Line #112 Music/MandatoryFun


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mandatory_fun_album_cover.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350: [[HappinessIsMandatory PREPДRE FOR MДNDДTORY FUN]]]]
3
4	''Mandatory Fun'' is the fourteenth and final studio album by Music/WeirdAlYankovic, released in 2014 through Creator/RCARecords and Way Moby Records. It's the first comedy album to debut at #1 on the ''Billboard'' Album Charts since Creator/AllanSherman's ''My Son, the Nut'' in 1963.
5
6	With this album, Al fulfilled his contract to his record label and announced that he would no longer be releasing studio albums. Feeling that the landscape of satire had changed so drastically with the internet, he realized that waiting to have a whole album's worth of songs wasn't practical when his material relied so much on relevance. He has since said that he will release all his future recordings through digital [=EPs=] and singles.
7
8	This was also Al's first album to utilize the Internet for promotion. A week before the album's official release, eight of the album's twelve tracks had music videos released, each on a different website.
9
10	!!Track list:
11	# "Handy"[[note]]Parody of "Fancy" by Iggy Azalea, featuring Charli XCX.[[/note]]
12	# "Lame Claim to Fame"
13	# "Foil"[[note]]Parody of "Royals" by Lorde.[[/note]]
14	# "Sports Song"
15	# "Word Crimes"[[note]]Parody of "Blurred Lines" by Robin Thicke, featuring T.I. and Pharrell Williams.[[/note]]
16	# "My Own Eyes"
17	# "Now That's What I Call Polka!"
18	# "Mission Statement"
19	# "Inactive"[[note]]Parody of "Radioactive" by Imagine Dragons.[[/note]]
20	# "First World Problems"
21	# "Tacky"[[note]]Parody of "Happy" by Pharrell Williams.[[/note]]
22	# "Jackson Park Express"
23	----
24	!!''Now that's what I call tropes!''
25	* FourOneNineScam: In "Lame Claim to Fame", he claims that the email he got from the Nigerian prince certainly ''sounded'' legit.
26	* AffectionateParody:
27	** "Handy" parodies "Fancy" by Music/IggyAzalea and Music/CharliXCX to tell the story of a particularly boastful handyman.
28	** "Foil" starts out as a food-based parody of "Royals" by Music/{{Lorde}}, but veers into a SelfParody of Al's own music, segueing away from food and into bizarre conspiracy theories.
29	** Music/RobinThicke's infamous "Blurred Lines" (featuring Music/PharrellWilliams and Music/{{TI}}) was spoofed as "Word Crimes," a song about grammar on the internet. Yankovic admitted to probably being the only person to make a "Blurred Lines" parody about grammar, since every other parody of the song he was aware of was about criticizing the original song's sexual overtones.
30	** "Inactive" parodies "Radioactive" by Music/ImagineDragons to tell the tale of a spectacularly lazy person.
31	** "Tacky" spoofs Music/PharrellWilliams' "Happy" to be about all kinds of tacky behavior. This even extends to the music video, which does the same "[[TheOner one continuous shot]] of celebrity guest stars lip-syncing the song" schtick as Pharrell's "24 Hours of Happy" publicity stunt.
32	* AlcoholInducedIdiocy: The narrator in "Tacky" regularly likes to get drunk at the bank and take off his shirt, at least.
33	* AnalProbing: Mentioned in "Foil" as one of the things aliens can do, which can be avoided by wearing a foil hat.
34	* AssholeVictim: The jerk that Al plays in the video for "First World Problems" gets hit by a car by its end when he doesn't look where he's going, being so engrossed with his smartphone.
35	* BadassBoast:
36	** At the end of the "Word Crimes" video, we see "'Weird Al' Yankovic has a big dic[[spoiler:tionary]]."
37	** Meanwhile, "Handy" is just one long boast about the protagonist's {{Handyman}} skills.
38	* BadReviewThreat: The narrator of "Tacky" likes to threaten waiters with a bad ''Yelp'' review just for fun.
39	* {{Bathos}}: "Jackson Park Express" has a few examples of this:
40	-->''I gave her a penetrating stare, which could only mean''
41	-->''"You are my answer, my answer to everything,\
42	Which is why I'll probably do very poorly on the written part of my driver's test"''
43
44	-->''"I wanna ride dolphins with you in the moonlight\
45	Until the staff at Ride/SeaWorld kicks us out"''
46	* BaitAndSwitch: "Foil" sounds like one of Al's standard food-related parody songs until the WhamLine.
47	* BestialityIsDepraved: The narrator of "My Own Eyes" saw a stripper kiss a duck behind a dumpster in Aruba.
48	* BilingualBonus: One of the images in the album's booklet has Al triumphantly holding a wrench in the style of old Chinese Communist posters. The Chinese text beneath him says, "I'm not wearing underwear".
49	* BrainBleach: "My Own Eyes" is all about this, talking about things the singer wishes he could unsee.
50	* BreadEggsMilkSquick: "Tacky" goes on at length about stereotypically tacky clothing and behavior, but towards the end we hear "If I'm bitten by a zombie, I'm probably not telling you".
51	* CallBack: "Lame Claim to Fame" consists entirely of Al name-dropping celebrities with whom he's had tangential encounters. Later on, in "Tacky," we get this line:
52	-->Well, now I'm dropping names almost constantly\
53	(That's what Music/KanyeWest keeps telling me)
54	* TheCameo:
55	** The video for "Foil" has Al hosting a cooking show which is directed by Creator/PattonOswalt (who is also secretly one of The Reptilians). And then he's later sedated and taken away by [[Series/Reno911 Thomas Lennon and Robert Ben Garant]].
56	** The video for "Tacky" brings together [[{{WesternAnimation/Archer}} Aisha Tyler]], Creator/MargaretCho, [[Series/ModernFamily Eric Stonestreet]], Creator/KristenSchaal, and Creator/JackBlack!
57	* CommissarCap: One of the images for this album shows Al wearing a commissar cap.... while exposing his GoofyPrintUnderwear with his pants around his ankles.
58	* ConspiracyTheorist: The entire second verse of "Foil" talks about TheIlluminati finally being primed for world domination, black helicopters coming from across the border, and the government's refusal to admit to faking the Moon landing. Just in case aliens get involved, he's got a Tinfoil Hat to protect him, and someday he'll prove there's one giant conspiracy. The part at the end of the video where Creator/PattonOswalt [[LatexPerfection removes his face]] to reveal a lizard head underneath is also a reference to the conspiracy theory about [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reptilian_conspiracy_theory shape-changing reptilian aliens who've taken over society]].
59	-->''Be aware! There's always someone that's watching you!''
60	* DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment:
61	** "Sports Song" can basically be summed up by saying we're great, you suck, you really suck, and in case you missed it, YOU SUCK.
62	** In "Jackson Park Express":
63	--->''I pointed to the side of my mouth, as a way of indicating\
64	"Hey, I think you got something on the side of your mouth"''
65	* DidNotDoTheBloodyResearch: "Word Crimes" caused a minor controversy due to the use of the line "You write like a spastic" (While the word "spastic" is considered a harmless insult in the United States, "spastic" is considered an offensive slur against people with cerebral palsy in other English-speaking countries, particularly the United Kingdom). Weird Al apologised on Website/{{Twitter}}, saying he didn't know it was a slur. Since then, he and the band do not include the line when performing the song in Europe or Australia.
66	* DontExplainTheJoke: In "Sports Song", among the Sophisticated as Hell trash talk, Al twice explains he isn't being literal:
67	-->''We're gonna kick your collective posterior\
68	Of course you realize we're speaking figuratively\
69	[...]\
70	We're gonna grind up your guys into burger meat\
71	Again, of course, we're speaking in the figurative sense''
72	* DressedToOppress: The cover depicts Al as a comically serious dictator wearing a Red Army-inspired uniform including a Chest of Medals and a baldric. Another image for the album shows him wearing a Commissar Cap as well.
73	* EatingTheEyeCandy: In "Jackson Park Express":
74	-->''I glanced down at her shirt for a second, in a way that clearly implied... "I like your boobs!"''
75	* EpicRocking: "Jackson Park Express".
76	* EverybodyHatesMathematics: The narrator of "Jackson Park Express" considers trigonometry and prime numbers to be the greatest evils of the world.
77	* EveryoneHatesMimes: One of the lines in "My Own Eyes":
78	-->''I saw a mime get hacked to death. With an imaginary cleaver.''
79	* ExpospeakGag: "Mission Statement" is a series of buzzwords and vaguely positive-sounding metaphors that all roughly translate to "we need to make more money".
80	* FaceOnTheCover: "Weird Al" in military dictator garb, parodying Soviet-era propaganda posters.
81	* FirstWorldProblems: The title of the song on this album, in which the singer complains about the most insignificant of such problems. Things like his apartment being so big he can't get Wi-Fi in the kitchen, or buying too much food to fit in his fridge.
82	* FacialDialogue: "Jackson Park Express" is about the narrator seeing a woman on a bus. The song is nine minutes long, but describes the "conversations" taking place between a man and a woman discussing the hypothetical process of forming a romantic relationship, engaging in sexual activity, breaking up, and moving on with their lives. All this is implied to all take place over the course of a few minutes.
83	** ...and that it's all one-sided and all in the narrator's head (and the woman in question probably sees him as a creepy guy staring at her).
84	** Mixed in the middle of the absurd ones is staring at her chest to imply "I like your boobs".
85	* FatSlob: "Inactive" is about a lazy slob who's completely given up on exercising and keeping himself healthy.
86	* FootballFightSong: "Sports Song" is done in the style of one.
87	-->''"We're great, and you suck!"''
88	* FreezeFrameBonus:
89	** At the beginning of "Word Crimes", a dictionary's pages are turning through the A's. The definition of "Accordion" has a picture of Al next to it. On a shot of a piece of homework paper, the homeroom teacher is listed as "[[WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons Mrs. Krabappel]]". The Website/{{Reddit}} user goes by the handle [[Film/{{UHF}} George Newman]]. On the graphic for the lyric "lost cause", which uses a promo graphic from ''Series/{{Lost}}'', the print next to the [[Creator/AmericanBroadcastingCompany ABC]] logo reads "learn your [=ABC=]s, doofus" instead of the network slogan.
90	** After Al starts singing about TheIlluminati in "Foil", there are a few red frames of Al's face looking the worse for wear.
91	* TheFunInFuneral: Mentioned in "Tacky".
92	-->''I would live-tweet a funeral\
93	Take selfies with the deceased''
94	* GenuineHumanHide: The protagonist of "Jackson Park Express" voices a desire to wear the object of his affection's skin like a costume...
95	-->"I'd like to remove all your skin, and wear your skin, over my own skin... [[BlatantLies but not in a creepy way]]!"
96	* GrammarNazi: The entirety of "Word Crimes" focuses specifically on this trope.
97	* {{Handyman}}: "Handy" is all about being one, though louder and less laid-back.
98	-->''I'm so handy\
99	You already know\
100	I'll fix your plumbing when your toilets overflow.\
101	I'm so handy\
102	I'll bring you up to code\
103	When your dishwasher starts to explode!''
104	* HappinessIsMandatory: The album is titled "Mandatory Fun" and the cover art and affiliated artwork depict Al as a ComicallySerious, AffablyEvil dictator.
105	* HypocriticalHumor: In the video for "Word Crimes", a song about proper grammar, one of the degrees on the wall is a "Bachelor of Writing Good".[[note]]Proper grammar would make it a "Bachelor of Writing Well".[[/note]]
106	** Two segments of the same song (the rap verse and the final chorus) contain split infinitives, left in by Al to deliberately annoy grammar wonks.
107	--->''That really makes me '''want to LITERALLY smack''' a crowbar upside your stupid head!''\
108	''Try your best '''to not drool.'''''
109	* ImpossiblyTackyClothes: In "Tacky", both described in the lyrics and worn in the video.
110	* InTheStyleOf:
111	** "Lame Claim to Fame" -- Southern Culture on the Skids
112	** "My Own Eyes" -- Music/FooFighters
113	** "Mission Statement" -- Music/CrosbyStillsAndNash, particularly "Carry On" and "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes"
114	** "First World Problems" -- Music/ThePixies, particularly "Debaser" and "No. 13 Baby"
115	** "Jackson Park Express" -- Music/CatStevens
116	* IntimateMarks: The video for "Tacky" has Kristen Schaal living up to the title by wearing a black top with hot pink handprints over the breasts.
117	* KitschyLocalCommercial: The "Handy" video is done in this style, mainly by way of hammy acting and deliberately bad special effects.
118	* LastSecondWordSwap: At the end of the "Word Crimes" video:
119	-->''"Weird Al" Yankovic has a big dictionary.''
120	* Letters2Numbers: The narrator tells the student in "Word Crimes" never to write words using numbers ([[https://beatcreativemarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Weird-Al-Yankovic-Word-Crimes-YouTube.png in the style]] of ''Series/{{Numb3rs}})''. "unless you're seven... or your name is Music/{{Prince}}".
121	* LongestSongGoesLast: The album ends with "Jackson Park Express" (9:05).
122	* LoveAtFirstSight: The narrator in "Jackson Park Express" instantly falls in love with the woman who sits across from him on the bus.
123	-->''I knew we had a special connection the second I saw her smile.''
124	* LyricalDissonance: Common on all Al's albums, this one included, but he's drawn special attention in interviews to "Mission Statement" -- particularly how he's always wanted to do a song about corporate jargon, and he made it a Music/CrosbyStillsAndNash parody because their expansive, folk-rock aesthetic is stylistically the ''complete opposite'' of big-business gobbledygook.
125	* MacGyvering: "Handy" is about a MrFixit who mentions this particular skill by name.
126	* {{Medley}}: "Now That's What I Call Polka!" Songs featured, in order:
127	** "Too Fat Polka" by Arthur Godfrey
128	** "Wrecking Ball" by Music/MileyCyrus
129	** "Pumped Up Kicks" by Music/FosterThePeople
130	** "Best Song Ever" by Music/OneDirection
131	** "Gangnam Style" by Music/{{PSY}}
132	** "Call Me Maybe" by Music/CarlyRaeJepsen
133	** "Scream & Shout" by Music/WillIAm featuring Music/BritneySpears
134	** "Somebody That I Used to Know" by Music/{{Gotye}} featuring Music/{{Kimbra}}
135	** "Timber" by Music/{{Pitbull}} featuring Music/{{Kesha}}
136	** "Sexy and I Know It" by Music/{{LMFAO}}
137	** "Thrift Shop" by Music/{{Macklemore}} and Ryan Lewis featuring Wanz
138	** "Get Lucky" by Music/DaftPunk featuring Music/PharrellWilliams
139	** [[CouchGag "Mandatory Polka" by Al Yankovic]]
140	* TheMenInBlack: Two agents come and drug Al, then drag him off the stage at the end of the video in "Foil".
141	* MoodWhiplash: "Foil" starts out as a typical Lorde parody about food before suddenly taking a left turn into Conspiracy Theorist territory. The video emphasizes this, with a television director played by Patton Oswalt who reacts negatively to the new topic. [[spoiler:He's in on the conspiracy.]]
142	* MotorMouth: In "Word Crimes", after Al sings "what's a contraction?", we hear a time-compressed clip of Al rapidly saying "Well, it's the shortening of a word, or a group of words by the omission of a sound or letter".
143	* NonverbalMiscommunication: "Jackson Park Express" is built on this trope, as the entire song is about a man on the bus who continuously misinterprets the nonverbal gestures of a woman passenger. Somehow he turns her unconscious twitches into an epic tale of LoveAtFirstSight.
144	* TheOner: The "Tacky" music video. Which is an {{Homage}} to the song it's parodying, Pharrell's "Happy", as most of the segments of his "24 Hours of Happy" are Oners.
145	* ParodyAssistance: Music/ImagineDragons assisted with the creation of "Inactive", a parody of their own song "Radioactive", to help reproduce as authentic a sound of the original as possible.
146	* PoesLaw: "Foil", if the Website/YouTube comments are anything to go by.
147	* PrecisionFStrike: An implied one appears in the liner notes to this album, which says "AFP appears courtesy of herself". Anyone familiar enough with Music/AmandaPalmer should know what the F stands for.
148	* RecordProducer: "Weird Al" Yankovic.
149	* RummageSaleReject: Appropriately enough, everyone appearing in the video for "Tacky," including two different awful outfits worn by Al.
150	* SelfParody:
151	** Not Al himself, but his music video for "Mission Statement", which combines every meaningless business platitude under the sun into a Crosby, Stills & Nash pastiche, features whiteboard art from [=TruScribe=], a company famous for laboriously illustrating similar lectures and advertisements on behalf of economic firms and the like.
152	** His parody "Foil" sounds like a return to Al's old food-themed parodies. At first.
153	* SesquipedalianLoquaciousness: The lyrics of "Mission Statement" are strung together from all sorts of overly sophisticated corporate buzzwords which roughly translate to "We need to make more money."
154	* ShoutOut:
155	** At one point, the video for "Word Crimes" shows some doodles including VideoGame/PacMan and [[WebAnimation/HomestarRunner Trogdor]].
156	*** There are also visual references to Doge and the "Get a brain, morans!" memes.
157	*** There's also a grammar exam for [[WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons Mrs. Krabappel's]] class.
158	*** At the point of the song for "literacy's your mission", there's a visual reference to ''Series/MissionImpossible''.
159	*** Plus the visual reference for ''Series/{{Lost}}'' at the section "you're a lost cause".
160	*** The "Write words using numbers" is [[https://beatcreativemarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Weird-Al-Yankovic-Word-Crimes-YouTube.png in the style]] of ''Series/{{Numb3rs}}''.
161	** The song "Tacky" includes the line "If I'm bitten by a zombie, I'm probably not telling you." In the video, Al accompanies this line with a dance move taken from Music/MichaelJackson's "[[Music/MichaelJacksonsThriller Thriller]]" video.
162	** One of the two handymen dancing in the backgrounds of the "Handy" music video wears [[Franchise/SuperMarioBros Mario's]] red-overall-blue-dungarees combo.
163	** "Handy" has the line [[Music/JayZ "I got ninety-nine problems but a switch ain't one!"]]
164	* SixDegreesOfKevinBacon: In "Lame Claim to Fame", with six degrees, no less.
165	-->''I know a guy who knows a guy\
166	Who knows a guy who knows a guy\
167	Who knows a guy who knows Creator/KevinBacon.''
168	* SophisticatedAsHell: "Sports Song" is a reimagining of the classic college fight song, except with lyrics that directly insult the opposing team. After giving a number of different wordy explanations of how much better the home team is than the visitors, it sums up the argument by repeating "We're great, and you suck!" Several times.
169	-->''Oh, and if somehow we are still failing\
170	To effectively articulate the points at hand\
171	Allow us now to summarize them in a manner\
172	That your feeble brains can understand:\
173	We’re great (We're great!)\
174	And you suck (You suck!)\
175	We're great (We're great!)\
176	And you suck (You suck!)'' [etc.]
177	* SpiritualSuccessor: "Handy" is this to "Hardware Store", and more directly to the unreleased "I'll Repair for You."
178	* StealthParody: "Foil" is not just a parody of "Royals," it's also a SelfParody of Al's food-themed parodies.
179	* StrangeMindsThinkAlike: A meta example; shortly after Al had finished recording "Mission Statement," Graham Nash of Music/CrosbyStillsAndNash reached out to Al and requested that he do a parody of "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes." Al responded by playing a snippet of "Mission Statement" on the spot, and Nash seemed satisfied with the result.
180	* SubliminalSeduction: The video for "Foil" intercuts the line "Be aware" with single frame shots of Al covered in blood.
181	* SubvertedRhymeEveryOccasion: Used for a different purpose in "Word Crimes":
182	-->''You should never\
183	Write words using numbers\
184	Unless you're seven ...\
185	Or your name is Music/{{Prince}}''
186	* TakeThat:
187	** In "Word Crimes", Al calls you a "mouth breather" for committing all the horrible word crimes he points out in the song.
188	--->''You should never\
189	Write words using numbers\
190	Unless you're seven ...\
191	Or your name is Music/{{Prince}}.''
192	** {{Conspiracy Theorist}}s in "Foil". [[note]]Alex Jones in particular, as the set's lighting and desk change to look like the Infowars set when the conspiracy stuff starts.[[/note]]
193	** "Sports Song" pokes fun at the intense rivalries often displayed between sports teams.
194	* TinfoilHat: The second verse of "Foil" focuses around fashioning an aluminum foil hat to protect himself against thought control rays and psychotronic scanning.
195	-->''Wear a hat that's foil-lined\
196	In case an alien's inclined\
197	To [[AnalProbe probe your butt]] or read your mind''
198	* TitleOnlyChorus: "First World Problems."
199	* ToiletHumor: Al's version of "Scream and Shout"
200	-->''I want to scream'' (Suzanne Yankovic screams), ''and shout'' ('''HEY!''') ''and let it all out'' ('''BLUGH!''')\
201	''I want to scream'' (Suzanne screams again), ''and shout'' ('''HEY!''') ''and let it out!'' (''fart noise'')
202	* TomatoSurprise: A minor one in "Jackson Park Express". The woman on the bus is assumed to have no anomalous features, and more than halfway into the (nine-minute) song:
203	-->''And I'm pretty sure she looked at me out of the corner'' [{{beat}}] ''of her good eye.''
204	* ThatsWhatICallX: "That’s What I Call Polka".
205	* UnsportsmanlikeGloating: "Sports Song" is essentially one long, preemptive parade of this, put into song.
206	* WhamLine: "Foil" sounds like one of Al's usual food parody songs until the second verse, when Al reveals it is a SelfParody.
207	-->''"By the way, I cracked the code."''
208	* WordSaladLyrics: Being a Music/FooFighters parody, "My Own Eyes" employs this in the increasingly absurd events that the narrator claims to have witnessed.
209	* YourMimeMakesItReal: "My Own Eyes" gives us mimes being hacked to death by imaginary cleavers.
210	* ZombieInfectee: The narrator of "Tacky" informs us that, if he gets bitten by a zombie, he probably won't tell anyone.
211	----

Context Music / MandatoryFun