Eat It

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"Eat It"
Single by "Weird Al" Yankovic
from the album In 3-D
Released	February 28, 1984
Format	7", 12"
Recorded	December 13, 1983
Genre	Comedy
Length	3:19
Label	Scotti Brothers
Producer(s)	"Weird Al" Yankovic
Chart positions
#1 (Australia) #12 (U.S.) #36 (UK)
"Weird Al" Yankovic singles chronology
"I Love Rocky Road" (from album "Weird Al" Yankovic) (1983)	"Eat It" (1984)	"King Of Suede" (1984)

"Eat It" is a song by "Weird Al" Yankovic. It is a parody of the song "Beat It" by Michael Jackson. The single reached #1 in Australia, and until the October 21, 2006 issue of Billboard Magazine, it was his highest-charting US single on the Hot 100. "Eat It" earned Yankovic a 1984 Grammy Award in the Best Comedy Recording category.

According to Yankovic, when he presented his lyrics to Jackson for permission for the parody, he didn't know what kind of reaction he'd get. Jackson allegedly thought it was amusing, and agreed to allow the parody.

The video for "Eat It" is remarkable in that it is a shot-for-shot remake of Jackson's video for "Beat It", except that in Yankovic's version, elements are parodied in various silly ways, like the gang members fighting over a rubber chicken. The last shot of the video, where Yankovic turns to the camera and his eyes have turned yellow and the frame freezes, is a parody of Jackson's famous "Thriller" video.

"Eat It" is the first song on the In 3-D album and the eighth song on disc 1 of Permanent Record: Al In The Box. A live medley performance of "Eat It" is located on "Weird Al" Yankovic Live! (DVD and VHS). The music video of "Eat It" is on "Weird Al" Yankovic: The Ultimate Video Collection (DVD), "Weird Al" Yankovic: The Videos (DVD), and The "Weird Al" Yankovic Video Library (VHS).

[edit] Track Listing

The following tracks are on the single:

1. "Eat It" – 3:19
2. "That Boy Could Dance" – 3:32

The promo single only contains "Eat It". The single was reissued in 1985 under the "Golden Oldies" label. It was reissued for a third time in 1993, also under the "Golden Oldies" label. Both reissues replaced "That Boy Could Dance" with "I Lost On Jeopardy".

[edit] Music video

This is a list of the parodied elements in the "Eat It" video, as compared to "Beat It".

• The Music video was different before the song started playing. In Beat It, a gangster is bending a spoon. Another gangster slaps him and he gets up. In Eat It, a gangster takes a sip of his coffee. Another gangster walks by and the gangster sitting down spits out his coffee and then gets up.
• Not a joke, but notable: The diner's doors are in a completely different location in "Eat It" than they were in "Beat It", due to Yankovic reconstructing the sets rather than using the originals. In "Beat It", the two gang members walk out the exit. In "Eat It", they just disappear off-screen to the right, because the doors simply aren't there.
• The gang members at the beginning of the video make different noises after clicking their fingers (in the original, the sounds are animal-like howls; in "Eat It", they're Curly Howard-like "woob woob" noises).
• A gang member, played by bassist Steve Jay, grabs his girlfriend's hair and pulls her head off to kiss her, as opposed to just pulling her head back as in the original video.
• The gang leader in the white jacket has a large yellow smiley face on the back, with "Have A Nice Day" embroidered beneath it, instead of a dragon in the original.
• As the gang with the white-jacket leader walks, various things happen to their trousers. The first long shot of them reveals that they're only wearing boxers. Later, they are seen adjusting their flies on longer pants, suggesting that they'd forgotten to put their pants on for the earlier scene and were just putting them on now.
• Instead of a person, as in the Jackson video, an alien, played by drummer Jon "Bermuda" Schwartz peers through the blinds.
• A picture (of Dr. Demento) behind Yankovic falls off the wall not long after he sits up. The room is also littered with half-eaten foodstuffs such as pizzas and donuts.
• In the original video, the second gang rode in the back of a pick-up truck. In "Eat It", the gang is waiting for a bus that never seems to arrive.
• As the gang with the white-coat leader walks to where the meet is to be, the other gang is still waiting for the bus. In the original video, these were parallel scenes of the two gangs walking down separate alleys - here, the second alley is empty. Off camera, the second gang somehow manages to get to the fight scene on time anyway.
• Guitarist Jim West is seen in one of the gangs playing a guitar. He plays so fast that his guitar later explodes (literally going up in smoke).
• The gang leaders do not tie their hands up in rope, but rather hold a rubber chicken. Instead of switchblade knives, they have a switchblade fork and spoon.
• Yankovic gives the gang leaders something to eat before they burst into dance.
• When one of the gangs appears from a large garage door, one of the doors does not completely open. The gang crawls under it.
• Throughout the video, Yankovic imititates Jackson's dancing. Yankovic's dancing is purposely much less coordinated than Jackson's:
  • When Yankovic dances out of his bedroom, he takes a bite out of a banana.
  • In the diner, Yankovic pushes the doors open just like Jackson does, but knocks someone over in the process. Yankovic also flails his arms wildly as he dances spasticly down the aisle, knocking over chairs as he goes, and hurls himself bodily through a gap in the countertop, instead of neatly sliding through as Jackson did.
  • During the pool hall scene, Yankovic fogs up the camera lens with his breath during a zoom-in shot to exaggerate Jackson's similar facial expressions.
  • When Yankovic is dancing among some boxes, he drops far more abruptly than Michael Jackson did.
  • One of the gang leaders elbows Yankovic as they dance. The dance scene is cut mercifully short after that, as it appears that none of these people can actually dance.
• At the end of the video, Yankovic drops two antacids in a glass of water, referencing a stomachache from overeating.
• Also at the end of the video, Yankovic is depicted with bulging yellow eyes, in reference to the ending sequence of Michael Jackson's "Thriller".

[edit] Trivia

• While Eddie Van Halen did the guitar solo for Michael Jackson's "Beat It", the solo in "Eat It" was done by Al's then-producer Rick Derringer. The solo ended a second or two earlier than the original, so the sound of the guitar exploding was incorporated at the solo's end.

[edit] See also

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