It was just another night. I had come from dinner with my family and was casually listening to Weird Al on shuffle when “Trigger Happy” came on. It wasn’t a song I was overly familiar with, but the musical inspiration was obvious from the first few notes. This song was clearly a pastiche of the 60s surf rock sound that was perfected by the likes of the Beach Boys and Jan and Dean. Bright, buoyant, exuberant. Fun stuff all around.
As I was bobbing along to the music, my ears started to pick up on the lyrics. Like any good Weird Al song, there’s always something a bit dark lurking beneath his otherwise all ages image, and this one was no exception. I heard lines about shooting first and asking questions later, not knowing how the safety works on one’s rifle, and operating firearms while drunk. It struck me as being both on point for Al, yet also far more nuanced than some of his other songs. Could it be that Weird Al was aiming for a political statement?
I decided to comb through the lyrics to see if my suspicions were correct. Sure enough, there were things that I had missed upon first listen. Lines about communist paranoia, accidentally shooting dad, and itching to attack a home invader. All present in this seemingly innocuous throwback tune. Yet I never found any explicit political message. No ham-fisted moral or outward attack on politicians. Just a subtle critique of American gun culture and one that still resonates 29 years after its release. The fact that what Al sings about still largely rings as true shows how little progress we’ve made on the gun issue. The only major change is the fact that the rhetoric has gotten more inflammatory thanks in large part to right wing media and politicians. Hardly anyone batted an eye back in 1992, but if Weird Al were to release another song like this today, Fox News would probably be up in arms about Al’s “liberal propaganda.” On that note, I’ll call it a day.
Nonsensical Ramblings 