“Party in the CIA” by Weird Al Yankovic
I wasn’t too familiar with the original when I first heard Weird Al’s parody, but I liked his version so much that, not only did I include it on best of the year mix, but I sat through a full three and a half minutes of Miley Cyrus. (And that’s with the cognitive dissonance of the thought of her rocking out to a Jay-Z song.) I liked the parody so much, maybe it was the original song I was responding to.
Not quite. The song has a decent hook, but Yankovic improves on it on almost every level, musically and lyrically.
Under most circumstances, Weird Al is ten times the musician of the people he’s parodying.
Definitely my favorite song from his most recent album. It’s insanely catchy… but still not enough to make me want to listen to Miley Cyrus, so I salute you for your fortitude. Coincidentally, it’s been stuck in my head off and on for the last few days, since I just read a memoir by someone who used to work for the CIA. Thanks for putting it back in there. (I mean that. It’s way better than some of the alternatives that have been stuck in there lately.)
His Lady Gaga parody, “Perform This Way,” is the one that’s gotten the most attention, but I think it’s easily the weaker of the two. (Though it’s enjoyable in its own right, it’s hardly my favorite on the new CD.) “Party in the CIA” is just so well crafted; it’s funny and clever, full of subtle moments that both parody Cyrus and take shots at the black-ops-as-peacekeeping-tool mentality that’s driven a whole lot of U.S. foreign policy of late. And it’s musically a whole lot more polished than the original, despite ostensibly being the same song.
I admit I kinda liked the original when it came out – music only as I never really listened to the words. Then I erased it from my brain and forbid myself from liking it on the sole grounds that it was a Miley Cyrus song. Now, thanks to you and Al, I can like, dare I even say love, it to my heart’s content.