Couch Potato (song)

"Couch Potato"
Song by "Weird Al" Yankovic from the album Poodle Hat
Genre	Comedy, Hip hop, Alternative rap, Comedy rap
Length	4:18
Label	Volcano
Writer	"Weird Al" Yankovic, Eminem, Luis Resto, Jeff Bass
Producer	"Weird Al" Yankovic
Poodle Hat track listing
"Couch Potato" "Hardware Store" "Trash Day" "Party at the Leper Colony" "Angry White Boy Polka" "Wanna B Ur Lovr" "A Complicated Song" "Why Does This Always Happen to Me?" "Ode to a Superhero" "Bob" "eBay" "Genius in France"

"Couch Potato" is a song by "Weird Al" Yankovic. It is a parody of "Lose Yourself" by Eminem. In it, the narrator details how much television he watches.

Release

"Couch Potato" was originally going to be the lead single of Poodle Hat, but due to Eminem's concern that it might hurt his career, its commercial release was postponed indefinitely. Couch Potato has never been released as a promo, nor a commercial single. It is only available on the Poodle Hat CD, or as a digital download on the internet.

Music video

Yankovic intended to make a music video for the song, but the plan was nixed at the last minute when Eminem denied Yankovic the right to make a video. According to Yankovic, the video would have included a "patchwork quilt" pastiche of scenes from other Eminem videos.^[1]

Yankovic told the Chicago Sun-Times in 2004, "Last year, Eminem forced me to halt production on the video for my 'Lose Yourself' parody because he somehow thought that it would be harmful to his image or career."

Yankovic mocked the situation on his Al TV special where he staged a mock interview with the rapper using footage from a real Eminem interview on MTV News. Eminem said "I believe in...artistic expression." Al countered with "So you think, for example if somebody wanted to do, oh, I don't know, a parody of somebody else's video, they should be able to... artistically express themselves and just do it?" Eminem was shown at a loss for words.

Also in the mocked interview, Al simply played the first verse on a boombox while sitting in a chair, reading a newspaper until Eminem eventually turned it off.

References in the song

Television shows 8 Simple Rules for Dating my Teenage Daughter 24 60 Minutes Da Ali G Show Amazing Race American Idol The Anna Nicole Show Are You Hot? The Bachelorette Celebrity Mole CSI: Boise (referring to CSI and its many spinoffs, such as CSI: Miami) The Drew Carey Show E! True Hollywood Story Entertainment Tonight Everybody Tolerates Raymond (referring to Everybody Loves Raymond) Fear Factor The Flintstones Gilligan's Island Inside the Actor's Studio King of Queens Larry King Live Law & Order Lost in Space MacGyver Melrose Place The Muppet Show NASCAR The Oprah Winfrey Show The Osbournes Six Feet Under (referred to as "that show about undertaking") The Sopranos SpongeBob SquarePants Survivor The Tonight Show with Jay Leno Touched by an Uncle (referring to Touched by an Angel) Welcome Back, Kotter Will & Grace Without a Trace

Television networks A&E AMC Court TV C-SPAN Discovery Channel Disney Channel Fox HBO History Channel Learning Channel Lifetime Television MTV Playboy Channel QVC Sci-Fi Channel Travel Channel TV Land Weather Channel Celebrities Drew Carey Simon Cowell Larry King Lisa Kudrow Jay Leno James Lipton Jennifer Lopez Madonna Ozzy Osbourne Luke Perry Rob Schneider Richard Simmons Anna Nicole Smith Oprah Winfrey

Notes

• Yankovic performed the song live on The Late Late Show with Craig Kilborn on May 21, 2003, the day after the release of Poodle Hat.

• Yankovic also performed a modified version on Nickelodeon Magazine's 10th Anniversary special. He had to edit the song, however. The second verse as well as the second chorus were cut and instead of saying "gay", he and his band said "hey," and the reference to the Playboy Channel was also cut from the song.

• A reference to this song is made in the comic Vicious Whisper, released by Aaron Alexovich alongside the comic Serenity Rose both of which are published by Slave Labor Publishing. In the comic, an actual fan of the series poses the question "look... if you had... one shot... to sit on your lazy butt and watch all the TV you wanted, would you take it? Or just let it slide?" Presumbably because Aaron A. did not notice the reference to the song, Vicious Whisper answers this question honestly in an in-depth speech.

See also

• List of singles by "Weird Al" Yankovic
• List of songs by "Weird Al" Yankovic

References

1. ^ Weird Al Yankovic News on Yahoo! Music