History YMMV / PoodleHat

* AcceptableHardLuckTargets:
** "Trash Day" if you interpret the protagonist as a guy suffering from compulsive hoarding and not ''just'' a lazy sexist {{Jerkass}}.
** "Party at the Leper Colony" since leprosy is still around for people to catch in some parts of the developing world where the cure is unavailable or unaffordable.

%%* ValuesDissonance: "The Angry White Boy Polka" served as a TakeThat to the huge-at-the-time NuMetal and GarageRock genres. The fact it covers songs with serious content (such as "[[Music/PapaRoach Last Resort]]", which is about the main character having suicidal thoughts, and "[[Music/{{POD}} Youth of the Nation]]", which mentions a school shooting and a character committing suicide) makes it seem a bit tasteless now.

* HarsherInHindsight: One of the items mentioned in "eBay" is a ''Series/TheDukesOfHazzard'' ashtray. With the controversy surrounding the Confederate flag, that will now raise some eyebrows instead.

A major sticking point for critics of the album was that the subjects being parodied were no longer topical by 2003. Both {{boy band}}s and NuMetal[=/=]RapMetal acts, two massively popular genres at the TurnOfTheMillennium being parodied in "eBay" and "Angry White Boy Polka," respectively, had already fallen out of style, the former's chart dominance diminished thanks to the rise of [=R&B=]-flavored pop, and the latter was suffering a major backlash that made it give way to PostGrunge, PopPunk and the GarageRock revival. The polka medley alone included songs that were between three and ''five'' years old, as opposed to the average two year grace period for the songs Al chooses to satirize. One review in particular even pointed out that eBay themselves had [[RedundantParody beaten Al to the punch]] with a song parody about themselves with their "Do It eBay" commercials which parodied Music/FrankSinatra's "My Way."[[note]]Al claims that his "I Want It That Way" parody was actually an AnswerSong to the people who kept [[MisattributedSong misattributing the other parody, "Which Backstreet Boy Is Gay" to him]]. And even ''that'' parody was all-but-forgotten by 2003.[[/note]] "Ode To A Superhero," as with most of Al's parodies of much older songs (in this case, Music/BillyJoel's "Piano Man," which was several ''decades'' old by that point), was seen as an act of desperation by these same critics.
* DemographicallyInappropriateHumour: While Al generally aims for PG material on his albums, "Wanna B Ur Lovr" is generally considered the raunchiest song on his studio albums and slightly out-of-character with his other work. Lyrics such as "I wanna be your anaconda, and your heat-seeking missile too", {{lampshaded}} later on as "subtle innuendos", are about as blatant Al gets with sexual material in his songs.
* HarsherInHindsight: One of the items mentioned in "Ebay" is a ''Series/TheDukesOfHazzard'' ashtray. With the controversy surrounding the Confederate flag, that will now raise some eyebrows instead.

** "Party at the Leper Colony" since Leprosy is still around for people to catch in some parts of the developing world where the cure is unavailable or unaffordable.

* AudienceAlienatingEra: While the CriticalDissonance for ''Running With Scissors'' wasn't enough to stunt his career, the lack of promotion after the "Couch Potato" video was canceled, poor critical reception of the album itself and serious matters in his personal life [[note]]His parents died while he was on tour and he had a three-year-old daughter to take care of.[[/note]] killed Al's mainstream presence for a couple of years.

* WereStillRelevantDammit: A major sticking point for critics of the album was that the subjects being parodied were no longer topical by 2003. Both {{boy band}}s and NuMetal[=/=]RapMetal acts, two massively popular genres at the TurnOfTheMillennium being parodied in "eBay" and "Angry White Boy Polka," respectively, had already fallen out of style, the former's chart dominance diminished thanks to the rise of [=R&B=]-flavored pop, and the latter was suffering a major backlash that made it give way to PostGrunge, PopPunk and the GarageRock revival. The polka medley alone included songs that were between three and ''five'' years old, as opposed to the average two year grace period for the songs Al chooses to satirize. One review in particular even pointed out that eBay themselves had [[RedundantParody beaten Al to the punch]] with a song parody about themselves with their "Do It eBay" commercials which parodied Music/FrankSinatra's "My Way."[[note]]Al claims that his "I Want It That Way" parody was actually an AnswerSong to the people who kept [[MisattributedSong misattributing the other parody, "Which Backstreet Boy Is Gay" to him]]. And even ''that'' parody was all-but-forgotten by 2003.[[/note]] "Ode To A Superhero," as with most of Al's parodies of much older songs (in this case, Music/BillyJoel's "Piano Man," which was several ''decades'' old by that point), was seen as an act of desperation by these same critics. The movie it references was released in 2002 and so still had relevance.

* VindicatedByHistory: Though poorly received upon its release, ''Poodle Hat'' contains quite a few of what are now considered Weird Al's most iconic and brilliant works. It helps that, with the benefit of years having passed since the album's release, it's now far less apparent that Al was parodying things that were a bit more stale than what he usually tackles.

* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: Is the protagonist of "Trash Day" just a lazy slob (like his girlfriend claims) or suffering from compulsive hoarding?

* WereStillRelevantDammit: A major sticking point for critics of the album was that the subjects being parodied were no longer topical by 2003. Both {{boy band}}s and NuMetal[=/=]RapMetal acts, two massively popular genres at the TurnOfTheMillennium being parodied in "eBay" and "Angry White Boy Polka," respectively, had already fallen out of style, the former's chart dominance diminished thanks to the rise of [=R&B=]-flavored pop, and the latter was suffering a major backlash that made it give way to PostGrunge, PopPunk and the GarageRock revival. The polka medley alone included songs that were between three and ''five'' years old, as opposed to the average two year grace period for the songs Al chooses to satirize. One review in particular even pointed out that eBay themselves had [[RedundantParody beaten Al to the punch]] with a song parody about themselves with their "Do It eBay" commercials which parodied Music/FrankSinatra's "My Way."[[note]]Al claims that his "I Want It That Way" parody was actually an AnswerSong to the people who kept [[MisattributedSong misattributing the other parody, "Which Backstreet Boy Is Gay" to him]]. And even ''that'' parody was all-but-forgotten by 2003.[[/note]] "Ode To A Superhero," as with most of Al's parodies of much older songs (in this case, Music/BillyJoel's "Piano Man," which was several ''decades'' old by that point), was seen as an act of desperation by these same critics.

* HilariousInHindsight: ''Ode to a Superhero'' contains the line "he's wearing that dumb Franchise/PowerRangers mask, but he's scarier without it on", a light jab at the Green Goblin's costume in ''Film/SpiderMan1''. Eighteen years later, Creator/WillemDafoe would reprise the role of Norman Osborn/Green Goblin in ''Film/SpiderManNoWayHome'', and sure enough, Osborn not only eschewed the mask as part of his CostumeEvolution, but arguably was a lot more intimidating than he ever was in the 2002 film.