Top Twelve Weird Al parodies (part I)

Weird Al Yankovic has taken the practice of parody and turned it into something of an art form. There has always been impersonation an parody in the world. We might have learned it from that bird  that borrows other bird songs to sing. You do it too, even if you don't realize it. Stop and think the next time you're in your car and the radio is on. If it's a song you know, you probably sing along. If it's a song you don't like, you probably make a mockery of it, sort of your own personal parody.

With this in mind, it's obvious that lots of artists have taken part in parody, so what makes Weird Al so special? Weird Al and his band go out of their way to make the parody as close to the song as possible. If you listen to the two songs back to back, you can hear how well they cover the song. The main difference is that Weird Al is singing completely different lyrics. Not only that, but Weird Al manages to sound like the singer. (if he wants to) In some cases there is a significant difference because of the message of the song. (Listen to "Smells like Nirvana" and try to tell me that doesn't sound like Nirvana, well, until the cow starts mooing.)

I've been thinking about the way I want to do this list, and I've decided to break it up into 12 separate blog posts. In each post I'll talk about the original song and then the parody. It will still be a top twelve list, but it will follow that format. Before we get started with that, I will make a couple of honorable mentions to get us started.

Honorable Mentions

Confessions Part III-(Parody of Confessions and Confessions Part II by Usher.)
This song makes fun of the idea of the Confessions songs. In Confessions (parts I and II) Usher takes on the persona of a cheating man who wants to tell the woman he loves about all of his transgressions. (In part II he fills in some of the details he forgot in the previous song.) In the parody, Weird Al makes sure to include all of the unpleasant things that were left of in parts I and II. These include lying about knowing Pauly Shore, killing her goldfish, and not changing his underwear for 27 days.

Ricky- (Parody of Mickey by Toni Basil)
What better way to parody Mickey to change the name to Ricky and turn it into a double parody. Double Parody? That's right, this song parodies the song Mickey, but it also parodies the show I Love Lucy. The song is pretty good on it's own, but you need to look up the music video, which was probably the first comedic video on MTV. What's so great about it? Just imagine Weird Al dressed up like Ricky Ricardo with a girl dressed like Lucy and all the trappings of the show. It's great, but the best moment is around 30 seconds when a door opens on the band and Weird Al does one of those rock jumps that is usually done with a guitar, but he does it with his accordion.

So that's the introduction to our top twelve Weird Al parodies. Be on the lookout for Number 12 coming soon. Leave a comment or a question if you have one.

What is the Root of all Evil?

In 2008 and 2009, Comedy Central produced a show that I didn't watch until it this summer because it was available on "watch it now" on Netflix. That show was called "Lewis Black's Root of all Evil." Lewis Black stood as judge over two opposing sides that argued for two elements that could be the root of all evil.

What kinds of elements are we talking about? Well the first episode pit Oprah against the Catholic Church. In other episodes you can see the debate between weed and beer, Dick Cheny and Paris Hilton, or American Idol and High School. The debates are run by familiar faces on Comedy Central. Stand up comedians who are also often seen on comedy specials and celebrity roasts.

The trail starts with opening statements followed by a brief history of each of the combatants. Next comes the presentation of the case against each possible root. Then Black holds his inquisition where he grills the prosecutors. This is followed by the "Ripple of Evil" where the prosecutors describe what will happen to the world if their evil is left to its own devices. After the closing statements, Black passes sentence on whichever of the two is the true root of all evil.

Is this show worth watching? Absolutely. While the prosecutors may not be top comedy names, the arguments are strong, and funny. In the first episode of Oprah vs. the Catholic Church, Black asks one of the prosecutors, "What would happen if Oprah became the Pope?" The prosecutor's response? "She'd become the Poprah."

Do yourself a favor and check out this show. It will help you to get some piece of mind from all of the horrible evil that are out there in the world.

You will be missed Leslie Nielsen, at least in my opinion.

How do you even begin to examine the life and career of Leslie Nielsen? Maybe I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's go back to this (Monday) morning and talk about my experience with the death of Leslie Nielsen.

So, this morning I got up to get ready to lifeguard at one of the schools I work at as a substitute. While I was doing my typical morning Facebook checks, I saw several status updates that talked about Leslie Nielsen passing away. I guess I haven't kept up with the news as much as I should because I had no idea there was any concerns about Leslie. In fact, the last I'd heard about him, was a movie I made sure to avoid: Mr. Magoo.

Don't get me wrong, I love Leslie Nielsen and most of the comedy work that he's done, but there were definitely some mistakes in his later career. Again though, I should admit that I haven't seen most of the movies I thought weren't going to be any good. I like to know my comedy will be more than just a string of jokes with no delivery. No, I don't doubt Leslie, but I do have some doubts about the people with him in the movie.

The interesting thing that I learned since this morning is that Leslie Nielsen had an entire career long before he stepped on the set of "Airplane." Even more interesting is that he was actually working as a serious actor in some pretty impressive roles. In fact, he was supposed to have a serious part in "Airplane" rather than comedy gold according to some of the reports I've heard.

So one last thought from tonight's story about this comedic superstar. "Leslie Nielsen didn't make jokes, he made indelible comic moments." ABC Nightly News.

So that's my opinion, and if you don't agree with it, then you don't know comedy.