it Smily?).

Smiley

This parody is amazing.