Rank the Albums by Parody Targets

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Bruce the Duck
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Rank the Albums by Parody Targets

Post by Bruce the Duck »

I'd like to see what people think about the targets of Al's albums. So, rank the albums by their collective parody targets. You can rank them any way you want, but here are a couple of factors to look at:

* How much you personally like the songs parodied
* How well Al did at representing the music of the time period
* Diversity of the music choices

Here are mine:

1. Bad Hair Day - With rap, rock, R&B, and alternative tracks, it's probably the most diverse group of songs

2. Running with Scissors - I personally love The Offspring and Barenaked Ladies, and I really like how Al chose the rock version of Benjamins

3. Off the Deep End - Not a fan of a lot of the originals, but it really captured a time when the culture, which had become overrun with bubblegum pop was suddenly taken over by the grunge movement

4. Poodle Hat - Another very diverse and strong group of songs, and he made up for the absence of boy bands on RWS

5. In 3-D - I love MJ, The Police, and Eye of the Tiger a lot

6. Mandatory Fun - Big fan of Pharrell and Blurred LInes is a great song. This album did such a good job of nailing the songs of the time that every one of them was heavily speculated upon in the forum.

7. Even Worse - I have a soft spot for this as it has a lot of the songs I grew up

8. Alpocalypse - I actually really like the Britney and Taylor Swift songs. The others are just okay for me, but really do a good job of representing the time

9. Alapalooza - I love Aerosmith and RHCP. Achy Breaky Heart was a very bold and wonderful choice.

10. "Weird Al" Yankovic - I was a little kid when this came out, so I wasn't too familiar with the music, but all of these songs can still be heard from time to time on 70s/80s music channels, so I guess they were good choices...

11. Dare to be Stupid - I love Huey Lewis and the News, and the other songs were good choices, even though one was dated and one was chosen for Al by his record label.

12. UHF - Lame that it only had 4 parodies in the first place, but it was a decent representation of the time and pretty diverse too

13. Straight Outta Lynwood - Remember - I'm ranking these by target choices, not quality of Al's work. This is actually my favorite album to date. Most of the songs here were good choices, but I'm not really a fan of much of it, except Green Day. What hurt this album for me is the choice of Taylor Hicks. It's not that he faded out of the public eye. Al had no way of knowing that would happen. But the song wasn't even much of a hit. And it was cheesy as hell.

14. Polka Party - James Brown and Robert Palmer were good choices. "Who's Johnny" was from a movie that nobody remembers anymore. And it says something about the choice of "Ruthless People" that it's the only song Al's ever parodied that can't be found on iTunes.
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Bruce the Duck
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Re: Rank the Albums by Parody Targets

Post by Bruce the Duck »

Well, I guess everyone agrees 100% with my opinion. Yay!
Skippy
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Re: Rank the Albums by Parody Targets

Post by Skippy »

Actually I plan on doing this, but I need some time to go through them all.
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Re: Rank the Albums by Parody Targets

Post by Genius in Maine »

I plan on doing this too, though it will be a challenging list. If I was to rank the parody targets by how much I personally like them, it would look very different from a ranking of how appropriate the parody targets were for the time period.
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Re: Rank the Albums by Parody Targets

Post by Genius in Maine »

Bruce the Duck wrote:Well, I guess everyone agrees 100% with my opinion. Yay!
After doing my own rankings, I agree with you 100% about "Polka Party", almost inarguably the weakest group of targets.
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Re: Rank the Albums by Parody Targets

Post by TMBJon »

I tried to write a long response to this and got frustrated and then, quickly, bored. I can only name the three worst: Polka Party, Even Worse, and Off The Deep End.
I couldn't tell a dirt clod from a plate of caviar.
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Re: Rank the Albums by Parody Targets

Post by Genius in Maine »

As a whole, the parody targets on "Off The Deep End" aren't exactly my cup of tea (though I do sometimes listen to "U Can't Touch This" for a laugh :lol: :rolleyes: ) However, from what I remember being popular at the time, they are great representatives of what was big in the early 1990s.
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Re: Rank the Albums by Parody Targets

Post by FreeDeliveryFan »

1.) In 3-D
2.) Bad Hair Day
3.) Running With Scissors
4.) Poodle Hat
5.) Mandatory Fun
6.) Straight Outta Lynwood
7.) Alpocalypse
8.) Weird Al Yankovic
9.) Dare To Be Stupid
10.) Off The Deep End
11.) Even Worse
12.) UHF
13.) Alapalooza
14.) Polka Party

Geez this was very hard, the best I can do for myself and I'm not even too confident with it!
"Near...far...I'll Jump In My Car!"
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