Dare to Be Stupid (song)

"Dare to Be Stupid"
Song

"Dare to Be Stupid" is an original song by "Weird Al" Yankovic. It is a musical pastiche (or "style parody") of the band Devo, and was featured in The Transformers: The Movie. It was later released as a double a-side along with "The Touch" by Stan Bush. Shortly after the song was released, Yankovic received a letter from Mark Mothersbaugh congratulating him on writing "the perfect Devo song". He has also said that it was "beautiful ... and I hate him for it, basically."

Track listing

The following tracks appear on "The Touch/Dare to Be Stupid" single:

1. "The Touch" by Stan Bush – 3:54
2. "Dare to Be Stupid" – 3:23

Music video

The music video and song are, as Yankovic himself said, a "style parody" of Devo's works:

• Yankovic and his band wear the yellow radiation suits from Devo's cover of The Rolling Stones' "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" video throughout. The man having a fit on a wallpapered wall and floor is also taken from the "Satisfaction" music video, but in Dare to Be Stupid it more resembles breakdancing.
• Segments of the video are reminiscent of several of Devo's videos:
  • "Devo Corporate Anthem" – in one scene, the band is standing in the same pose as Devo.
  • "Jocko Homo" – in another segment, the band wears nylon stockings over their heads.
  • "Beautiful World" – There are also several scenes of black-and-white stock footage, directed by Al (wearing a different costume than in the rest of the video) in front of a big machine. In addition, "Tell me, what did I say?" also resembles the line from this song.
  • "Come Back Jonee" - in one scene, the elderly men dressed up in Cowboy suits are reminiscent of the elderly men bowling in the "Come Back Jonee" video.
  • "The Day My Baby Gave Me a Surprize" – in this part the group is in front of very simple computer graphics.
  • "Freedom of Choice" – The use of stop-motion animation and computer graphics is also reminiscent of this Devo video. The use of Roman togas also comes from "Freedom of Choice," and at one point, a man must choose between a banana and an accordion, reminiscent to Yankovic's song.
  • "Whip It" – The guitarist is alone, wearing a cowboy outfit (although the guitarist wearing a cowboy outfit was from the music video to the theme from the movie Doctor Detroit, which Devo performed, it is likely a coincidence, as the set was based on the "Whip It" video).
• The man with a pipe, smiling and watching television with a chainsaw near the beginning of the video is a very typical Devo-like image as well, juxtaposing violent, out of context or unexplained occurrences and objects with a 1950s-like "wholesome American" feel. This man is meant to be J.R. "Bob" Dobbs, Head of the Church of the SubGenius. Some say it may also be a take off of "General Boy" from the "We're all Devo" Video.
• The video also includes a lot of bizarre imagery which, for the most part, is irrelevant to the lyrics, such as Yankovic's face emerging from a bowl of Alpha-Bits cereal (a nod to the similarly Devo-esque scene in the video from early 80's band- and friend of Devo's- Wall of Voodoo's "Mexican Radio" when lead singer Stan Ridgway's face emerges from a bowl of cooked pinto beans) . A breakdancer appears at two points in the video whose style bears resemblance to Spaz Attack, featured in Devo's "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" video.
• The machine Yankovic controls during parts of the video is an interocitor from the film This Island Earth.
• The video also references the Grateful Dead's Ice Cream Kid, their logo from the Europe '72 tour.

Relation with Transformers

• The song is played in The Transformers: The Movie as the theme of the Junkions, a group of robots living on the planet of junk. Like the song, Junkion speech was littered with cultural and television references.
• In celebration of the release of the 2007 Transformers movie, nerdcore rapper MC Chris did a cover of Dare to Be Stupid and released it on his MySpace for download.
• In the TV series Transformers: Animated, Weird Al makes a guest appearance as a Transformer named Wreck-Gar (who was the leader of the Junkions in the original movie). Near the end of the episode, he exclaims "I am Wreck-Gar! and I dare to be stupid!"

See also

• List of songs by "Weird Al" Yankovic