June 28, 1999 - Running With Scissors

A week after my last release and three years since his last album "Bad Hair Day", Weird Al Yankovic released his tenth album "Running With Scissors" on June 28, 1999. This is my first full album of Weird Al's as he parodies and pastiches lots of popular rock and hip-hop from the late 90s. There are five direct parodies and seven original songs that are mostly style parodies. Let's dive into my first full album by Weird Al!

The album begins with it's lead single "The Saga Begins", which is a parody of Don McLean's 70s classic "American Pie", only the lyrics in this version are all about the plot of the movie Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace". The music is pretty spot-on to the original and the lyrics are unsurprisingly pretty funny, especially a chorus of "my, my this here Anakin guy, maybe Vader someday later now he's just a small fry". There's lots of great lyrics that put a funny spin on things: "do you see him hitting on the Queen, though he's just 9 and she's 14". It's a really well done parody that both sounds just like the original and is also uniquely and creatively funny, a great way to kick things off! Up next is "My Baby's In Love With Eddie Vedder" which is a style parody of the Zydeco genre (I don't even know what that is). Al plays some accordion right from the get-go in this upbeat and very old-time-y sounding song an Al sings about how his girlfriend is obsessed with Vedder from Pearl Jam. Both the music and the lyrics are pretty strange but it's funny to listen to Al complain and moan about how his girlfriend disregards him for Eddie Vedder. It's certainly a weird one, but it was decent enough. Track 3 is "Pretty Fly For A Rabbi", which is of course a parody of "Pretty Fly (For A White Guy)" by The Offspring. It opens with some old Hebrew instead of the weird way the original opens and this is a pretty hilarious way to take things as makes this song about a very popular Rabbi! The music is not as heavy as the original but it's still done pretty close and Al even brings out the Jewish accent to make you really cringe and laugh as it sounds so funny overtop punk-rock music. There are so many Jewish stereotypes and jokes and it's another pretty solid parody. The next track is "The Weird Al Show Theme" and it's the original theme song to Al's very short-lived TV show. He sings very quickly overtop some quirky music and he's really good at enunciating everything so quickly, and what he's saying is of course the weirdest stuff you could imagine, including a dream about lederhosen and sour cream (WTF?) For a song that's just over a minute, it's really white funny, he packs a lot into this great little theme song. Track 5 is "Jerry Springer" which is a parody of "One Week"  by Barenaked Ladies and Al does some more really fast singing on this one. As usual, the music is just like the original and Al takes this mega popular hit and makes his version about the TV show Jerry Springer and all the hilarity that ensues. The lyrics are all pretty vulgar and sexual, and possibly quite offensive nowadays, but man is it ever hilarious. The part in the middle is especially great that ends with a woman saying "well I also slept with your pet goat!" and the man responding "that goat doesn't love you!" Words don't so proper justice, this is one of my favourites and it's an absolutely hilarious parody! Up next is "Germs", a Nine Inch Nails style parody that sounds very industrial and honestly very well done, it could easily be a NIN riff! The lyrics are all about a guy who's a germaphobe and how bacteria is constantly interrupting his life. Of course , Al does it quite well and the music is pretty solid! The chorus is quite catchy and Al phrases the lyrics in ways that make everything sound funny, a pretty solid style parody! Track 7 is "Polka Power!" and as Al does on all his albums there is one track that covers little snippets of a whole bunch of popular late 90s songs, all overtop of some pretty good Polka music! Al's accordion sounds pretty good to me and while most of the songs he's covering here are pop songs, it sounds pretty funny to hear Al sing Spice Girls and Backstreet Boys in Polka form. There are so many different Polka riffs on this track and they all sound interesting in their own way and it's so nostalgic to hear him cover so many tracks, like Chombawomba and Smash Mouth! I enjoyed it! The next track is "Your Horoscope For Today" and it's a style parody of third-wave-ska bands like Big Fish. As it is with ska, the music is very upbeat and pretty fast with some decent horns and Al hilariously sings out a fortune or prediction for each astrological sign. Some of them are really funny and he just tears apart the whole idea of horoscopes, which is also pretty great. I thought this one was pretty funny and also pretty catchy! Track 9 is "It's All About The Pentiums", a parody of "It's All About The Benjamin's" by Puff Daddy. As usual Al does a good job of playing the same music as the original and it's really funny to hear Al sing a song all about computers and nerdy things overtop of the gangster hip-hop music. Also as usual, his lyrics are pretty hilarious and Al's very white voice sounds especially funny in the chorus when he's going "WHAT?!" Another wonderfully done parody, I was laughing throughout! Up next is "Truck Drivin' Song", a style parody of truck driving country and Al nails that vibe with a perfectly stereotypical country riff and he sings in a lower voice than normal and he sounds pretty good! The song sounds very basic at first, but as it goes on we find out it's about a cross-dressing man driving a big truck, while also trying to do all his make-up and all the other parts of getting ready in the morning. It's pretty funny of course and paints a pretty hilarious picture while making fun of country music pretty nicely as well. It's a short but decent little song. Track 11 is "Grapefruit Diet", a parody of "Zoot Suit Riot" by Cherry Poppin' Daddies (I've never heard of this song or them, but I guess this was popular?) Al's version is all about a really fat guy going on a diet and giving up all kinds of wonderful and tasty foods and of course Al makes things sound pretty funny. The music sounds like a show tune and it has some decent horns and piano and actually sounds pretty solid and I can't deny that it's pretty damn catchy! The fat jokes get a little old by the end but it was a solid song for sure. The album wraps up with the eleven and a half minute "Albuquerque", which is a style parody of The Rugburns (another band I've never heard of). The band starts up a decent little rock riff and then they fall into the background as Al begins to tell an absolutely insane and nonsensical story that has occasional bits of singing, but is mostly just Al ranting and ranting and he's hilarious! Words cannot do proper justice to the very weird and strange and hilarious parts of this very long song, you just gotta listen to it! I couldn't possibly write about it all, but I assure you it's arguably the best song on the album because of how fucking funny it is! What a way to close out the album, it's so amazing!

That is the end of "Running With Scissors" and I thought it was a pretty awesome and hilarious album! There were lots of really funny songs on this album including parodies, style parodies and even original songs. I especially loved "Albuquerque" but I really liked the whole album and I think it's definitely Al's most complete album to date. I look forward to hearing some more hilarious music next century!