"Weird Al" Yankovic: Dare to be Stupid

'Dare to be Stupid,' (1985) in my opinion, feels a bit rushed as a whole.  While Al's creativity is still there, it just doesn't seem like the material he had to work with was as good.  The original songs also don't bite quite as hard.  But then, smack dab in the middle, comes the one-two punch of 'One More Minute' and 'Yoda,' two of Al's best.

'Like a Surgeon' was actually suggested by Madonna.  She had remarked on how long it would take Al to do a parody of 'Like a Virgin' as 'Like a Surgeon.'  That friend was also a friend of Al's manager, Jay Levey, and thus the idea got to Al.  It's the only parody that was actually suggested by the original artist.  The video, while not directly parodying Madge's, does feature Al mocking Madonna's early choreography to great effect.  Shortly after the 'Truth or Dare' version of this song came out, Al took to performing his parody in similar fashion for his live shows, including putting keyboardist Ruben Valtierra in a cone bra. It was disturbing and hilarious.

The title track is the album's first original song.  While not a direct parody of any Devo song, this is clearly meant to be their style- made even more evident by the video.  Mark Mothersbaugh of Devo has said that this song is 'more Devo then Devo.'  This song was later featured in the animated 'Transformers: The Movie.'  Fun fact: Al's relationship with the Transformers franchise continued many years later, voicing the Wreck Gar character for 'Transformers: Animated,' in which his character, in response to Ratchet saying 'No one would dare to be that stupid!' proclaims, 'I am Wreck Gar!  I dare to be stupid!.' Al's character was also made into a toy, and he appeared at a Botcon.

'I Want a New Duck' is one of Al's parodies where I feel he may have been struggling to find new great material to work with.  While there are some great moments in this song (I still can't hear the original without adding in 'Qua-qua-qua-qua-qua-quack' sound effects during the instrumentals), it drags on a little long, and struggles to come up with more duck-related humor.

'One More Minute' is an Al original, done along the lines of an early Elvis doo wop.  Al wrote this song in response to a particularly bad break-up, and the songs has served as catharsis for many other broken hearts ever since.  And the metaphor of 'I'm stranded all alone in the gas station of love/ And I have to use the self-service pumps' thankfully didn't make any sense to me until high school.  It's one of my top 5 Al originals.

'Yoda' is in my top 5 parodies that Al has ever done.  While originally written in 1980 shortly after 'The Empire Strikes Back' came out, receiving the proper permissions from both Lucas and 'Lola' artist The Kinks took a bit of time.  This song is a particular highlight of Al's live performances, and usually closes the show in epic fashion. go ahead, so a search for 'Yoda chant.'

'George of the Jungle' is Al's only straight cover tune. (well, there's Bohemain Polka, but we'll get to that later).  If you've seen the cartoon, you've heard the song.  It was also included on the soundtrack to the live-action George of the Jungle Movie, though the version used in the movie was by The Presidents of the United States of America (whom Al also parodied, but we'll get to that later).

'Slime Creatures From Outer Space' is a humorous take on an alien invasion, most remarkable for its use of the theremin.

'Girls Just Wanna Have Lunch' was included on the album because record label people insisted Al do a Cyndi Lauper parody.  Like 'New Duck,' it feels a bit forced at times.

'This is the Life' is the third song on this album to be featured on a movie soundtrack ('Johnny Dangerously').  Al takes a fun ragtime setting and talks about how great it is to be so fabulously wealthy ('I buy a dozen cars when I'm in the mood/ I hired somebody to chew my food.').  In the instrumental break, Al throws an electric guitar solo into the mix, and then record scratching- a technique relegated to rap albums of the time.  While Al wouldn't rap for a couple more records, this shows that even during a time when rap wasn't top-40 material, he was paying attention to the genre.

'Cable TV' is done in what I like to think of as Al's 'house style.'  It's rock with a pop edge and female background vocals.  While nowadays '87 channels of ecstacy' seems an underestimation, cable's infancy had far fewer channels than that.  This song makes me miss 'Mr. Wizard.'  And I'm still waiting for the Celebrity Hockey channel.

We finish off with the now-traditional polka medley, 'Hooked on Polkas,' this time including...

• "12th Street Rag" by Euday L. Bowman
• "State of Shock" by Mick Jagger and Michael Jackson (originally by The Jacksons)
• "Sharp Dressed Man" by ZZ Top
• "What's Love Got to Do with It" by Tina Turner
• "Method of Modern Love" by Hall & Oates
• "Owner of a Lonely Heart" by Yes
• "We're Not Gonna Take It" by Twisted Sister
• "99 Luftballons" by Nena
• "Footloose" by Kenny Loggins
• "The Reflex" by Duran Duran
• "Metal Health (Bang Your Head)" by Quiet Riot
• "Relax" by Frankie Goes to Hollywood

While Al hasn't directly parodied any hard rock or heavy metal artists, their songs often find their way into his polkas.  Here we see ZZ Top, Twisted Sister, and Quiet Riot all featured.  Unlike 'Polka on 45s,' this medley features all current or recent hits, which will be true of most of the medleys after this.

Next time...let's get ready to party.  Polka Party!