Weird Al Yankovic ought to write more medical parodies. For those of you who remember Like a Surgeon and Living With A Hernia, you know what I'm talking about - interns suddenly becoming fully-qualified transplant surgeons, billfold biopsies, and every different type of hernia known to surgery are the order of the day for everyone's favorite parodist.
POODLE HAT is little different in this regard. Of special interest for medical geeks like me is the cut entitled Party at the Leper Colony - which discusses leprosy in barf-bucket-gruesome detail. It is entirely fair to say that this cut is not for the faint of heart or weak of stomach - and I got all the "jokes" in this song (the word "jokes" is in quotation marks advisedly, as this song will not appeal to all tastes, to put it mildly). Al, you know, you can do a medically-oriented parody that's accurate without being gruesome. Take my advice - please.
Far better is the sendup of Billy Joel's Piano Man, entitled Ode to a Superhero, a fond tribute to Spiderman if ever there was one. This particular cut shows off another of Yankovic's strengths - the ability to do a deadly-accurate note-for-note parody - to perfection, while gently giving listeners reason to laugh at the foibles of the superheroes with which we all grew up at the drugstore comic-book counter.
Because I'm unfamiliar with much of the material Yankovic parodies, I can only comment authoritatively on the lyrics of songs such as the one about the leper colony, and EBay, a sendup tweaking the fabled online auction service which also owns PayPal (as well as its devoted addictive fans). However, what I have heard on this album ranges from the hilarious (the EBay tweak) to the downright disgusting (a song about trash, as well as the song about the leper colony). It's not as if Yankovic hasn't done absolutely disgusting material before; several songs on prior albums allude to domestic violence and "cleaning all the toilets in Grand Central Station with my tongue," among other things. But Yankovic can do a lot better when he uses such material, making it obvious that it's supposed to be "over the top," and sugarcoating the grim stuff with great orchestrations and deadly-accurate note-for-note arrangements.
Party At a Leper Colony has no such virtues, nor does Trash Day. These songs will be difficult for all but seasoned dermatologists with twisted humor levers, adolescents at the age at which fart jokes are high art, and other such people to enjoy. Ordinary folk will not necessarily get anything out of these particular cuts.
Now, if I could only get Yankovic to send up my ex's website...
Recommended:
Yes
Great Music to Play While: Getting ready to go out
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