Parody songs were all the rage back in the late 20th century. And considering how humor and tastes change through the years, many of those parody tunes haven’t exactly aged well. Heck, even some of Weird Al’s innocently intentioned tunes haven’t aged all that well. That’s not the case for the following three Weird Al tunes, though. They’re just as funny now as they were back in the day, without being too blue. Let’s take a look!
“Smells Like Nirvana”
This parody of Nirvana’s grunge smash hit “Smells Like Teen Spirit” jokes about the fact that Kurt Cobain’s vocals are a bit difficult to understand. That was the grunge style, after all. Weird Al poked fun at it perfectly by portraying a very Weird Al version of Cobain with marbles tumbling out of his mouth. Lines like “A garage band from Seattle / Well, it sure beats raisin’ cattle,” complete with an appearance from various farm animals, really pulled the whole thing together. Kurt Cobain himself signed off on this parody, too, and likely thought it was hilarious.
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“My Bologna”
How about a bit of a deep cut? You can tell from the production of this particular music video that it was made early in Weird Al’s career. “My Bologna” can be found on his debut self-titled album. It doesn’t have the in-depth production of your typical Weird Al MV. However, the song itself is fantastic and worth mentioning on this list. A parody of The Knack’s “My Sharona”, this song is actually a great example of his talent on the accordion and his penchant for polka music.
“Like A Surgeon”
This parody of Madonna’s hit “Like A Virgin” has about zero things to do with the original song, outside of the melody and rhythm. Though, that dance routine towards the end is very Madonna-esque. This song is a totally hilarious piece of work.
Working with the fact that “surgeon” and “virgin” sound similar, Weird Al opted to tell a whole story about a fresh-out-of-college doctor who really shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near a hospital… ever. It’s a classic song, one that anyone who was young in 1985 likely remembers watching on MTV back in the day. This is one of many hilarious parodies found on Weird Al’s 1985 studio album Dare To Be Stupid.
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