Eying little squirrels with bad int….. oh wait, wrong song!
The Nest is making sure you start your week off with a laugh by honoring our favorite songs from the world’s greatest parodist. It’s the Top 30 Weird Al Parodies countdown! Weird Al is truly a musical chameleon with such a variety of sounds and genres in his collection, that you might say a Weird Al countdown would be like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get…
#25. “Gump” – (Parody of “Lump” – The Presidents of the United States of America)
At some point in the 1990’s, Tom Hanks transformed from that guy who was in a bunch of goofy 80’s movies into one of the greatest actors of all time who was seemingly in the race for Best Actor Oscar every year. Hanks’ second Oscar, and maybe the role he’ll always be most associated with, came from his portrayal of the title character in the 1994 movie Forrest Gump. Gump was the fictional tale of a simple man from the South who was a couple chocolates short of a box, but who nevertheless seemed to constantly find himself at the crossroads of history.
If only Forrest were silent as well…
When the alternative trio that went by the overbloated and overbearing name The Presidents of the United States of America released a short by catchy song called “Lump” the following year……. well, Weird Al just couldn’t resist.
The whole premise and character of Forrest Gump is so ripe for mocking that it’s still done quite a bit twenty years later, and Weird Al gets plenty of good references in here, even going so far as to call Jenny (pronounced JENN-ay) a slut to set up a rhyme! Unfortunately, if you’re not familiar with the original song (as I wasn’t the first time I heard this about five years ago), it’s going to lose some of its charm. Thankfully, Mecca has taken care of that recently by making “Lump” a nightly earworm, so I can enjoy “Gump” to the fullest!
Careful, Forrest! You’ll get brain freez…… er, nevermind.
This is the second straight song in the countdown to come from Al’s 1996 album Bad Hair Day…… and it will be the last, as the quintet of parodies that appeared on that album are probably his collective worst among all 14 albums. Yeah, if you were expecting dreadful efforts like “Phony Calls” or “Cavity Search” to be in the Top 10, sorry to burst your bubble…
Please stick to the seven digit numbers you’re used to…
Join me next Monday for some early Weird Al goodness!
Evil Squirrel's Nest 
heh heh I always liked that Lump song, and this one is pretty funny! 🙂
I liked it even before I’d heard the original. In fact, the first time I heard “Lump” I thought, “Hey, that’s Weird Al!”
🙂 🙂
hahaha the video is great!!!
Yes it is, and even better when compared to the original…
The video is hilarious – and wow! can Al high kick!
Every time I see that, I wonder if he really is kicking that high. I mean, even in my younger more flexible days, there’s no way in hell I could get my leg up like that!
Mmm, edited tape?
The video is hilarious but yet again – I’ve never heard “Lump” before. Again – my excuse is that rock I was living under.
Pam
I was under a rock for most of the 90’s and missed it too, then missed it again when I first started hearing 90’s as “oldies” on the radio. That might be a song Weird Al’s parody kept from being completely unknown today…
Never heard the song. Never seen the film. Quite good, though!
Forrest Gump is one of those movies (at least here in the US) where you wouldn’t even have to have seen it to know a lot of things about it because it’s referenced so often. Kind of like I can understand shoutouts to The Princess Bride or Monty Python and the Holy Grail despite never having seen either film before…
My brain seems wired to only hear the original songs. It keeps the little grey cells happier that way.