Gus & Tony talk about their primordial musical influence: Weird Al. Tony bought the tape (!) of Running with Scissors after a friend played some songs in elementary school for show & tell. Tony theorizes that listening to Weird Al albums encouraged in him a preference for lots of genre change on the album—something that most pop artists obviously don't provide (though this discussion is far shorter than the sheer geek out session and sing throughs of Weird Al songs).

Playlist of original songs & Weird Al parodies.

Playlist of Polka Power songs.

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Interesting shit to check out:

FAQ on Al’s site

https://www.weirdal.com/archives/faq/

Blog analyzing Al’s lyrical brilliance:

https://www.greatwriterssteal.com/2013/01/09/what-can-we-steal-from-weird-al-yankovics-you-dont-love-me-anymore/

On Queen Ida, Zydeco legned:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1986/12/03/the-queen-of-zydeco/91409f76-fb4c-489d-abe3-bd4fd28ad0c9/

On the word Hermaphrodite:

https://isna.org/node/16/

The LA times interview Tony (mis)quotes from memory at the end of the show:

https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/music/story/2022-10-26/weird-al-yankovic-story-movie-roku-daniel-radcliffe

“He still plays “Albuquerque,” an 11-minute-plus shaggy-dog story-song in the George Thorogood tradition, but he pauses midway through to contextualize his use of the word “hermaphrodite,” affirming that language is supposed to evolve, that certain words that seemed funny in 1999 aren’t funny anymore — unlike the word “Albuquerque,” which will always be funny.”

Technical note: An earlier version of this episode didn't deepen Gus's voice for "microscopic bacteria." My bad! Now you can hear Gus in all his edited bassiness.