by Dante Coccia
Greg Kihn started as a singer-songwriter out of Baltimore, MD. In 1976, he partnered with three other musicians, Steve Wright, Robbie Dunbar, and Larry Lynch, and the Greg Kihn Band was formed. They performed pop-rock music. The Greg Kihn Band came to SUNY Geneseo in the 1983-1984 school year. By this time, the band was well known for “The Breakup Song” (1981) and “Jeopardy” (1983). Both of these songs had made the Billboard Hot 100, with “Jeopardy” making it all the way to the number two slot on the list. When the Greg Kihn Band performed on SUNY Geneseo’s campus, they were at the height of their popularity. They were so popular, in fact, that comedic musician Weird Al Yankovic created a parody “I Lost on Jeopardy.”
Weird Al is known for taking popular songs and creating comedic parodies and releasing them in an album. Some of his most well known parodies include “White and Nerdy,” a play on “Ridin’ Dirty” by Chamillionaire and “Amish Paradise,” a play on “Gangsta’s Paradise” by Coolio.Weird Al’s parody of “Jeopardy” came out in the earlier part of his long and successful career which continues today. Gaining the attention of a popular artist such as Weird Al Yankovic is a great example of the broad-based popularity of the Greg Kihn Band when they came to perform at SUNY Geneseo in 1983.
As MTV was becoming more popular, Weird Al began releasing music videos for his parodies. The music video for “I Lost On Jeopardy” is very comedic. Weird Al is portrayed as a contestant on the popular show Jeopardy having a very difficult time answering questions that appear to make no sense. The other contestants make Al feel inferior by answering these questions with ease. The crew members all look disappointed and ashamed of Al’s performance as if they are confused as to how he got on the show. Throughout the video you can see various crew members singing the chorus of the song along with Al. The whole video is an overdramatic tale of what it would be like to feel overwhelmed and be outmatched while being on the television show Jeopardy.