Mandatory Fun Trivia Quiz

Answer: Communist Propaganda

"Mandatory Fun" was the last album to be released on Al's contract with RCA Records. Al indicated that he wasn't planning to stop recording however; he believed his craft was better suited to quick releases on the Internet. Al had occasionally remarked about the "obligations" of recording contracts, and perhaps the "Mandatory Fun" title was a swipe at them.

The album art featured a Soviet-style propaganda theme with pictures of Al posed like Che Guevara and Mao Zedong.

Answer: Happy

Whereas Pharrell Williams said he was happy and told people to "Clap along if you know what happiness is to you", Al claimed he was tacky because he "would live-tweet a funeral, take selfies with the deceased". The "Tacky" video was also a parody of the "Happy" video; the "Happy" video showcased assorted people lip-synching and dancing to the song, as did the "Tacky" video. Al gathered a few of his crazy friends to help lip-sync his song: Aisha Tyler, Margaret Cho, Eric Stonestreet, Kristen Schaal, and the ever whacky Jack Black. Did you catch the Pharrell Williams cameo? Actually, it was just a copy of his hat on a coat-stand behind Margaret Cho and Eric Stonestreet. "Tacky" hit number two on the U.S. Billboard digital comedy tracks chart.

Answer: Word Crimes

Al had noted that there were many parodies of "Blurred Lines" on the Internet, but none of them focused on grammar. Al's fans know that the high school valedictorian had long been a proponent of proper word use, and "Word Crimes" gave Al his chance to point out, among other things, that "irony is not coincidence" and the difference between "what's figurative and what's literal".

But alas, even Al can slip up. He apologized on his Twitter account for using the word "spastic" in his lyrics. He confessed that he wasn't aware that the term was considered offensive to some people. "Word Crimes" hit number one on the U.S. Billboard digital comedy tracks chart and number 39 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 singles chart.

Answer: Fancy

To gauge the timeliness of the parody, Al had asked his daughter whether the kids at her school were talking about Iggy Azalea; initially she said no, but a couple of weeks later, she said they were. While "Fancy" was about living the glam life, Al's version was about a master craftsman: "Maybe I'll just rewire your house for fun; I got 99 problems, but a switch ain't one". "Handy" was the fourth video released from "Mandatory Fun", and the song peaked at number five on U.S. Billboard's digital comedy tracks chart.

Answer: Foil

Aluminum foil, that is. Al started out with a nice song about keeping your food fresh, but he then went off on a conspiracy tangent, in which an aluminum foil hat served as a deterrent against thought control rays. The video for "Foil" was the third released by Al and featured appearances by Tom Lennon and Robert Ben Garant of the Comedy Central television show "Reno 911!" and Patton Oswalt.

The song reached number three on the U.S. Billboard digital comedy tracks chart.

Answer: Inactive

Al had tackled the topic before on his "Poodle Hat" album in the appropriately named song "Couch Potato" (an Eminem parody). In "Inactive", Al repined that "My muscles gone, atrophied, always lose my fight with gravity... My NordicTrack's collecting dust and my StairMaster's a pile of rust".

The Imagine Dragons were thrilled to have their song parodied. Turns out that they were all Al fans; the first three concerts that bassist Ben McKee attended were "Weird Al" shows.

Answer: Crosby, Stills and Nash

Al said that the lyrics of "Mission Statement" were about the "ridiculous doublespeak and meaningless buzzwords that I've been hearing in office environments my entire life". Oddly enough, Graham Nash of CSN had actually asked Al when he was going to record a parody of "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes", and Al had already finished recording "Mission Statement" and was able to play it for him from his phone.

The video for "Mission Statement" was the last released from "Mandatory Fun" and featured artists drawing cartoons to match the lyrics.

Answer: The Pixies

In "First World Problems", Al rants about the trials and tribulations that people living in developed nations have to deal with, like "My Sonicare won't recharge, now I gotta brush my teeth like a Neanderthal". Al claimed to have listen to the Pixies' entire catalogue to prepare for the song, and he even joined the band as a guest vocalist on "I Bleed" for a charity concert.

The video for "First World Problems" was the sixth released from "Mandatory Fun" and featured Al in a geeky blonde wig, throwing tantrums over the daily inconveniences he suffered.

Answer: Get Lucky

The medley began with a traditional polka, Arthur Godfrey's "Too Fat Polka" and then went into a polka-ized "Wrecking Ball" (the Miley Cyrus song). Other songs included in the mix were PSY's "Gangnam Style" (featuring a Jerry Lewis-style "Sexy Laaady"), Gotye's "Somebody That I Used to Know" and LMFAO's "Sexy and I Know It".

The Daft Punk/Pharrell Williams version of "Get Lucky" was the record of the year at the 2014 Grammy Awards, but the original just lacked something.... an accordion!

Answer: Cat Stevens

"Jackson Park Express" was a nine-minute opus about an imagined conversation between two passengers during a bus ride (well, imagined by one of the passengers): "Then I'm pretty sure she looked at me out of the corner of her good eye, and though she never spoke a word, this is exactly what I heard..." The song was a bit reminiscent of parts of "Foreigner Suite" by Cat Stevens, now known as Yusuf Islam, but it was just a general pastiche of Cat Stevens' songs; Al stated that he had been listening to a lot of Stevens' work prior to recording the album.