Triumph the Insult Comic Dog Honors ‘Weird Al’ With Some Pop Parodies He Definitely Didn’t Write

Robert Smigel’s Triumph the Insult Comic Dog somehow found a way to add another goofy layer to “Weird Al” Yankovic’s iconic shtick. Yankovic was one of Triumph’s guests at his recent “Let’s Make a Poop!” live shows at SF Sketchfest (now available to watch in full online), and to honor the pop parody king, Triumph asked if he could perform some of his favorite Weird Al spoofs — only he delivered some hilariously dumb, half-baked ones Yankovic definitely never wrote (though there was something about them that felt oddly Yankovic-ian).

These included “Dumplings,” an ode to the titular food set to Bon Jovi’s “Wanted Dead or Alive,” and “Mudslide,” a take on Fleetwood Mac’s “Landslide” about — you guessed it — fast casual takeout and bowel movements. Triumph even pretended Weird Al wrote numerous parodies of Green Day’s “Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)”: one about being confused by cream cheese with chives; one about cutting a cantaloupe with a plastic knife; one about a flight attendant explaining how a seat works as a flotation device; and one about not getting Paul Thomas Anderson’s Inherent Vice. (You get the idea.)

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Never one to let a good bit go quietly, Triumph even worked the faux pop parodies into his comic quiz game “Poopardy!” Twice, the game required audio clues to answer questions about who “wrote” famous pop parodies of songs by R.E.M. and Lana Del Rey. Comedian Thomas Lennon came out to sing the first, delivering a version of “Losing My Religion” about purchasing persimmons, while Amber Ruffin tackled the latter, turning “Summertime Sadness” into a tune about watching tennis great Pete Sampras.

To close it all out, Triumph roped Weird Al into performing a duet of one his faux songs: a spoof of Sia’s “Chandelier” about wanting to binge old sitcoms. And Al, to his credit, despite having just gotten a lyrics sheet, absolutely nailed the falsetto chorus as he sang, “I want to watch Mr. Belvedere! Mr. Belvedere!”

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