We're all waiting for you!
Dare to Be Stupid is the third studio album by "Weird Al" Yankovic. It was released in 1985 through Rock 'n' Roll Records in the US and Scotti Bros. Records in Europe and was the first comedy album released on Compact Disc. It contains the song "This Is The Life", which was featured in the Michael Keaton movie Johnny Dangerously. The Title Track would later be used as part of the soundtrack of The Transformers: The Movie in 1986.Tracklist:
Side One- "Like a Surgeon"note
- "Dare to Be Stupid"
- "I Want a New Duck"note
- "One More Minute"
- "Yoda"note
Side Two
- "George of the Jungle"
- "Slime Creatures from Outer Space"
- "Girls Just Wanna Have Lunch"note
- "This Is the Life"
- "Cable TV"
- "Hooked on Polkas"
Trope to be stupid! Trope to be stupid!
- Affectionate Parody:
- Huey Lewis "murders" Al in a skit parodying a scene from American Psycho for his parody "I Want a New Duck".
- "Like A Surgeon" was actually suggested by Madonna herself after wondering if she would have one of her songs parodied.
- Album Title Drop: "Dare to Be Stupid".
- Aliens Are Bastards: The very premise of "Slime Creatures From Outer Space"—It's even the trope's quote source.
- Black Comedy: "Like a Surgeon" is perhaps the most hilarious song about extreme medical malpractice in the world. The music video ups the ante even further, showing Al as a cartoonish meatgrinder surgeon who doesn't even have basic knowledge about human anatomy.
- Break-Up Bonfire: From "One More Minute":So I pulled your name out of my rolodex
And I tore all your pictures in two
And I burned down the malt shop where we used to go
Just because it reminds me of you... - Break-Up Song: "One More Minute".
- Conspicuous Consumption: "This Is the Life" has the narrator bragging about all the stuff he can afford because he's rich.I eat filet mignon seven times a day
My bathtub's filled with Perrier
What can I say?
This is the life
I buy a dozen cars when I'm in the mood
I hire somebody to chew my food
I'm an upwardly mobile dude
This is the life - Cover Song: The theme song from George of the Jungle, as per
an executive mandate to include a cover, any cover, on the album. - Cut His Heart Out with a Spoon: To himself in "One More Minute".I'd rather spend eternity eating shards of broken glass
Than spend one more minute with you
[...]
I'd rather rip out my intestines with a fork
Than watch you going out with other men - Disproportionate Retribution: "...and I burned down the malt shop where we used to go/Just because it reminds me of you!"
- Face on the Cover: Al getting a little too close to the camera and making a goofy expression amidst a bunch of random stuff floating in space.
- Flatline: In addition to the Heartbeat Soundtrack at the end of "Like a Surgeon" doing this, the music video begins with Weird Al walking in on an apparently dead patient. He uses Percussive Maintenance—first on the monitor, then on the patient—to revive him.
- Food Songs Are Funny: "Girls Just Want To Have Lunch" is a sort of Self-Parody example, as Al was mandated to do a parody of Cyndi Lauper and so intentionally did it in the laziest way possible.
- Heartbeat Soundtrack: "Like a Surgeon" has a heart monitor as one, which flatlines at the end.
- Hitler Cam: Used in the video for "One More Minute" at the end, where Al rips out 'his' (plastic) heart.
- I Can't Hear You: Used on the last chorus of "Dare To Be Stupid." When the backup singers respond with the title, Al says "Okay, I can hear you now!" In concerts, he'll turn this into an Overly Long Gag where he'll keep saying that he can't hear the audience.
- In the Style of:
- "Dare to Be Stupid" - Devo
- "One More Minute" - Elvis Presley
- "This Is the Life" - 1920s and 1930s music
- "Slime Creatures from Outer Space" - Thomas Dolby, specifically "Hyperactive."
- "Cable TV" - Randy Newman
- Medley: "Hooked on Polkas". Songs featured, in order:
- "12th Street Rag" by Euday L. Bowman
- "State of Shock" by The Jacksons (featuring Mick Jagger)
- "Sharp Dressed Man" by ZZ Top
- "What's Love Got to Do With It" by Tina Turner
- "Method of Modern Love" by Daryl Hall & John 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
- "Ear Booker Polka" by Al Yankovic
- Meatgrinder Surgery: The video for "Like a Surgeon" revolves primarily around this.
- Money Song: "This Is The Life".
- Mouth Screen: The video for "Dare To Be Stupid" featured Al's mouth.
- Obliquely Obfuscated Occupation: The narrator of "This is the Life" talks a lot about his money, but not about how he got it; the most we get is his claim that "I make a fortune while I sleep," implying that whatever company he's in charge of basically runs itself at this point.
- Off with His Head!: Al's head is seen spinning around inside a microwave in the video for "Dare to Be Stupid".
- Parody Assistance:
- Madonna asked one of her friends (who was also friends with Al's manager Jay Levey) how long it would be before Al satirized "Like a Virgin", and when Al got word that Madonna wanted him to parody her song, Al recorded "Like a Surgeon."
- For "George of the Jungle", Al got Bill Scott, the original voice of George, to do vocal effects.
- [Popular Saying], But...: The rich narrator of "This is the Life" turns a famous saying on its head in such a way that shows how money-obsessed he is.If money can't buy happiness, I guess I'll have to rent it!
- Record Producer: Rick Derringer.
- Rhetorical Request Blunder: A meta version, as "Like a Surgeon" was the result of this. Madonna jokingly asked when Weird Al would write a song with this title while promoting the eponymous album the source song came from.
- Rhyming with Itself: From "Yoda":Well, I left home just a week before
And I've never ever been a Jedi before - Saw "Star Wars" Twenty-Seven Times: From "Cable TV," and actually with the number 27 (an Arc Number for Al):My friends are getting kinda worried,
They think I'm turning into some kind of freak.
Aw, but they're just jealous, 'cause I've seen Porky's
Twenty-seven times this week. - Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: The narrator of "This is the Life" brags that his obscene wealth gives him the ability to do whatever he wants and boss people around.I'm the boss, the Big Cheese
Yeah, I got this town on its knobby little knees
I can do just what I please
This is the life
That's right, I'm the king, number one
I buy monogrammed Kleenex by the ton
I pay the bills, I call the shots
I grease the palms, I buy the yachts - Sheltered Aristocrat: The narrator of "This Is the Life" is a rich guy who comes across as oblivious to how selfish and arrogant he's coming across as.They say that money corrupts you
But I can't really tell
I got the whole world at my feet
And I think it's pretty swell - Shout-Out:
- "Slime Creatures from Outer Space" includes a line from an SCTV sketch.
- The vinyl of this album has "More Songs About TV and Food" etched into the inner groove.
- "Dare to Be Stupid's" line "You'd better sell some wine before its time" is a parody of Orson Welles' commercials for Paul Masson wines, whose tagline was "We will sell no wine before its time".
- The line "You better squeeze all the Charmin you can when Mr. Whipple's not around" is a reference to an old series of commercials for Charmin toilet paper, while "You can be a coffee achiever" is a reference to a 1980s ad campaign from the National Coffee Association.
- The phrase "It's time to let your babies grow up to be cowboys" is a reference to "Mammas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys" by Waylon Jennings.
- The video for "Dare to Be Stupid" has one of Al's characters watching stock footage on an interociter.
- Simpleton Voice: Al performs "Girls Just Wanna Have Lunch" in a nasal, grating, over-enunciating voice.
- Stylistic Suck: Invoked with "Girls Just Wanna Have Lunch" as a form of Writer Revolt. The label was dead against releasing the album without a Cyndi Lauper parody, so Yankovic deliberately made the song as unlistenable as possible: the lyrics are repetitive and nonsensical (the only joke being "women are obsessed with eating lunch and only lunch"); Al sings in a harsh, grating Simpleton Voice that sounds as if he's constantly on the verge of throwing up; and the song is occasionally punctuated with disgusting chewing and slurping sound effects set at a high volume in a rare audio version of Gross-Up Close-Up.
- Take That!: "One More Minute" was written to get over an ex, and he rips her picture in the video.
- Title Track: "Dare to Be Stupid". This is also Al's first album to have one.
- Upper-Class Twit: "This is the Life" is about a rich guy who obnoxiously brags about his wealth, buys a bunch of expensive stuff he doesn't need, actively uses his wealth to grant himself special societal privileges at the expense of everyone else, and overall is overjoyed that his money basically makes him, in his words, "a living legend and not some ordinary creep."
- Wealthy Yacht Owner: The narrator of "This is the Life" is rich, so of course he owns yachts.
- Would Rather Suffer: "One More Minute" has the singer repeatedly mention all the painful or disgusting things he would rather do to himself than spend... well, one more minute with his ex-girlfriend.I'd rather jump naked on a huge pile of thumbtacks
Or stick my nostrils together with Krazy Glue
I'd rather dive into a swimming pool filled with double-edged razor blades
Than spend one more minute with you.
