Line #93 Music/OffTheDeepEnd


1	[[quoteright:320:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/off_the_deep_end_album_cover.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:320: ''Here we are now, we're Nirvana!'']]
3
4	->''"Now I'm mumblin', and I'm screamin'\
5	And I don't know what I'm singin'\
6	Crank the volume, ears are bleedin'\
7	I still don't know what I'm singin'\
8	We're so loud and incoherent\
9	Boy, this oughta bug your parents!"''
10	-->-- '''"Smells Like Nirvana"'''
11
12	''Off the Deep End'' is the seventh studio album by Music/WeirdAlYankovic, released in 1992 through Scotti Bros. Records, and his first to be self-produced after Rick Derringer produced all of his previous ones.
13
14	At the start of TheNineties, Weird Al's career was in a rut. His 1989 film ''Film/{{UHF}}'' bombed due to its poor choice of release date, the associated [[Music/UHFOriginalMotionPictureSoundtrackAndOtherStuff soundtrack & studio album]] was mostly ignored, Music/MichaelJackson declined permission for Al to parody his recent hit [[Music/DangerousAlbum "Black or White"]] as "Snack All Night" (due to Jackson feeling that the song's message of race relations in America would be trivialized by the parody), and the public was generally starting to move away from Al, who was seeming more and more like a relic of TheEighties. It seemed more than likely that Al was over as an artist, but the man was determined to prove he could keep his head above water in the new decade.
15
16	Enter an obscure UsefulNotes/{{Seattle}}-based band called Music/{{Nirvana}}, who decided to release [[Music/NevermindAlbum their second album]] in 1991. The album's lead single, "Smells Like Teen Spirit", rapidly shot up the charts, catapulted the band and the general {{grunge}} scene into mainstream popularity, and rapidly instigated the cultural genesis of the new decade. Having wanted to parody Nirvana for a while but being concerned about their initial obscurity, Al saw "Smells Like Teen Spirit" as his chance. Al managed to obtain permission from Music/KurtCobain to parody the song as "Smells Like Nirvana"[[labelnote:*]]Cobain's sole request was that it not be about food and was otherwise overjoyed at the idea of having Al parody his music, having seen it as evidence that Nirvana had officially "made it" as a band[[/labelnote]], and with that, found his career [[CareerResurrection rapidly careening back on track]].
17
18	''Off the Deep End'' spawned three singles: "Smells Like Nirvana", "You Don't Love Me Anymore", and "Taco Grande". The album was a commercial success, peaking at No. 17 on the ''Billboard'' charts; its release just a few months after ''Nevermind''[='s=] displacing of Jackson's ''Music/{{Dangerous\|Album}}'' as the No. 1 album certainly helped.
19	----
20	!!Tracklist:
21	# "Smells Like Nirvana" (3:45)[[note]]Parody of Music/{{Nirvana}}'s "Smells Like Teen Spirit."[[/note]]
22	# "Trigger Happy" (3:47)
23	# "I Can't Watch This" (3:31)[[note]]Parody of Music/MCHammer's "U Can't Touch This."[[/note]]
24	# "Polka Your Eyes Out" (3:50)
25	# "I Was Only Kidding" (3:30)
26	# "The White Stuff" (2:43)[[note]]Parody of New Kids on the Block's "You Got It (The Right Stuff)."[[/note]]
27	# "When I Was Your Age" (4:35)
28	# "Taco Grande" (3:47)[[note]]Parody of Gerardo's "Rico Suave."[[/note]]
29	# "Airline Amy" (3:50)
30	# "The Plumbing Song" (4:06)[[note]]Parody of Music/MilliVanilli's "Baby Don't Forget My Number" and "Blame It On The Rain."[[/note]]
31	# "You Don't Love Me Anymore" (4:01)
32	# "Bite Me" (0:06)[[note]]Hidden track that's only present in CD releases of the album. Parody of Nirvana's "Endless, Nameless."[[/note]]
33	----
34	!!''Tropes Like Nirvana'':
35	* AffectionateParody:
36	** "Smells Like Nirvana" is a parody of Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit", and makes fun of the latter song's IndecipherableLyrics.
37	** The album's cover art is one to ''Music/{{Nevermind\|Album}}'', the album which "Smells Like Teen Spirit" is the opening track of.
38	* AntiLoveSong: "I Was Only Kidding".
39	* AnArmAndALeg: During a mosh in "Smells Like Nirvana", a guy tears somebody's arm off and starts swinging it around.
40	* AsLongAsItSoundsForeign: The gibberish end lyrics of "Smells Like Nirvana", which segues from sounding like Japanese to Yiddish:
41	-->Sayonara, sayonara,\
42	Ayonawa, odinawa,\
43	Odinaya, yodinaya,\
44	Yaddayadda, yaaahyaaah,\
45	Ayaaaaaah!
46	* BilingualBonus: "Taco Grande", much like the song it parodies, is filled with Gratuitous Spanish. While Al's simple phrases are mostly things about foods he wants and paying for them, [[Creator/CheechAndChong Cheech Marin]]'s cameo in the bridge is a lengthy recommendation and description of a particularly hot dish and the side effects of eating it, ending by asking if the stupid customer can understand what he's saying.[[note]]Ironically, the Mexican-American Marin doesn't speak fluent Spanish, and Al wrote his part out phonetically after translating it with a secretary who spoke Spanish.[[/note]]
47	* BlackComedy: "You Don't Love Me Anymore" is a ballad about all the ways his girlfriend has tried to kill him.
48	* BreakupSong: Mercilessly parodied in "You Don't Love Me Anymore".
49	* TheCameo: Creator/RobertGoulet plays piano in the video for "You Don't Love Me Anymore".
50	* CameraAbuse: Al licks the camera in the video for "Smells Like Nirvana".
51	* CarefulWithThatAxe: "Bite Me" is eight seconds of Al screaming bloody murder following 10 minutes of silence.
52	* DeadSparks: "You Don't Love Me Anymore" hilariously takes it up to eleven when the girl in the song gets with everyone on the local hockey team, tells her friends that the protagonist in the song is the Antichrist, and then she starts trying to kill him on multiple occasions.
53	-->''Oh, why did you disconnect the brakes on my car?\
54	That kind of thing is hard to ignore\
55	Got a funny feeling you don't love me anymore''
56	* DeliberatelyMonochrome: The video for "You Don't Love Me Anymore", which in itself parodies the one for Music/{{Extreme}}'s "More Than Words".
57	* DIYDisaster: "The Plumbing Song".
58	-->''When I flush the john, it turns the shower on!''
59	* TheDogBitesBack: The end of "I Was Only Kidding".
60	* EvenTheSubtitlerIsStumped: The music video for "Smells Like Nirvana," in one hilarious moment:
61	-->''It's hard to bargle nawdle zouss???''\
62	''With all these marbles in my mouth''
63	** And according to the insert for the CD, those are the ''actual lyrics.''
64	* FaceOnTheCover: "Weird Al" in the swimming pool, parodying the cover of Nirvana's album ''Nevermind''. Amusingly, Al stated in the biography ''Weird Al: The Book'' that he intended the cover to show him wearing brightly colored swim trunks (you can see a sliver of them on his right leg), but the photo was taken at an angle that made him appear naked. He decided to just roll with it.
65	* FanDisservice: Actually wearing swim trunks or not, Weird Al is arguably the last person anyone would want to see naked on an album cover.
66	* FoodSongsAreFunny: "The White Stuff" (talking about Oreo cookies) and "Taco Grande".
67	* FunnyBackgroundEvent: The basketball players and the ManOnFire while Al gargles the solo in the video for "Smells like Nirvana."
68	* GreensPrecedeSweets: Inverted in "When I Was Your Age":
69	-->''Every night for dinner, we had a big old chunk of dirt''\
70	''If we were really good, we ''didn't'' get dessert''
71	* GunNut: "Trigger Happy".
72	* HiddenTrack: Done as a prank on absent-minded listeners who'd forget to turn their CD players off after the last song. After "You Don't Love Me Any More," there's about ten minutes of silence followed by eleven seconds of cacophonous noise and screaming entitled "Bite Me."
73	* HilariouslyAbusiveChildhood: "When I Was Your Age" has the singer outlining really ridiculous things that happened to him in his childhood.
74	-->''Dad would whoop us every night till a quarter after twelve''\
75	''Then he'd get too tired and he'd make us whoop ourselves''\
76	''Then he'd chop me into pieces and play frisbee with my brain''\
77	''And let me tell ya, Junior, you never heard me complain''
78	* InTheStyleOf:
79	** "Trigger Happy" - Music/TheBeachBoys
80	** "I Was Only Kidding" - Tonio K.
81	** "When I Was Your Age" - early Music/AliceCooper
82	** "Airline Amy" - Music/NickLowe and Music/JonathanRichman
83	** "You Don't Love Me Anymore" - Music/{{Extreme}}
84	* JumpScare: Al has stated that "Bite Me" was made specifically for this effect on the poor people that forgot to turn off their CD players.
85	* JustJokingJustification: "I Was Only Kidding".
86	* {{Lobotomy}}: What Al says would improve the appeal of HBO, the Playboy Network, Showtime, and MTV in "I Can't Watch This".
87	* LoveMartyr: "You Don't Love Me Anymore" takes this trope to extremes.
88	* LyricalColdOpen: "I Can't Watch This".
89	* LyricalDissonance: "Trigger Happy" is a cheery Beach Boys-type song about gun accidents.
90	* {{Medley}}: "Polka Your Eyes Out". Songs featured, in order:
91	** "Cradle Of Love" by Music/BillyIdol
92	** "Tom's Diner" by Music/SuzanneVega
93	** "Love Shack" by Music/TheB52s
94	** "Clarinet Polka", a public domain song
95	** "Pump Up the Jam" by Technotronic
96	** "Losing My Religion" by Music/{{REM}}
97	** "Unbelievable" by EMF
98	** "Do Me!" by Bell Biv [=DeVoe=]
99	** "Enter Sandman" by Music/{{Metallica}}
100	** "The Humpty Dance" by Music/DigitalUnderground
101	** "Cherry Pie" by Music/{{Warrant}}
102	** "Miss You Much" by Music/JanetJackson
103	** "I Touch Myself" by Music/{{Divinyls}}
104	** "Dr. Feelgood" by Music/MotleyCrue
105	** "Ice Ice Baby" by Music/VanillaIce
106	** "Ear Booker Polka" by Al Yankovic
107	* MinisculeRocking: The HiddenTrack, "Bite Me," is only 6 seconds long.
108	* MoodWhiplash: "You Don't Love Me Anymore" is a humorous breakup song but it has this pair of lines, equivalent to a punch in the gut:
109	-->''You slammed my face down on the barbecue grill''\
110	''Now my scars are all healing, but my heart never will''
111	* {{Not}}: Done in "I Was Only Kidding" as a ShoutOut to ''Film/WaynesWorld'':
112	-->''I was only kidding''\
113	''I really love you, not!''
114	* OffWithHisHead: A crowd member in "Smells Like Nirvana" tears the head off a guy behind him and throws it onto the stage.
115	* OneWomanSong: "Airline Amy".
116	* OnlyAFleshWound: Referenced in Trigger Happy":
117	-->''Oh, I accidentally shot Daddy last night in the den''\
118	''I mistook him in the dark for a drug-crazed Nazi again''\
119	''Now why'd you have to get so mad?''\
120	''It was just a lousy flesh wound, Dad''\
121	''You know I'm trigger happy, trigger happy every day''
122	* ParodyAssistance: The "Smells Like Nirvana" video actually had some of the actors from the original "Smells Like Teen Spirit" video, including the janitor.
123	* PoesLaw: At least one faction of gun nuts takes "Trigger Happy" literally.
124	* {{Pun}}: On "I Can't Watch This," Al says he want to [[Creator/DavidLynch lynch]] the doughnut-eating freaks on ''Series/TwinPeaks''.
125	* PunBasedTitle: "Polka Your Eyes Out."[[note]][[DontExplainTheJoke If you don't get it]], it's supposed to sound like "[[EyeScream poke your eyes out]]."[[/note]]
126	* RecklessGunUsage: The singer in "Trigger Happy" accidentally shoots both his father and his cat.
127	* RecordProducer: The first album Al self-produced.
128	* RockersSmashGuitars:
129	** {{Exaggerated\|trope}} and {{Parodied\|trope}} at the end of the "Smells like Nirvana" video. Al smashes his guitar, the audience smashes plates on a guy's head and then Al pushes a plunge-detonator to demolish a building.
130	** The video for "You Don't Love Me Anymore" — which is a sad, acoustic ballad — ends with Al (who is not holding an instrument) being suddenly overcome by the dejection expressed in the song, at which point he violently wrests the acoustic guitar from his guitarist's grasp, demolishes it thoroughly against the floor, shoots a disgusted look at the camera as if to say, "what are you looking at?", and finally drags his feet off the set.
131	* SexyStewardess: "Airline Amy".
132	* ShoutOut:
133	** "Trigger Happy" has the lines "Now why'd ya havta get so mad?/It was [[Film/MontyPythonAndTheHolyGrail just a lousy flesh wound, dad]]." and "I always keep a Magnum in my trunk/You better ask yourself, [[Film/DirtyHarry do you feel lucky, punk]]?"
134	** "Smells Like Nirvana" has one line where the singer mentions [[Theatre/MyFairLady they have marbles in their mouth]].
135	* SomethingSomethingLeonardBernstein: "Smells Like Nirvana" is all about how hard the lyrics of "Smells Like Teen Spirit" are to decipher. The only lyrics that match the original's are "never mind" in the final verse.
136	* SpecialGuest:
137	** [[Creator/CheechAndChong Cheech Marin]] in "Taco Grande".
138	** Creator/TomKenny as one of the announcers on "I Can't Watch This."
139	* SpokenWordInMusic: "I Can't Watch This" contains samples of various TV commercial taglines in the breakdowns.
140	* StockFootage: The "Smells Like Nirvana" video uses a brief stock clip of a building being imploded after Al pushes a plunge-detonator.
141	* SubliminalSeduction: "Bite Me", which is probably the weirdest example ever. If you slow it down 800% (300% in Sound Recorder), it has a segment of a different song in it.
142	* TakeThat:
143	** Discussing "The Plumbing Song" which parodies Music/MilliVanilli's "Blame It on the Rain" and "Baby Don't Forget My Number", Al called his joking on the infamous duo "redundant" in the wake of their 1990 Grammy Awards lip-syncing scandal. He went on to confirm that he did, in fact, sing his song himself.
144	** "I Can't Watch This" is a full list of these about TV shows and personalities, including:
145	*** ''Series/AmericasFunniestHomeVideos'' (the only show to get a whole verse dedicated to it)
146	*** ''Series/TheCosbyShow''
147	*** ''Series/{{Roseanne}}''
148	*** ''Series/ThePeoplesCourt''
149	*** ''Series/TwinPeaks''
150	*** ''Series/SiskelAndEbert''
151	*** ''[[Series/LateNight Late Night with David Letterman]]''
152	*** ''Series/TheArsenioHallShow''
153	* ViewersAreMorons: "I Can't Watch This" seems to suggest this with the then-current state of TV programming at the time of the song's release.
154	* WhenIWasYourAge: "When I Was Your Age", obviously. The song's narrator tells young children how his childhood was much harder than theirs:
155	--> ''Well, nobody ever drove me to school when it was ninety degrees below\
156	We had to walk butt naked through forty miles of snow\
157	Worked in the coal mine twenty two hours a day for just half a cent\
158	Had to sell my internal organs just to pay the rent\
159	When I was your age''
160	* WordSaladLyrics: "Smells Like Nirvana" is all about how the singer doesn't even know what the words are, but that's OK since it's a Nirvana song.

Context Music / OffTheDeepEnd