World of Weird Al Yankovic

omg

NMRodo wrote:I didn't realize "Wait... It's Ronald Reagan" was referring to the zombie ice skating until I saw the video. And that makes it infinitely funnier.

Same here!

Also, I had never heard the original until one morning I was in line at a coffee shop and heard it playing. I thought "why does this song sound familiar?" At the time I had only heard Another Tattoo a couple times but since Al is the only way I keep in touch with current music trends I figured he must have parodied it. Popped Alpocalypse into the car CD player and laughed all the way to work. Now it is one of my favorite songs on the album.

This song is one of the funniest

My husband tends to experience Al by hearing me as I'm listening to my mp3 player and singing along. I was getting to the end of "Another Tattoo" . . .
I noticed he was listening because he was chuckling . . . at the song's lyrics? or at me? . . . maybe both . . .
Me: And at the end, as it fades out, you have to listen carefully, he's saying "a squid, or a tarantula, I don't know, surprise me!"
Ken: That's just like the jokes they always had in the background in Mad magazine.
Me: When Al was in 8th grade, he wanted to write for Mad magazine.
Ken: I guess we can tell where Al got his sense of humor!

Ok, we fans all know Al loved Mad when he was a kid, but I think it's interesting how Ken made the very specific connection between the background jokes in Mad and in Al's songs. (Ken liked Mad when he was a kid, too.)

I loved MAD as a kid, too...but I don't really see any MAD specific humor in that line. It would probably fit better in the Kurtzman era, though. He's probably referring to the one liners in the margins they occasionaly had next to Sergio Aragones cartoons.

Yeah, I think that was it. What years are you referring to? (Just trying to see who was reading who . . . my husband is 64.)

arewethereyet wrote:What years are you referring to? (Just trying to see who was reading who . . . my husband is 64.)

The years between 1952 and 1955 when Kurtzman was editor of the comic book and first few magazine issues before Feldistein took over as editor.

Thanks; I'll have to follow up on that info when I have a bit more time.

I managed to work "Another Tattoo" into a lesson plan this week. I teach Latin - my own form of weirdness. A student found a great blog about bad Latin tattoos. In case you're interested: http://waywardclassics.blogspot.com/201 ... ttoos.html Photos of the tattoos; translations included; you don't need to know Latin to get it. Language advisory for the blog writer's priceless commentary, not the tattoos. I made it into a powerpoint so I could give my students a chance to translate the tats before reading the blog translation and comments (and so I could make the English school-appropriate). Playing the video of AT seemed like the perfect way to conclude the presentation.

Killingsworth wrote:I loved MAD as a kid, too...but I don't really see any MAD specific humor in that line. It would probably fit better in the Kurtzman era, though. He's probably referring to the one liners in the margins they occasionaly had next to Sergio Aragones cartoons.

I would have guessed he was referring to the background gags in a typical MAD movie or TV parody panel, particularly those illustrated by Mort Drucker. For instance, here is a Drucker splash panel from their spoof of the movie "Coma", which features the characters and funny dialogue, but also all kinds of shenanigans in the background that might be missed without careful scrutiny: http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_zMsg9U8UoyM/S ... es+011.jpg

(There's even a surgeon carrying a chainsaw! Hmmmmm....)

mrmeadows wrote:I would have guessed he was referring to the background gags in a typical MAD movie or TV parody panel, particularly those illustrated by Mort Drucker. For instance, here is a Drucker splash panel from their spoof of the movie "Coma", which features the characters and funny dialogue, but also all kinds of shenanigans in the background that might be missed without careful scrutiny: http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_zMsg9U8UoyM/S ... es+011.jpg

(There's even a surgeon carrying a chainsaw! Hmmmmm....)

I would say more of that type of humor is seen in the video with the various tattoo designs flashing back and forth, but I always admired Drucker's work. Him and Tom Richmond are my two favorite movie/TV satire artists from MAD.