User blog:Thebiggesttdifan/Top 5 Weird Al Parodies

so I was trying to think of a new thing to write a Top 5 about since it's been like two weeks and at first I thought, hey I could recreate that ska list I made for my old music ranking page, but I'm actually going with something with more broad appeal, I think? A lot of people like and know a lot about Weird Al, right. unless your name's Jake. Anyway prepare for this #DynaSellsOut episode of Top 5s

so Wikipedia actually has a list of all the Weird Al songs. I don't think they have that for any other artist, really. it's always a Discography page. and Weird Al has that too. I don't know what merits a second page listing all his songs in the crappy Wikipedia table format

5. um. eBay (Parody of I Want It That Way by The Backstreet Boys) - aka the only good song from Poodle Hat, pretty much, other than like Genius in France and Hardware Store. I feel like this might be a fringe choice but idk I've always really found it chill, and it's one of the first Weird Al songs I actually got into. I Want It That Way has a pretty great tune and Weird Al actually makes the song better at times; like, the bridge actually has internal rhyme. Also, here's an actual great fanmade video for it that I didn't know existed and found while googling the song to confirm this could be on the list: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pF_u9R245EQ I'M HIGHEST BIDDER!

lol so while looking up the next song I got an ad for Hot Tub Time Machine 2 and they have a version of Stay (I Missed You) in it. I guess they're going back to the 90s? way to cash in on that trend, ...guys who made Hot Tub Time Machine. Who actually made it? idk I'll look it up later

4. Ricky (Parody of Mickey by Toni Basil) - way better than I Love Rocky Road, which is for some reason I think the most known song from "Weird Al" Yankovic. this is also a pretty fringe choice I think but I mean this is another one that's way better than the original song, where I'm pretty sure the only lyrics are "Oh Mickey you're so fine you blow my mind hey mickey" and "Oh Mickey you're so pretty don't you understand" and the Mickey in the song got changed from female to male so. Anyway um. idk Weird Al and Tress MacNeille are both pretty great on this as vocalists doing the impressions and stuff and there's also a story to it, sort of. it's like a three-minute version of the sitcom--we meet them, they're funny, they do stupid stuff and be interesting about it, and then at the end they meet up, and it's great and we love it, even though "every day's a rerun and the laughter's always canned." Hey I sounded like a journalist there. That was pretty good I think. anyway yeah. Whitewashing isn't really cool Weird Al, I don't really like the fact that you're playing a Cuban dude, but hey I mean Desi Arnez was pretty much whitened in the show anyway. also accordions are great, Al should use them more. yayayaya

3. I Lost On Jeopardy (Parody of Jeopardy by The Greg Kihn Band) - so I'm not going to go out and say this is like a super good song. it's still very vintage Al, like, it's very Eat It-style stuff, but it's far better than Eat It. I don't really know why it's not as legendary. my mom loves it. so I haven't heard the original Jeopardy but I'm pretty sure it's just one of those generic breakup thing songs, it's also like two semitones higher which imo doesn't sound as good. anyway I kind of love Al when he's talking about mundane stuff but the mundane stuff actually makes sense. like he's not "Addicted to Spuds" or anything here, that's stupid, he's also not, you know, it's not "I Want a new Duck" here. He's just a normal loser who sucks at Jeopardy but somehow got on. Based on the title honestly this should be obvious but idk I really like how Weird Al takes an obvious thing and makes it sound really good. it's not "why'd you have to go and make things so complicated". Also Don Pardo's monologue is f***ing GOLDEN, I've performed it before, it's like great, so much better than a normal solo break. anyway I mean I find it chill that this song, I said it's not legendary, but it's still got a bit of a legacy on its own. They got to use old Jeopardy sets on this, obviously they have Don Pardo, and whenever Weird Al participates on Jeopardy and inevitably loses they play this song. also the Greg Kihn Band cameod in the music video which is pretty nice of them, one of the early examples of artists repping Weird Al's parodies. So MOVING ON!

2. Word Crimes (Parody of Blurred Lines by Robin Thicke ft. Pharrell/T.I.) - I just realized how modern of a thing the "ft." tag is, well, like I've never heard of a song with a "ft." tag before like 1995, or even 2000. anyway you know how all of these are songs where the parody is better than the actual thing? This SO MUCH applies to that, like, infinitely, the original song is sleazy as hell and stuff, it's not actually about rape but like it's very douchebaggy and it's pretty annoying that it was more or less song of the year of 2013. (Thrift Shop was definitely not, Billboard.) so Weird Al takes that pretty-good beat and makes a song about grammar, and I mean, Blurred Lines is a really kind of repetitive song and Weird Al comes up with new lyrics for it all and I mean it just turns out really good, I guess. I don't listen to it on a regular basis or anything and it is kind of hard to follow without the lyrics or anything with you, which is why the music video's great. But, I still think this is really nice, really good example of a good modern Weird Al song. My mom would love it.

1. It's All About the Pentiums (Parody of It's All About The Benjamins by Puff Daddy ft. Lil Kim or something idk) - So THE BIG #1, I don't know if this is actually worthy of #1 or anything. I'll probably look back at this and find something I like better. but right away I knew this would be at least top 3. Because let's make it clear: Puff Daddy sucks. Puff Daddy, P. Diddy, Sean Combs, suuuuuuucks and is really lame, and It's All About The Benjamins, I haven't heard it, but just from the title I can like immediately tell it's f***ing lame glam rap from 1999. So Weird Al turns that into like the first nerdcore song. Almost the first nerdcore song. How cool is that? Weird Al didn't actually invent the subgenre obviously, I don't know who did, but he came pretty damn close. Bragging about technology, that's like a big thing, right? There's like so many great moments from this song and also the music video is really chill especially the parts featuring Drew Carey. "I'm down with Bill Gates, I call him Money for short. I call him up at home and I make him do my tech support." How cool is that? Also the Sarah Michelle Gellar reference is really golden. I honestly love this song. It's probably not #1, as I said, but I dunno I can't think of anything else and it's really good. WHAT!!!!!!

wow that tired me out. I probably shouldn't have written long paragraphs that will end up as pretty much filler and will make you want to just like scan through the whole thing instead of actually reading it. I know Gideon will read this and go "Ugh, Wall of Text on every single entry. Go home, Dyna." anyway this will be fun

Notable absences:
 * Another Tattoo (Parody of Nothin' On You by Bruno Mars ft. B.o.B.) - This was like one of the first things I thought of for the list, and it's probably not that caliber but it's another pretty good modern parody. Best moment is when he goes "and a zombie ice-skatin' -- wait, it's Ronald Reagan"
 * Bedrock Anthem (Parody of Give It Away by Red Hot Chili Peppers) - Al's TV parodies are usually lame and this isn't much of an exception but it's still better than Give It Away because the original barely even has understandable lyrics. and that music video is golden, I even made a gif from it that's basically the best thing I've ever done: http://i.imgur.com/Got9KZl.gif Also I like how it's kind of implied that he's just some crazy obsessed fan of Fred Flintstone, not actually a Flintstone
 * Fat (Parody of Bad by Michael Jackson) - another lame 80s thing and definitely not the best song on Even Worse but still pretty funny, and it's cool that Al was more or less buds with Michael Jackson professionally and got to use his sets for the music video. It's mostly just fat jokes but hey it's not that bad
 * Foil (Parody of Royals by Lorde) - another really good Mandatory Fun parody. I like the fact that it starts out weirdly happy and kind of a throwback to Weird Al's really old stuff about random mundane everyday life and food, and then at "OH BY THE WAY I'VE CRACKED THE CODE" it just goes into like that hilarious thing. Parodies of conspiratards are always funny.
 * Phony Calls (Parody of Waterfalls by TLC) - this is a really underrated one, I think. it's not even particularly great but it's far better than the other phone call song on Bad Hair Day. Also I like the fact that it sticks to Waterfalls' main thing as an advice song, even though the advice is now to stop being a kid doing stupid stuff that only you think is funny, as opposed to don't get involved with drugs. the Simpsons break reeks of nerdy Al but it doesn't overpower the song.
 * Smells Like Nirvana (Parody of Smells Like Teen Spirit by Nirvana) - not great. I put this on the list at one point but, yeah, not good enough to actually put this on the list. The fact that it's a parody of the radio edit as opposed to the actual song is also pretty lame. HOWEVER, this was pretty much Al's comeback song after the more-or-less failure of UHF, and it's really cool that Kurt Cobain loved it. and it wasn't like Michael where he thought, oh, hey, funny parody, he HEARD Weird Al was doing a parody and thought that was really cool, showing Weird Al's kind of influence towards people, I guess. And there are some okay moments too don't get me wrong.
 * Taco Grande (Parody of Rico Suave by Gerardo) - not fantastic but silly enough and also miles better than Rrrrrrico Sssssuuuaaaave. The voice he uses for "Taco! Grande!" is also hilarious.
 * White 'n' Nerdy (Parody of Ridin' by Chamillionaire) - I'm actually not the hugest fan but much like Smells Like Nirvana this was Al's comeback song for the 2000s, and it was even bigger, becoming a Top 10 single for a week and making people call Chamillionaire up and being like "hey I heard your parody of Weird Al's song".
 * Yoda (Parody of Lola by The Kinks) - the first Weird Al song I ever heard on a Dr. Demento CD my mom had when I was like 3. This isn't great but it's the first Weird Al song I heard so I feel like I have to give it props.

Stay tuned for the possible Part 2 I might make with Weird Al's WORST parodies, and there's also his originals to cover which I like a lot more than his parodies. I may or may not do all of this. also Hot Tub Time Machine was made by Steve Pink, who I've never heard of, but Rob Corddry has like a starring role in it which is really nice for a former Daily Show correspondent.