It’s been all over the web today: Weird Al Yankovic told billboard.com that he only has three parodies left to record for his new album – and that Lady Gaga is “a great candidate” to be parodied.  I, for one, totally agree.  Not that I’m an expert on popular music or anything, but her music is pretty ubiquitous right now, and that can make for a great Weird Al parody.  Sure, she’s been parodied and covered before (the Eric Cartman version of Poker Face is an instant classic), but as Al himself points out, that is just the world we live in now, and it just means that if his parody can’t be the first, it has to be the best.  Yeah, like that could ever be an issue…

The article also has Al on record saying that he hopes to have his next album out sometime this year, which I also think is a fantastic idea.  And I can’t wait to get his childroon’s book next spring!  Yay, Weird Al!

Great news on an upcoming film sequel!

It turns out that there *may* be a Gremlins 3 – and it could be in 3-D!!!

It’s just a rumor at this point, but still, that’s pretty damn exciting news.  Of course, everyone in the world loves the two Gremlins movies… with the notable exception of my sister.  Now 28 years old, Sam is STILL traumatized by the Gremlins, the memory of being scared by them as a child still fresh in her brain.  The mere mention of the word Gremlns, or of the words Gizmo, Mogwai, or even Zach Galligan, will result in Sam running out of the room with her hands over her ears.  If she sees this post, she may never read my blog again.

Which is all somewhat silly, considering the Gremlins aren’t really scary, as they fall more into the genre of comic mischief than evil monsters.  Especially in Gremlins 2: The New Batch.  And Gizmo is so cute!

But I for one would love to see another Gremlins movie, and if it’s in 3-D, well that’s even better!

In other new movie developments, Weird Al is reporting that he will be writing and directing a new feature film! He’s apparently got a development deal with Cartoon Network, and a new movie is number one on his list of things to do for them.  A few main bullet points from his blog: It won’t be a sequel to UHF, it will be live-action, and Weird Al will not star in it, though he will appear in front of the camera in some capacity.  Since everything Weird Al does is genius, this movie is already guaranteed to be hysterical and brilliant.  Hopefully by the time it opens, Eli will be old enough to come see it at a midnight showing with me!

Every December, a ton of “Best of the Year” lists pop up everywhere, and they can get old pretty quick, but I’m digging the “Best of the Decade” lists that I’ve been seeing lately. So I figured I’d jump on that particular bandwagon, and so I now present my list of some of the best pop culture trends of the past ten years.

Funny Music from Artists Besides Weird Al
Don’t get me wrong – my obsession with Weird Al Yankovic, the king of parodies and musical comedy, is still strong as ever. And he had a great decade in his own right, with the fantastic albums Poodle Hat and Straight Outta Lynwood, as well as his several Internet Leaks songs and videos. But he also had some competition in the funny music department. Tenacious D’s first album is side-splittingly funny. Though the movie and its soundtrack were less hilarious than they could have been, the genius of their first batch of songs more than makes up for it.

Then there’s Andy Samberg and his Lonely Island crew. The videos for Lazy Sunday, D*ck in a Box, I’m On a Boat, and others are brilliant in their lyrics and their visuals, and the digital shorts have been some of the best stuff on Saturday Night Live in recent years.

And who could forget the brilliance of Flight of the Conchords? Their two seasons on HBO, their two albums, and their EP were full of catchy, quotable, fantastic, and hysterical songs. I cried a little bit (on the inside) when I heard the show was officially done. Hopefully they’ll keep putting out music into the next decade.

The Renaissance of the Serialized Drama
The aughts may be remembered as the decade when hour-long, serialized dramas came back with a major vengeance. The best of the bunch has to be Lost – a show that not only blows your mind every week, but it has you obsessing in between episodes, talking over theories and trying to guess what it all means. The season 1 and 3 finales are two of my personal favorites in a standout series.

While the writing may not be as strong at 24 as it is on Lost, it’s still an extremely entertaining show, and it’s made Jack Bauer an instant kick ass pop icon. Sure, it’s cheesy when he screams “Dammit, we’re running out of time!” yet again, but it’s hard to resist the show’s real-time Die Hard feel. Then there’s Smallville, which has gotten much better at telling long stories over multiple episodes instead of just relying on freak-of-the-week episodes. And Fringe straddles the line of stand alone episodes with a greater mythology, and so far has been doing a great job of both. I also have high hopes for FlashForward and V, but it will remain to be seen how well those shows pay off long arcs, but they’re both off to good starts.

Even when theses kinds of shows haven’t worked all that well (Dollhouse, Terminator, Heroes) or when they were good concepts that were canceled too soon (Eli Stone), it’s still good that network executives are giving their audience some credit, understanding that we have patience, and can appreciate the kind of story-telling where everything isn’t all wrapped up in a tidy package in 42 minutes.

There is a great, albeit very long article about this topic at GQ.com with the guys from Bad Robot – I recommend it if you have a half-hour to kill.

Sit-coms Are Amazing Again!
It wasn’t just hour-long dramas that rocked the decade; the sit-com was reintroduced as a medium of clever comedies, and not just full of pratfalls and one-dimensional characters. Arrested Development was able to use bad puns, sight gags, kissing cousins, and The Final Countdown to great effect for powerful belly laughs. The British version of The Office gave us an amazing new brand of painful and awkward humor that would live on in the American series, as well as Ricky Gervais’ show Extras. 30 Rock is written so brilliantly and the jokes come so fast I find myself having to constantly rewind back to listen to jokes again. How I Met Your Mother gave a new twist to the story of urban singles looking for love. And we got 8 great years of Scrubs – even if Season 9 leaves a little to be desired.

The Superhero Is Cool Again
It seems like ages ago, but there was a time in the not-so-distant past that superhero movies weren’t really anything to get that excited about. Then in a single decade, we got four fantastic films in the genre: Superman Returns, Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, and Iron Man. (I know I’m going to get mocked for making those the ones I single out… but I just can’t get behind Spider-man. I tried, really, I did. And I enjoyed X-Men and X2, but I don’t know if they were amazing.) Too often, superhero movies were considered formulaic drivel, and could be released, hated, and forgotten about quickly. But the aughts made them not only bankable hits, but films that both nerds and critics agreed were actually good. I’ve defended Superman Returns so many times I’ve lost count, so I’ll just make this quick – it had its fans, and its share of people who hated it, but I loved it, so it goes on *MY* list, OK? The rebooted Batman films were also incredible, and they made that world so dark and believable it’s hard to not be foaming at the mouth for more sequels. And even though I knew nothing about Iron Man, I thoroughly enjoyed that film as well. Sure there have been some bad superhero movies in the past ten years, but the good ones were so great, it almost doesn’t matter.

The Apatow Movie Method
If some strange pop culture villain put a gun to my head and demanded I name the funniest movie of the past ten years, it’s a safe bet that I’d answer Superbad. I was laughing out loud a lot when we first saw that flick, and every time I’ve watched it since, I have the same reaction. That’s impressive considering I know the jokes that are coming. I also feel similarly about Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Knocked Up, and The 40-Year Old Virgin. And Anchorman and Talladega Nights and Walk Hard and any movie that had Apatow’s name attached to was guaranteed to be at least funnier than your average comedy. Of course, Judd himself didn’t always have much to do with every all of the above movies, but his influence can be felt in them – and others where he had no involvement whatsoever, like I Love You, Man; there are outrageous moments, painful moments, and things that are ridiculous enough to make you laugh so hard your stomach hurts, but they still keep themselves grounded in such a way that you buy what’s happening. Movie comedies will probably continue to evolve, but these movies will always make me laugh.

The Pixar Streak
So much has already been said about the brilliance of the Pixar movies, but here it goes anyway: The folks at Pixar are geniuses, and each and every one of their flicks have been funny, beautiful to watch, and full of great characters and stories. Two of the greatest films of the decade in my humble opinion are WALL·E and Up, neither of which sounded like a home-run concept, but were both executed flawlessly. Sure there are other companies doing similar kinds of animation, but those movies always just fail to impress me with their stories, and often times they are so full of timely references that the jokes will be out dated in a few years. Courtney and I have been watching a DVR’d collection of Pixar shorts, and even the company’s short films are crafted with amazing precision and humor. I sure hope my kids love these movies, because I know I’ll enjoy watching them too.

Nintendo Changes Video Gaming
I’m a Nintendo fanboy – always have been, always will be. And I loved the GameCube and the Game Boy Advance. But what Nintendo pulled off with the Wii and the Nintendo DS is truly incredible. Video-gaming is no longer just associated with nerds playing alone in dark basements – it’s now something that the whole family can do together, something that parents don’t dread if their kids want to do, and it’s even something that women actually enjoy. (And are not just pretending to enjoy for the sake of their boyfriends or husbands.) Wii Sports isn’t my favorite game personally, but I love watching people who have never held a game controller pick it up and play with ease. Wii Fit is a really fun way to exercise at home. The latest iterations of the classic franchises have all been fantastic: The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Super Paper Mario, Mario Kart Wii, Super Mario Galaxy, and New Super Mario Bros. Wii are all incredible games, as are their counterparts on the DS. (I just beat the first dungeon in The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks this morning – it’s really fun so far!)

Sure Nintendo has room for improvement – better online capability, HD graphics, etc. But the fact of the matter is what they are doing now works, and it works well, and it works well for a huge chunk of the population.

Better, Clearer, Faster
High definition television. DVR. Portable players that let us watch movies, TV shows, and carry tons of music and photos, too. It’s pretty amazing that when we started this decade, those things weren’t common, and now it’s hard to imagine life without them. It sounds like a sweeping statement, but it isn’t, really. Try to go through a week without using your DVR. Or switch back to a standard definition TV. You’ll be going out of your mind in a week. What are you going to do, record your favorite shows with a VCR? Seriously.

And remember when you had to carry a discman with you to listen to music on the go? You looked strange wearing headphones, and you could only listen to one album at a time! Now you can carry thousands of songs in your cell phone.

And remember dial-up? When it would take a half hour to load a 30 second video clip? Now you can watch entire episodes of TV shows or whole movies on your laptop – or even on your TV – that load in seconds.

It’s hard to imagine so much has happened in ten years, and it’s even crazier that in December 2019, we’ll be looking back at all of this stuff as quaint and old-fashioned.

Embedding has again been disabled (boo) so you’ll just have to click here to watch it.

The video isn’t embeddable, so you’ll just have to click here to watch the video for “Skipper Dan.” It’s another very funny tune and video, and I won’t take away from its humor by describing it here.  Enjoy!

It’s not a direct parody, but it’s in the style of The Doors (with Doors keyboardist Ray Manzarek playing on the track) and it obviously spoofs the infamous site craigslist. His insight into how people talk on the site is spot on – the ridiculous barter offer, the stupid missed connections, the open letters people write, and the free crap that no one wants with all of the caveats attached just for good measure. Pure brilliance – once again Weird Al has mixed musical parody with hilarious insight into the world we live in.

Great job again, Mr. Yankovic.

That’s my adorable cousin Maddyson (pronounced “Madison”). We were hamming it up for that picture, sorry if it’s a little scary… Today is her fifth birthday, so HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MADDY!

Now of course I love her because she’s family, but she is clearly a little girl after my own heart. Just listen to this audio clip – this is her calling into a radio station for a song request.

maddy-on-the-radio

Not only is her favorite song by Weird Al, but it’s a STAR WARS song by Weird Al! (I’m more partial to Yoda myself, but hey…) As far as I know, she’s never seen any of the Star Wars movies in their entirety, but the fact that she loves The Saga Begins is proof that she’s ready to love them. And, of course, the entire Weird Al Yankovic music catalog. And it’s not even like I’m trying to turn her into a little-girl version of me, she’s coming by it all naturally!

Anyway, Happy Fifth Birthday, Maddyson, I hope we can celebrate with you soon!

So this is sort of dated already, so sue me. But as everyone has already heard by now, Fran Drescher is interested in taking over Hillary Clinton’s Senate Seat. Now, I don’t know the woman or her politics at all, so it’s impossible for me to say what kind of Senator she would be. But we DO know all about the character she is most famous for – Pamela Finkelstein, the plucky receptionist from Weird Al’s 1989 classic, UHF, so that seems like as good a basis for comparison as any.

Pamela Finkelstein was an extremely dedicated receptionist, staying at U62 for years and through countless bosses, eager to earn her stripes. Well, that’s a great characteristic for a Senator – you have to be willing to put in your time and understand that you won’t be able to change everything overnight.

Pamela also was able to keep her wits about her, even when the mailman mistakenly delivered a package to the UHF station that was destined for their rival, R.J. Fletcher. She warned her new boss George that he wasn’t the nicest guy, but she didn’t get in his way, knowing that George had to do what George had to do. And when the experience backfired, she never once lectured George after the fact – she was able to quickly move on after her wisdom was not heeded. Now come on, wouldn’t it be great if all Senators could be so level-headed?

Finally, unlike George, Philo, and Stanley Spadowski, Pamela didn’t use the reinvention of U62 to get herself on the air with silly programming – she wanted to be a serious journalist. Her dedication to her craft and her original goals was certainly an admirable trait in the movie, and would be even more meaningful in Washington. Sure, she got a little peeved when she was out-muscled by the network affiliate, and by the “broads don’t belong in broadcasting” crack specifically, but again, she rose above it, and was more concerned about Noodles’ injury than she was about her hurt ego.

So, it is the opinion of this blogger that Pamela Finkelstein, the fictional character from UHF, would make an excellent Senator. Fran Drescher, who knows. But if she modeled her political career after the role that made her famous, I’m sure she’d do great.

“Weird Al” Yankovic has a new song! You can buy it on iTunes right now – go this very second! It’s called “Whatever You Like” and it is a parody of T.I.’s “Whatever You Like.” The same name is a first for the parody king, but you won’t be confused when you listen to them; both versions are about a fella bragging about all of the nice things he is willing to buy for his lady, but the original is told from the perspective of a rich rapper, while Weird Al’s version is all about how an average guy working as assistant manager at Kinko’s is doing his best to make ends meet in this crappy economy. So topical!

As I reported back in June, Weird Al has decided to use digital downloads to deliver extremely timely parodies of songs that are currently popular. I think this is a brilliant concept, and Weird Al has taken it to the next level by not only parodying a song as it sits atop the charts but also incorporating what is going on in current events at the same time. It’s a double whammy of timeliness! All hail Weird Al!

As for the song itself, it’s (of course) great. I’m not much of a T.I. guy (shocker, right?) but the parody is still very funny – I love the way he sings about how he will treat his girlfriend to White Castle for dinner, insisting that he buy 2-ply toilet paper, and the way he pronounces “neighbor next do’” is just classic. It totally sums up love and romance in 2008!