Songfacts®:

• Although many of Weird Al's songs directly parody other songs, he also parodies song styles. This song is a parody of the Devo style. The video makes clear links to Devo costumes and videos. >>

  Suggestion credit:
  Dale - Milwaukee, WI
• In the Behind the Music special on Weird Al, Mark Mothersbaugh said that this song was, "more Devo than Devo." (Check out the Songfacts Devo interview.)
• Yankovic told Lily Hirsch, author of Weird Al: Seriously, that the title just popped into his head one day and he jotted it down in his notebook. When he came across it again, he thought it would make a good song. Asked about its meaning, he replied, "I guess, if anybody is taking it seriously, it's saying that it's okay to be different, dare to think outside the box, to do things that other people may not agree with or accept. You’ve got to follow your own drummer."
• Yankovic's drummer, Jon "Bermuda" Schwartz, bought his first drum machine - a Yamaha RX11 - in order to re-create Devo's sound. "It provided most of the LinnDrum-type sounds associated with Devo," he told Hirsch, "and I played the fills live on my newly acquired Simmons SDS-8 drums."
• In the song, Al challenges us to put our stupidity in action by rejecting common aphorisms, like putting all our eggs in one basket, counting our chickens before they're hatched, and letting the bedbugs bite. He even gives us permission to squeeze the Charmin, as long as Mr. Whipple's not around. The latter is a reference to a long-running TV commercial, where a bespectacled supermarket manager scolds customers for squeezing packages of toilet paper - only to do it himself when no one's looking.
• The music video is a send-up to Devo's quirky clip for their cover of The Rolling Stones' "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction," which had them donning yellow radiation suits. Al's version is a visual representation of the daringly stupid activities listed in the song. A scene with a wannabe breakdancer is a nod to Craig Allen Rothwell, a dancer known as Spazz Attack, who contributed his famous flip to Devo's clip.
• Dare To Be Stupid is Yankovic's third studio album, which also features his famous single "Like A Surgeon" - a parody of Madonna's "Like A Virgin." The album was nominated for Best Comedy Recording at the 1986 Grammy Awards but lost to Whoopi Goldberg's Whoopi Goldberg (Original Broadway Show Recording).
• This was used in Transformers: The Movie (1986) as the theme song of the Junkion robots.