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Submitted by katsak
We know Weird Al is still around, but we’d like to wax nostalgic about the old Weird Al, with his incredibly lo-fi television debut to his cult film UHF. Would Seinfeld have had his crazy neighbor if Weird Al hadn’t casted Michael Richards as the wacky janitor?
Whether you love him or hate him, Weird Al kicked open a huge door for parodies and music related humor. Kudos to him for that.
So… you ever tried a Twinkie wiener sandwich?
PS. Supplies!
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Awesome!
aaah, Weird Al! He makes my life better.
Amen to that!!!!
I rediscovered him a few months ago, and I can’t get enough.
30 years in the business and still an epic win!
This guy is a grade A dumb shit, in my opinion. I never liked his so called “music”, because it was stupidity to just make copies of other great songs. Seriously, he never even made his own song, he only copied others.
Epic Fail.
I would define “dumb shit” as someone who declares that Al “never even made his own song, he only copied others”, “Seriously”, when an average of half the songs on any given “Weird Al” Yankovic album are, indeed, original songs written by Al.
I would also define “talking about something you obviously know nothing about and reaching a completely incorrect conclusion” as an “Epic Fail”.
And lastly, I would define “Bioturn” as “a jackass”. Way to show how cool you are by mouthing off and being 100% wrong. Yay you.
His post really made me chuckle. He never even made his own song! I think the most inspired song Al ever did was ‘Hardware Store’ which is completely original in every aspect. He has a way with words few can match.
Not only is he brilliant, he’s simply a good person. No scandals, no drug busts, no tabloid-feeding relationships for the sake of publicity… Not only that, but he asks for permission for absolutely every song he does. He has the respect of the largest portion of the music community. (To name a few, Eminem, Queen, the late Kurt Cobain, System of a Down, Billy Ray Cyrus, Green Day, The Offspring and dozens more) This is the most diverse spread of styles I’ve ever seen, and the fact that each of them give permission to parody their song shows that he is pretty well liked.
Long story short: America like Weird Al, Hollywood likes Weird Al, the members of this site like Weird Al… I suppose that makes YOU the dumb shit (in my opinion).
Hear, hear!
My best friend’s birthday is the same as Al’s, and we always celebrate with an honorary cupcake on that day for him. She got to meet him, and he is, indeed, a hell of a nice guy.
As Pennyforth said, Weird Al does a lot of original stuff. What makes Weird Al a genius (and I don’t use that term lightly) is that he not only satirizes songs, he also satirizes musical styles (listen to “Dare to be Stupid” sometime), and it’s all high-quality satire. You can’t write satire like that for thirty-odd years, and be a no-talent hack. He is a true Musical Genius.
He’s also a hella lotta fun in concert.
He also does a great Frank Zappa tribute! (Genius in France is my favorite song of all time)
He is a hell of a lot of fun in concert. I got the White & Nerdy shirt I’m wearing at one of them (where he had a Segway w/spinners).
So, you’ve never actually listened to even a single Weird Al song more than in passing, and you have no musical talent yourself, and your idea of a great song is something by Limp Bizkit or Linkin Park, right?
Your opinion notwithstanding, the man is a genius and especially, a musical genius. One only need watch the video of “Dare to be Stupid” (and have a basic idea what Devo was all about, not that I’d expect that of YOU) to see how frighteningly huge his understanding of the world really is. He’s nothing short of amazing.
I still love his music to this day. Seeing him don different outfits during his concerts was a nice addition to the show. I can’t decide if I like a certain ‘time period’ of his music more or not. Still love “I Lost on Jeopardy” and “Beat it”, but love “White and Nerdy” and “All About the Pentiums”.
Great music from a wonderful guy.
Keep it up.
The other thing I like about his concerts is during the costume changes he plays clips from shows he’s done, especially “AlTV”. Those are great.
And I had the pleasure of meeting him outside one of his shows (one of the few- if not only- major acts to consistantly put Delaware on their tour stop list. He is a wonderful, truly gracious person, and I love him! <3
I saw him this year in merriville. I loved the drum solo and the alTV clips!
I hope that all will continue to make great songs for many years! WEIRD AL FOREVER!!!
He is awesome, he signed Megan’s poodle, lol.
I still love his music to this day. Seeing him don different outfits during his concerts was a nice addition to the show. I can’t decide if I like a certain ‘time period’ of his music more or not. Still love “I Lost on Jeopardy” and “Beat it”, but love “White and Nerdy” and “All About the Pentiums”.
Great music from a wonderful guy.
Keep it up.
Think you mean “Eat It” as that was the parody Al wrote, not “Beat It” as that is the name of the original song by MJ. But yeah agree
Bioturn is a Grade A Dumb Shit, in my opinion. They are not “copies” they are parodies. And Bioturn obviously has no sense of humor (and don’t say “I have a refined sense of humor”–you don’t even have that).
Anyone who has bothered to listen to any Weird Al album knows that at least half the songs on each one are original works, not parodies.
Weird Al songs poke fun at pop culture, and are clean humor to boot!
Long live Weird Al! I hope he never retires, and doesn’t die til a ripe old age!
Epic Win.
I love Weird Al! I think it’s hilarious (I watched a biography on him a long while ago) that he has I think either a bachelor’s or master’s degree in architecture, and after he graduated he tried to get a job in a fast food joint. They wouldn’t hire him because he was “over-qualified”. His answer? “Unemployed Architects have to eat too!!!”
…. well at least for our sake (and his pockets!).
That may not be the EXACT quote, but very very similar. Happily he didn’t end up designing homes and buildings
TOTALLY! When I was in high school, I would always listen to Weird Al! I like a lot of his parodies more than the original songs! ^_^
I hope he will continue to make comedic parodies in the future!
WEIRD AL IS AWESOME!!! He still puts out great stuff and he does a great show!!
Two words….’Amish Paradise’. ’nuff said.
Two more words: Florence Henderson. (She was in the Amish Paradise video. So cool!!)
Agreed. That song is amazing. It always cheers me up whenever I’m feeling down.
I love Weird Al! And once he grew his hair out and shaved his mustache he looks pretty hot. Being a comic nerd and a Billy Joel fan his Ode to a Superhero is definitely my favorite. Well, that or all his polka medleys.
“The quality of my life would be greatly reduced if I did not have nostrils.” -Weird Al
Weird Al is awesome! No one does it better. Most of the acts he parodies feel like they’ve finally “made it” when he parodies them.
If it weren’t for Weird Al and Dr. Demento, my life would have been a lot less rich!
SUPPLIES!!!
PHWWWWAAAAHHHHH!!!! I died laughing at that line.
I just played the video for ‘Another One Rides the Bus’ a bunch of times… my cheeks (facial cheeks for those who are crude) hurt from smiling so much!
Did you play it 27 times?
Even if it were true he never did his own stuff, he’d still be brilliant for his parodies alone. You have have to be smart to do a really good parody, as his are. I like his recent stuff even better than the old but the old stuff is win too.
It about time Weird al got here, he truly is made out of epic win =D
He is made out of 50% win, 50% lol and 50% epic.
Thats 150%!
Naturally. Only Al can reach this level of awesome.
What? No mention of “Christmas at Ground Zero?” That was his most brilliant song/video ever!! And it’s all based on an air raid siren (listen to the background singers throughout the song). Never wrote his own material. pfft.
I remember that song from years ago when I was decorating the Christmas tree at my mom’s house. I had thought I had imagined it b/c I could never find it again!
well, I stopped looking like a month after I started. and it was like ‘98 when I heard it and I was oblivious to most internet wonders.
And for the record since SOOO many people say he did songs that he didn’t…I give you both
The official AL song list on his sight
http://www.weirdal.com/catalog.htm
and a not Al list put together by a fan
http://free.house.cx/~eil/etc/notal.html
I only know his hits, and they’re all fairly sophomoric parodies of other songs.
By sophomoric, I mean that they’re fairly direct “take a tune and make up parody lyrics”, which is the sort of thing we did in high school.
He’s good at it, but there was an element of luck that made him stand out from the other people doing similar or better parodies.
The HeeBeeGeeBees from the UK are a case in point: pointedly accurate parodies of styles or artists rather than just new lyrics to pop songs.
Never heard of them? Well, that’s what I mean…
Al does very amazingly inspired style-parodies too. And yeah, sophomoric most of the time, but sometimes the angle he goes for in a parody is pretty amazing (like *not* making “Smells Like Nirvana” a song about food, hehe), and his composition and musicianship is always astonishing.
Weird Al is an idiot. He can’t sing, he won’t get out of the 80s by the way he dresses, and he can’t even come up with original songs and instead rips off other good songs. It’s amazing what people consider talent these days.
Someone didn’t read the other comments about how YES Al DOES write his own stuff.
Making uninformed comments like this make you look stupid.
Changed his look altogether about 10 years ago when he got laser surgery done on his eyes so he didn’t have to wear glasses anymore. And of the twenty-two albums he’s released (some compilations mind you), only just over 30 songs are actually parodies; the rest are polka medleys, style parodies or original compositions like the astoundingly awesome “Hardware Store.”
Not only can he sing and compose, but he can do so across a huge number of music styles. He can do everything from do-wop to rap. Whether or not you like his music (and based on your comments about not being able to come up with original material, you probably haven’t heard very much of it) it’s pretty had to argue that his technical competence is anything less than first rate.
He is probably the most successful novelty artist of all time, making a 30+ year recording career in a genre full of one-hit wonders, and he does it while retaining his integrity and neither pandering nor selling out. It’s pretty hard to accomplish something like that if one is “an idiot” as you say.
Never listened to his music, eh? By no stretch can he be called stupid or untalented, and his fellow musicians love him to parody them for the most part.
A weird-al-freak of a friend talked me into seeing UHF on opening day. “Spatula City” was the only bit that made me crack a grin. I remember yelling at him for wasting my four dollars, when there was a much better movie opening that day. It was the beginning of the end of that friendship. I kid you not.
I am in mourning for your dead sense of humor… (funeral dirge playing)
Weird Al is a crime against thought.
Shows what the hell you know Mr. “Anonymous.”
So, with that as a basis… you aren’t a victim… :-p
I have adored Weird Al since I was 10. I still have four albums worth of his music on my iPod, I have UHF on DVD, and I’ve been to two concerts. Other kids my age don’t appreciate him as much as they should. It’s a darn shame…….
all hail his lol’yness, Weird Al Yankovic!!!
Angry White Boy Polka rules!!!
Weird Al RULES!
UHF is one of my favorite funny movies, his albums rock, and his music makes me laugh when I’m feeling down. AWESOME!!
I love Weird Al too, but I have to take issue with this statement:
Two words: Allan Sherman
Al, Dang. I have seen him live several times- going all the way back to Dare to Be Stupid when I was in HS.
My kids have never liked Al music much, prefering kiddie bubble gum pop crap that they get on Radio Disney… until Guitar Hero / Rock Band came out.
My 7 yr old (who hates almost everything) wanted Eye of the Tiger (for some strange reason) on his Ipod. I did not have it, but I did have Al’s parody – Rocky’s Theme.
Now he has a half dozen Al Songs, mostly of songs they he knows from rockband/ guitar hero, and it is HYSTERICAL listening to him sing along!
I bought myself the Weird Al Show on DVD, and there was a period that was all my kids watched… over and over and over…
He can sing, his band is awsome. They can go from Rock to country to rap to 80’s pop.. You name it, they can do it… and do it WELL.
I love playing an AL song as my students walk in the room, and they get all excited… until they actually hear what is on… Wait, thats not Eminem… what is this??? I gotta do that this week again…
AL ROCKS!
Weird Al is epic win! The man appeals to all ages, and puts on a clean show while still remaining hilarious to adults. Great stuff.
Coolio acted like a total jerk, even after Yankovich apologized.
He also tried to do a Star Wars parody on the Kinks’ Lola, but Ray Davies was too high and mighty to give permission. Jerk. I’ve heard the lyrics, and they were really good.
Do you mean Yoda? That is on the Dare to be Stupid album. Some time ago when my kids were younger, they would listen to Radio Disney and it was played all the time.
I remember hearing him on the sunday night Dr. Demento Show on KMET waaaaay back in ‘77 when he did Another One Rides The Bus live from the studio bathroom. He was a complete unknown at the time and Dr. Demento basically discovered him and invited him to perform on the show. The rest is history.
Yes, my information on that one was a zillion years old – apparently what happened was Davies made him re-record it, and the scuttlebutt at the time was it wasn’t going to come out. Guess a person should look stuff up if the last time they heard about something was over 20 years ago.
I’ve met a few hundred celebrities & Al is, without a doubt, the nicest you’ll ever meet.
The only time it’s ever cool to play the Accordion is when Weird Al is doing it. Otherwise it’s an EPIC FAIL!!!!!
My favorite Weird Al Christmas song is “The Night Santa Went Crazy”! And his parody of Star Wars Episode 1 to “American Pie” is right up there with Yoda in place of Lola.
God Bless you, Weird Al. Here’s to another 30 years of musical parodyings and funny new songs.
P.S. How many of you memorized the words to “Albuquerque”?
There was only one song Al did that he didn’t have permission for (to my knowledge), and that was “Amish Paradise.” Apparently Coolio, who did “Gangster’s Paradise,” didn’t want it done, but one of Al’s people (a producer or something, years ago I heard this) said they got the go ahead. Needless to say, Al apologized quite sincerely, as that broke his rule on parodies (he even got permission for “My Bologna” when he was just a student in college).
Heard it on VH1’s Behind the Music, I think.