World of Weird Al Yankovic

While not a musical artist, I've just recently gotten into Bill Cosby's comedy albums. Just like Al, he's hysterical and kid-friendly. "To Russell, My Brother, Whom I Slept With" is one of the greatest comedy pieces in history.

I like Bill Cosby too. He really is funny.

Just felt the need to revive this to add a few other people...

Bob Ricci - Another comedy artist. He does both parodies and originals, just like Al, and is working on his 2nd album, "Mullet Over" (which he says should be out sometime in October.) Some of his best songs include "Dr. Phil", "Depressing Rock Song", "Every Other Time", "I Wish", and "SKDFTWMY."

Worm Quartet - A demented artist with some VERY weird songs indeed! Worm Quartet is made up of one person, Tim Crist, with one keyboard. But it sounds REALLY good, and it's so catchy! He is also good friends with Luke Ski and Tony Goldmark. He is actually currently in a competition with both of them to see whose song makes the Funny 5 most times this year. (His song "Great Idea for a Song" is competing with Tony's "Sirius Black" and Luke's "The Spongy Dance." It's VERY close!) I just bought both of his CD's off his website.

Steve Goodie - Another standard comedy artist who does both parodies and originals. I just bought his CD, "Pottered Meat" to hear his Harry Potter parody, "Harry's Wand" (parody of Stacy's Mom). From what I've heard of his stuff so far, it's pretty good. But not as good as other people like Tony Goldmark and Bob Ricci.

Dread Zeppelin - I dunno how many of you all would like this one. But they are in no way a serious group at all, despite what people might say. In fact, the entire band is a joke. They don't make parodies, or even make their own songs for that matter. They re-do all of Led Zeppelin's stuff into REGGAE style. And, it may sound crazy, but it WORKS! I heard their version of "Stairway to Heaven" and was laughing all through the thing! I just bought their album, "5,000,000". The band is made up of a bunch of people who dress like they're from Hawaii, except for the lead singer, who dresses and looks EXACTLY like ELVIS! It's just so darn funny! I normally don't like bands that just cover songs for a living, but THIS is just golden! I mean, it's Led Zeppelin in REGGAE!

I agree with Jace Worm Quartet and Steve Goodie are both very good.

Carla Ulbrich is someone else you might want to check out. Her song "If I Had The Copyright" was #1 on Dr. D for a couple of weeks and her new Cd "Sick Humor" is good.

Also, Allan Sherman sadly only has his greatest hits on CD but his LPs are quite easy to find on eBay. Most known probably for "Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh (A Letter From Camp)", he has some other great songs like "Rat Fink" and "The Dropouts' March"

mewrio @ Jul 9 2004, 06:03 PM wrote: A note: Luke Ski dissed PH in a live chat sometime.

You still never said what he said...

And you still haven't...

mewrio @ Jul 10 2004, 01:48 AM wrote: Well Bobbi told me actually...

He didn't actually diss Poodle Hat. What happened (as I remember it, and if I'm wrong Luke, I apologize...) around the time PH was released, I was listening to Luke's show (he does an internet Dementia stream) and he was giving his thoughts on what makes a good parody, etc. He said that he had given Al a tape (the song escapes me at the moment) that was very much like one Al had done on PH. The inference being that he gave Al the idea for the song. As if Al needs his help coming up with good parodies...

He also said that Al needed to just do the video for CP and forget about getting permission. As I heard it, and again I could be wrong. You know how it is when Mama Bear kicks in... but he pretty much said Al was stupid for having the moral stand that he does.

I don't think I'm talking out of school here, since he was actually broadcasting his remarks.

mewrio @ Jul 9 2004, 02:03 PM wrote: Tony Goldmark doesn't like Bobbi either, as you would have seen in the #dementia chatroom on the Sunday of the Nick and Mary tribute show.

Tony's a good kid. He just likes to push people's buttons. And for the record, I like his stuff, and Lukeski's. In general, I'm not a huge Dementia fan, but both of those guys have real talent.

scottidog @ Nov 29 2004, 11:06 PM wrote: He said that he had given Al a tape (the song escapes me at the moment) that was very much like one Al had done on PH.  The inference being that he gave Al the idea for the song.  As if Al needs his help coming up with good parodies... 

(snip)

I don't think I'm talking out of school here, since he was actually broadcasting his remarks.

Likewise, the only reason I would respond to this is if he did broadcast such remarks, and I have no reason to doubt you.

There are so many ways I could react to such a thinly veiled charge, some nice and some rather grumpy. I will choose both, but I will try to withhold any outright slamming.

First of all, Al is usually good at crediting due people for inspiration, be it for a title or a gag or whatever. If Luke contributed to the creative process of a song in some way, it probably would have been made clear somewhere.

And this leads to what seems to be the bigger problem with Luke, he needs to stop buying into his own hype (unless someone else gave him the moniker "Great"). Yes, he's popular among and considered talented by a very select circle of listeners of a syndicated radio show (as was Al when he started out), but to borrow a Bill Maherism, Oasis wasn't the Beatles and Luke Ski isn't Weird Al. And as soon as he stops pretending to be he'll be able to find his own comedic voice and not worry about how similar his work might be to his hero's.

I don't even know which song in question Luke might have been referring to, but the fact remains is that parody is sometimes a very restrictive form of comedy, and in such cases then there are only so many jokes that will fit a given idea.

And this is especially true when it comes to funny song ideas. For a personal example, I had been tinkering with a song idea that I hadn't put too much thought into. I just had a concept, several choice lyrics, and a hook, but nothing really cohesive. A couple of months ago I was looking around Jeff's DrD playlist archive and I came upon a song that, just based on the title, seemed very much like my idea (heck, the title was the same!) and, when I looked up the lyrics, were pretty close to what I was coming up with. Now, there hasn't been a station near me that has played the doc's show in almost a decade now, so there has been virtually no way for me to hear this other song before I started playing with my own idea. Does that mean I stole this other guy's idea? Of course not, how could I? Sometimes different people will just be on the same wavelength for what's funny. Sheesh, if every single funny concept was exclusive to only one person at a time, then the world would have been practically devoid of O.J. and Pee-Wee jokes.

Please don't get me wrong. I have nothing against Luke and I am not trying to be mean or anything, but he's like so many other comic minds out there: not everything he comes up with is gold and in fact a lot of it is downright mediocre. Weird Al is not scheming to steal his song ideas anymore than Al Franken is scheming to steal ideas from my columns on Dohtem.com.

Yes, I know Luke had a problem once with someone passing his lyrics off as their own, but still the guy just needs to get over himself. Maybe once he can leggo his "Eggo" he'll be able to come up with something new, maybe even revolutionary. He won't be able to do that standing in someone else's shadow and then complaining about the light.

CatraDhtem @ Nov 30 2004, 01:27 AM wrote: Likewise, the only reason I would respond to this is if he did broadcast such remarks, and I have no reason to doubt you.

As long as you realize, that I wasn't giving a verbatim quote. Just my memory and impression of what I thought I heard, not necessarily what he actually meant. You know how these things can be. And you also know how protective of our boy I am.

And I very much agree with everything you said.