Line #51 Music/EvenWorse


1	[[quoteright:348:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/even_worse_album_cover.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:348:Think you're Music/{{bad}}, Music/{{Michael\|Jackson}}?]]
3	''Even Worse'' is the fifth studio album by Music/WeirdAlYankovic, released in 1988 through Rock 'n' Roll Records in North America and Scotti Bros. Records in Europe. It is notably Al's best-selling album to date, and was seen as a return to form for him both critically and commercially after his previous album, ''Music/PolkaParty'', had put his career in a bit of a slump.
4
5	!!Tracklist:
6	[[AC:Side One]]
7	# "Fat"[[note]]Parody of Music/MichaelJackson's "Bad." To date, the only time Al has parodied the same artist more than once.[[/note]]
8	# "Stuck In The Closet With Vanna White"
9	# "(This Song's Just) Six Words Long"[[note]]Parody of "Got My Mind Set On You" as performed by Music/GeorgeHarrison[[/note]]
10	# "You Make Me"
11	# "I Think I'm A Clone Now"[[note]]Parody of "I Think We're Alone Now" as performed by Tiffany[[/note]]
12
13	[[AC:Side Two]]
14	# "Lasagna"[[note]]Parody of "La Bamba" as performed by Los Lobos[[/note]]
15	# "Melanie"
16	# "Alimony"[[note]]Parody of "Mony Mony" as performed by Music/BillyIdol[[/note]]
17	# "Velvet Elvis"
18	# "Twister"
19	# "Good Old Days"
20	----
21	!!''This album's just six tropes long.'' (Actually, it's longer that that!)
22	* AllJustADream: "Stuck in the Closet with Vanna White" is about a string of these.
23	* {{Anaphora}}: Most of the lines in "You Make Me" begin with the song's title:
24	-->'''You make me''' wanna slam my head against the wall\
25	'''You make me''' do the limbo\
26	'''You make me''' wanna buy a slurpee at the mall\
27	'''You make me''' watch ''Series/TheGongShow''
28	* AntiLoveSong: "Melanie", with Al as a StalkerWithACrush.
29	* BigEater: "Fat" is sung from the perspective of one. One lyric mentions, "When you're only having seconds, I'm having 23rds."
30	* BlackComedy
31	** "Good Old Days" is a sentimental reminiscence from the POV of a literal psychopath.
32	** "Melanie" is about stalking a woman he barely knows, ending with him killing himself.
33	* BlatantLies: "(This Song's Just) Six Words Long" is lyrically longer than that.
34	* ChirpingCrickets: In the subway station after Al changes into his leather gear and his fat guy posse show up in the video for "Fat".
35	* ComedicSociopathy: "Good Old Days", which has the narrator nostalgically reminiscence about his adolescence, where he tortured animals, and committed arson, assault, and kidnapping.
36	* DivorceAssetsConflict: The subject of "Alimony".
37	* FaceOnTheCover: "Weird Al" dressed as Music/MichaelJackson, parodying the cover of his album ''Music/{{Bad}}''.
38	* FatAndProud: The subject of "Fat".
39	* FatComicRelief: Considering the nature of Al's parodies, ''everyone'' in the music video for "Fat" is this.
40	* FoodSongsAreFunny: "Fat" and "Lasagna".
41	* GratuitousItalian: Parodied in "Lasagna" which names many Italian foods while rattling off Italian phrases.
42	* HowIWroteThisArticleArticle: "(This Song's Just) Six Words Long" is about this, with Music/WeirdAlYankovic spouting verse about how he can't think of any lyrics, so he'll just repeat old ones.
43	* InTheStyleOf:
44	** "Stuck In The Closet With Vanna White" - Music/VanHalen and Music/{{Aerosmith}}
45	** "You Make Me" - Music/OingoBoingo (particularly "Grey Matter")
46	** "Velvet Elvis" - Music/ThePolice (particularly "Driven To Tears")
47	** "Twister" - Music/TheBeastieBoys
48	** "Good Old Days" - Music/JamesTaylor
49	* LyricalColdOpen: "Melanie".
50	* LyricalDissonance:
51	** "Good Old Days", a Music/JamesTaylor-esque folk ballad about childhood. However, this particular childhood involved torturing rats with hacksaws, burning down a corner store and brutally beating the shop owner, and taking a girl from highschool to a dance, and then abducting her, shaving her bald, and abandoning her in the desert tied to a chair. Al has said the song was an attempt to write a collaboration between Taylor and UsefulNotes/CharlesManson.
52	** "Melanie", a mellow pop rock song about a stalker who peeps at the titular woman through her bathroom window and does multiple creepy things like sifting through her garbage, giving her cat a mohawk, and tattooing her name across his forehead before finally [[DrivenToSuicide jumping off the floor of his apartment's sixteen-story window after she rejects him.]]
53	* MinisculeRocking: "Twister", coming in at 1 minute 7 seconds.
54	* MoneyDearBoy[[invoked]]: In-song reason for making "(This Song’s Just) Six Words Long", which may be [[TakeThat a shot at]] the writers of the original, "Got My Mind Set on You".
55	* MoneySong: "Alimony", which is about not having enough money anymore because it's all going to the ex-spouse.
56	* NaughtyBirdwatching: "Melanie".
57	* OneWomanSong: "Melanie" and "Stuck In The Closet With Vanna White".
58	* ParodyAssistance: Michael Jackson donated the subway set used for "Badder" (the kid version of "Bad" filmed for ''Film/{{Moonwalker}}'') to Yankovic for his parody "Fat".
59	* PosthumousNarration: "Melanie" ends with the singer revealing that he jumped to his death after Melanie rejected him, but isn't going to let a little thing like being deceased keep him from continuing to stalk his object of affection.
60	* RecordProducer: Rick Derringer.
61	* ShoutOut: According to "Fat", Al's shadow weighs 42 pounds, a possible reference to ''Franchise/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy''. He also eats twenty-thirds when others are having seconds, another possible reference to ''Literature/TheIlluminatusTrilogy''.
62	* StalkerWithACrush: "Melanie". Complete with peeping into her bathroom with a telescope and being willing to jump out a 16 story window for her love. Even being dead cannot stop him.
63	* SubvertedRhymeEveryOccasion: In "(This Song's Just) Six Words Long":
64	-->''I know if I put my mind to it\
65	I know I could find a good rhyme here'' [[note]]Probably a rip on the parodied song rhyming the word "it" with ..."it."[[/note]]
66	* TalkingWithSigns: In the final chorus of the video for "Fat," Al sings two "Woo!"s, then holds up a cardboard speech bubble for the final one.
67	* TooManyBelts: One of the parodic elements of the cover is how Al's jacket has even more belts than Michael Jackson's in ''Music/{{Bad}}''. The single for "Fat" has them popping as his BalloonBelly inflates.

Context Music / EvenWorse