Dare to be Stupid: A Deep Dive - Side 2 - Beer‘d Al Podcast

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
Welcome everybody to the very very end of.

Speaker 2 (00:37):
Side to Here on the Beard Doll Podcast, we're talking
about the end of side two of Dare to Be Stupid.
I messed this introduction up so much, but I'm not
even going to fix it. This is the Beard All Podcast.
It's a podcast about two of the greatest things in
the world, beer and weird Now And as I alluded
to in that very poorly organized introduction, this is the

(00:57):
end of our side to deep dive of there to
be Stupid. It's the end of our deep dive of
there to be Stupid in general. And as has become
semi tradition here, when we flip this, flip the record
or end the record, we do a rundown of the
entire thing with U insane.

Speaker 1 (01:16):
I so insane. Ian is back here? Isn't that insane?

Speaker 3 (01:19):
Hello?

Speaker 2 (01:19):
Ian?

Speaker 1 (01:19):
Hello, Ry, Yes it's me.

Speaker 3 (01:21):
I'm back. Whether you want me here or not here,
I am horay.

Speaker 2 (01:25):
Yes, well I want you here. I wouldn't have asked
you here if I didn't want you here.

Speaker 3 (01:28):
Well, I meant, I meant the listeners honestly. But yeah,
it's me. I'm It's a thing.

Speaker 1 (01:35):
It is a thing. We were talking before. I see.

Speaker 2 (01:38):
I hate when people say we were talking offline, but
because we're online, but we were talking before we recorded.

Speaker 3 (01:44):
Off the air, off the air tech.

Speaker 1 (01:46):
Oh yes, okay, yeah, we were talking off air. I
like that. I like that. I wish people in business
would use that more.

Speaker 3 (01:53):
Enough the record technically, because we are recording recording, I
put the wrong fossus on the wrong sol level.

Speaker 1 (02:01):
Oh dear, but we were talking.

Speaker 2 (02:04):
That's great if you're talking before we started any of
this about how you know, Ian has become sort of
the staple of the ending and flipping of the record
as part of this, and I just you know.

Speaker 3 (02:19):
Ending and the flipping is just I'm getting that on
my tombstone.

Speaker 2 (02:23):
I think, yeah, do you want do you want like
a vanity plate? That'd be perfect the staple of the
ending and the flipping. Yes boy, yes, so so yeah,
we're doing this what we always do, and so we're
gonna structure this episode just I feel like part of

(02:45):
this is setting people's expectations is we're gonna do our
little pleasantries here at the beginning, some fun facts, and
we're gonna go through side to track by track and
then at the end give it our one to twenty
seven writing whatever that means, I've come to find that
that's me eating less and less to me as I
go through all of this. I gave a lot of
thought to him at the beginning, but now I'm just
kind of going with my gut in the moment.

Speaker 1 (03:06):
Absolutely so so.

Speaker 3 (03:08):
Ian.

Speaker 2 (03:09):
First of all, you've been up to a lot of
things since we last spoke, which doesn't feel like that
long ago.

Speaker 3 (03:14):
But it doesn't. It doesn't seem like it was that
long ago, and yet so much has happened. Yes, so yeah.
You know, for those of you who follow me on
YouTube with my comedy musician Reacts, I just hit thirty
two thousand subscribers on YouTube, which is kind of a
big thing. And also I perform. I just performed at

(03:37):
MAGFest in Maryland National Harbor in January, and then in
March I performed at Marscan like I do every year
in Minneapolis. However, this year at Marscan, I ended up
hosting the weekend. Usually the Great Luke Ski is the host,
but I ended up being the host because we've got
called away for important family matters, and so I ended

(03:59):
up hosting the whole week end. I was also hosting
the Logan Awards, which are the comedy music Awards. I'm
familiar with us, sure of. Thank you so much, Lauren,
You're welcome. And yes, So we had the Logan Awards
ceremony at Mars Khan, which I of course always host
because I am the chairperson of the Awards. But in
doing all of that, I blew out my voice. I

(04:22):
got laryngitis. I I had no no more sounds coming
from the Ian face and and so, yeah, was getting
over a bit of laryngitis and a cough. But things
are better now. Ian sounds more like Ian. He doesn't
look more like Ian because I had to shave because
I had to do a commercial for something. I'm not

(04:43):
sure if I can say what it was. It probably
has it somewhere else. But well, I didn't have to
sign an NDA, so I can say this. I did
the commercial for hard Mountain dew.

Speaker 2 (04:51):
Oh oh, I love getting baja blasted, my friend.

Speaker 3 (04:56):
It's for the Code Red one. Oh, I love that too.
That one's good. And they cast me because they wanted
a redhead. I'm not a redhead, but they cast me anyway.
So that was fun. Hey acting, But yeah, waiting for
that to come out, but I had to shave for it,
so Ian's face looks weird. I have a very brown,

(05:17):
carly brown head. So waiting for the beard to come back.
Working on a couple other things this week and next
that I'm filming for various TV shows around Chicago, and uh, yeah, things, stuff.

Speaker 2 (05:32):
I love things and I love stuff. I think that's
very exciting. Yeah, yeah, I'm I'm very much. I tell
my husband he is not allowed to shave his beard.

Speaker 3 (05:43):
It's been about five years since I shaved mine. I
had to shave mine for I was I was an
extra in the Trial of the Chicago Seven, which was
a Netflix movie a couple years ago, actually five years ago,
back in twenty nineteen, and I had shaved. I had
to shave for that, and like they were like, it
takes place in the sixties. You can't have a beard.
And I'm like, meanwhile, there's a dude dressed as a

(06:05):
hippie sanding next to me with a full beard, and
I'm like, are you sure? You just you just mean
I can't look like me and have a beard. So
like I went from looking like a somewhat you know,
middle aged gentleman to shaving and I ended up being
looking like the chaperone for all the protesters. I just
it did with the suit they gave me, in the

(06:27):
glasses and every it looked it didn't look right. And
I have a very young face usually when I shave,
but this time because of the outfit, I just it
didn't work. But ironically, right after I had filmed that,
we went to California to see Weird Al's star on
the Hollywood Walk of Face. So the pictures of me

(06:47):
from that point of us at the star are me beardless, which.

Speaker 1 (06:51):
Is right, Oh beards, Yeah, no, we.

Speaker 3 (06:55):
Don't want to see that. It's been slowly growing back.
I'm hoping, hoping it'll be back by next week so
that I can hume for the next filming thing I'm doing, resume.

Speaker 1 (07:06):
Normal activities exactly.

Speaker 2 (07:09):
I see like, as a woman, I can't like totally
understand that, but I absolutely appreciate it. I can't imagine
having this thing that just made my face look like
a different person. You know.

Speaker 3 (07:20):
Yeah, well said, That's the whole reason I grow the
beard is because I have no chin. It's just bottom
lip and the neck. There's no middle round there, So
I grow the beard to give the illusion of Chin.

Speaker 1 (07:31):
That's fair, that's fair.

Speaker 2 (07:33):
I think that should also be the title of like
your next album, The Illusion of Chin.

Speaker 3 (07:37):
Yeah, absolutely, Okay, it's a very autobiographical it's right.

Speaker 1 (07:43):
Oh well, that was fine.

Speaker 2 (07:44):
I love I love our Teta Tetu.

Speaker 1 (07:51):
So yeah, we're on Deside too.

Speaker 2 (07:53):
There to be stupid, man, This album has been a
roller coaster for me kind of.

Speaker 3 (08:00):
It absolutely is. It's it. It's one of my favorite albums.
And I've said that last time I was on this
it was the first full weird al album I listened to,
and you know, so, like, you know, I do have that,
you know, kind of bias towards it. And while I
enjoy everything on Side Too, I do feel that it

(08:23):
is not as strong as maybe Side one might be.

Speaker 1 (08:27):
No, it is not.

Speaker 2 (08:28):
And actually, the last time you were here, when we
were talking about Side one, I had tossed around the
idea of doing a re sequencing episode. Yeah, and my
husband and I have decided to turn that into a
fun thing we do as married people.

Speaker 3 (08:43):
And I like how you didn't use quote marks, but
I totally heard that in quote fun thing we do
as married Ye should have been a tm at the
back end of it.

Speaker 1 (08:55):
Yeah, yeah, patent pending.

Speaker 3 (08:57):
It is it is at noswealt.

Speaker 2 (09:00):
Yeah, it's gonna be the next episode here before we
jump into the Polkal party.

Speaker 3 (09:05):
Oh perfect.

Speaker 1 (09:06):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (09:06):
So, so Russ and I are gonna sit down and
he is a very he's he's better I would argue
at sequencing than I am. He can kind of it
makes more sense in his brain.

Speaker 1 (09:15):
He's got that.

Speaker 2 (09:16):
I don't know if that part of his brain works
better than mine does. But we're gonna, I think we're
each gonna do it on our own and then kind
of compare notes and talk about how we, you know,
feel like we could have made there to be stupid better.
It's the same songs, just putting them in a slightly
different order to be a more sure, you know, a
better listen.

Speaker 3 (09:36):
Who makes albums and and spends a lot of time
figuring out what order the song should be in. Uh,
it's it's definitely an art form.

Speaker 2 (09:45):
Oh yeah, well it's actually not to plug my own content.
But I'm gonna plug my own content.

Speaker 3 (09:51):
Oh it's your podcast, you're allowed to do it.

Speaker 1 (09:52):
Exactly.

Speaker 2 (09:54):
It was Valentine's Day, I believe, I believe it was
twenty twenty four, but it might have been twenty twenty three,
so it was either one or two years ago, but
it was around Valentine's Day. We did an episode of
this show, uh, where Russ and I put together weird aw,
the love album, You've Got.

Speaker 1 (10:11):
The foot album, and the TV album. We did the
love album, and.

Speaker 3 (10:15):
I made a love album and a polka album when
I was back making mixtapes in college.

Speaker 1 (10:21):
It's a beautiful thing.

Speaker 2 (10:22):
Oh yeah, the polka yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, So so
the love album. Right, we picked the songs together, but
he sequenced it because.

Speaker 1 (10:32):
And I wouldn't change a thing that he did.

Speaker 2 (10:34):
So it'll be interesting to see how our dare to
be stupid Reducks's I suppose end up going next to
each other. But yes, more to the matter at hand here,
we're talking about side to dare to be stupid as
it exists today, as it.

Speaker 3 (10:48):
Exists, as everyone knows it, as everyone listened to it,
how it was originally conceived.

Speaker 1 (10:53):
It is as as it would be.

Speaker 2 (10:55):
So there was just a couple of things that and
I don't know if you've heard this, but I like
to just kind of of troll, uh the Wikipedia pages
for for Whewell's work. You know, before I get into
this is to be like, okay, this is you know,
I as a college instructor, I tell my students not

(11:17):
to cite Wikipedia, but it's a good place to start
to get like where's the what, what's the what's the
overall conversation here?

Speaker 1 (11:23):
And then you go from there there there.

Speaker 2 (11:27):
There is a a music critic who said, of the
original material, un there to be stupid that quote. Only
someone who is missing important brain cells would suggest this
artist's original songs are any good.

Speaker 3 (11:43):
That's unreasonably harsh.

Speaker 1 (11:47):
That's what I thought.

Speaker 3 (11:50):
Because, uh, at least on side one. Uh, the original
songs on this album are some of Al's most popular. Yeah,
at least on side one. Side two, that's a different matter.
But I mean, but.

Speaker 2 (12:12):
Does liking cable TV mean you don't have the brain
cells you need?

Speaker 3 (12:17):
You know? Well, I mean I think that's almost a
line in cable TV, isn't it?

Speaker 1 (12:21):
Maybe very true? Very true?

Speaker 3 (12:27):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (12:27):
I was just like, man, like that just seems like
super duper harsh. And but I I think it's important
to bring up right, did you sort of talk about
the the overall kind of reception of this type of
work in the in the overall like zeitgeist. Right, and
you as somebody who does this, like, you know how

(12:48):
difficult it is to get people that take music seriously
to take comedy music seriously.

Speaker 3 (12:54):
Oh absolutely, yeah, no, and and and and that is
the biggest hurdle to overcome as a comedy artist is, Yes,
you want to be looked at for your musicianship, but
also sometimes the lyrics are going to be kind of
dumb because you're making jokes, you know, and sometimes you're

(13:16):
you're kind of going for the lowbrow humor or or
the the goofy weirdness. Uh. And you know, yes, there's
a weird appreciation balance imbalance, I would say for you know,
musicality versus lyrics, especially in comedy songs.

Speaker 1 (13:33):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (13:34):
So I just think that's I just felt like that
was important to kind of point out that, like, even
with Weird out work this early, people are still.

Speaker 1 (13:42):
Like, I don't know about this, you know.

Speaker 3 (13:44):
Right, you know this this is this is his third album.
He really like you know, suddenly exploded with with edit
on the last album, and this is the follow up
to that monumental album, right, and and you know, so
people had a I guess some sort of expectation, although
why it was centered on brain cells for this guy,

(14:06):
I'm not certain, but maybe he didn't listen to the
previous album and didn't know what he was getting himself into,
nor was really adept to review comedy music.

Speaker 1 (14:17):
I yes, I don't know. It bugs me.

Speaker 2 (14:20):
Do you ever, like have one of those things like
you read and you're like, oh my god, this bothers me?

Speaker 1 (14:23):
Like the.

Speaker 2 (14:25):
I still will sometimes like lie awake at night thinking
about the the Ciskel and Ebert review of UHF and
how cold that was, right, Like, yeah, this is one
of those things that is just gonna, like, for better
or worse, live rent free in my brain for a
little while, and I don't like it. So I just
felt like I needed to bring it up so it
lives rent free in other people's brains too, okay, Like

(14:48):
here's here's your thing, here's your thing. Another thing that
I again, i'd because I don't keep track of this stuff.
So the Dry Be Stupid album was nominated for the
Grammy Award for Best Comedy Recording and Night ten eighty six,
but it lost And do you know what it lost to?

Speaker 3 (15:03):
I don't know what it lost to.

Speaker 2 (15:04):
Tell me it lost to Whoopy Goldberg's Whoopy original Broadway recording.

Speaker 3 (15:09):
Oh yeah, for her One Womans Show.

Speaker 2 (15:11):
Yes, so I said, I was like, okay, yeah, and
it was. Let's see if it tells me what it
was nominated alongside. Give me a moment. Let's see if
we can. Oh see, you got to scroll down real
far to get comedy.

Speaker 3 (15:27):
Yeah, because it's they mix comedy and spoken word together
in that category, which is why we have the Logan Awards.
So that's dedicated awards specifically for comedy music. Yeah. Hint, hint, plug.

Speaker 1 (15:39):
Plug say no more.

Speaker 2 (15:44):
Oh man, So the art the Grammy article article is
telling me who won, but not all.

Speaker 1 (15:48):
Who was nominated.

Speaker 2 (15:49):
And I don't feel like digging through it right now,
but anyway, it could be an interesting exercise to see
who all was nominated alongside of them for this. But yeah, no,
I mean that's a very fair point too. Right again, again,
thank you for doing what you're doing, because I think
the fact that like comedy music and like stand up
and then like the One Woman Show, like what will

(16:10):
we was doing, like it all gets lumped in together.

Speaker 3 (16:14):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (16:14):
Absolutely, but then you have different categories in the grammar
Grammys for like soul and Neo soul and and like
country and Americana, Like they're.

Speaker 3 (16:23):
Oh, it goes even further than that because Spotify like
has a specific connotation for for comedy, and if it's
comedy music, they don't consider that comedy. So like, if
we list something, if we're like going to be digitally
distributing a song as a comedy musician and we're not

(16:44):
a name artist like weird Al or Ninja Sex Party
or what have you, we listed as comedy and they're like, well,
it has to be a certain length, there has to
be no spoken parts in it, so it has to
actually be you know, a song or not song, and
you know, otherwise we have to listen to as alternative,
which is a real big pin in the ass.

Speaker 1 (17:06):
Alternative means nothing anymore.

Speaker 3 (17:09):
It means nothing anymore because you know, it's it's just
any music you can't categorize at this point. So like, meanwhile,
we want people to find us when they're looking for comedy,
and we can't even listen to this comedy because Spotify, like,
for whatever reason, they only felt like stand up with comedy.
They didn't think comedy music was comedy, and like I
got into an argument with somebody at Spotify good and

(17:32):
I'm like, but you have weird Al there who is
comedy music. I'm the same thing, and he goes, but
it's it's gotta be this, and it's gotta be that.
It was such a pain in the ass that sucks.

Speaker 2 (17:43):
And you know, I know we're not totally on topic,
but we're still kind of on topic and we'll get
through these tracks, I promise you, Like it is what
it is, but this is an important I think this
is an important conversation to have though, and I think
it's an important thing for like people to hear that, like,
there are are still people in the comedy because I
think people that listen to my to this show are

(18:07):
more Weird Al fans than anything, and like haven't like
diversified their comedy music portfolio as much as some other
people have, which is why I love having somebody like
you on to kind of talk about, like, no, there's
a bunch of us still doing this. And remember, like
we're weird Al started somewhere, you know, so.

Speaker 3 (18:26):
Like and and and he had people that came before him,
So yeah, there's always there's always going to be comedy
music coming through in many forms over the years. I mean,
AL grew up listening to Alan Sherman and Spike Jones
and San Freeberg. We grew up listening to Weird Al
and Tom Larrer and and other artists after us come up,

(18:50):
you know, listening to two artists after us, you know,
on the same era.

Speaker 1 (18:55):
I think it's important.

Speaker 2 (18:56):
So I think it's important to say like hey, you know,
like like get out of your bubble with it little bit,
because honestly, Ian, thank you so much for inviting me
to be a juror for the Logan Awards. Because I
was familiar with a lot of folks on the roster,
but not all of them, and I heard things that
I hadn't heard before and I really enjoyed, so like
my horizons were broadened.

Speaker 3 (19:18):
Yes, And that's that's exactly what we hope to do
with with the Logan Awards. We are we are saluting
the best comedy songs from the previous year at the awards,
and it's a lot of things that some people may
not be familiar with. And it's something that I tried
to do, at least on my own YouTube channel, is
broaden people's horizons as far as comedy music goes, because

(19:39):
there are so many other artists out there doing it,
and I try to shine a spotlight on that with
my reactions to them every week with the comedy music
and shouldn't react shameless plug.

Speaker 1 (19:49):
No shame, Yeah, no shame at all here.

Speaker 3 (19:54):
That I appreciate you saying that, because that is exactly
what we're trying to do with it.

Speaker 2 (20:00):
Well, awesome, you have succeeded at least with me. So
now I we got to get to the matter at
hand here. We've got so much preamble, so much pre
well you know, yeah, yeah, so so so. Side Too
of JR. To Be Stupid opens with George as a Jungle. Yes,

(20:21):
one minute and five seconds. It is a cover, Yes.

Speaker 3 (20:25):
Al L's cover song. You know that his his label
wanted him to do a cover song. So al of course,
being the one who doesn't want to be the normal
guy and do a normal, straight up cover, is like,
all right, well, I'm going to cover the theme song
to a cartoon I enjoyed and uh and it's a
great cover. Yes, I love it as a cover. It

(20:47):
sounds so close to the original. Uh huh uh. But
you know, because it's a cartoon theme song. It's not
really longer than a minute.

Speaker 1 (20:57):
So yeah, and they got the guy. Yeah, they got the.

Speaker 3 (21:03):
Guy the voice actor, Yeah, who plays George.

Speaker 1 (21:07):
Yes, him, that that guy.

Speaker 3 (21:10):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (21:10):
So they but in again. And since we're taking I
love this as a standalone thing. I don't like it
as the opener to side too of this album.

Speaker 3 (21:21):
I don't hate it as the opener of side too. Uh.
I think it is an interesting way to start side too.
I think it's like, hey, you listen to some great songs,
here's a cover. Oh, but it's weird al So it's
going to be a weird cover, and I think that

(21:42):
is part for the course. The album is called Dare
to Be Stupid. It does what it says on the tin,
so I you know, for me, I have an appreciation. Uh.
When I listened to this album when I was six
or seven years old for the first time, I had
never seen George of the Jungle, so I didn't know

(22:02):
it was a cover. I was like, this is what
is this? I need to find out more about this,
and my Mom's like, oh, he's just covering the theme
song to this and showed me the show, and you know,
it was you know, I enjoy it. I love that
they slipped visuals of the opening of Georgie of the
Jungle into the music video for Like a Surgeon, and

(22:25):
so it's like a little nod to hey, that's from
this album. And also, you know, here's a hint we
have that we cover that song on it too. Yeah,
so there's that weird little synergy between the video and
the album. But you know, it's a good tune. It
ended up getting used on the Disney Live Action soundtrack,

(22:49):
along with a brand new version by my other favorite
band in the world, the Presidents of the United States
of America, who also covered it added versus more specific
to the film version than the cartoon version. I don't
think Al's version is in the movie, but it is
on the soundtrack.

Speaker 2 (23:07):
That's interesting, and I feel like I need to make
sure I say this the guy when I kept saying
they got the guy that it was Bill Scott who
voiced George of the Jungle and this is one of
the last things he did.

Speaker 3 (23:20):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (23:21):
Yeah, so yeah, he left this mortal coil one month
after I entered it.

Speaker 3 (23:27):
Oh so shame to the day.

Speaker 2 (23:30):
Yeah, yeah, I know. It's crazy. So so there's that
we have that happening. Georgia's Jungle opens it, and then
that takes you into Slime Creatures from Matter Space, which
I think is super fun and super weird.

Speaker 3 (23:45):
I love Slime Creatures from Matter Space. I will not
accept any Slime Creatures Matter of Space slander. I think
it is a great song, but also I love it
because it was it as a young nerd who was
really into sci fi and was a big Star Trek

(24:08):
fan and was a big Ghostbusters fan, Slime Creatures from
Outer Space really hit for me. It was definitely one
of those tunes that's like, oh, this has got all
the earmarks of all the stuff I like. You know,
it's got aliens, it's got science fiction, it's got goo uh,

(24:28):
it's funny. Uh And and then it slips in a
Ghostbusters reference and fade out, and it's a Thomas Dolby
past yes, who I also love.

Speaker 1 (24:39):
Thomas.

Speaker 3 (24:39):
Oh my god, she blinded Me with Science is usually
my karaoke standard. So uh, you know I dig that.
I dig all of that. So Slime Creatures Matter Space
a great fun track for me. I love that one.

Speaker 1 (24:55):
It's awesome.

Speaker 2 (24:56):
I feel like I need to mention this to you
because if you haven't seen it, you need to at
least at least cant Thomas Dolby parts of it. In
nineteen ninety, Roger Wanders of Pink Floyd performed the Pink
Floyd album The Wall It's in its entirety at the
former site of the Berlin Wall, and Thomas Dolby played
the I think it's the Professor in it, and he

(25:21):
committed so hard, wore a bald cap with this goofy
like crazy like hair sticking out of it like the
professor from the Wall did. And this guy hung from
a freaking harness off of this wall that they were
creating like because it was performance art, this whole thing,
and he hung there with these big, long, weird long

(25:42):
arms and legs and it looked like something out of
the cartoon, like to go with it was.

Speaker 1 (25:46):
And it's Thomas Dolby.

Speaker 2 (25:47):
I'm like, that's freaking amazing, Like Russ and I just
watched it the other day and I'm like, oh my god,
that's amazing. And when everybody else at the end, when
they're all singing kind of like the end song for
the performance, everybody else had kind of cutting out of
their costume, but Thomas don't be still wearing the bald
cap with the hair sticking.

Speaker 3 (26:04):
Out of it, couldn't get everything off to come out
and bow.

Speaker 1 (26:08):
Yeah. I'm like, good for you, like you just stick
to it. But I was like, oh man, that's really cool.

Speaker 2 (26:13):
So like if you haven't watched that, like it's the
whole performance itself is like it's a lot. It's like
really intense, but there's some really great like like Cindy
Lapper's in it, which this is wow, almost a perfect segue.

Speaker 3 (26:31):
A perfect segue for an imperfect song.

Speaker 1 (26:32):
Yeah, yeah, true, that so up next, Cindy Lauper.

Speaker 2 (26:37):
It's a weird AL parody of girls Just want to
have Fun as girls just want to have lunch.

Speaker 3 (26:43):
Uh, the contractually obligated song. I'm sure you mentioned this
on the episode where you went into it just track
each episode for an individual song. But yes, this is
the song that Al's label wanted him to write that
he had no interest in doing, and it is the

(27:04):
most low effort parody AL has had done up to
that point.

Speaker 2 (27:10):
Yes, I actually did that episode with Lily Hirsh who
loves girls Just want to have.

Speaker 3 (27:14):
Lunch and our good friend Lily hurt.

Speaker 1 (27:17):
Yes, our good friend Lily Hirsh.

Speaker 2 (27:19):
It was a really fun conversation because she brought the
positivity to this song that most of us are just like.

Speaker 1 (27:26):
I don't know.

Speaker 3 (27:27):
When I was a kid, I loved this song because
I I thought the jokes were funny for a kid
to enjoy. Mm hm. And I'm like, is this what I?
Part of me was like, I don't understand this. Do
do girls just really want to have lunch? I had

(27:48):
no knowledge of girls. I was a short, little nerd
and in middle school, actually in elementary school. Uh and
and so I was like, I don't know what this
truly means, but this sounds funny and Al is singing
it with this punk sneer, so I enjoyed it for
that there is there is a viciousness to the way

(28:12):
Al sings this. Obviously before Al got his vocal training,
but that you know, Al on his early albums sings
very nasally. This one he is really pushing nasal singing.
And like I said, he you can hear the sneer

(28:33):
like he's almost got a billy idle lip curl happening
that you can hear, like audibly hear his lip curl
as he's spinning out these lyrics. Yes, and and it's
you listen to it now knowing the story and you're like, oh,
that's just defiance. But in the in the moment, and

(28:56):
like it just made it an interesting sounding Perry one
where he's not totally trying to sound like the original artist,
or maybe he is when we didn't know and he thought, oh,
this is what he thinks Cyndi Lauper sounds like kind
of whiny h which obviously is not true, but you know,
knowing the story, Yeah, but it was definitely something like

(29:16):
when we when we first heard it, it's like, oh,
this is different. Yes, there was different than anything else
on this album when it comes to a parody.

Speaker 2 (29:24):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's different. I don't get it, like
this is like you know. And one of the things
that that Lily and I talked about, which you you
you absolutely pointed out, was that that this makes sense
for a kid, is that the rhymes are almost like
so lazy that you're like, oh man, because they're the
adult weird Alfan in me is like, al could do

(29:45):
so much better than this.

Speaker 3 (29:47):
Right, if I were to rewrite this song now, people
would love it.

Speaker 2 (29:52):
I mean Honestly, if I were to rewrite this song now,
which it would be, it would be girls just want
to have brunch?

Speaker 1 (29:59):
Yeah, oh yeah, absolutely because you girl loves.

Speaker 3 (30:02):
A brunch, and there would be more talk of mimosas.

Speaker 1 (30:07):
There would be yeah yeah, momsas mo problems.

Speaker 3 (30:15):
I like that. That's a T shirt.

Speaker 1 (30:18):
Oh my god, thank you so much. That just rolled out.

Speaker 2 (30:20):
I'm sure somebody else has said that before me, but
that just rolled out of my brain at the time.

Speaker 1 (30:24):
Right now, I wasn't like so anyway. I was really
pleased with that.

Speaker 2 (30:28):
I feel like this is a good time for me
to do that thing that I said I needed to
remember to do and throw it to throw it to
an ad break for the people here, and then we'll
come back tackle the last three songs on this side
and then give our final thoughts in a rating on
side two of dare to be Stupid, So sit tight.
I hope you don't hate the ads because they're based
on what you've googled.

Speaker 4 (30:47):
Hey, Jeff, what are we doing?

Speaker 5 (30:49):
Why are you whispering?

Speaker 4 (30:51):
Because all of our devices are constantly listening to us
unless we take massive efforts to protect our online privacy.
All the details of our lives will be in the
hands of the mega corporation.

Speaker 5 (31:00):
Okay, sure, but this is the promo for our podcast.
We need people to be able to hear us this time.

Speaker 4 (31:06):
Why do we need a promo?

Speaker 5 (31:08):
Oh funny you should ask. We're now members of the
Odd Pods media Network.

Speaker 4 (31:11):
Are they one of those global conglomerates.

Speaker 5 (31:13):
No, they're just a really awesome podcast network full of
great shows like ours.

Speaker 4 (31:17):
Well, is there anything specific we need to say?

Speaker 5 (31:20):
We should probably tell them what our podcast is about.

Speaker 4 (31:22):
Oh, it's about how the algorithm shapes our lives and
how tech companies profit off our personal information. We dabble
in tech conspiracy theories and talk about how billionaires are
all buttholes.

Speaker 5 (31:32):
I don't think we should say buttholes in the.

Speaker 4 (31:34):
Promo, but we already did twice.

Speaker 5 (31:38):
Join us every other Monday for new episodes of suggested
articles a podcast.

Speaker 1 (31:44):
Hey, which episode is it? Well, you'll find out when
we watch it. But pay attention. You better pay attention
because Aaron makes a really good quiz. Okay, I'll bring
my notebook.

Speaker 2 (31:54):
Hey you you over there, Yeah, come listen too.

Speaker 1 (31:58):
You can join us on the LUNI. Abby will bring
the cheesecake.

Speaker 2 (32:03):
Yeah, get in a carm on more other cheesecake part
of the media network.

Speaker 1 (32:10):
And We're back.

Speaker 3 (32:12):
We are Wow. Those were certainly some ads.

Speaker 1 (32:16):
They certainly were ads.

Speaker 3 (32:17):
Yeah, And they're all based on what you googled, not
what I googled. I was googling weird things, right, exactly
what you googled. That's that's all you.

Speaker 1 (32:25):
It's all you, not me. I have nothing to do
with it.

Speaker 2 (32:29):
So side the next track on side to UH is
This is the Life, which is funny it because it
is technically the first single from There to Be Stupid,
even though it was released as from as a single
from the Johnny Dangerously soundtrack, not There to Be Stupid necessarily.

Speaker 3 (32:50):
Well, when it was released on on forty five, did
this come out before? Yes, uh like a Surgeon did?

Speaker 1 (32:59):
Yes, it did.

Speaker 3 (33:00):
I don't remember it having a Did it have a
music video before that?

Speaker 1 (33:03):
Yes? Because the music video was connected to the movie.

Speaker 3 (33:07):
Well I meant. I meant that the music video for uh,
this is the Life come out before like A Surgeon's video.

Speaker 1 (33:14):
That I would have. I don't know. I'm not entirely sure.

Speaker 2 (33:19):
I am assuming that it did simply because of all
of the movie footage in the music video, and that's
kind of what they did in the eighties, you know,
they would release it around the time of the movie,
because This Is the Life was released dangerously.

Speaker 3 (33:34):
This Is the Life was released as a single November
nineteen eighty four.

Speaker 2 (33:37):
Yeah, and this album didn't come like a Surgeon, was
it until June of eighty five.

Speaker 3 (33:43):
Yeah? Wow, so interesting. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (33:49):
So if there's anything about this track that feels like humh,
this doesn't really fit on There to be Stupid, it's
because it was like, well before everything else, but it fits.

Speaker 3 (33:58):
I don't think it fits here. Here's the thing and
if we're if we're talking about let's take a moment,
how you talk about sequencing, but like sequencing of how
an al album is usually set up. It's usually you know, uh,
parody and original alternating. And that's how side one was.
It had like a Surgeon and then it went to

(34:20):
the original There to be Stupid, went to a parodied
I Want a New Duck, went to an original one
more Minute, and went to a parody Yoda side too.
But that scatter shot is very scatter shot because we
have a cover, which is technically I mean, a parody
is a kind of cover. So it can it could
be considered, you know, a song written by somebody else,

(34:44):
so it's it's an original song, but it's a cover,
So cover slash parody is the first track, an original
for the second track, a parody for the third track,
an original for the fourth track, and an original for
the fifth track. It had this this album because it
has a cover and one less parody in the end

(35:06):
sequence has fewer parodies than it does original songs on
this album. Yes, and having this is the Life on
that kind of throws that askew because also it's only
it's eleven tracks. Side one is only five songs, Side
two is six.

Speaker 1 (35:23):
Yeah, well, because George of.

Speaker 3 (35:25):
The Jungle is short. And then we threw in the
song that we had on the soundtrack because it didn't
get a soundtrack release, we have it stuck in the
middle of this side too, which throws off the rhythm
of how an album al album is usually set up. Yep,
that said, I really enjoy this song too.

Speaker 2 (35:49):
We actually had a great discussion about the song on
this very show with.

Speaker 1 (35:53):
Jeff uh Jeff and oh yeah, I love Jeff, I
do too. He's a delight and.

Speaker 3 (36:01):
After after knowing him for a god a hundred years
or however long I've been in al fandom. Uh finally
got to meet him last year at Doctor Demento's birthday party.
That's it.

Speaker 2 (36:13):
I haven't I have yet to share the same air
as Uh Jeff, but we have had several conversations and
I just I find him to be of just a
really lovely presence. Oh yeah, he's gonna be talking with
us again for Polgo party. And I let him pick
the song and he picked one of those.

Speaker 3 (36:32):
Days excellent, one of my favorites, and.

Speaker 2 (36:35):
That that just like totally tracks for him. I was like, Okay,
this makes sense.

Speaker 3 (36:39):
I I had started a cover of that song a
while back and I never finished it. And and actually,
ironically at Marscan, my last song I performed by myself
was a cover of Living with a Hernia. Huzzah because
I currently have two hernias.

Speaker 1 (36:56):
Oh living with two Hernias.

Speaker 3 (36:58):
Yeah, I had to say that in the middle of
the song. That was fun regardless. Anyway, that's a different
album we're talking about.

Speaker 1 (37:04):
There to be stupid, and that is true.

Speaker 2 (37:05):
That's the almost I mean, that's the next song. Song
that's gonna be talked about on the show and oh
man like total sidebar. We've got our two friends from
the Itch Rocks radio show and podcasts to talk with
us about that.

Speaker 1 (37:16):
And they've Ken and Aaron, and they have been on.

Speaker 2 (37:20):
The show several times and they're just absolutely delightful. It's
gonna be it's gonna be a little bit raucous, but
I feel like that's the kind of track that needs
kind of a rocous crew to discuss it. So I'm
looking forward to that. So stay tuned for that in
you know, a month's ish time. But This is the
Life one of the things that when I was doing
my little deep dive into information about tracks for this,

(37:46):
This Is the Life actually shares some pretty distinct commonalities
with the song when I'm Cleaning Windows by George Formby.

Speaker 1 (37:57):
Are you familiar with this?

Speaker 3 (37:58):
I can't say that I am. I mean, I could say,
but I'd be lying.

Speaker 1 (38:01):
You would be lying. You.

Speaker 2 (38:03):
You, You, of all people need to look into some
George Formby stuff because he was an actor and comedy
musician in England in the thirties and forties and fifties,
and he is so delightful. He was actually banned by

(38:24):
the BBC for his lyrical content, not because it was explicit,
but because it was so cheekly dirty that.

Speaker 1 (38:35):
And it's he's just so funny, so funny.

Speaker 2 (38:39):
Anyway, when This is the Life has a very similar
structure and chord pattern to when I'm Cleaning Windows, and
in digging into it, it was like, oh yep, that was
one of the inspirations for how this track was laid out.
And it makes sense because this is a life is
supposed to be from you know, the early twentieth century, right,
so that an era. Yeah, so it makes sense that

(39:00):
he'd pull from this. But seriously check him out. Like
I spent pretty much a whole day in the George
formby like space on YouTube, and I'm like, oh my god,
this cat was hilarious.

Speaker 3 (39:11):
So definitely I will definitely be be looking into that
famous actually that particular track.

Speaker 2 (39:16):
Yeah, he played the ukulele and he just kind of
went around and like did did his stick and he
was so so so funny.

Speaker 3 (39:28):
Is is this kind of the similar comparison, Uh, this
is the Life is to uh, what's the name of
the song washing windows?

Speaker 1 (39:37):
When I'm cleaning windows.

Speaker 3 (39:38):
When I'm cleaning windows, So this is the Life is
to when I'm cleaning Windows, as Albuquerque is to Dick's
Automotive by the Rugburns.

Speaker 1 (39:47):
Yes, it's exactly that.

Speaker 3 (39:49):
Okay, because Dick's Automotive by the Rugburns is basically Albuquerque.
Albuquerque is essentially a parody of that song. But you know,
it obviously makes it longer and changes a couple of things.
And also it's not as well known enough to work
as a note for note direct parody. Yes, so it's

(40:11):
only listed as a pastiche, but it definitely is a
pastiche of one particular song. Yes, so in this case
that when I'm cleaning windows has enough of the ear
marks of this is the Life to be that kind
of one to one comparison. Interesting, I would say that I.

Speaker 2 (40:30):
Would like for you to put your ear on it
and like, let me know, because once my attention got
drawn to that, like, I absolutely hear it right in
the same way as Albuquerque, and so I'm like, oh man,
But again, it makes sense because the time period lines up,
and if you're gonna do it, and especially if somebody
like a you know, a twenty something al Yankovic is

(40:53):
going to say, Okay, I need to write a song
that goes with a like a twenties and thirties gangster
film what do I do? Well, I got to go
to this comedy musician from the thirties right right, like
it just makes all sorts of sense.

Speaker 1 (41:05):
So yeah, let me know.

Speaker 2 (41:07):
I will say that I have had a couple of
people listen to the episode that we did with you
age Jeff about this is the Life reach out.

Speaker 1 (41:14):
To me and go, holy crap when I'm cleaning windows,
and I'm.

Speaker 3 (41:16):
Like, I know, right so, and of course Jeff would
know this.

Speaker 1 (41:21):
So yeah, uh you know so anyway, that's that's.

Speaker 3 (41:25):
But for me, this is an interesting song because it's
one of the few AL songs that has two different
music videos. You're right, because the and the first time
I heard this song, uh, we're actually not the first

(41:45):
time I heard it, but the first time I saw
the video was the short version in the complete OWL.

Speaker 1 (41:51):
That is correct, sir.

Speaker 3 (41:52):
And you know the reason they the video is different
is because the original music video has clips from Johnny
Dangerously in it and exactly and because they could not
use those clips in the complete Al, especially in the
home video version without having to play you know, pay

(42:15):
royalties and writes clearance for it. They had to use
like old nineteen twenties stock footage stuff or or ba
not stock footage, but basically yeah, almost almost royalty free stuff.
So you know, so the video is shorter and different,
and that was the first video I saw, so I
did not know this song was in Johnny Dangerously for

(42:39):
years until I saw the video on MTV years later
and I was like, what are all these clips with
Michael Keaton and Danny DeVito and Margo Hemingway, what was
what is all this? Why? Why is this a thing?
And then I found out that Johnny d there was
the opening theme song to Johnny Dangerously. So I went

(43:01):
out and I purchased a VHS of Johnny Dangerously because
DVDs didn't exist yet, bless and I brought it home
and I popped it into the player. And even though
on the credits on the back of the box are
the same as the poster credits where it says theme
song by Weird Al Yankovic, the VHS version of this

(43:22):
movie did not contain Weird Awl's this is the Life
in the Open. This was a big to do with
the home video versions. For whatever reason, they replaced it
with Let's Misbehave and You know a lot of people

(43:43):
were talking about that. For whatever reason, the home video
licensing rights had either screwed up or they didn't get
them properly cleared or whatever, so they didn't include This
is the Life. So I had this pro tape of
Johnny Dane that I bought because it was supposed to
have weird al on it, and it didn't. And then

(44:06):
I saw it was coming on HBO, and the HBO
version had it playing, so I waited for the next
time it aired, and over my pro copy of Johnny Dangerously,
I taped the HBO version so that I could have
the theme song from al That's beautiful.

Speaker 2 (44:28):
That's beautiful, That's exactly why you are the person who
was here to be the staple for the flipping in
the end.

Speaker 3 (44:38):
And then, of course years later when they finally did
release it on DVD and eventually Blu Ray. I think
it's on Blue Ray. I could be wrong, but at
least on DVD they actually did get this is the
Life back on it for the DVD.

Speaker 1 (44:51):
That's delightful, Oh my gosh, wonderful.

Speaker 2 (44:55):
I love that we got two more tracks to go
next up more track, two more tracks. We're getting there
next up is Cable TV.

Speaker 3 (45:05):
I I loved this song as a kid. And there's
a lot of people who have a problem with some
of Al's TV songs because, uh, friends of mine in
the comedy music world, UH don't appreciate couch Potato because

(45:32):
they're like, he's just listing names of shows. There's no
actual jokes there. Yes, and I'm like, and I'm like,
to an extent, I kind of get that, but he's
listing songs in an eminem rap style, so there is

(45:53):
skill there that's fair. Couch Potato people especially have that
problem with Syndicated Incorporated. And this is the first version
of that type of song.

Speaker 2 (46:07):
Yes, Oh, I can't wait until we get to poodle Hat.
Now you and I are going to have quite the
couch Potato conversation because I don't disagree, but I disagree
for slightly different reasons.

Speaker 1 (46:16):
But I guess we're gonna have to wait several years
for this to happen.

Speaker 3 (46:18):
Well, totally get into it.

Speaker 1 (46:20):
I'm sure, I'm sure, I'm sure.

Speaker 3 (46:22):
I love couch Potato, and I honestly I am one of
the few Syndicated Incorporated supporters.

Speaker 1 (46:31):
I love Syndicated Incorporated, so.

Speaker 3 (46:34):
Especially because I actually remember the song that that was parodying,
but regardless, talking about cable TV. Yes, this is the
first example of that kind of Hey, here's a bunch
of TV shows. Just the shows themselves are the joke.

Speaker 2 (46:52):
Yeah, it's the first time it's just the shows themselves
with a joke, right, because he dipped his toe into
the water of that with Brady Bunch in the first
half of that song exactly.

Speaker 3 (47:01):
Uh, and and this one, it's just it's just listing
a lot of things that you would find on cable TV.
And you know, as somebody who had just gotten cable
TV when this album came out, I appreciated that and
thought it was fun. Am I mistaken in this that
this is one of the songs that was left off
of the TV album?

Speaker 1 (47:23):
I I, I'm not sure.

Speaker 3 (47:26):
I feel like there was I feel like there was
an out There was a a song that was left
off of One Franks two thousand inch No Cable TV
is on its track nine. I feel like either either
the Food album or or the TV album missed a
song in one of those Yeah, in one of those

(47:47):
theme themes from you know, there's and I I can't
remember which song it is now Oh, well.

Speaker 2 (47:55):
Actually you're you're you're like on the right album and
you're on the right side of the album.

Speaker 1 (47:59):
Girls Just Want to Have Lunch is not on the
Food album.

Speaker 3 (48:01):
That's what it is. Blamoh and and and also the
Food album came out so close to the album that
Grapefruit Diet was on that it you know, there's another
food song it could have been on the Food album. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (48:18):
Food album was nineteen ninety three.

Speaker 3 (48:21):
Wow, yeah, which was which was.

Speaker 2 (48:24):
The food after came out before between Off the Deep
End and Ala Palooza.

Speaker 3 (48:28):
Yes, and a Graperude Diet is several years after that.

Speaker 2 (48:33):
It most certainly is when I saw weird Now for
the first time. He went right from fat into grapefruit
diet and kept the fat suod on, which I thought
made of course, all the sense in the world makes
sense to me.

Speaker 3 (48:43):
That was when that was when he wasn't doing the
full version of fat. He was just doing it as
part of the medley.

Speaker 1 (48:47):
Yeah. But yeah, cable TV, Cable TV, you know, and
I liked it.

Speaker 2 (48:53):
It's a throwaway segment of this episode because it was
probably the cable TV episode I didn't even have a
guest on. It was me and he rolled himself in
from the living room. And I say that because he
just rolled his office chair in here.

Speaker 1 (49:04):
So that's the joke. It's the most throwaway episode of
this show that ever existed. We're just like, eh, we gotta.

Speaker 3 (49:12):
Do it, we gotta say something about it. Here's I'm
gonna say this. And you probably mentioned this on your
episode because you do. Go to the Wikipedia. Wikipedia lists
this as a pastiche of Elton John.

Speaker 1 (49:25):
We went through this whole thing. That was the brunt
of our conversation was.

Speaker 2 (49:30):
Because I'm a big Elton John fan and I love
the song Hercules, and like, honestly, I didn't get it
until like the day Russ and I recorded the episode.
We were out and about like during the day, and
then we were gonna record the episode in the evening.

Speaker 1 (49:42):
In the car, we went from.

Speaker 2 (49:44):
Cable TV to Hercules, to cable TV to Hercules, to
cable TV to Hercules, like three times until I finally
was like, all right, I get it.

Speaker 3 (49:52):
All right. I will say I had never heard that
comparison before today, Uh, seeing that on Wikipedia, but thinking
about cable TV. There's a lot of piano in it,
and it makes sense to my brain.

Speaker 2 (50:08):
Yeah, it's for me. Here's the thing. So that whole
style parody of Hercules by Elton John, and I will
say this, that whole period of Elton John's career, the
upbeat songs are very full of the what I could
only describe as stank, which I love about Elton's piano playing.

(50:28):
I'm a big Elton person, and actually, Ian, we're recording
this on Elton John's birthday. Hey, hey, so so the
people that are listening are knowing that we're only recording
this three days before they hear it, so look at me.
But uh, the thing is, and I think the reason
why I didn't get it from Weird Al is because

(50:49):
I don't think Weird Al, at least at this period
in his life, was capable of stank. And so while
that may have been the intention, like I didn't, I
didn't get the same feeling from it, you know.

Speaker 1 (51:05):
So so that but.

Speaker 2 (51:06):
When I after we went back and forth a couple
of times, I was like, Okay, like I can I
can sort of see it, but it's I.

Speaker 3 (51:14):
Wouldn't agree that Al is not capable of stank because
because two songs prior to this, there was some stank
on the vocals for girls just want to have lunch.

Speaker 2 (51:26):
On the vocals, Elton John wasn't capable of stank on
the vocals at the time, but stank on the keys
he absolutely was. And I don't think al was like,
that's that's my thing. I'm not getting stank in the keys,
which for me was the whole thing there.

Speaker 3 (51:40):
So yeah, because because on this one al was playing
the keys, he didn't have a dedicated keyboardist like Ruben
Valtierra for many albums later.

Speaker 1 (51:50):
Oh yeah, the new guys.

Speaker 3 (51:51):
Yeah, the new guy still the new guy.

Speaker 1 (51:54):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (51:54):
Uh. He did have Pat Reagan on synthesizers and piano
and Sonny Burke on piano as well, but Alice is
listed as keyboards on this album, so I'm not sure
who was playing on that particular song. Yeah, which of
the stupid guests?

Speaker 1 (52:11):
I know, I love that part of.

Speaker 3 (52:12):
The stupid band. Uh, this was the stupid tour when
this album tour. Yes, good good stuff.

Speaker 1 (52:21):
It is good good stuff, and we're down, We're down
to it, We're.

Speaker 3 (52:25):
Down down to now. Suddenly the album ender the Polka
hooked on Polka's.

Speaker 2 (52:32):
Yeah, and you know we just talked about this track
not long ago. On this show, right, because it's the
last last song on this album. So this is the
last episode that we had of the show, and we
had oh so you know how, you're like, you've got
a regular spot on this show.

Speaker 1 (52:48):
Now we just we we have Polka Bob.

Speaker 3 (52:50):
Now Polka Bob.

Speaker 2 (52:53):
I like that, Yeah, so does Poke Bob. He's a
friend of ours. He's local. He's not even a podcast guy.
He's he's just like he loves polka because they make
him happy, and he's a big weird alfan and he's
just a friend of ours and he's like, Yeah, I'm
gonna talk about every single Polka from here on out.
I'm like, sweet pokea Bob. So I'm excited about that. Unfortunately,

(53:14):
we just dubbed him poke Bob and he'll get to
talk about the polka on Poka Party and then he's
gonna have a whole album off because there's no polk
on Even Worse. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (53:22):
The thing, you know, the I I'll say this again
when if if I'm back for the for the side
by side review of of of Even Worse, Even Worse. Uh,
the the one uh song for you know, the song
that's dedicated for the use of the accordion. The one

(53:43):
song on the album went to Lasagna in instead.

Speaker 2 (53:47):
I know, I'm like, come on, but anyway, this is
this is hooked on Polka's So this is the second
Polka ever.

Speaker 3 (53:54):
This yeah, well the second recorded Polka every yeah.

Speaker 1 (53:57):
And this in my.

Speaker 2 (54:01):
Just you know, my my take on it is this
is the first like snapshot of its time period recorded exactly.

Speaker 3 (54:09):
Is it is the first time capsule of a specific
era of music to have on a weird al album
because Polka's on forty five on the previous album was
all over the place. It was the past and the
present or the present of you know, nineteen eighty three. Yep,
you know, so you know it it went you know

(54:33):
eras before up to eighty three because you know, putting
future music on there al doesn't have a time machine
that we know of. But regardless, this is the first
time of like, yes, this is the stuff that's popular
right now, and every subsequent Polka is going to take
that format with two exceptions, yes, technically three if you

(54:57):
count the Hamilton Polka on an album. Exactly, it's not
an album, so you can kind of count it if
you want to. But yeah, this this one, this one
uh introduced the format and has been the format ever since,
even with the newest one that was nominated for a
Logan Award, Polkamania. Yes, uh so yeah, I mean that

(55:20):
one had ten years of playing catch up, but still.

Speaker 2 (55:23):
It's a ten year capsule and I think that's kind
of cool that it happened that way.

Speaker 3 (55:27):
So and similarly, between this one and Polkamania, Al sings
in a language not his native language.

Speaker 1 (55:35):
Oh, you're right.

Speaker 2 (55:37):
He does it much more accurately on Polkamania, though.

Speaker 3 (55:41):
I don't have a problem with his German and ninety
nine loft balloons in this one. It's thanks to Al
that I even know that section of the song.

Speaker 1 (55:50):
That's fair.

Speaker 2 (55:51):
I think that notably, though some of it, most of
it on this Polka is not quite right and nonsense.
And I say that because my my, my husband knows
both the English and German of the Nana one very well,
and he was like when he got this album when
it came out, he was like, hold on, somebody's wrong.

(56:13):
Is weird Al wrong? Could weird Al possibly be wrong?
And weird Al is a little wrong with his little wrong.

Speaker 3 (56:19):
A little wrong. He wasn't quite putting the effort into
it as much as he has in other things. Yes,
like you know, singing Jurassic Park in Japanese, but he
had to have somebody write it out fanatically.

Speaker 1 (56:30):
Yeah, but I know that. I don't mind. I think
that's absolutely beautiful.

Speaker 3 (56:34):
No, No, it's I love way to learn to do
it in a quick in a quick amount of it. Yeah,
and then doing death posito in in uh in Spanish
on the UH the new Polka. Yeah, that's good stuff.
I love it. Goldfinger, who covered ninety nine Red Balloons
in the late nineties early two thousands, definitely do the

(56:56):
German a little better Island.

Speaker 1 (56:59):
Yeah, I'm with you, I'm with you.

Speaker 3 (57:02):
But as as far as as far as songs to
have in a polka, lots of great songs on this one.
State of Shock was a running gag for Weird Al
for some reason gone because he had on ALTV which
was clipped into the complete Al he you know, there

(57:24):
was a running gag of him having somebody come on
to perform State of Shock, and it ended up being
like some guy playing a record producer or an agent,
just sitting at his desk, like doing the a cappella instruments.
Da da da da da da da da da da

(57:46):
and like singing state of Shock in this kind of
like weird little monotone but kind of enthusiastically. Uh, it's
a it's a hilarious sequence in the in the complete
Al and it was if I'm remembering right, because it's
been a while since I've seen the complete AL. I
think it was taken from it from his ALTV special
that they like put clips of that into the Oh.

Speaker 1 (58:08):
My God, Like.

Speaker 2 (58:11):
Again, it's been a long time since I'm seen complete
out too, And like my brain never put those two
things together because I'm the kind of person where I
was not familiar with.

Speaker 1 (58:22):
State of Shock before this polka.

Speaker 2 (58:24):
I don't know this, but my husband's one of the
big biggest Michael Jackson fans in the entire world, and
he hates this song so much.

Speaker 3 (58:32):
I know, I know a lot of people who are
big either Jackson fans or Mick Jagger fans, and both
of them hate this.

Speaker 1 (58:40):
Yeah. So he hates this song so much.

Speaker 2 (58:43):
And when we did our episode about it, like he
was like so yeah, so, like the the only thing
I hate about this polka is state of Shock. And
I think now the context that maybe Al kind of
hated it a little bit too.

Speaker 3 (58:59):
I think I think State of Shock for Al is
right up there with You Light Up My Life by
Debbie Boone, because that was another running gag for Al
in the early days. Is uh, he in concert would
do a punk cover of you Light Up My Life.

Speaker 1 (59:19):
That's right, I've heard. I've yes, I've heard that.

Speaker 3 (59:22):
And in the ALTV clips from the complete Al, he's like, yeah,
we're gonna play and actually it's it's clips of him
recreate It's not an LTV clip, it's a clip of
him in the college radio station at San Louis Obispo.
But it's a it's a re enactment, it's not actual
footage from that era. And he's like, it's another record

(59:44):
breaking shown. And now it's you Light Up My Life
by Debbie Boone, and like he goes into playing that
and like he starts dancing chaotically with the headphones. But yeah,
he you know he that is like one of those
songs that's a running gag for him in the early years.

Speaker 2 (59:58):
That's beautiful and I think that that might help. I'm
gonna when I go offline, I'm gonna tell my husband
about this.

Speaker 1 (01:00:05):
Yeah, I love it.

Speaker 3 (01:00:06):
I love it.

Speaker 2 (01:00:07):
I mean I've talked so much about this Polka like
it's a great time capsule. I think it's one of
those things that helps me at trivia, knowing when certain
songs were so that's helpful absolutely, as the Pocas are
wont to do so.

Speaker 3 (01:00:21):
Definitely they like they definitely are hey of this era,
of this year, of this particular grouping of years.

Speaker 1 (01:00:28):
Yeah, yeah, beautiful.

Speaker 2 (01:00:31):
Did you have anything else to say about Side two
of Dare to Be Stupid? We just have to do
our ratings and then we can wrap this bad Boy up.

Speaker 3 (01:00:38):
Compared to side one again, I say not as strong,
but still because I have such a bias towards this
album as it was the first album I heard of
Al's all the way through. I do still love these songs.

Speaker 2 (01:00:55):
I love all of these songs too. I just don't
think they're sequenced right. And that's not so much there's
not so much a teaser for what we're about to
do next. That's just me saying I just don't think
they're sequenced right. Yeah, I'm totally I'm totally with you
on that. Like I got no problem with I got
no problem with any of this.

Speaker 3 (01:01:12):
I think. I think you're right. If they were in
a different order on the album, the album itself might
be better.

Speaker 2 (01:01:19):
Yeah, we're gonna figure this out. We're gonna this is
gonna be a good conversation. This is gonna be a
fun thing that we do as a couple. Actually, Like
I'm me and me and my husband. I'm like, this
is gonna be a fun thing we do as married people.
This is gonna be great. Let's resequence a weird Al album.

Speaker 1 (01:01:31):
Maybe this will.

Speaker 2 (01:01:32):
Be you know, you know, this is hot marriage tip
resequence weird Al albums.

Speaker 3 (01:01:38):
Hot marriage tip wed album. Man, there's there's some that's
the book and the self help section that is not
going anywhere.

Speaker 2 (01:01:48):
No, it's very specific audience, right, yeah, that.

Speaker 3 (01:01:52):
Is the most niche of audiences.

Speaker 2 (01:01:55):
It's great, that's great. I bet Al doesn't even do that.

Speaker 1 (01:02:00):
Oh man.

Speaker 2 (01:02:02):
So, with all this said, a scale of one to
twenty seven, what do you think about side two of
dare to be stupid as it exists?

Speaker 3 (01:02:11):
Keeping my bias in mind, sure I would give this
one a twenty. I'm flip flopping here. My brain is
not letting me settle on a number because I wanted
to say twenty six and a half. Oh your pressure,

(01:02:32):
and then my brain went, no, twenty five point seventy five, No,
twenty six and a half. You know what we're so
we're going to split the difference and we're going to
say twenty five and five eights.

Speaker 1 (01:02:45):
Okay, okay, I'll take that from you. That's fine. I'm
gonna give it a twenty.

Speaker 2 (01:02:52):
Because that's a pretty low grade for me for a
side of a weird al album.

Speaker 3 (01:02:58):
And this is just this side.

Speaker 1 (01:02:59):
It's just this side.

Speaker 2 (01:03:00):
It's not the whole album, and it has nothing to
say about any of these songs either. It's just like,
this isn't the best order for these this isn't the
best presentation for this information.

Speaker 1 (01:03:09):
So that's the only reason I'm saying what I'm saying.

Speaker 3 (01:03:11):
Order Regardless, I still love these songs, and so because
I love these songs, that is why I rank it
so high. But even though these songs are great, they're
not the greatest. So it does go a little few
full points lower than obviously what I rated the other
previous things I've rated here.

Speaker 1 (01:03:32):
I agree, and it's We're good.

Speaker 2 (01:03:34):
We're in a good place again, just where you're following
your heart in the moment, and I think that's how
we need to be so and I think I think,
I think that's all we need to talk about for this.

Speaker 3 (01:03:44):
I think that's it. I think we did it. I
think we got through side.

Speaker 1 (01:03:46):
Too, we got through side too, we got through all
of there to be stupid.

Speaker 2 (01:03:49):
So now now the podcast collectively can take a bit
of a break.

Speaker 1 (01:03:53):
Not a break, We're not taking a break, We're just
taking a breather. I just have to.

Speaker 2 (01:03:57):
I have because now I've got all my people lying,
almost all my people lined up for all of Polka party,
which is exciting. I just have to, you know, organize
and get people scheduled to have the conversations. But I
like knowing who I'm gonna talk to you for what.
I like getting that lined up straight up. So sure,
I will absolutely love to have you back to talk about,
you know, to flip it and end it, to be

(01:04:19):
that staple if you're willing to do so again for
the party.

Speaker 3 (01:04:22):
Absolutely willing to and honored to be asked again. I
would love to thank you, hooray.

Speaker 2 (01:04:27):
So with all of that insane ian thank you so much.
I will put links to all of the things that
you want me to in the show notes, so people
can find all of the marvelous things that Ian is
involved in just by going to the notes on this episode.

Speaker 3 (01:04:41):
Or you can just listen to me saying YouTube dot
com slash insane and insanyan dot bandcamp dot com and
Patreon dot com slash insany and for all your Insanian needs.

Speaker 2 (01:04:49):
I love that you've got that, like you've got a
nice little boilerplate for yourself, and I appreciate.

Speaker 3 (01:04:54):
That I've done this a few times with one would.

Speaker 1 (01:04:58):
Say, I love it. It's beautiful.

Speaker 2 (01:05:01):
So for thank you everybody for sticking with the beard
Al podcast this long. And like I said, we're gonna
be Russ and A are gonna you know, have you know,
do some fun things as a married couple and re
sequence a weird Al album, So that'll be the next
thing that you get to hear before we jump into
a deep dive of Polka Party, which is weird Al's
first underrated album. One could say famously, yes, yes, and

(01:05:26):
we're gonna have a good time with that, and I'm
very excited. I've got people that are super pumped to
talk about certain tracks on it, so that'll be a
good time.

Speaker 1 (01:05:32):
And I thank you again for for being here with.

Speaker 3 (01:05:35):
Me, and thank you for having me Lauren. I appreciate it, Huz.

Speaker 1 (01:05:38):
All right, everybody will come to you next time.

Speaker 3 (01:05:40):
Bye bye, goodbye, good bye, good bye, good bye, goodbye,

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Dare to be Stupid: A Deep Dive - Side 2

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Dare to be Stupid: A Deep Dive - Side 2