Dare To Be Stupid

Friday night, I excitedly went to The Comedy Bar on Bloor St. to catch a show called "Weird Al Karaoke". To my disappointment, there were no Weird Al songs, but local comics and others trying to write their own parody songs. To be fair, there were funny numbers and performers. We had food songs: Bad Beef Stew (Sad But True) reminding me of Heavy Metal Vegan Chef, Chinese Food (Spiderweb); slighly risqué tunes: Mohels (Royals), Porn To Cum (Born To Run); and Hollywood tributes from a Save By The Bell song called I Hate You Zach (I Want You Back) to a Games Of Thrones number entitled I'm Jon Snow (Let It Go). Along with props and audience participation, it was a fun evening.

But it also clearly showed why Weird Al has such a long and on-going career when many of the parodied artists have faded. He has a knack for writing quite clever songs, and we're not even talking about his great original numbers. Unlike many tonight, he doesn't restrict himself to the same rhyming sounds, giving him more freedom to write. At the same time, he maintains the rhyming scheme, inducing a strong feeling of similarity. In fact, most parody songs (tonight and also most online) fail this crucial restriction. Which only leads me to believe that someone should host a real Weird Al Karaoke night in this city.