Couch Potato (song)

"Couch Potato" is a parody song by American satirist "Weird Al" Yankovic. It is a parody of the Academy Award winning song "Lose Yourself" by Eminem. In it, the narrator details his obsession with watching television and the television shows 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 cancelled. "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.

Cancelled music video

Yankovic intended to make a music video for the song, but the plan was scrapped at the last minute when Eminem denied him permission to make a video, expressing concerns that it might disparage his image. According to Yankovic, the video would have included a "patchwork quilt" pastiche of scenes from other Eminem videos.

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

Eminem references the interview in his book '' The Way I Am'', saying that "Weird Al" took some jabs at him. He said he thinks Yankovic is funny, and thought the "interview" was funny.

References in the song

Television shows and movies

*'' 8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter''
*'' 24''
*''60 Minutes''
*''Da Ali G Show''
*''The 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 Actors 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'' (referred to as Ozzy's family's show)
*'' Scanners''
*'' 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

See also

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

External links

Couch Potato on YouTube

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 Graphics. 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?" Presumably, because Aaron A. did not notice the reference to the song, Vicious Whisper answers this question honestly in an in-depth speech.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Couch Potato (Song)
2003 singles
Eminem
Songs with lyrics by "Weird Al" Yankovic
"Weird Al" Yankovic songs
Songs about television
Songs written by Luis Resto (musician)
Songs written by Eminem
Comedy rap songs
2003 songs
American hip hop songs
Songs written by Jeff Bass