Interest Generator

Place your polls here! And if you know a nice Weird Al game, go play it here!

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Iamabrawler
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Re: Interest Generator

Post by Iamabrawler »

We just need to find someone who`ll gladly interpret the winning medley the best he/she can.
I`ve already been making lists of ideas of medleys for those who want a challenge. Of course, there will be some that are easier (mainly the ones that revolve around a polka medley of one band only, or those about a certain era or genre). However, some will be more difficult, will include more requirements, or need some more clues in building the list of songs.
"So I went in my garaage, got in my care
And I drived, talking with my blue teeth
My boyfreind told me don't cree
Come to my houss, don't worraye,
we'll talk about this togeedurr."
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Iamabrawler
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Re: Interest Generator

Post by Iamabrawler »

EDIT: If we start the topic, here is how it will work. There will be 30+ categories to pick from (eras, other bands/singers, styles of music, other stuff), and all the contestant pick one, then make their polka medley out of it. Some categories can be picked more than once, except for specific bands/artists that can be picked only once. Then, the round goes and we all judge the polka medleys resulting. We pick the best one and then one member of WoWAy talented with an acordion will sing it.
All categories will have "lives". that means the number of times they can be picked. When it falls to 0, then no one can pick them again. After each round, we remove one life for each category that has been picked, which results in the choice of polka medley subjects getting more and more difficult, as at the end we will have very few choices left. This will result in the contestants having to do polka medleys they maybe didn`t think of at first... At the very end, when all the rounds have been done and we have the 5 or 6 winning polka medleys, we will decide once and for all which one is the best of them all. For this, both the written version and the interpretation will have to be taken into consideration.

I know it sounds complicated, but for now it`s a good concept.

Here are the categories I have for now.
Per era: 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, 21st century
Per genre: Country, Jazz, Blues, Electronic, Rap, Pop, Folk, Ska, Rock
Per artist: (your pick, but no artist can be picked twice and all the songs in the medley have to have been on the Billboard once)
Related to TV: Cartoon themes, Live-action TV series themes, songs within episodes of cartoon/live-action series, songs in the Simpsons/Family Guy/(any series that has a LOT of music in it), songs covered in Glee
Other: Songs made especially for live-action movie soundtracks (example: Scott Pilgrim VS The World soundtrack - this option can cover one soundtrack only, or many), Songs made for cartoon/CGI movie soundtracks, Songs/pieces from musicals (Lion king?) OR movies based on musicals (Little Shop of Horrors/Sweeney Todd/etc.) OR musicals movies (South Park`s Bigger, Longer and Uncut), happy songs in cartoon/CGI movies, evil characters` themes in cartoon/CGI/musical movies, sonsg based on the Harry Potter universe (wizard rock), Songs based on other popular movie series, Music by the FuMP members, medley made from songs Weird Al has parodied, medley made from Weird Al originals, medley made of one Weird Al song per album, music from videogames or based on videogames (as an example, Crush 40, music on Newgrounds based on the Mario series, singles for videogame series such as Making Fun of Everyday Life, and so on...)
"So I went in my garaage, got in my care
And I drived, talking with my blue teeth
My boyfreind told me don't cree
Come to my houss, don't worraye,
we'll talk about this togeedurr."
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TMBJon
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Re: Interest Generator

Post by TMBJon »

Can we all agree to hold off on Mandatory Fun Survivor until at least August 15? :king:
I couldn't tell a dirt clod from a plate of caviar.
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TMBJon
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Re: Interest Generator

Post by TMBJon »

Hey anth, any thoughts on how you might expand the stats-based video ranking into other areas? Possibly ranking every song ever? Or at least start with a ranking of the 14 albums?
I couldn't tell a dirt clod from a plate of caviar.
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anthontherun
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Re: Interest Generator

Post by anthontherun »

I definitely would like to do a poll of every song (released + widely-heard rarities) and album, but I was thinking the next one could be something UHF-related to tie in to the upcoming Blu-Ray. Rank the characters? The shows/movies? Favorite quotes/moments? What do people think?
ThatGuyLarryNextDoor
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Re: Interest Generator

Post by ThatGuyLarryNextDoor »

After reading through some of the polls conducted here I became inspired to try my hand out in creating the ultimate Al album. Most of us have probably noticed that Al's albums have a familiar pattern, for the most part, on all of his albums. Since Bad Hair Day, 5 out of 6 albums feature the following tracklist format:

1. Parody
2. Original
3. Parody
4. Original
5. Parody OR Polka
6. Original
7. Parody OR Polka
8. Original
9. Parody
10. Original
11. Parody
12. Original

The outlier among those 6 albums was Straight Out of Lynwood, which in the 8 through 11 slot went Original-Original-Parody-Parody. The albums before Bad Hair Day were close to the Parody-Original alternating order, but there are clear differences that I wanted to address by customizing the tracklist order on certain albums to mirror the more recent Al Album tracklist pattern. This tracklist-adjusted method I believe pits songs against each other that we didn't see with the DREAM poll. The DREAM poll was excellent, but it would have some scenarios where you were comparing parodies to originals, originals to polkas, and sometimes all 3. Track 7 pitted 5 parodies, 7 originals and 2 polkas against each other. That's fine as it was the intent of the polls, but I wanted to try something different.

I wanted to see what kind of 12 track 'best of' album I could create pitting parody vs parody, polka vs polka and original vs original in an adjusted tracklist order. Some may ask 'why not just pick 6 originals, 5 parodies, and 1 polka'? I think this tracklist-adjusted method makes things a bit more interesting. If I just picked my 12 favorite I think it would be an easy task personally, and the album would be filled with originals that came in the #2 position. This tracklist-adjusted method adds a bit of a challenge.

The Method:

-The first step was getting the tracklists for all albums down and counting how many originals, parodies and polkas were present in each tracklist #.

-I set out the format to be Parody songs as odd numbers and Original songs being even from 1 to 12 with track 5 being the polka. This is due to the Polka song having the highest representation on Track 5 (6 times).

-Tracks 1 through 4 were relatively clean. One of the adjustments was to UHF because I didn't want to pit Ghandi II (or eventually Spatula City) against actual songs. That meant moving AOTRAHFAPNM and Isle Thing down 1 position each.

-For track 5 I had to move 6 polkas to position 5, and those polkas came from posiitons 4, 7, 11 and 12. That meant originals and parodies had to be moved up from 5 or down to 4 to compensate.

-Tracks 6 through 11 were just about moving an original or parody up or down 1 spot to fit the format. There were some cases where too many originals existed and I had to make a decision on how to slot them within 12 tracks. On the self-titled debut, with no Polka and 7 originals I decided to put 2 originals in the 10 spot (Mellow and Groovy) and left Frump alone in the 12th because Frump feels (and is) an album closer while Groovy feels like it could be a 10 spot candidate (and personally, it wasn't winning the 10 spot in my own vote!)

-Alapalooza was difficult with only 4 parodies and 7 originals and a polka, so it made sense to group 2 on track 8 and 2 on track 10. (Talk Soup and Mime on 8, Harvey and Waffle King on 10).

-As I was typing the above point, I realized I could type another 5,000 words on my methods. How about just seeing the results and judging for yourself? I'll add notes to major changes that might need an explanation.


Track 1

Ricky
Eat It
Like a Surgeon
Living with a Hernia
Fat
Money for Nothing/Beverly Hillbillies
Smells Like Nirvana
Jurassic Park
Amish Paradise
The Saga Begins
Couch Potato
White & Nerdy
Perform This Way
Handy


Track 2

Gotta Boogie
Midnight Star
Dare To Be Stupid
Dog Eat Dog
Stuck In A Closet With Vanna White
Attack of the Radioactive Hamsters from a Planet Near Mars
Trigger Happy
Young Dumb and Ugly
Everything You Know is Wrong
My Baby's In Love With Eddie Vedder
Hardware Store
Pancreas
CNR
Lame Claim to Fame


Track 3

I Love Rocky Road
The Brady Bunch
I Want a New Duck
Addicted to Spuds
(This Song's Just) Six Words Long
Isle Thing
I Can't Watch This
Bedrock Anthem
Cavity Search
Pretty Fly for a Rabbi
Trash Day
Canadian Idiot
TMZ
Foil


Track 4

Buckingham Blues
Buy Me A Condo
One More Minute
One of Those Days
You Make Me
UHF
I Was Only Kidding
Frank's 2000" TV
Callin’ in Sick
The Weird Al Show Theme
Party at the Leper Colony
I'll Sue Ya
Skipper Dan
Sports Song


Track 5

Polkas on 45
Hooked on Polkas
Polka Party!
The Hot Rocks Polka
Polka Your Eyes Out
Bohemian Polka
Alternative Polka
Polka Power!
Angry White Boy Polka
Polkarama!
Polka Face
Now That's What I Call Polka!


Track 6

Happy Birthday
Mr. Popeil
George of the Jungle
Don't Wear Those Shoes
Melanie
Let Me Be Your Hog
When I Was Your Age
Traffic Jam
Since You've Been Gone
Germs
Wanna B Ur Lovr
Virus Alert
Craigslist
My Own Eyes


Track 7

Stop Draggin' My Car Around
I Lost on Jeopardy
Yoda
Here's Johnny
I Think I'm a Clone Now
She Drives Like Crazy
The White Stuff
Achy Breaky Song
Gump
Jerry Springer
A Complicated Song
Confessions Part III
Party in the CIA
Word Crimes


Track 8

The Check's in the Mail
That Boy Could Dance
Slime Creatures from Outer Space
Good Enough For Now
Velvet Elvis
Generic Blues
Airline Amy
Talk Soup
She Never Told Me She Was A Mime
I'm So Sick of You
Your Horoscope For Today
Why Does This Always Happen To Me?
Weasel Stomping Day
Ringtone
Mission Statement


Track 9

My Bologna
King of Suede
Girls Just Want to Have Lunch
Toothless People
Lasagna
Ghandi II (This is where I slotted the 2 commercial 'parodies' from UHF as it only had 4 parodies)
Spatula City
Taco Grande
Livin' in the Fridge
Syndicated Inc.
It's All About the Pentiums
Ode to a Superhero
Do I Creep You Out
Another Tattoo
Inactive


Track 10

I'll Be Mellow When I'm Dead
Such a Groovy Guy
This is the Life
Christmas At Ground Zero
Twister
Fun Zone
Harvey the Wonder Hamster
Waffle King
I Remember Larry
Truck Drivin' Song
Bob
Close But No Cigar
If That Isn't Love
First World Problems


Track 11

Another One Rides the Bus
Theme from Rocky XIII (The Rye or the Kaiser)
Alimony
Spam
The Plumbing Song
Phony Calls
Grapefruit Diet
eBay
Trapped in the Drive-Thru
Whatever You Like
Tacky


Track 12

Mr. Frump in the Iron Lung
Nature Trail To Hell
Cable TV (This might seem odd, but I didn't want to put this with the parodies at 11 and track 10 was already over 14)
Good Old Days
The Biggest Ball of Twine In Minnesota
You Don't Love Me Anymore
The Night Santa Went Crazy
Albuquerque
Genius in France
Don't Download This Song
Stop Forwarding That Crap To Me
Jackson Park Express


Any interest? Any thoughts? Even if we didn't do a poll, I would love to see some tracklists from other Al fans using this set up. I can share my own picks in a future post.
RunningWithScissors
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Re: Interest Generator

Post by RunningWithScissors »

(If this isn't what you meant, I'm sorry!)

(Eh, I went overboard, Im sorry!!)

(Some of the tracks are waaay harder than others...)

Super hard but.....

1. Like A Surgeon
2. My Baby's In Love With Eddie Vedder (It's fun!)
3. I Love Rocky Road
4. Frank's 2000" TV
5. Polka Power!
6. Virus Alert
7. Word Crimes
8. Your Hororscope For Today
9. It's All About The Pentiums
10. This Is The Life
11. The Plumbing Song (I really love this one...)
12. Albuquerque

JUST BECAUSE that was painfully hard, I'm also going to do a Disc 2.

And for disc two, I added something to track 1...

My Disc 2 would be:


1. Headline News
2. Midnight Star
3. Canadian Idiot
4. One More Minute
5. Polkarama!
6. Germs
7. I Lost On Jeopardy!
8. Airline Amy
9. Spatula City
10. First World Problems
11. Tacky
12. You Don't Love Me Anymore

Finally, because that was still hard and painful, I'm also going to do what they did with the essential al: Half a Disc 3, because there are too many left un mentioned!!!

Disc 3
1. The Saga Begins
2. Pancreas
3. Buy Me A Condo
4. Yoda
5. Close But No Cigar
6. The Biggest Ball Of Twine In Minnesota

...There are way too many that feel impossible to be left off.
ThatGuyLarryNextDoor
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Re: Interest Generator

Post by ThatGuyLarryNextDoor »

RunningWithScissors wrote:(If this isn't what you meant, I'm sorry!)

(Eh, I went overboard, Im sorry!!)

(Some of the tracks are waaay harder than others...)

Super hard but.....

1. Like A Surgeon
2. My Baby's In Love With Eddie Vedder (It's fun!)
3. I Love Rocky Road
4. Frank's 2000" TV
5. Polka Power!
6. Virus Alert
7. Word Crimes
8. Your Hororscope For Today
9. It's All About The Pentiums
10. This Is The Life
11. The Plumbing Song (I really love this one...)
12. Albuquerque

JUST BECAUSE that was painfully hard, I'm also going to do a Disc 2.

And for disc two, I added something to track 1...

My Disc 2 would be:


1. Headline News
2. Midnight Star
3. Canadian Idiot
4. One More Minute
5. Polkarama!
6. Germs
7. I Lost On Jeopardy!
8. Airline Amy
9. Spatula City
10. First World Problems
11. Tacky
12. You Don't Love Me Anymore

Finally, because that was still hard and painful, I'm also going to do what they did with the essential al: Half a Disc 3, because there are too many left un mentioned!!!

Disc 3
1. The Saga Begins
2. Pancreas
3. Buy Me A Condo
4. Yoda
5. Close But No Cigar
6. The Biggest Ball Of Twine In Minnesota

...There are way too many that feel impossible to be left off.

Nice choices, thanks for sharing!

I found it to be difficult narrowing down Track #2 to just 1 choice. There are 7 options I would put in my top 12 songs. I'm sure it's by design that Al would put his strongest originals at the 2 spot.

Here are my picks:

1. Amish Paradise - my first experiencing Al's music was watching this video on Mtv at age 11. I think it will always hold a special place in my heart as my favorite parody.

2. Midnight Star - as I mentioned above, this was the toughest to choose. I really dig the keyboard and guitar work, and I've grown to love this track even more after adding it to my running playlist.

3. Foil - This surprised me. I thought there would have been stronger options. Some of the parody subjects just may be outdated for my tastes, or the song being parodied just wasn't for me.

4. UHF - Controversial pick here as UHF isn't the 4th track. If I didn't adjust the tracklist I don't know what I would pick as the actual 4 slot is loaded with You Make Me, One More Minute, Franks, Condo, Leper.

5. The Hot Rocks Polka - I'm a Stones fan, so this was one of the 3 easiest picks for me to make.

6. Melanie - I had not heard this song before I saw it live. After hearing it I knew I had to acquire all of his previous albums!

7 . Party in the CIA - This surprised me as I really thought this would come down to Yoda (originally a #5) or Word Crimes. Party in the CIA just cracks me up considering the corny and upbeat source material.

8. Your Horoscope For Today - Sorry if I offend, well not really, but I think horoscopes are dumb. This song was just perfect for my sense of humor and my silly grudge against horoscopes.

9. It's All About the Pentiums - had a computer-nerd phase in high school, so this song just fit perfectly.

10. This is the Life - It came down to I'll Be Mellow When I'm Dead, If That Isn't Love and This is the Life. If you asked me next week I'd probably change my mind here.

11. Trapped in the Drive-Thru - no real substantial thought other than I just liked this the best out of the available options. Almost chose Another One Rides the Bus, but picking Bus would feel like just a pick to get a real classic on here.

12. The Biggest Ball of Twine In Minnesota - My favorite song by Al, so in a really tough track number it wasn't a hard choice for me. Some will complain that this is actually track 13, but in this format it wins for me.
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