Dare to be Satirical

This week, Janet is asking for the best satire songs. It's a market dominated by ”Weird Al” Yankovic, but I'll try to include a few funny tunes and spoofs from sources other than the star of the cult hit UHF.



Geek that I am, I'll lead with the Star Wars Gangsta Rap. I'm not sure if it's become a forgotten internet classic, soon to be forgotten along with the likes of Banana Phone or the original numa, but this is cool and clever enough that it should be remembered. “Yoda, why ya bein' a playa hata?”





Yes, ”D*ck in a Box” may be the latest SNL digital short making the rounds from The Lonely Island's Andy Samberg, but it was Lazy Sunday and “A Day in the Life of Natalie Portman” that made the biggest initial impact on the world wide web. I wish I could find a video of the SNL sketch that's inexplicably been popping up in my subconscious the last few days, though it's been years since I've seen it. Does anyone else remember ”Unforgivable”, a collection of spoof duets between living singers and old recordings of deceased ones? John Goodman freaking rocks as Elvis in that one, and I always crack myself up when I remember “Tammy Wynette”(Melanie Hutsell) complaining that she isn't dead and this is how rumors get started, only to have “Natalie Cole”(Ellen Cleghorne) sing all her words right back to her, including the offputting “cut it out, bitch”. Of course, in linking to my references just now, I learned that Wynette actually did die a few years later, so I guess it's not all that funny anymore. Hrm.

I'm sure there are plenty of songs that made me laugh over the years, but for now I've run out of ones not from Weird Al, so here are my favorites in chronological order:



Dare to be Stupid doesn't spoof any specific song, though it borrows from the style of Devo. Featured prominently in The Transformers: The Movie, it was probably my first real exposure to his work, though at the very least I had heard classmates singing Eat It and Another One Rides The Bus before then.



Smells Like Nirvana on the other hand is a parody, of Smells Like Teen Spirit, one of my favorite songs of all time. The video and the song are faithful in their attention to details from the original, while at the same time putting Al's signature touch on it. I have to admit, his version does make more sense...



Weird Al studies originals and pays strict attention to details, but he also has a range and is just as comfortable belting out a grunge song as he is with something hip hop like Amish Paradise. Note that while rapping he manages an Amish affectation to his voice.



My Science Fiction geekiness is resurfacing. I probably know more of the words to The Saga Begins than I do from the original American Pie. Who am I kidding? I probably have this one memorized. American Pie came on the radio the other day, and as I was singing along in my car I realized I was singing the spoof version about halfway into it.



Finally, we have another hip hop lampoon, White & Nerdy, Al's most recent hit, an internet sensation and, if I were a betting rodent, which I am, a tune that's going to make almost everybody's list.

Well, that's all for now. Remember humor, like music, is subjective, making my selections here twice so. Come on, fhqwhgads...