Skipper Dan

[algonacchick]

That does not mean it doesn't sound like FOW. Yeah, The Pork and Beans song has the doo-wop style vocals, but FOW has the catchy guitar riffs. Also, the chorus of "Stacy's Mom" reminds me of Skipper Dan a bit, too. It's a combo of both. Not the first time an Al original had a double influence.

[FredHuggins]

This just occurred to me - Disneyland's Cast Members, from what I've heard, often shoot wacky homemade films at and around the park, for their own amusement, during the hour or so of daylight they get each day before the park opens.

How cool would it be if they shot a homemade "Skipper Dan" video AT THE ACTUAL PARK?

[louietheweaselfaceddogboy]

How cool would it be if they shot a homemade "Skipper Dan" video AT THE ACTUAL PARK?

That would be complete awesome-sausage.

[Ecto]

PI (Pleasure Island) is mostly closed...some shops still opened as well as the Irish Restauraunt and there are rumblings some of the stuff might reopen.

besides that, as a Disney Cast Member I love this song.

[CatraDhtem]

Right off the bat, I really, really liked "Skipper Dan." It's probably the best of the "Internet Leaks" songs so far.

Add me to the list of those who have said that the song almost sounds like a throwback to Al's late '80s originals. I definitely hear some "Good Old Days" and "Melanie" in there. Whether or not this was supposed to be either Fountains of Wayne or TMBG, I don't know, but yeah, there seems to be a bit of "Stacey's Mom" in the chorus (but that could just be a coincidence). Regardless, musically it's a great, simple song and it brings back that long-gone "classic Al sound." I can't wait to hear this one live.

As for all the negative comments on MySpace about the song, I can only chalk that up to dumb people with lowered expectations. I'm not saying you HAVE to like Weird Al and those who don't are just stupid, but I think the song went over a lot of people's heads. Not because the song itself is too highbrow, but rather because a lot of people are used to dumber humor nowadays. This seems to sadly becoming truer in the realm of comedic music, where the Lonely Island guys from "Saturday Night Live" are the current reigning champs on the charts. There's a whole segment of the music-buying population who now think that if you don't have Justin Timberlake singing about penises or T-Pain dropping the "F" bomb then it's not funny. I applaud Al for not dumbing down his music for the masses...which is all the more strange to say because I think his work is infinitely more accessible than a lot of other comedy music out there. Call it being a snob if one must, but I think we should all be proud to be Weird Al fans. We all get the joke, and Al doesn't need to hold our hands all the way to the punchline.

I don't think one necessarily had to have been a Disneyland visitor in order to enjoy the digs that are aimed at the ride itself. Sure, it certainly helps to get the very few ride-specific references (the hippos wiggling their ears, the backside of water, etc.), but really I believe that as long as one has been to any theme park and seen a live scripted attraction--whether it be at a Disney park, Universal Studios, a Sea World, a Six Flags, a Ren fest, or most tourist traps with walking/riding tours--they'd get the joke. The guides and actors in these things are always so painfully on autopilot...but in a warped way, that's usually part of the charm.

Here's a true story: several years ago I was on a family vacation in Orlando and one night we went to a dinner theater show called Capone's, which was an Italian buffet set against a Broadway-style musical about gangsters...of course. Anyway, to enter the main dining room one has to knock on a door as if it were a speakeasy, you go in through a revolving wall thing, and you have to interact with the characters from the show for a few minutes. Anyway, one of the main male characters was named "Fingers," and he was played by a somewhat doughy-looking shorter man with trimmed facial hair.

Anyway, the next day we went to Universal's Islands of Adventure. One of the sections of the park at the time was called the Lost Continent (it's the section that next year will be the Wizarding World of Harry Potter) and there was some stunt show starring characters that seemed to be vague rip-offs of Hercules and Xena (even though Universal owns those characters...you figure that one out). So we're sitting there enjoying this cheesy adventure story when a member of our party noticed something about the actor playing Kabob the bumbling sidekick.

"Hey! It's Fingers!"

Sure enough, it was the same actor we had just seen the night before singing and dancing to a crappy version of "Luck Be a Lady," and here he was now fighting and acting a fool as a sidekick in a stunt show. That always fascinated me, that Orlando was no doubt crawling with these part-time actors desperately looking for whatever work they can get their hands on, whether it's at one of the big theme parks or King Henry's Feast or that pirate disco place or wherever. I imagine the competition is even more fierce in Anaheim being right there in Southern California, where actors already fight for work without the help of a large world-beloved theme park or two.

So this Orlando actor, let's just call him "Fingers Kabob" for the lack of a real name, immediately came to mind when I first heard this song. Outside of that, I have known and worked with actors whose careers have decidedly taken the same course as Skipper Dan's. After hearing Dan's acting evolution through school and how he was fawned over, I couldn't help but exclaim, "Oh my god, that's [person I'm close to]!" Theme parks, community theaters, the local "haunted house" that shows up every October...they're crawling with Skipper Dans.

Concept aside, what I liked about it was that Al really showed some attention to detail, describing a number of--pardon my French--wet dreams shared by many budding actors: being in a Quentin Tarantino movie, making the film festival circuit, landing a prominent meaty stage role such as Juror #7 in "12 Angry Men." I like to believe these aren't jokes that only film buffs or people in the theater industry would get. As an actor I definitely appreciated them, but I nevertheless think they were funny regardless...and to me that's the key point: Al made the references funny.

I can't stress that last point enough. That was part of my big problem with "Whatever You Like," that Al wasn't fitting the pop culture references to the concept well. The references to Costco, Wal-Mart, White Castle, and others were slapped on kind of lazily...really, the lyrics and meanings behind them were so vague that they would have been completely unchanged if those brands were instead Sam's Club, Target, and any fast food chain, respectively. It was not unlike the more list-like parts of "Couch Potato" where Al is focusing more on just finding titles to fit a melody rather than ones to make jokes out of. The sad thing is, despite all the one-after-another references in "Whatever You Like," there just weren't enough laugh out loud moments.

Thankfully that is not the case on "Skipper Dan," or on "Craigslist" for that matter. I genuinely laughed at a number of parts in "Skipper Dan," and I like that experience. I want a new Weird Al song to crack me up. The man keeps surprising me with the comedic curveballs he throws, and it keeps me coming back for more, no question. Both of these original songs have been vast improvements over "Whatever You Like." If this rate of quality keeps up through the remainder of the songs, then WYL might end up being the "klunker" on the next album.

As for the video itself, it was charming but hardly groundbreaking. It seems some of the animated videos of the last few years--"Virus Alert," "I'll Sue Ya," "Trapped in the Drive-Thru," and now this one--have a somewhat interchangeable feel to them, but it is still wonderful what's being done for these songs that otherwise would have received little to no attention.

[Wizzerkat]

Not that it's not great, just that he knew that it wasn't a "single" and that only his smarter fans would appreciate it.

This is a good observation. This song (as I think someone said) is similar to a song like Close But No Cigar-an excellent song but not lead/"single" material (Craigslist is a song that would fit that IMO). Al knows what songs have a better chance to chart/make it commercially as opposed to a good song for track 7, you know?

That being said, love the song! I think musically Al is just rocking it these days. He's delving deeper into whatever style he's working with.

[TMBJon]

OK, the more I listen to this song, the more I know it is supposed to sound like Fountains of Wayne. Move past "Stacy's Mom" and check out some of their other songs from the same album like Mexican Wine or Bright Future In Sales. This song reminds me a lot of those two.

As for the Pork & Beans similarities, give me a break. This is definitely not supposed to be a Weezer style parody. Mark my words. This is Fountains of Wayne. The lyrical content is so similar to what Adam Schlesinger and Chris Collingwood would write, as FredHuggins alrady pointed out, this could be a real Fountains of Wayne song.

As for the "not that funny" comments, I totally disagree. I think the lyrics are very funny; most of Al's songs that actually contain jokes are criticized for being list songs. I think this is EXACTLY the type of music Al should be making now.


Bravo, Mr. Yankovic.

[scottidog]

Right off the bat, I really, really liked "Skipper Dan." It's probably the best of the "Internet Leaks" songs so far.

Yay!!! A CatraDhtem review!!! You've been missed, my friend.

<Goes back to read the review>

[TMBJon]

Greg, your review was pitch perfect. Well done, sir.

[algonacchick]

OK, the more I listen to this song, the more I know it is supposed to sound like Fountains of Wayne. Move past "Stacy's Mom" and check out some of their other songs from the same album like Mexican Wine or Bright Future In Sales. This song reminds me a lot of those two.

As for the Pork & Beans similarities, give me a break. This is definitely not supposed to be a Weezer style parody. Mark my words. This is Fountains of Wayne. The lyrical content is so similar to what Adam Schlesinger and Chris Collingwood would write, as FredHuggins alrady pointed out, this could be a real Fountains of Wayne song.

As for the "not that funny" comments, I totally disagree. I think the lyrics are very funny; most of Al's songs that actually contain jokes are criticized for being list songs. I think this is EXACTLY the type of music Al should be making now.


Bravo, Mr. Yankovic.

Give you a break, Jon? You really can't hear any similarities between "Pork and Beans" and "Skipper Dan"? Give ME a break. Why can't Skipper Dan be one of those songs like TBBOTIM that have two influences? Remember, Al himself even said TBBOTIM is a combo of Harry Chapin and Gordon Lightfoot. He may even enlighten us in Thursday's chat, and say Skipper Dan is a Weezer/FOW combo. Oh, and Fred Huggins has decided he thinks it now sounds more like Weezer, so, I dunno. I agree with people who have cited both groups.