I’ve extolled the virtues of “Weird Al” Yankovic in an earlier blogging so I’ll just say why I love this song in particular.

It is indeed true that it’s hard to be an actor. And there are those who would ignore those challenges and those who would loft them to an irrational level. The absurdity of being a professional actor has been made fun of a thousand times. But never with such respect.

Is it possible to mock someone respectfully? Yes. Yes it is.

“Skipper Dan” is possibly the greatest actor in the world (on paper). But he finds LA impossible to navigate career-wise and the only “acting” work he can find is as a tour guide on the Jungle Cruise attraction at Disneyland. This is a familiar story to those of us who live out here but it needs to be told to the rest of the world. It is simultaneously a warning.

It’s a hard knock business. And even if your the best at every stop up the ladder you still might not get your ultimate dream. That is rough but that is what it is. And it should be told. And Alfred Yankovic has done it.

And it’s damn funny.

“Skipper Dan” is from Weird Al’s latest album Internet Leaks which just received a Grammy nomination for Best Comedy Album.

“Weird Al” Yankovic official site.

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 10th, 2009 at 8:01 am and is filed under Unknown Penguin News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.