#Weird al headline news parody of full#
It’s a song chock full of pure and unrivalled dweebdom and sees Weird Al take his place on the throne. On this parody of Chamillionaire’s song ‘Ridin”, Weird Al kicks up the white boy rap to a new level and finishes what he started on ‘All About the Pentiums’. Like all good hip-hop artists, he also has a great hold of the almighty hook too. We hinted at it before that Weird Al’s command of lyrics is right up there with some of the best rappers in the business. Taken from 1986’s Polka Party!, this is Yankovic at his peak. Not many people could parody James Brown and somehow get away with it but Weird Al did and it might well be the best song you’ll hear this week. That’s not to say that the song is bad, just that it is so accurately delivered with such impressive self-importance that is preventing it from burrowing into your brain is frivolous work.
If you have heard the song before then even the mere utterance of the title will send you into a PTSD recurring nightmare. If you’ve not heard this song before then clicking the play button below will insert this song into your brain for eternity.
In 1991, the band had arrived on the world stage with their seminal album Nevermind which, as well as meaning the band were now playing the biggest stages in the world, also meant that they were rich pickings for Weird Al. Quite possibly Weird Al’s most intelligent song of the bunch is a reworking of the grunge anthem ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ from Nirvana. “Your table manners are some cryin’ shame,” sings the comic, “You’re playin’ with your food, this ain’t some kind of game/ Now, if you starve to death, you’ll just have yourself to blame/ So eat it, just eat it.” 3. The song helped to form Weird Al’s long-running fanbase and made him a big name in the eighties. Troubling artist aside, this parody is both irreverent and intelligent. However, somehow, Weird Al’s parody, ‘Eat It’ is even better. Quite possibly one of the defining anthems of the decade, Michale Jackson’s song ‘Beat It’ not only featured a video with a choreographed dance knife fight but Eddie Van Halen on guitar. He’s got the attitude down too, “And postin’ “Me too!” like some brain-dead AOL-er/ I should do the world a favour and cap you like Old Yeller/ You’re just about as useless as jpegs to Hellen Keller”. With lyrics such as: “Your database is a disaster/ You’re waxin’ your modem, tryin’ to make it go faster/ Hey fella, I bet you’re still livin’ in your parents’ cellar/ Downloadin’ pictures of Sarah Michelle Gellar,” he shows real rap promise.
Taken from his 1999 album Running with Scissors, the song acts as a precursor to one of his biggest rap parodies, which we will come to later. But for Weird Al, his parody of ‘All About The Benjamins’ - ‘All About The Pentiums’ - was just another day at the office. It was a figure that many wouldn’t have dared to cross. Though he may feel a distant memory to you now, when Puff Daddy was topping the charts in the late ’90s and early ’00s he was a behemoth of music and imposing figure. The story of an untalented surgeon trying to make it in the world is, miraculously, a funny one to hear in this medium. Yankovic also goes one step further to imitate the singer and pushes his vocals so high up the range that it feels like they may burst with every note.
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