And even after the Eminem debacle, why couldn't Al just freaking make a video for a different song?
Well, he DID. It was called "Bob."
Oh, why didn't he make a REAL video? Well, the label had already wasted so much money on "Couch Potato" pre-production ("Couch Potato" was apparently gonna be the most expensive Weird Al video ever) that they simply didn't have it in the budget to make another. I know, I know, every album except
Even Worse before that had more than one video, but in almost every case, that second video ("Gump," "Pentiums," YDLMA, etc.) was greenlit only AFTER the album was released, and had made enough money to justify the cost of that second video - the only exceptions I can think of are "Bedrock Anthem" (which was affordable only because "Jurassic Park" had been animated, and thus cheaper) and "UHF" (when a movie studio is throwing promotional money into the mix, things suddenly become more affordable). The sales of Poodle Hat just weren't strong enough.
We all blame PH selling badly on that, but really Al is as much to blame for just deciding "ok that's it!" and not just doing another song.
Um...no, he's not. That's not quite how the entertainment industry works. The record label writes the checks, and
they make the calls on when those checks will be written. You might as well lay the blame on Al for not "wanting" to make another movie after UHF, or not doing a second season of
The Weird Al Show. I'm sure Al PITCHED them an ACS or eBay video, and they figured that would just be throwing good money after bad - especially given the points spmahn just made about videos not really being shown ANYWHERE in 2003.
Here's what really gets me about your argument, weirdojace. You say "Couch Potato" was an unworthy lead single. Fine. But consider where Al was when he wrote it. He hadn't released an album in four years. He was desperately searching for a lead-off single, some big hit like "Eat It" or "Like A Surgeon" or "Smells Like Nirvana," based around a pop culture phenomenon. And the biggest pop culture phenomenon at the time was Eminem - everyone was asking if Al would parody him, as he was the biggest, most successful artist in the world (sound familiar?) The problem was, all of Em's biggest hits had goofy, (allegedly) funny videos ANYWAY - to parody them would have been redundant. Then
8 Mile comes out, and with it the "Lose Yourself" single, and finally he has a big huge single serious enough to parody. It's the PERFECT target - just add Genius Lyrical Parody Concept.
Well, the Genius Lyrical Parody Concept just wasn't there, but Al forced one anyway because TO NOT PARODY EMINEM WOULD'VE BEEN JUST STUPID AS HE'S THE MOST SUCCESSFUL ARTIST IN THE WORLD RIGHT NOW (sound familiar
yet?) And when the Biggest Artist In The World turned out NOT to be as nice a guy as Michael Jackson or Kurt Cobain, all Al had to show for this monumental decision to PARODY THE BIGGEST ARTIST IN THE WORLD was a single that you call "weak."
My concern is, if Al FORCES himself to parody Lady Gaga without a Genius Lyrical Parody Concept behind it, the spark just won't be there, and he'll produce another "Couch Potato." "White & Nerdy," on the other hand, WAS a Genius Lyrical Parody Concept, no question about it. It was based off a #1 hit song, sure, but not by an artist everyone was chomping at the bit wondering if he would parody. THAT'S what Al needs to look for again in an Album #13 leadoff single - a Genius Lyrical Parody Concept like the one that won him his first top ten single, based on a song that's popular but not necessarily ubiquitous. Starting with Gaga would just be putting the cart before the horse.
