Day One hundred and eighty-one: "Super Duper Party Pony" from Medium Rarities

When I was growing up it felt like Al was someone you fell in love with as a kid and grew up on but outgrew around the time you started getting laid. Al’s music has been a rite of passage for multiple generations of American geeks, passed down from Poindexter to Poindexter as a sacred ritual, but at a certain point you were supposed to move on to “serious”, “adult” artists who sang about love and life instead of food and television shows. 

That perception has changed radically with time. Part of it that is attributable to Al’s longevity: when you have endured the way Al has endured, remaining as vital, relevant and popular four decades into your career as you were at the very start, it becomes impossible to write you off as kid’s stuff or a phase. 

Al has proven himself in pretty much every conceivable sense but he’s also benefitted from seismic cultural shifts. Grown ups are no longer expected to give up Al’s music once they become adults and parents and attain positions of power and authority in society any more than they’re expected to give up superheroes or comic book movies. Heck, it has even become societally acceptable for adult men to love the My Little Pony series of toys and animated programs, specifically the beloved cult show My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. 

There is no shame in being a Brony, as male fans of My Little Pony are called, only joy in not being made to feel guilty for the innocent things in life that give you pleasure and a sense of identity in an often brutal world.  I can only imagine the joy that swept through Brony land when Al lent his voice, personality and ebullient essence to the scene-stealing role of Cheese Sandwich, a self-professed “super duper party pony”, super party planner and all-around party animal who sweeps into Equestria and challenges Pinkie Pie’s dominance of the party-planning game. 

On “Super Duper Party Pony” Al fits a whole lot of words, glorious, ridiculous, sublime words, into the smallest possible amount of time, delivering a Harold Hill-like spiel about his Andrew W.K-level mastery of partying as both a lifestyle and art form to a mesmerized crowd that doubles as an origin story explaining just how he came to be. 

“Fizzy drinks, Hawaiian shirts/and brie fondue delight/You know that with Cheese Sandwich, you'll be partying all night!” Al as Cheese Sandwich promises with irresistible brio, selling himself on the wonder of the Cheese Sandwich Party Experience as much as his ostensible audience. 

“Super Duper Party Pony” sounds exactly like you would imagine. It’s a Pixie Stick in song form, a sprinkle-laden sonic cupcake just mischievous and tart enough to avoid being saccharine or sugary. 

“Super Duper Party Pony” makes it easy to see why adults would become enamored of the sparkly, plastic pink universe of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. It is almost disgustingly adorable, the kind of delight that prominently features a big-eyed, accordion-playing pony version of Al so cute he makes the real Al look like a big fat slobbering pig by comparison. Come on! The only thing more endearing than Al is Al as a cartoon pony. 

But “Super Duper Party Pony” is more than obscenely cute; it’s clever and quirky and overflowing with sincerity and charm as well, the perfect fusion of Al and My Little Pony. Plus, should Al ever decide to become a Furry he’s got a pretty nifty fursona just waiting for him in the form of a precious little pony who would be an ideal surrogate even if he was not named after a popular American food item and a fan favorite character on a beloved television show. 

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