Couch Potato (song)

"Couch Potato" is a parody song by American satirist "Weird Al" Yankovic. It is a parody of the Academy Award winning song "Lose Yourself" by Eminem. In it, the narrator details his obsession with watching television and the television shows he watches.

Release
"Couch Potato" was originally going to be the lead single of Poodle Hat, but due to Eminem's concern that it might hurt his career, its commercial release was cancelled. "Couch Potato" has never been released as a promo, nor a commercial single. It is only available on the Poodle Hat CD, or as a digital download on the internet.

Cancelled music video
Yankovic intended to make a music video for the song, but the plan was scrapped at the last minute when Eminem denied him permission to make a video, expressing concerns that it might disparage his image. According to Yankovic, the video would have included a "patchwork quilt" pastiche of scenes from other Eminem videos.

Yankovic told the Chicago Sun-Times in 2004, "Last year, Eminem forced me to halt production on the video for my 'Lose Yourself' parody because he somehow thought that it would be harmful to his image or career."

Yankovic mocked the situation on his Al TV special where he staged a mock interview with the rapper. Eminem said "I believe in...artistic expression." Al countered with "So you think, for example if somebody wanted to do, oh, I don't know, a parody of somebody else's video, they should be able to...artistically express themselves and just do it?" Eminem was shown at a loss for words.

Also in the mock interview, Al simply played the first verse on a boombox while sitting in a chair, reading a newspaper until Eminem eventually turned it off.

Eminem references the interview in his book The Way I Am, saying that Weird Al took some jabs at him. He said he thinks Yankovic is funny, and thought the "interview" was funny.

Television shows and movies

 * 8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter
 * 24
 * 60 Minutes
 * Da Ali G Show
 * The Amazing Race
 * American Idol
 * The Anna Nicole Show
 * Are You Hot?
 * The Bachelorette
 * Celebrity Mole
 * CSI: Boise (referring to CSI and its many spinoffs, such as CSI: Miami)
 * The Drew Carey Show
 * E! True Hollywood Story
 * Entertainment Tonight
 * Everybody Tolerates Raymond (referring to Everybody Loves Raymond)
 * Fear Factor
 * The Flintstones
 * Gilligan's Island
 * Inside the Actors Studio
 * King of Queens
 * Larry King Live
 * Law & Order
 * Lost in Space
 * MacGyver
 * Melrose Place
 * The Muppet Show
 * NASCAR
 * The Oprah Winfrey Show
 * The Osbournes (referred to as Ozzy's family's show)
 * Scanners
 * Six Feet Under (referred to as "that show about undertaking")
 * The Sopranos
 * SpongeBob SquarePants
 * Survivor
 * The Tonight Show with Jay Leno
 * Touched by an Uncle (referring to Touched by an Angel)
 * Welcome Back, Kotter
 * Will & Grace
 * Without a Trace

Television networks

 * A&E
 * AMC
 * Court TV
 * C-SPAN
 * Discovery Channel
 * Disney Channel
 * Fox
 * HBO
 * History Channel
 * Learning Channel
 * Lifetime Television
 * MTV
 * Playboy Channel
 * QVC
 * Sci-Fi Channel
 * Travel Channel
 * TV Land
 * Weather Channel

Celebrities

 * Drew Carey
 * Simon Cowell
 * Larry King
 * Lisa Kudrow
 * Jay Leno
 * James Lipton
 * Jennifer Lopez
 * Madonna
 * Ozzy Osbourne
 * Luke Perry
 * Rob Schneider
 * Richard Simmons
 * Anna Nicole Smith
 * Oprah Winfrey