YMMV / Running with Scissors

"Weird Al" Yankovic Main YMMV Page
Albums: "Weird Al" Yankovic (1983) | "Weird Al" Yankovic in 3-D | Dare to Be Stupid | Polka Party! | Even Worse | UHF - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack and Other Stuff | Off the Deep End | Alapalooza | Bad Hair Day | Running with Scissors | Poodle Hat | Straight Outta Lynwood | Alpocalypse | Mandatory Fun
Films: UHF | Weird: The Al Yankovic Story

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• Critical Dissonance: Running With Scissors was one of his worst-reviewed albums, but contains several fan-favorites.
• Harsher in Hindsight: "Your Horoscope For Today" has a line for Pisces to "try to avoid any Virgos or Leos with the Ebola virus". This came across way more cautionary after the 2014 outbreak.
• Mexicans Love Speedy Gonzales: Jews don't just have a good sense of humor about "Pretty Fly For A Rabbi," they've completely adopted it as their own, to the point that it contributed to a rumor that Al himself was Jewish (he's a non-practicing Christian). It helps that Al already has a large Jewish fanbase and most of the stereotypes he name-checks are positive, and Judaism itself is a culture that's largely fond of Self-Deprecation.
• Parody Displacement
  • Not too many people are as familiar with Alternative Rock band The Rugburns, much less so their 1995 EP track "Dick's Automotive", as they are with Al's homage, "Albuquerque". Listening to the original version after years of being familiar with Al's version, especially when you recognize which lyrics he's spoofing directly, can be downright surreal.
  • Around the time "The Saga Begins" was getting regular airplay on Radio Disney, Madonna released a cover of "American Pie" (the song it's parodying), leading to a number of kids wondering why Madonna was singing a non-funny version of a Weird Al song. It didn't help that the cover was a tie-in to her now-forgotten star vehicle film flop The Next Best Thing. Al himself commented on the cover in a magazine article, saying "The Saga Begins" was now "the second-funniest version" of "American Pie" ever recorded.
• Unintentional Period Piece: Aside from the usual cultural references and musical trends being parodied, "Albuquerque" has a few:
  • The song includes a reference to the intercept message for when a phone is off the hook ("If you'd like to make a call / Please hang up and try again / If you need help, hang up and then / Dial your oooooooooo-per-a-tor!"), which have become less frequent in the cell phone era.
  • The Columbia Records club, which the narrator refuses to join, was discontinued in 2015 when Columbia House filed for bankruptcy.
  • The Albuquerque Holiday Inn^note Where the towels are oh so fluffy! where you can eat your soup right out of the ashtrays if you want to.^note It's okay, they're clean! Since that album came out in 1999, it's very rare to find a hotel with ashtrays, as most have gone non-smoking.
• Values Dissonance:
  • Many of the lyrics in "Jerry Springer" use a few outdated terms, such as "hermaphrodite" (which is also used in "Albuquerque") "shemale" and "midget," which are now considered offensive when compared to their more respectful ones (intersex, transgender and little person, respectively). Because of this, Al stated in a 2015 interview that he will not play the song at his live shows anymore. Of course, the song is about a show which regularly made a perverse spectacle of these and other groups on a weekly basis and also used that exact terminology in its episodes.
  • "Truck Drivin' Song" loses much of its absurdity the more gender norms are challenged, meaning a song where the entire joke is that the singer is a Wholesome Crossdresser grows less inherently funny.
• Values Resonance: However, "Truck Drivin' Song" also presents an earnest, hearty delivery of a song solidly embracing the singer's perspective. Combined with gradual indications that their fashion sense at least lies in Drag Queen territory, this paints an oddly positive picture of a person cheerily confident in their own flamboyant identity.