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Likeasurgeon

Song: Like A Surgeon

Running Time: 3:29

Year: 1985

Album: Dare To Be Stupid, Greatest Hits 1, Al-In-The-Box, The Saga Begins, The Best Of Yankovic

Parody of: Like a Virgin by Madonna

Genre: Dance-pop

Guitar tuning: E standard

Lyrics: Lyrics

Video: Yes

Download/Listen: Link

Forum: Forum Discussion Page

Alternate Versions: Like a Surgeon (Truth or Dare Version), Like a Surgeon (2022 Version)

Trivia[]

  • Madonna, who created the original, “Like a Virgin” actually asked “Weird Al” to do a parody of her song. That was the first time that a songwriter asked “Weird Al” to do a parody of their song.
  • This song has no relation to the song by Ciara.

Music Video[]

Likeasurgeon
  • The music video was directed by Jay Levey, and produced by Robert K. Weiss.
  • The music video for this song was shot in an actual hospital that went out of business.
  • In the beginning of the video, a voice pages "Doctor Howard, Doctor Fine, Doctor Howard". This is a nod to the Three Stooges' short Men in Black (which incidentally took place in a hospital and featured incompetent doctors).
  • As the music begins, there is a person on a bed that is being pushed along who has feet at both ends of the body.
  • There are two x-rays with one showing the skull of a chimpanzee and another with a nail in the human skull.
  • A male lion walks across the hallway of the hospital, a reference to the music video for Like A Virgin, the song which this is parodying.
  • The sinks are used for cleaning hands, feet and pots and pans.
  • The tools that the doctors used include a saw, a blowtorch and garden shears.
  • In the operating room, Cavity Sam, mascot of the game Operation can be seen hanging on the wall. Ironically seconds before, the strange non-surgical instruments are references to Sam's doctors on the original box art.
  • The table of operating tools includes a hand drill, crayons, a rubber frog, drinking straws, a thin razored saw, salt and pepper, a blacksmith tool, a troll doll, kitchen knives, a corkscrew, and various others.
  • On "better give me all your gauze, nurse," Yankovic is given three surgical tools and a hamburger to which he takes a bite out of.
  • The liquid bag contains a goldfish inside.
  • The lobotomized patient is reading the Midnight Star, the titular tabloid from Yankovic's earlier song "Midnight Star."
  • A football player can be seen in the "nurse huddle" near the middle of the video.
  • A Madonna lookalike is seen as a nurse in the video (see the single artwork).
  • Yankovic dances like Madonna near the end of the video, parodying scenes from her video of "Lucky Star" (with the camera at one point focusing on his bellybutton as it does Madonna's) as well as "Like a Virgin".
  • One of the monitors features a clip from George Of The Jungle. The theme song for this show was covered by Yankovic on the Dare to be Stupid album, which also included "Like a Surgeon".
  • One of his patients has a sign that reads "27", and in the background a sign reads "Now Serving: 27". This, along with a 27 that appeared in "This Is The Life" is considered to be the beginning of Yankovic's recurring 27 joke.
  • The toy accordion that was removed from the patient, is "Weird Al" Yankovic's favorite instrument. Other items removed include a heart, a film canister, several ribbons like the ones seen in a magic show, and a live rabbit.
  • On "my patient is dying before he can pay," Weird Al and the doctors are removing a few hundred dollar bills from a wallet as if it was a surgical removal.
  • While singing the chorus at one point, he accidentally hits a man reading a newspaper.
  • Near the end of the song, Yankovic can be seen dancing on a bed. This is a parody of the Like a Virgin video where Madonna rides canals through Venice on a gondola.
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