Now that Mandatory Fun is out, how do you rank the albums?

[Wizzerkat]

My rankings consist of a combination of how much I like the album and its songs and what I think of the album contents' song musically(no matter how much I personally like the songs themselves).
It's always interesting how Al's latest and greatest ends up on the scale after it has been out for a while. I ranked Alpocalypse higher back when it came out than I do now for instance.


So here we go!

Top Tier (Great!)

Running With Scissors
Mandatory Fun
Straight Outta Lynwood

Middle Tier (Good to very good!)

Alpocalypse
Polka Party!
In 3-D
Poodle Hat
Off The Deep End
Bad Hair Day

Lower Tier (Fair to Middlin’)

"Weird Al" Yankovic
Alapalooza
UHF
Dare to be Stupid
Even Worse

Overall Rankings

Mandatory Fun
Running with Scissors
Straight Outta Lynwood
Poodle Hat
Alpocalypse
Off the Deep End
Bad Hair Day
In 3-D
Polka Party!
Dare to be Stupid
Even Worse
Alapalooza
“Weird Al” Yankovic
UHF

[Yankomaniac]

Oh that Bermuda post made me laugh. Impossible as it is to rank the albums since they are all so great, this is my order pretty much based on my favorites and how often I listen to them:

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

This was so hard to do. Alpocalypse is amazing but I guess I don't go back to it as much as the rest.

[anthontherun]

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

1-5 I love.
6-11 I really like.
12-14 I like.
15 I have listened to one time and will probably not listen to again for at least 27 years.

[RunningWithScissors]

It's hard but...

1) Running With Scissors - This was the first album that I got right when it came out. Even though I became a fan in the early 90s, being a kid, you don't have spare money. I wasn't even able to buy Bad Hair Day until AFTER Running With Scissors! It has great memories for me, but besides that, besides the amazing Albuquerque, Saga Begins, and It's All About The Pentiums, at the time I had NO idea who Eddie Vedder was, or even Jerry Springer (I was sheltered) but I enjoyed those songs just the same, I think that's a true example of his genius. Also I love Germs because I am somewhat of a Germaphobe, though he takes it to extremes. And Polka Power! showcased a lot of hits from the late 90s (When I started listening to the radio) such as "Walkin' On The Sun", "Push", "Ray Of Light", "Closing Time" and many many more.

2) Dare To Be Stupid - It's funny to me that this ends up #2 just because, IMO, the second half of the album dies off in quality, with a couple exceptions, but "Like A Surgeon", "Dare To Be Stupid", "One More Minute" and "Yoda" are enough to carry the whole album for me. This Is The Life is also good. The one that really bugs me is "Girls Just Wanna Have Lunch". When I was little I loved it, but then I heard somewhere that his label pressured him into a Cindy Lauper parody, and the way he sings that song, is kind of 'annoyed/unimpressed' and I always took that as, he was annoyed at the woman for just eating lunch, but now I can't listen to it without hearing 'I don't wanna be here, I don't wanna be singing this...' And I'm pretty sure he either never did it live or only one tour, not even in later food melodies, and it wasn't on the food album. (You could argue that it wasn't about a specific food, but neither was "Fat" or "Eat It".

3) Mandatory Fun - After Alpocalypse I didn't have much hope for this album, but I was pleasantly surprised. I don't dislike any song on it, and "Word Crimes" will be stuck in my head for a LONG time. And again showing his genius, who would have ever thought of taking a song like Blurred Lines and making it a Grammar lesson?? Also, "My Own Eyes" is the dumbest song I've ever wanted to head-bang to!

4) Bad Hair Day - I love most of the songs on this album, "Gump" is one of my favs to see live (when he did it). The only song I really don't care for that much is 'Syndicated Inc.' And I don't hate it, it's just not my fav. Why couldn't we have had "Theme From Home Improvement" Instead?!

5) Off The Deep End - Classic album. Has one of my favs, "You Don't Love Me Anymore", and I also love "The Plumbing Song". But then there is "I Can't Watch This". It's one of those that at the time is awesome, but now it's so dated. "Airline Amy", "When I Was Your Age" and "I was only kidding" are great originals.

6) Straight Outta Lynwood - While "White And Nerdy" and "Canadian Idiot" are Great and Good respectively, the thing I love about this song the most is the originals. "Virus Alert" and "Pancreas" are my favs.

7) Weird Al Yancovic - A lot of people have this at the bottom or close to it, and I understand why. "Gotta Boogie" "Buckingham Blues" ,and "Stop Draggin My Car Around" really arn't the greatest. But still, "Ricky", "I Love Rocky Road", "Another One Rides The Bus" and "My Bologna" are where our Al got started, and I love these.

Alapalooza - Frank's 2000" TV is one of my absolute fav Al songs. Also, "Jurassic Park", "Livin In The Fridge", and "Bohemian Polka" Are great. "Bedrock Anthem".... I loved it when I was a kid. Also, I love Traffic Jam for the music.

9) Even Worse - "Fat" - Yes. "Lasagna" - YES. Dreams of Vanna White? YES! "Velvet Elvis" Ye-what? But there is "Melanie", and, to be honest, I never really liked "You Make Me", until I heard it live during the leaks tour.

10) Apocalypse - I mainly only liked the originals. "Skipper Dan"... I love it, because I relate to it. It's funny, it's a song that depends on where you are in life, wither or not you find it funny. And when you have worked at a fast food job for 7 years, when you went to College for Digital Media... not so funny. But I still loved it. The problem was, the originals had been released, so when the album came out, out of the new stuff, I was unimpressed except for "Party In The CIA", which was amazing.

11) In 3-D ...I... Was never a huge fan of Eat it, I'm sorry!!! But I do love "I lost On Jeopardy", "Midnight Star", and "Rye Or The Kyser"

12) UHF - It says something about an album when If I had to say my top 5 of this album, It would start off with "Money For Nothing/Beverly Hillbillies", "UHF", and "Spam", but after that... "Fun Zone" a song with no lyrics and "Spatula City". (I loved "Biggest Ball Of Twine" when I was a kid. Adult? Not so much)

13: Poodle Hat - This was the biggest let down to me. Though A Complicated Song is one of my favs, and it's BRILLIANT that he came up with 3 different topics, and Ebay and Ode To A Superhero wern't horrible, the rest of the album... no thanks.

I choose not to list Polka Party! because I've never really given it a fair chance.

[Yankomaniac]

I love your top 5 choices. The bottom five, hey, to each his own. Can't help what you like. I think Fun Zone is quite possibly the greatest instrumental ever created! Appears to me your more of a generic fan of "Weird Al" than a hardcore fan. Not that there is anything wrong with that at all.

[RunningWithScissors]

...huh?

[Yankomaniac]

Rock that Polka Party! As for Poodle Hat, you should give it a few more good chances as I guarantee you will before you go see them on tour this year. It's got some powerful originals that are sure to grow on you. I guess I'm just surprised to see some of the UHF originals and a lot of other stuff unloved by an Al fan, but like I said there isn't anything wrong with that. Something tells me that you will gain a love for these songs a lot more in the following months since you will most likely be listening to a ton of ALbums again and again before your show comes up.

[RunningWithScissors]

Rock that Polka Party! As for Poodle Hat, you should give it a few more good chances as I guarantee you will before you go see them on tour this year. It's got some powerful originals that are sure to grow on you. I guess I'm just surprised to see some of the UHF originals and a lot of other stuff unloved by an Al fan, but like I said there isn't anything wrong with that. Something tells me that you will gain a love for these songs a lot more in the following months since you will most likely be listening to a ton of ALbums again and again before your show comes up.

Yeah, you're right And I've been having all his albums on shuffle for the last couple days. I'll give poodle hat and Polka Party! A good listen. Actually, a few mins ago, the shuffle came to Living With A Hernia and I hadn't listened to that in many years, and I enjoyed it alot more than I remembered.

[WEIRDALexis279]

Wow, this was a fun and interesting experiment. Here's what I have

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

Honestly, I always wondered if the reason I had a "let down" response to Alpocalypse was because Internet Leaks was released first. So by the time I heard Alpocalypse for the first time, it kinda ruined the whole "Oh my god! I'm so excited to hear this whole album for the first time" kind of feeling. Maybe if I had heard all of the songs on Alpocalypse as an album together I would feel differently about it...Just a thought of course.

[RunningWithScissors]

Honestly, I always wondered if the reason I had a "let down" response to Alpocalypse was because Internet Leaks was released first. So by the time I heard Alpocalypse for the first time, it kinda ruined the whole "Oh my god! I'm so excited to hear this whole album for the first time" kind of feeling. Maybe if I had heard all of the songs on Alpocalypse as an album together I would feel differently about it...Just a thought of course.

I feel that same way about Alpocalypse. I feel like if I listed leaks, it would have been 6-7. But, the album as a whole wasn't great. (Though, like I said, I do love Party in the CIA, and also, I do love the original (If that isn't love that wasn't on leaks)