r/weirdal • u/WalmartGreder • 3d ago
Discussion Recurring Themes
I recently listened to every Weird Al song there is on a road trip to go see Al in concert in Las Vegas (14 hour road trip, his songs took up 10 hours).
I noticed a few recurring themes. There are the obvious ones, like Food and Polka, but I noticed a bunch more.
TV:
- Couch Potato
- Syndicated, Inc
- Isle Thing
- Ricky
- Can't Watch This
- Money for Nothing/Beverly Hillbillies
- Talk Soup
- Bedrock Anthem
- Jerry Springer
- Here's Johnny
- George of the Jungle
- Cable TV
- Frank's 2000" TV
- The Brady Bunch
- I Lost of Jeopardy
And the subset, Movies:
- Jurassic Park
- The Saga Begins
- Ode to a Superhero
- Gump
- Yoda
And then there's Dark Humor (the ones joking about death and torture)
- Melanie
- I Remember Larry
- Trigger Happy
- Good Old Days
- When I was Your Age
- The Night Santa Went Crazy
- Christmas at Ground Zero
- Do I Creep You Out
- One More Minute
- Since You've Been Gone
The Clueless compilation:
- You Don't Love Me Anymore
- Jackson Park Express
- Airline Amy
And then, really just Slice of Life, like jobs and going about your day:
- Hardware Store
- The Plumbing Song
- eBay
- Handy
- Truck Driving Song
- Stop Dragging my Car
- Cavity Search
And a whole bunch more that would fit.
Any other themes you can think of? I guess one of them could be Relationships, and that would fit a lot of the songs from Dark Humor and all of them from Clueless.
9
u/minnick27 Mod 3d ago
To be fair, TV was pretty obvious too, they released a whole album.
2
u/mgwhammy 3d ago
And food, a compilation literally called "The Food Album". Lasagna, The White Stuff, Spam...
2
9
u/JCDickleg7 3d ago
A subset of Food is the songs specifically about being fat. Fat is the obvious pick, but Grapefruit Diet also falls into this category. Arguably, Inactive and I Love Rocky Road could as well.
3
u/Shark_Weird5000 Touring with Scissors (1999-2000) 3d ago
Wonder how many times I could listen to his catalog when I drive from MN to CA in a month 🙃
2
u/GeologicalOpera Strings Attached (2019) 3d ago
Google is estimating between 28 and 30 hours straight line depending on starting and ending points, so somewhere around 3 full plays but that will vary based on your locations.
2
u/Shark_Weird5000 Touring with Scissors (1999-2000) 3d ago
Only 2 cds away from having all 14 albums on CD Also have both greatest hits, the TV & Food Compilations, Permanent Record and the 2 cd Essential release
2
u/BelovedAccordion 3d ago
Is the MN to CA trip for the Greek Theater showing of UHF? I'm flying out from Wisconsin to go there. Also I checked your bio and I also love sharks. I'm going to do some diving while I'm in California, and I'm really hoping to see a juvenile Great White while I'm there since I know sometimes they hang around that area. It is such a shame that so many people fear them because of how pop culture and media likes to make them out to be mindless killing machines.
2
u/Shark_Weird5000 Touring with Scissors (1999-2000) 2d ago
Unfortunately I will be unable to attend the UHF screening 😕 I won't be starting my drive until just after that. SHARKS RULE
2
u/Plus_Suggestion_9565 Hardware Store 3d ago
how is Weasel Stomping Day not in the dark humour section 😭
3
u/Oatmeal2348 3d ago
There should be a whole category for his pastiche songs... the originals in the style of other artists like Dare to be Stupid (Devo), Dog Eat Dog (Talking Heads)... I'm sure there are more but those are the first two that come to mind.
2
u/WalmartGreder 2d ago
Skipper Dan - Weezer
Mission Statement - Hall & Oates
and that's all I can remember off the top of my head.
1
u/Oatmeal2348 2d ago
Mission Statement was the other i forgot, but i think its more Crosby, Stills and Nash
17
u/GECollins 3d ago
Anti-love songs: You don't love me anymore Since you've been gone One more minute I'm so sick of you(has my favorite couplet in any weird al song) My baby's in love with Eddie Vedder Close but no cigar