‘Weird Al’ at the Movies With Spidey and Jar-Jar

The heart of most of Al's work is best described by Dr. Demento in Al's Behind the Music, "Al really has a special talent for puncturing the pomposity of pop music, and it does take itself too seriously, most of it." A perfect example of this is one of my favorite things Al does; taking super serious, important, over-wrought, often nostalgia soaked songs and replacing the deep, meaningful lyrics with the plot of a summer blockbuster movie.

There are two perfect examples of this, the first one is from the 1999 album Running With Scissors. It's a parody of the epic, 'member the good 'ol days, sentiment trolling 1971 Don McLean hit "American Pie." Al replaces the Baby Boomer lament about the Day The Music died, with the major plot points of Star Wars Episode 1. It's just beautiful how the journey of Jar-Jar and Qui-Gon is treated with the same reverence as a battle with time and death.

The other example of this is from the 2003 album Poodle Hat. This time, Al took the 1974 Billy Joel song "Piano Man" and replaced the piano player's tales of sad bar regulars with the tale of a boy who was bitten by a radioactive spider. Gone are the stories of John the bartender and Paul the real estate novelist. They are replaced by the story of Peter, Mary Jane, and Harry (BTW, MJ seem to prefer guys that can kiss upside down in the rain).

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