Recording In June 1997, Yankovic entered the studio to begin the first of the
Running with Scissors sessions, which Yankovic produced himself. The album was recorded in six sessions. The first session started on June 29, 1997, in which Yankovic recorded the theme song to his television show,
The Weird Al Show. The second session, which occurred on October 7, 1998, produced the original song "Germs", and eight days later, on October 15, Yankovic started the third session and recorded three more originals, "Albuquerque", "My Baby's in Love with Eddie Vedder", and "Truck Drivin' Song". The next day, the fourth session resulted in the song "Your Horoscope for Today". On April 19 of the following year, Yankovic recorded four parodies during the fifth session, "Pretty Fly for a Rabbi", "Jerry Springer", "It's All About the Pentiums", and "Grapefruit Diet". The album's sixth and final session occurred on April 20, and resulted in "The Saga Begins", and the album's polka medley, "Polka Power!"
Originals ' sound. The album includes "The Weird Al Show Theme", which is the theme song to Yankovic's short-lived television series. After
Ophiuchus was touted by some papers as the "13th zodiac sign", Yankovic released new lyrics on his
Twitter for the sign. In January 2023 an animated music video was released for the song to promote
The Illustrated Al graphic novel. "
Albuquerque", an eleven-minute "hard-driving rock narrative", Yankovic originally wrote the song to "annoy people for 12 minutes". "Truck Drivin' Song", a detailed account of a truck driver working while simultaneously worrying about their clothing and makeup, is a style parody of
truck-driving country. Originally, Yankovic had wanted voice actress
Mary Kay Bergman to sing the song as her
South Park character
Sheila Broflovski. However, due to legal restrictions, she was only able to say a few lines in the finished product. " The second parody recorded for the album was "Jerry Springer", a parody of
Barenaked Ladies 1998 hit "
One Week". The song is about
The Jerry Springer Show, hosted by the eponymous
Jerry Springer. Originally, there were plans to shoot a video, and Springer was asked if he wanted to be in it. Springer was initially interested, but after hearing the song, he declined because he believed it was too "negative" towards his show. Due to time constraints, Yankovic was forced to write the song a few days before the entire album was slated to be mastered, as Yankovic had still been waiting for Combs' approval. By the time Combs responded to him, Yankovic was recording the last session for the album. To give him time to write the lyrics, Yankovic's band recorded the music first. Yankovic noted that "we were mixing the last few songs on the album by the time I finished writing the lyrics to 'Pentiums', and I wound up recording the lead vocals just a couple days before the album had to be mastered." The fourth parody recorded for the album was "Grapefruit Diet", a pastiche of "
Zoot Suit Riot" by the
Cherry Poppin' Daddies about an
obese man going on such a
diet. The final parody recorded for the album was "The Saga Begins", which recounts the plot of
Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace from the point of view of
Obi-Wan Kenobi to the tune of the 1971 single "
American Pie" by
Don McLean. Yankovic then chose to write a parody of "American Pie" about the film. Because Yankovic wanted the song to be topical, he began writing the lyrics in December 1998, many months before the film was released, gleaning all of the information about the movie's plot entirely from Internet
spoilers. The song was completed two months before
The Phantom Menace was released to theaters; Yankovic had approached
Lucasfilm about the prospect of an advanced screening to ensure that his lyrics were accurate, but the company declined. However, Yankovic later went to a charity screening, whose tickets cost
US$500 each. As a result, Yankovic only had to change one line; "He's probably gonna marry her someday" was originally "I hear he's gonna marry her someday". Much like Yankovic's previous albums,
Running with Scissors features a
polka medley of then-current hit songs called "
Polka Power!". The song was later released as a promotional single in Germany, where Yankovic's recording label felt a polka song might have more success. This was the second time that one of Yankovic's polka medleys was released as a single; in 1985,
Scotti Brothers Records released "
Hooked on Polkas", from the album
Dare to Be Stupid, in Japan. ==Artwork and packaging==