The Original(s)
So in this case, I'm going to cheat a little bit. Weird Al usually diversifies his parodies, but in some cases he will come back to the same artist because the music works for what he wants to do. One such artist is Michael Jackson. Weird Al parodied two of his songs, Beat It and Bad and had also requested to do a parody of Black and White, but Jackson didn't want the message of his song distorted by the parody.
It's fitting that these are the two songs that were used because they really do seem to be connected. In Beat It, Jackson plays the tough guy telling the listener that they'd better get away while they have a chance to do so. Whatever is going to go down is not something you can handle. I always like to think that it's the same character in Bad stepping up again to show the world just how tough they are. I may be wrong on that, and Jackson may not have ever had that intention, but that's how I view it.
The Parody
Eat It and Fat are the parodies based on the Jackson hits, and they also have a common theme-food. If you listen to Weird Al parodies long enough, you begin to notice his love of food or at least a love of singing about food. The thing that is great about these songs isn't the actual songs. They're good, but the music videos are better. Let's talk about each song.
The song for Eat It sounds like a parent telling their kid to eat something. It even includes the standard parental excuses like there are kids starving in China. The video is shot for shot like the Jackson video for Beat It with the exception of the dancing skills. Weird Al goes out of his way to show he can't move like Michael Jackson. The biggest thing to note about this song is that it reached #1 on the charts while Beat It only reached #3.
Fat is one of the most bizarre videos ever made. Visually it is as close to the Bad video as a frizzy-headed accordion player can manage. What makes this video so great is the moment that the title of the song makes sense. You get all the build up of the Jackson video. Michael hiding out in the subway station and confronted, but in the Weird Al version they are fat guys questioning his fatness. Then you get the amazing scene where Weird Al goes from his skinny self to a fat man. Then you get the dance scene with the song.
Both songs and videos are worth a look especially if you watch the original and the parody one right after the other. Leave any comments below. Number 8 is on the way soon.
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