I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: “WEIRD AL” YANKOVIC-Dare to Be Stupid (1985).

After In 3-D, Al came out with Dare to Be Stupid the following year.  It wasn’t quite as big a hit as In 3-D, even though it had the Madonna parody as well as a couple of really great originals–“One More Minute” and “This is the Life” (as seen sometimes in Johnny Dangerously–not on the VHS version for legal reasons, although it is on the DVD).

“Like a Surgeon” wonderfully skewers Madonna–Al doesn’t often do women’s songs, but this one fits his range very well.  “Dare to Be Stupid” is a Devo parody (well, more tribute as this is no weirder than any Devo song).  It’s a frenetic and wild song telling yo to do all the things that you were told don’t do.  Okay I can hear you now.

“I Want a New Duck” is a really lame lame parody.  It’s weird and while he fills out the nonsense pretty well, it sounds like he came up with the idea because nothing else sounded like Drug (the original is pretty stupid too, so there ya go).

But then there’s the sublime “One More Minute” a hilarious doo wop “love song” in which the backing band really shows off what they can do.  “I’m stranded all alone in the gas station of love and I have to use the self station pumps” is absolutely hilarious and a completely under appreciated line.  “Yoda” is a good parody, one that has not only held up but has been resurrected with the new Star Wars franchise.

I never understood why they did a cover of George of the Jungle, but I never watched the show so it doesn’t have any meaning for me.  “Slime Creatures from Outer Space” is a goof of a sci-fi song which doesn’t quite match the absurd heights of “Nature Trail to Hell.”  Al says that “Girls Just Want to Have Lunch” is his least favorite parody (the label asked him to do Cyndi Lauper) and it’s really not very good–again, the song was too goofy to mess around with that much, but even in his recording it’s not very convincing (and he returned to the hand farts) the way that he and the backing vocalists are singing even sounds like they are disdainful of the song.

“This is the Life” was commissioned for Johnny Dangerously and he really ups his game for it–lots of genre jokes and a really good quality of recording.  “Cable TV” is a pretty uninspired song about TV (which is surprising given how many songs he has written about TV) which has an awful sax solo–joke or not it’s bad.  “Hooked on Polkas” is the second of his mashups of songs.  The banjo version of “Sharp Dressed Man” is cool as is the use of the sounds from Yes’ “Owner of a Lonely Heart” there’s also some pop metal Twisted Sister and Quiet Riot–and where else would you hear Quiet Riot next to Frankie Goes to Hollywood?

All in all some hits and misses.  And yes, maybe this stuff was funnier  in the 80s?

[READ: February 22, 2013] Captain Underpants and the Preposterous Plight of the Purple Potty People 

I can’t believe how much I enjoyed this story   The first few Underpants books were silly and a funny way to make a story about a guy in his underwear.  But as the series has progressed it has gotten far more complex with fascinating twists and recurring characters (and how does he keep a storyline fresh in his head three years later?).

So Booger Boy Part 2 actually ended in the middle of a cliffhanger (but this one is not a Part 3 because the Booger Boy is no longer relevant).  Rather, when we left George and Harold they were in the purple potty time machine with Sulu the hamster and Crackers the pterodactyl and they were hurtling…. somewhere.

When they exit the potty, they are in the library, but the library is full of books!  The exact opposite of their own school library (and the librarian is even holding a copy of Mommy has Two Heathers.  In fact everything is the opposite–the school is encouraging creativity  the teachers are nice and Principal Krupp is happy to see everyone   It’s really weird.  Especially when the boys see themselves across the school.   And they turn out to be…evil!  Yes Evil George and Evil Harold look like normal George and Harold do, but they do things that are evil (they change sign letters to read anarchy rules…yipes).

When George and Harold are not looking, Evil George and Harold steal Sulu and Crackers (who were in a locker) and leave a copy of their comic book: The Preposterous Plight of Captain Blunderpants.  It is like our heroes’ book except that Blunderpants is evil.  It’s also opposite because by pouring water over their principle, he turns into the evil Captain Blunderpants, but snapping your fingers makes him nice again. Remember that now.  (Also, the spelling is better and the drawings in the comic are far neater too–clearly they are evil!).  The evil boys turn Sulu evil, but Crackers escape from the machine and rescues George and Harold.  Crackers flies them to the potty where they head back home (and Evil George, Evil Harold, Nice Mr Krupp and Evil Sulu get sucked into the blast as well and are transported back to the real timeline.

Everyone is back to the rule world and here we get ANOTHER comic book!  George and Harold made a comic for their grandparents called The Adventures of Boxer Boy and Great-Granny Girdle in which old people kick butt (with hard candy).  Remember that now.

The evil team has arrived and are planning to do their evil deeds.  There’s some fun when Captain Underpants fights Captain Blunderpants and the same triggers act differently to both Captains.  And real fun when George keeps telling Harold to stop saying that things are fine now!–no good ever comes from that!

The Flip-O-Rama arrives when the evil boys make Sulu 400 times his size and he and Captain Underpants fight.  Another Flip-O-Rama comes with the surprise return of unexpected superheroes.  And a final one (which is very funny since it’s only one comic) shows George and Harold spanking their evil twins.

But the big surprise comes when a part of super large pants walks into frame.  The zipper opens and out pops Professor Poopypants (which makes everyone laugh).  He yells that he changed his name to Tippy Tinkletrousers (that doesn’t make it any better).  But he has a freeze ray and what’s surprising is that he freezes the policemen and starts chasing George and Harold.  And that’s the end, getting us ready for Book Nine!