World of Weird Al Yankovic

Ha! I could take BOTH Tony Goldmark AND Fred Huggins on at the same time!

Tony Goldmark vs. Bruce the Duck is a fight I would pay a significant portion of my life savings to see.

I accept PayPal.

(slips some dynamite under Bruce's feet, blows him to holy hell.)

That'll be eleven hundred dollars, please.

@ Tony

Come on, let's go. The polka medley will be called The Polka Show.

Thnks Fr Th Mmrs
Hot N' Cold
You Belong With Me
Bleeding Love
Party Like A Rockstar
Stop and Stare
Circus
Party In The USA
Let It Rock
4 Minutes
Single Ladies
I'm Yours
Pocketful of Sunshine
My Life Would Suck Without You

Not a bad list. Miley is definitely long overdue for him, so I'm sure she'll show up somewhere. I'm also sure Katy Perry will be in the polka, though I'm betting on "I Kissed a Girl" because it'd sound funnier as a polka version.

Since we know that Al is recording more songs right now, and the album may be sooner than we thought, maybe we should open up possible parody targets for discussion again since it seems like we're very close.

Lady GaGa: She's been so prominent in the music business lately that if he doesn't parody her, there will probably be a mass critical backlash. Pretty much every song on her debut album became a hit single, and with the popularity of "Bad Romance" it sure doesn't look like she'll be going away anytime soon.
Possible songs: Poker Face, Bad Romance, LoveGame, Paparazzi
She's also one of those artists I can picture getting a parody and a spot in the polka. Imagine how funny Al saying "I wanna take a ride on your disco stick" in a polka style would be.

Black Eyed Peas: Like Gaga, this is a group that, no matter what, it's pretty much guaranteed whatever they put out will go straight to #1. They've gotten much bigger since their spot in "Polkarama" and I wouldn't be surprised if we saw a parody of them.
Possible songs: I Gotta Feeling, Meet Me Halfway, Boom Boom Pow

Miley Cyrus: She's the biggest pop star on TV. Kids love her. She's pretty much as iconic to the Disney company as Mickey Mouse is. To skip over her would be crazy. She's right there in the middle of pop culture. If she doesn't at least show up in the polka, Al is an idiot.
Possible songs: Party in the USA, The Climb, 7 Things

Jay-Z: Okay, I don't know anything about Jay-Z and I don't listen to him, but all I can see is that he's all over the iTunes top 100, not just with his own songs, but as a guest on other peoples' songs too. And lately Al seems to want to look at rap more than any other genre, so take that as you see it...

Taylor Swift: Oh look, it's a hot new country artist that actually appeals to the masses and gets top 40 airplay! I think she's a possible contender, but we'll see what happens. Al, I'mma let you finish, but Achy Breaky Song was your best country parody of all time.
Possible songs: You Belong With Me

Coldplay: Viva La Vida, enough said.

Other alternative rock songs: Al seems to have been out of the alternative rock scene lately (aside from Canadian Idiot), and if he's going to tackle this style, there are a few songs I could see:
"Gives You Hell" by the All American Rejects
"I Don't Care" or "Thnks Fr Th Mmrs" by Fall Out Boy
"Human" by The Killers
"21 Guns" by Green Day (not likely, as he did them on SOL)
The emo scene pretty much hit its peak already, so it looks like Al may have lost his chance to tackle it. But then again, we saw a Backstreet Boys parody on Poodle Hat, long after the boy band fad died out. This could go many ways, or we could see Al skip over this entirely.


Songs that I feel have a good chance of showing up in the polka:
Kings of Leon: Sex on Fire
Katy Perry: I Kissed a Girl
Owl City: Fireflies
Miley Cyrus: Party in the USA
Lady GaGa: LoveGame
Pink - So What
Kelly Clarkson - My Life Would Suck Without You

Thats a pretty good list Jace, I think in order they would go Lady Gaga, Miley Cyrus, Taylor Swift, Black Eyed Peas and Jay-Z.

Also, TSB that is a very good polka list, although I would love to see "Fireflies" in there.

That's some pretty solid speculation there, Jace. Now, I'd like to offer my own personal take on what you just posted if you don't mind...

weirdojace wrote:Lady GaGa: She's been so prominent in the music business lately that if he doesn't parody her, there will probably be a mass critical backlash. Pretty much every song on her debut album became a hit single, and with the popularity of "Bad Romance" it sure doesn't look like she'll be going away anytime soon.
Possible songs: Poker Face, Bad Romance, LoveGame, Paparazzi
She's also one of those artists I can picture getting a parody and a spot in the polka. Imagine how funny Al saying "I wanna take a ride on your disco stick" in a polka style would be.

TWO SIMPLE WORDS: POLKA FACE!!!!!! IT'S NOT EXACTLY ROCKET SCIENCE PEOPLE!!!!!

I'll admit "LoveGame" or possibly "Just Dance" would fit comfortably in any polka medley, but I'm sure THAT is the way to go. I could also see Gaga or Taylor Swift getting a parody and a polka segment on the next album, but even if only the latter happens "Polka Face" would be the bare minimum his fans should expect. In fact, it should also be the TITLE to the next medley.

weirdojace wrote:Miley Cyrus: She's the biggest pop star on TV. Kids love her. She's pretty much as iconic to the Disney company as Mickey Mouse is. To skip over her would be crazy. She's right there in the middle of pop culture. If she doesn't at least show up in the polka, Al is an idiot.
Possible songs: Party in the USA, The Climb, 7 Things

Hmm...I wonder why no one said about eight to ten years ago that if Britney Spears or Christina Aguilera didn't get at least a spot in "Polka Power" or in some alternate universe pop-instead-of-rock PH polka medley Al would've been an idiot? Were Britney and Christina considered too obvious targets back then? At least one of them certainly might be too irrelevant of a target in 2010. Anyway, I wouldn't hold my breath for a Miley parody or polka, but I will say this. If either she or Taylor Swift aren't "interviewed" for the next AL-TV special, then Al might definitely be an idiot.

weirdojace wrote:Jay-Z: Okay, I don't know anything about Jay-Z and I don't listen to him, but all I can see is that he's all over the iTunes top 100, not just with his own songs, but as a guest on other peoples' songs too. And lately Al seems to want to look at rap more than any other genre, so take that as you see it...

Well, one possible song would be "Run This Town." Then, people could say he's finally tackled multiple artist rap/R&B songs,(Rhianna and Kanye are guests on that track if I'm not mistaken) but I'm pretty sure he already did that with "Pentiums" and W&N.

weirdojace wrote:Taylor Swift: Oh look, it's a hot new country artist that actually appeals to the masses and gets top 40 airplay! I think she's a possible contender, but we'll see what happens.

I'll raise the bar a little for Miss Swift here. If she doesn't get "interviewed" on AL-TV, she'll probably at the very least get a spot in "Polka Face" (or whatever the next medley happens to be titled.) Again, I wouldn't hold my breath for a full length parody on the next album, but I could see either her or Miley getting a "concert only" spot in next tours' medley.

weirdojace wrote: Al, I'mma let you finish, but Achy Breaky Song was your best country parody of all time.

Gee, that was quite a timely joke there, but yeah, I agree (if for no other eason that "Achy Breaky Song" also happens to be his only country parody of all time to date.

weirdojace wrote:Possible songs: You Belong With Me

This or "Love Story" would definitely sound the best in any polka medley. Or he could parody "Love Story" and maybe he might also happen to touch upon my "brutal satire of Twilight set to the tune of Love Story" idea I posted in a different thread (but I know that probably aint gonna happen.) I always thought a good Taylor Swift parody would be to take her song "Fifteen" and change the title to "Eighteen" or "Nineteen" and rewrite the lyrics to be about the college/frat experience instead of just whining about piddly high school relationships (but that idea obvioulsy seems far more suited to the crew over at CollegeHumor than our boy Al...how much you wanna bet THEY"RE actually working on this one right now?)

weirdojace wrote:Coldplay: Viva La Vida, enough said.

By this point, my best bet would be only in the polka...oh wait, he already did THAT on SOL too...who knows, he could parody this one...but then again, if he did he'd've probably released it in the fall of '08 to begin with...never mind...

weirdojace wrote:Songs that I feel have a good chance of showing up in the polka:
Kings of Leon: Sex on Fire
Katy Perry: I Kissed a Girl
Owl City: Fireflies
Miley Cyrus: Party in the USA
Lady GaGa: LoveGame
Pink - So What
Kelly Clarkson - My Life Would Suck Without You

Agreed. Those all sound like very good choices and I'm sure you're sentiments here have been echoed throughout the forum all year. This concludes my thorough deconstruction of your parody/polka speculation. Anyone else?

Polka Face may be too obvious for Al to do.

Polka Face... I can see Al titling it that, yeah. We shall see.

You raise good points about Britney and Christina. Why were they not parodied when they were the biggest things in pop culture back then? I know Britney got an Al-TV interview though. Did Christina? I don't remember... So while Miley might not be parodied, I think Al will have to acknowledge her existence in some form. I do think if we don't get a parody, we'll surely see her in the polka. Same with Taylor Swift.

Lady GaGa is pretty much guaranteed. If Al doesn't parody her, he is an idiot who's lost touch with pop culture.

I feel like we'll get another rap thing too, but since I don't pay attention to what's the newest rap thing I can't really be sure. Jay-Z was just the most prominent artist I saw on the iTunes top 100.

The problem with Jay-Z is a parody of any of his heretofore released singles would be dated. We will have to see what prominent artists release albums in 2010. Definitely keep an eye on release schedules for Kanye and Lil Wayne too...