The immortal godfather of comedy music, “Weird Al” Yankovic, has returned again. A half-year following the release of his previous stand-alone single, “Whatever You Like” (a parody of T.I.’s song of the same name) Yankovic returns with a new single, and this one’s packing a video. “Craigslist” riffs on the eccentricities of the popular online classifieds site in the crooning, organ-heavy, psychedelic style of the Doors. Yankovic’s direct parodies like “Eat It” and “Amish Paradise” are legendary, but it’s in he’s lesser known for his style parodies such as the Devo-inspired “Dare to Be Stupid” that his creative talents really shine.
Garbed in the flowing white shirt and tight white pants of the Lizard King, Yankovic croons through a Morrison-inspired tirade on Internet culture. The video is a charming hodgepodge of psychedelia and American Southwest stock footage, working the Doors angle, rather than Craigslist. A smart play, because there is much Doorsy-goodness to be milked from this song. Notes of “Light My Fire” and “When the Music’s Over”, not to mention a “The End”-esque speech, mesh into an entirely new, and more intentionally funny Doors experience. Yankovic renders his unmistakable brand of comedy perfectly into Morrison’s poetic meter:
We shared a quick glance, Saturday at the mall. I never took a chance, never approached you at all. You were a blonde half-Asian with a bad case of gas, I was wearing red Speedos and a hockey mask — come on let’s find that love connection that we missed — ON CRAIGSLIST!
What’s Weird Al’s secret to pinning The Door’s sound so spot on? Well, he had a little help: Ray Manzarek, original co-founder and keyboardist of the Doors:
Just as Yankovic occasionally updates his pop culture roster with songs listing television shows, “Craigslist” is a part of his growing collection of computer-related songs. So far there’s been one every album for the last thr
ee albums: “It’s All About the Pentiums” (a parody of P. Diddy’s “It’s All About the Benjamins”), “eBay” (a parody of Backstreet Boys’ “I Want it That Way”), and “Virus Alert” (a style parody of Sparks). Along with “Whatever You Like”, and the just-released “Skipper Dan“, “Craigslist” is a part of the five track Internet EP entitled “Internet Leaks“. The tracks of the EP are all being independantly released, with the final two tracks set to drop on the 4th and 25th of next month. “Internet Leaks” will act as a lead-in to a brand new album dropping sometime next year.
