Yoda

When our kids were quite young, but old enough to already know and to love Weird Al, we surprised them by taking them to see Al at Bass Concert Hall. We didn’t tell them where we were going until we got to the venue and told them the real reason we were on the University of Texas campus.

I think much the same way I’m thankful that Kenny Rogers was the first concert I remember attending, we were delighted “Weird Al” would be theirs. For one thing, both our boys genuinely liked Al and had their own favorites apart from the songs we had grown up with: “Party in the CIA,” “White and Nerdy,” “Word Crimes,”“First World Problems,” “Perform this Way,” and “Jurassic Park.” Arguably, Al had been a more successful parodist in their era than in ours.

But also, Weird Al is just cool now? I think part of the reason he had all those hits in the 2000s is that no one wanted to say no to Al anymore. In the 80s the parodied artists weren’t always keen on being the butt of Al’s gentle jokes. But now, if you get a Weird Al parody, that’s definitely the pinnacle of your career. Seriously.

At the show, Al played all those hits I mentioned above and tons more. With elaborate sets and costume changes, all while he and his band demonstrated the serious chops that come from years of touring.

But you know what the encore was, right?

It was Al’s two signature Star Wars parodies: “Yoda” (a parody of “Lola” by the Kinks) and “The Saga Begins” (an even more ambitious parody of “American Pie” by Don McLean from 1999).

In 1985, I had memorized “Yoda” and sang it all the time. Not the whole song, but just that key hilarious line.

“I know Darth Vader’s got you really annoyed / but, remember if you kill him then you’ll be unemployed, oh my Yoda / Yo-yo-yo-yo-Yoda.”

This line is so iconic it later became the plot of The Lego Batman Movie.

I repeated this lyric constantly. I am sure it was annoying how often I sang it. But I didn’t own the tape or anything, and I never bothered to learn the rest of it until I was an adult singing along with my own kids.

But as much as I loved “Yoda,” I didn’t hear the Kinks’ original, about the titular transgender woman, until I was a teen. And then I found out why the “Yoda” melody was so good.

I already mentioned my fave lyrics from “Yoda.” Here are my fave lyrics from “Lola:”

Girls will be boys and boys will be girls It’s a mixed up, muddled up, shook up world Except for Lola Lo-Lo-Lo-Lo-Lola