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Weird Al loves that his song made a scene on 'Walking Dead'

Welcome to the Alpocalypse. "Another One Rides the Bus" makes an appearance during a mysterious scene with Rick. Hey! He's gonna sit by you!

Gael Cooper
CNET editor Gael Fashingbauer Cooper, a journalist and pop-culture junkie, is co-author of "Whatever Happened to Pudding Pops? The Lost Toys, Tastes and Trends of the '70s and '80s," as well as "The Totally Sweet '90s." She's been a journalist since 1989, working at Mpls.St.Paul Magazine, Twin Cities Sidewalk, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, and NBC News Digital. She's Gen X in birthdate, word and deed. If Marathon candy bars ever come back, she'll be first in line.
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Gael Cooper
2 min read

Warning: Possible spoilers for "The Walking Dead" ahead.

Look, if you've survived the zombie apocalypse, you get to listen to whatever music you want.

Sunday's season 8 premiere of "The Walking Dead" featured a goofy musical cameo by Weird Al Yankovic's "Another One Rides the Bus," the 1981 parody of the 1980 Queen hit "Another One Bites the Dust." 

It doesn't sound like Yankovic even knew this was going to happen -- though he did have a 2011 album titled "Alpocalypse." After the show aired, Yankovic tweeted that he was "confused" but "extremely honored" by the humorous song's inclusion.

The song shows up during the much-talked-about scene (flash-forward? hallucination? dream sequence?) where a gray-bearded, cane-owning Rick is shown waking up in bed. It's unclear why the song is playing or if it has any deeper meaning. Kids loved it on elementary-school playgrounds in 1981, so maybe it gives Rick happy memories of a time before the living dead.

Actually, that might not be too far off. Showrunner Scott M. Gimple told Entertainment Weekly that Rick's daughter Judith might have helped inspire the choice.

"Storywise it had to be a song that I wanted Judith to be into," Gimple told EW. "I will say there is a toddler in my life sort of obsessed with that song so that might have played into it a little bit. ... One of the things I love about Weird Al is that there's no worry about cool, and cool is the worst thing ever."

Gimple also confessed he wanted the song choice to be even more jarring than the sight of gray-bearded Rick.

"Initially, I thought (including the song) was my own bias and I shouldn't do this," he said. "And then I was like, 'Wait, no. It isn't cool and the audience is going to be like, 'What the hell is this?' And I was like, 'Oh my God, this is exactly what we want. This is perfect.'"

Fans seemed to enjoy it.

It's not the first time "The Walking Dead" has made headlines for an unusual song choice. Remember a year ago when poor Daryl was tortured with the horrendously peppy "Easy Street"? The Weird Al number didn't get as many repeat plays as that tune, though maybe it's for the best.

Truly, an earworm for the ages.

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