"Polkamon" by "Weird Al" Yankovic

Revisiting soundtrack for Pokémon 2000, for all Pokémon fans active today!

Back in 1999, I predicted to a classmate of mine saying, "I believe Pokémon will continue to exist after we graduate from college." He didn't think much of it, and here we are in 2026. You're looking at one of the near-forgotten soundtracks that "Weird Al" has sung—as it wasn't on his album releases. Since Pokémon is still hot and active, let's see what the lyrics are like. Oh, and for those who are "Weird Al" fans like we are, polka themed songs are his thing. Go figure.

VERSE 1:

"Krabby, Snubble, Venonat,
Mankey, Chansey, and Zubat,
Sloking, Ditto, Butterfree,
Lugia and Caterpie.
Oddish, Poliwag, Goldeen,
Elekid and Nidoqueen,
Victreebel and Magneton,
Everybody Polkamon!"

VERSE 2:

"Aerodactyl, Seel, Machoke,
Marill, Moltres, and Slowpoke,
Articuno, Ditto, Muk,
Flareon and ol' Psyduck.
Cloyster, Kingler, Shellder, Gloom,
Snorlax, and of course, Vileplume,
Zapdos and Charmeleon,
Everybody Polkamon!"

For some, this feels like Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start the Fire." As you may have guessed, Al sung both first and second generation Pokémon. Now you're asking, "what does he mean by 'everybody polkamon?" That's the joke: a song titled phonetically and produced polka style, hence it's play on the word Pokémon. While Al sings what looks like a role call, you could say he's calling the Pokémon to join in and polka; it's a fun song, and while young kids may not know what polka is yet, it'll get them movin'.

BRIDGE:

"It's time to polka,
for Ponyta and Pidgey too!
Come on, put on your lederhosen,
and try not to stamp on little Pikachu.
You better grab yourself a partner,
like Tentacruel or Bulbasaur (Bulbasaur).
Hold on a minute,
there's still at least one hundred and twenty-seven more!"

VERSE 3:

"Including Ledyba and Omastar,
Jynx, Bellossom, and Magmar,
Geodude and Arcanine,
Jigglypuff and Mr. Mime.
Don't forget about Sandslash,
Exeggcute and Rapidash,
Lickitung and Porygon,
Everybody Polkamon!

Everybody Polkamon!
Everybody Polkamon!"

Another perception of this is a polka variant of Pokémon's PokéRap, featured on their TV series. You can also click here if you don't know what Al meant by "put on your lederhosen"—European trousers, if you will.

Some of you are wondering, "why did Al mention Ditto twice?" He never said as to why, so the accepted belief among fans was that Ditto counts as two entities: Ditto itself, and the Pokémon it's trying to copy. Either that, or this was written in a hurry and Al didn't have much wiggle room for proofreading. Regardless, the song still came out great.

Whether you're a fan of "Weird Al" or not, have you remembered this song he sang? Was it just right, or could the song have been longer? Should he produce a modern variant of this song, similar to what Fall Out Boy did with "We Didn't Start the Fire," originally by Billy Joel? Let's talk about it in the comments section below!

Kris Caballero

Founder of KCU Network and KCU Plus, Kris has been writing since he started blogging in late 2005. Officially back to doing computer programming, Kris enjoys reading books on Mathematics, Quantum Computing, Philosophy, plus playing old video/MS-DOS games, digital video archiving, listening to sports, public radio and classical music.

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