Jurassic Park (song)

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"Jurassic Park"
Single by "Weird Al" Yankovic
from the album Alapalooza
Released	October 1993
Format	CD, cassette
Recorded	July 16, 1993
Genre	Comedy
Length	3:53
Label	Scotti Brothers
Producer(s)	"Weird Al" Yankovic
Chart positions
none
"Weird Al" Yankovic singles chronology
I Can't Watch This (from the album Off The Deep End (1992)	Jurassic Park (1993)	Bedrock Anthem (1993)

Jurassic Park is a song by "Weird Al" Yankovic. It is a parody of "MacArthur Park" by Jimmy Webb (performed by Richard Harris), and is written as a humorous take on the film of the same name.

Part of the humor of the song lies in the contrast between the catastrophic events of the movie, with much loss of human life, and the banality of the singer's complaints, i.e., "This has been one lousy day," and "What a crummy weekend this has been."

Other humor hinges on how lines from the parody closely mimic the lyrics of the original song:

Original: MacArthur Park is melting in the dark

Parody: Jurassic Park is frightening in the dark

Original: Someone left the cake out in the rain

Parody: Someone shut the fence off in the rain

It is evidently told from the viewpoint of Ian Malcolm, as in one point he says "...but this proves my chaos theory..."

The parody only features parts of the song, the verses, choruses, the instrumental (shortened), and the ending. The middle section, "There will be another song for me..." is missing.

[edit] Track listing

The following tracks are on the single:

1. "Jurassic Park" – 3:53
2. "Frank's 2000" TV" – 4:04

The promo single only contains "Jurassic Park".

[edit] Music video

The music video is done mostly with clay animation in the style of Will Vinton, parodying scenes from, as well as the general plot of, the 1993 movie, and was approved by the film's director, Steven Spielberg. The animation was done by Mark Osbourne, who also did the animation in the Dare To Be Stupid music video.

Parodied concepts include:

• At the beginning of the music video, a miner discovers a fossilized mosquito, which appears silhouetted against the light. The light shifts and reveals the mosquito with a bent nose and abnormally large eyes.
• One of the robotic arms that handles the cloned dinosaur eggs is coloring an egg to look like colorful Easter eggs.. There is also a dartboard instead of a chart in that room, and a sack of "Dino Chow" is visible.
• When the scientist, who appears to be a caricature of Doctor Jack Kevorkian. looks through a microscope at the fossilized mosquito, he sees the DNA character from the introductory film at Jurassic Park, taking a shower. The DNA shrieks and covers herself with the shower curtain.
• "Weird Al" is first seen trying to hold a door shut on a velociraptor. The velociraptor gives up the brute force, pulls out a key ring, and sifts through it to find the key instead.
• In a crowd of loose dinosaurs, one of them is a chicken. Another crowd has a ballerina brontosaurus and another is holding a beer and has a lampshade on his head.
• A claw harmlessly touches the wire after Dennis Nedry pulls the switch to cut the power.
• A brontosaurus accidentally steps on "Weird Al", while he is singing "Oh, no!" It turns up its feet to see a flattened "Weird Al" on the sole of its foot, and seems disgusted by it, as a human might after stepping on a bug.
• "Weird Al" lifts up his shirt to reveal that he has been disemboweled.
• The chaos theory is shown on a chalkboard as a large equation, which turns into a spinning globe.
• When the lights go out, a bunch of angry eyes appear around Yankovic; he lights a match, showing that he is surrounded by angry dinosaurs.
• In the movie, the Tyrannosaurus ate lawyer Donald Gennaro, after destroying the bathroom he was in and eating him off the toilet he was huddled on. In the music video, Donald Gennaro is going to the bathroom in an outdoor toilet, while reading a newspaper, when the T-Rex eats him. The T-Rex wipes off the extra blood on his face with a napkin, sips some tea, and flosses as Weird Al lyrically comments, "Well, I suppose that proves... they're really not all bad".
• As the song sings "Someone let T. Rex out of his pen," a tyrannosaurus in a wrestling outfit jumps off the fence, with a visible WWF symbol on the top of the fence. The camera pulls out to reveal that he is jumping on another wrestling dinosaur.
• The main gate of Jurassic Park is shown several times. The second time, it is raining and one of the torches is out, so one of the animators sticks his arm into the frame and relights it with a lighter. The third time, a "Dinogizer" dinosaur with a drum and pink rabbit-ears, a spoof of the Energizer bunny, passes in front.
• Barney is dancing to the song, but a T. Rex bites his head off. Later in the song, a brontosaurus gives it a Heimlich maneuver, and it coughs up Barney's head.
• An Arnold Schwarzenegger-lookalike hunter jumps into one of the dinosaur crowds, but a large dinosaur cuts him to pieces with a single swipe of its claws.
• A Tyrannosaurus with a fork, knife, and bib gangs up on Yankovic, then throws his utensils aside and swallows him.
• While "Weird Al" is falling down the T. Rex's gullet, the instrumental portion of the song takes place, and he sees cel animation shots of dinosaurs dancing on colorful or spiraling backgrounds. This includes a T-Rex dancing in the styles of:
  • The Jurassic Park logo
  • Colorful wheels
  • Yellow Submarine
  • Cafe style
  • Cubist
• There are also:
  • Two dinosaurs boogeying in cages
  • Dinosaurs being morphed
  • Two dinosaurs fighting over a human
  • A dinosaur resembling Dino from The Flintstones
• When "Weird Al" lands in the stomach of the dinosaur, he is surprised to see a souvenir stand there, where a vendor offers him an "I was eaten alive at Jurassic Park" T-shirt.
• A T. Rex turns on the people filming. The "director", who resembles Steven Spielberg, raises a sign that says "Cut!" before evacuating the set.
• A Ceratosaurus in a chef hat salts one of his victims and eats him.
• At the last chorus, "Weird Al" is singing on a stage in front of three dancing dinosaurs with top hats and canes. Other dinosaurs are on the side playing the brass.
• Yankovic rides the helicopter at the end of the video. On land, two dinosaurs are crying and waving goodbye, one holding a sign that reads "Don't Forget to Write." As the helicopter flies what appears to be far away, a T. Rex eats it, then looks at the camera, and burps. The T. Rex winks as the scene irises to black.

[edit] See also

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

v • d • e “Weird Al” Yankovic
Band members
"Weird Al" Yankovic • Jon "Bermuda" Schwartz • Steve Jay • Jim West • Rubén Valtierra
Discography
Studio albums: "Weird Al" Yankovic (1983) • "Weird Al" Yankovic In 3-D (1984) • Dare To Be Stupid (1985) • Polka Party! (1986) • Even Worse (1988) • UHF (1989) • Off The Deep End (1992) • Alapalooza (1993) • Bad Hair Day (1996) • Running With Scissors (1999) • Poodle Hat (2003) • Straight Outta Lynwood (2006)
List of singles by "Weird Al" Yankovic • List of songs by "Weird Al" Yankovic • Complete discography
Filmography
Music videos • "Al TV" • The Compleat Al • UHF • "The Weird Al Show" • "Weird Al" Yankovic Live!
Related articles
Dr. Demento • Parody musicians • Comedy musicians