How ‘Weird Al’ eclipsed most stars he parodied | Hacker News Reader

How ‘Weird Al’ eclipsed most stars he parodied

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231 pointsohjeez97 comments

I think it's a rare combination of genuine talent, being genuinely likeable (and being able to easily communicate that through a short song or video), having the qualities needed to promote himself and struggle for a long time, and good luck to be there at a time when he could enter the consciousness of so many young people.

Generations of kids (and the rest of us) have enjoyed this man's work, and that of course gives him some staying power too. How often does something we feel nostalgia for continue to reinforce those good memories? Here's a case of someone who still does.

There have been others with greater or lesser success... Mr. Rogers for example (I think) had a similar kind of impact, but obviously not the financial success.

Mr Rogers defines the pinnacle of "good human being" to me. There are so many stories of him doing really nice things (wearing the sweaters his mother made for him on his show, describing what he was doing on the show because a blind child wrote in, speaking to the funding of PBS; the list goes on and on). Add to that the impact he had on my life (and the impact the newer Danial Tiger show based off his work has on my daughter's)... I just can't say enough good things.

I was pondering to myself recently that if Jesus had returned in secret, my best guess would be that he was Mr. Rogers. A bit of a joke but I sure wish people could say the same about me!

IANAL, but the thought once occurred to me that if Jesus lived today, he would be a public defender. The public defender tells his client: it doesn't matter who you are, where you come from, what you've done, or whether you're guilty or innocent; I'm here to help you.

It's too bad public defender programs are so often understaffed and underfunded, to the point where some have only minutes to spare per client [0]. This contributes to statistics like 90-95% of federal and state court cases being resolved through plea bargain in the US [1].

[0] https://www.nacdl.org/reports/misdemeanor/ page 21

[1] https://www.bja.gov/Publications/PleaBargainingResearchSumma... page 1

Well, most people arrested are guilty anyway, statistically. People get too many ideas about the legal system from TV shows, and then when reality doesn't match their TV shows they assume it's reality that's fucked.

> Well, most people arrested are guilty anyway, statistically.

But aren't those statistics based on a system that's incentivized for them to be guilty? That's like trusting an environmental study funded by an oil company.

A shitload of crimes are committed, and most criminals are pretty stupid.

I think it's only most criminals that get caught that are stupid.

That aside, you're assuming that because most criminals (that get caught) are stupid, that most people accused of crimes must be guilty. What if we consider an alternative theory - the police are stupid? Is that any less likely than criminals being stupid? Another possibility - the police don't care and just want to meet their numbers. And another possibility - people have underlying prejudices which they use to justify their actions.

In order to reach your conclusion you need to make a lot of assumptions, for which you provide no evidence.

It doesn't really matter whether the defendant is guilty. Even someone who 100% admits their own guilt and has been found guilty beyond a doubt still has rights and considerations of due process -- this is what we've all agreed to as a civilized society -- and the public defender exists to ensure that even if a defendant has no financial means or connections, SOMEBODY knowledgeable is working to ensure that those rights and considerations are respected.

It's a critically vital function in preserving the rule of law.

I think he'd be more like Russel Brand.

Russel Brand confounds me, some of his stuff is brilliant, but a lot is superficial and crazy.

I'm glad that I'm not the only one who feels this way. He strikes me as a series of interesting ideas filtered through a particularly messy mind.

Old enough to remember when "My Bologna", "Eat It" and some of the other early 80s videos came out. But it was his polka medleys (1) (which do not have accompanying videos) that showed another side to his talents ...

One of them is referenced in the article. Another one is "Hooked on Polkas" featuring Twisted Sister's "We're not gonna take it" and Frankie Goes to Hollywood's "Relax" (2), and then he did an even earlier medley with classic rock (3). The heaviest riffs and lyrics from the likes of Iron Butterfly and Hendrix turned into a goofball accordion medley ... pure brilliance.

One other thing to mention about Weird Al ... he is the only pop musician I like that my kids also appreciate. The videos for Eat It and Amish Paradise really hooked them ... still working on them with the medleys, though.

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_%22Weird_Al%22_Yankovi...

2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8OtFR24ZR0

3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oS5Dc6u1j8o

I'm a younger Al-fan but I've always loved the Angry White Boy Polka.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xY-oili63QQ

Most of his parodies are more clever than the originals, IMO. I say this in an objective sense because there have been multiple instances in my life where a song came on in some circumstance, and someone started singing the Weird Al version. I don't know about his more recent albums, but half of his songs were original and I liked many of those even better. "Good Old Days" is absolutely hilarious.

Yeah - "The Saga Begins" and "Tacky" have completely replaced the originals for me :)

That's partly happened for at least some of the artists Al has parodied. Don McLean has occasionally accidentally sang some "The Saga Begins" lyrics when performing "American Pie" in concert. He says this is because his kids constantly played "The Saga Begins" at home so he's heard it a billion times.

I remember seeing the "The Saga Begins" video and realizing what an underrated and great singer he is. Very flexible in style too - like the best voice actors.

It uses auto-tune quite heavily, so who really knows how good he can really sing.

> "Good Old Days" is absolutely hilarious.

Did you ever hear "My Hometown", by Tom Lehrer?

My all time favorite is one of the original songs, but still a "style parody", Everything You Know is Wrong. But all songs, whether direct parodies or originals, are pure brilliance.

When I was growing up, Michael Jackson was the guy who did boring versions of Weird Al songs. I loved "Fat" and hated "Bad" for being just like it except not funny.

To this day I still don't like Michael Jackson, probably because of that. Why just have a good tune when you can have a good tune and be funny?

Because it's easier to make a funny version of a popular tune than it is to make a popular tune to begin with.

Because Weird Al can't dance like MJ.

The original authors of /The Onion/ had a dislike of Yankovic which was strangely intense http://www.theonion.com/article/weird-al-yankovic-nears-comp... , even using his parents' tragic death http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/life/music/2004-04-11-weird-a... as an opportunity to take a shot at his song parodies http://www.theonion.com/article/weird-al-honors-parents-memo... .

The usatoday link lead to a page that would not render on my mobile device but this latimes link worked http://articles.latimes.com/2004/apr/11/local/me-weirdal11

In other Weird Al news, there's a Beatles parody ("Pac-Man", based on "Taxman") that he wrote in 1982 that he has just this year received permission to release.

http://www.theverge.com/2017/2/18/14658500/weird-al-unreleas...

It always amazes me to hear stories about artists that won't give him permission to do parodies (Prince, Weezer, Eminem, and the Coolio debacle).

One of my favorite stories about a Weird Al song was that Madonna actually floated the idea for "Like a Surgeon" through a mutual friend.

That's terrific. My favorite Weird Al permission story is that Mark Knopfler had one condition: that he be allowed to play the guitar part for the 'Money for Nothing/Beverly Hillbillies' parody.

When I was a kid, I remember hearing about Weird Al's practice of always seeking permission from the artists he parodied and assuming it was just to avoid any legal unpleasantness later (even if any such case would be thrown out). It wasn't until later that I understood the motivation to truly have everyone in on the joke together, which this profile describes wonderfully.

Yeah this is great.

The fact he asks shows that he respects other artists and respects their feelings. Not everyone is happy about being parodied, especially if their work holds very personal sentimental meaning for them.

Coolio just copied Stevie Wonder verbatim, how did he get a say in the first place? Made him look like a total ass to me at the time.

White And Nerdy shows a very impressive amount of genuine nerdiness. I mean, rapping in front of Schroedinger's equation for the hydrogen atom?

His entire discography has blatant gems of nerdiness peppered through it (also fun fact about the MV: when he vandalises a wikipedia page, it's the one for Atlantic Records, and is a reference to Atlantic refusing to bless the commercial release of "You're Pitiful", the parody of James Blunt's "You're Beautiful")

His recent ERB as Isaac Newton was like that also: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8yis7GzlXNM

I know, and it's not like it's just Schroedinger's equation with an arbitrary potential!

Weird Al is a national treasure.

He has a great touch with lyrics and generally manages to stay on the right side of the line between goofy/funny and uncomfortable/cringeworthy.

His "Word Crimes" is one of the more entertaining videos I've seen, because not only is it a "ha ha just serious" kind of song, but the animations in the video are just spot on.

That indirectly reminds me of "Bob", another favourite: https://vimeo.com/44024588

I was blown away by how clever it was. Yet another example of Weird Al surpassing his source material!

Saul Bass would have approved.

Weird Al is really brilliant. One of the things I think he does so well is capture the _spirit_ of the artist when he writes an original "in the style of" song. If I didn't know better I'd swear that Dare To Be Stupid was a song by Devo. He matches their musical style so well!

Yea his style parodies are my favorite. Frank's 2000 Inch TV[1] is a song in the style of REM and Waffle King[2] is like a Peter Gabriel song? I think that's what it is either way great talent.

Also about the Dare to be Stupid song this is a fun tidbit from the wikipedia article[3] of the song:

Devo's Mark Mothersbaugh stated in reaction to the song that: "I was in shock. It was the most beautiful thing I had ever heard. He sort of re-sculpted that song into something else and... I hate him for it, basically."

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glFVXpz_abQ

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8t4Smunp1U

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dare_to_Be_Stupid_(song)

I heard that Mark Mothersbaugh complained that Al had made a better DEVO song than he could.

About "Dare to Be Stupid", Mark Mothersbaugh said something like "He has basically written the perfect Devo song, and I pretty much hate his guts for it." Jokingly, of course, on that last bit.

I also have to mention UHF. If you haven't seen this film, run and go watch it now. It's hilarious.

man this comments thread is making me realize I'm a closet weird al fanboy. UHF is getting a rewatch this weekend.

Conan the Librarian and Ghandi 2 is what makes up 90% of my humour, I feel it's enough for a lifetime.

For those who haven't seen it, Weird Al's song "It's All About The Pentiums" should be required Hacker News watching: https://youtu.be/qpMvS1Q1sos

Weird Al goes in the same bucket as The Muppets and Homestar Runner - danged good clean fun.

I think this is an underappreciated aspect of his work. He occasionally strays from the path (see e.g. "The Night Santa Went Crazy"), and some of the polka medleys do incorporate some pretty dark songs about sex and violence (e.g. Stone Temple Pilots' "Sex Type Thing" or Foster The People's "Pumped Up Kicks") but it's a good rule of thumb that if a parody/comedy song is particularly profane/offensive/mean-spirited, it's not his work.

"Rice rice baby", a notable parody from the 90s that can be seen as racist, is very often missattributed to him but isn't his work.

If Napster taught me one thing, it's that every song parody has been attributed to Weird Al at some point.

Don't tell Strong Bad that!

this guy doesn't age. i remember him from when i was a kid. a while ago i saw some elementary school kid talk about weird al, and was like "that guy still alive?"

and checked out his latest, he looks exactly the same!

He's vegetarian, mostly vegan, supposedly. So it's funny how he fits into that stereotype "vegans don't age" / "look younger"

I remember when he was much larger . He actually went on a diet and lost a bunch of weight and now has to wear a fat suit for his parody of Michael Jackson.

Er… he always had to wear a fat suit (and a mask) for Fat!, there's no way you can dance that choreography and be basically round. Hell the second scene of the MV is him literally ballooning up.

Not to mention, "eat it" is from the same album and he's not exactly heavy in there: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcJjMnHoIBI

not from same album unless it's a greatest hits collection...

> At Sketchfest, Yankovic sits on a panel about the late, great IFC show “Comedy Bang! Bang!” He served one season as Aukerman’s musical sidekick, against his management’s advice. They thought he was too big for a low-rated cable show.

Something makes me respect famous artists a lot more when they're willing to take jobs that are destined to be ridiculous and obscure. It shows that they don't take themselves too seriously. Take Weird Al as "Uncle Muscles", for example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lM3k_pBSjE

My sister-in-law got us tickets to go see him about 10 years ago. I went, thinking that the "concert" was just going to be him dancing around and goofing off to pre-recorded music and things like that. WOW, was I blown out of the water.

He has one of the tightest bands I've ever heard. I mean, they played live and hit everything almost perfectly. I later find out he's been touring with the same people for decades, and they are at the top of their game musically. I went in being a fan of his music, but came out with so much respect for him as just a shear musician.

Decades ago I was one of a handful of regulars in a Weird Al IRC channel. His drummer John "Bermuda" Schwartz (who is still a member of his band to this day) was also a regular and would set up occasional Q and A sessions with Al himself. Those were amazing times to be a Weird Al fan.

The man is genuinely entertaining.

I got the pleasure of seeing him last year. Being in Norway, it was a small crowd compared to what it might be in the US - and absolutely wonderful. Serious talent, and the costume changes are quick.

Some songs are nearly cult-like: Tin foil, for example, and folks brought their own. His older songs are now parodies of classics to a younger generation (My first memory of Weird Al was his song, "I'm fat").

I'm not sure what you mean by small, but years ago he played the smaller state fair here, a couple thousand people tops.

(but I think of a "big" show as an arena or stadium)

Well, I think there were maybe a few hundred folks. It was held in a large room at a hotel instead of an arena or stadium. No seating and the room was at least 1/3 empty space and no matter where I stood, I had a grand view. Plenty of Indiana high school gymnasiums have more visitors. Of course, if he were playing there, it would most likely be at an arena or stadium.

I love Stevie Wonder, but it is only in the last year, courtesy of binge listening on Spotify, that I realized where Yankovic got the base melody for 'Amish Paradise' (See 'Pastime Paradise' on 'Songs in the Key of Life'). When Weird Al is where I get my introduction, I know I have some cultural depth to grow in :)

Awesome song! Though I think it's more likely that Coolio got the base melody for Gangsta's Paradise from Stevie Wonder, and Amish Paradise grabbed it from Coolio since Amish Paradise is a parody of Gangsta's Paradise.

Yeah, but Weird Al must have been aware of both songs, given the lyrical shout-out (not to mention his general nerdiness).

Technically Weird Al got it from Coolio's Gangster's Paradise. And Coolio got it from Stevie Wonder.

What is up with the scrollbar on this page...?

For some reason overflow-y: hidden is inlined onto the body element. Looks a botched attempt at a paywall. Easily disabled in devtools, though.

yeah, i cant even read it. all i see is a full screen slideshow of weird al pics. no way to scroll down. nice job wapo!

I found I could scroll with the keyboard, at least.

i couldn't even play the video

Some of the songs he parodied were utterly unknown to me. I remember how White and Nerdy was a massive hit before I finally heard the original: Riding Dirty. Of course the really big hits he parodied (Michael Jackson, Coolio) he never eclipsed, but he parodied a lot of songs that weren't really all that famous as far as I can tell.

Just looked back, Wikipedia shows that "Ridin'" was at the top (#1) of the Billboard top 100 chart for 2 weeks. That speaks to it being fairly well known.

Well, I hadn't heard it before White And Nerdy. Though it is of course possible that it was successful in the US but didn't manage to cross the Atlantic until after Al parodied it.

BTW, it was rumored (or often just assumed) early in his career that he was the son of "The Polka King" Frankie Yankovic[0], but they are not related at all.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankie_Yankovic

I still have several episodes of his ill fated children's show recorded on Betamax.

+1 for just admitting that you owned Betamax (vastly superior of course to those VHS ninnies).

A good article. But the article doesn't seem to discuss "how Weird Al eclipsed most stars he parodied." I think I know the answer to that, but it'd be nice if the headline matched the story.

WaPo should have removed the word "How" from the headline

For a second I thought this was an article about a Weird AI.

He's genuinely funny, very competent musically, respects the artists he parodies and has always worked hard. But his real genius that shines above all is his lyrics. He's an outstanding lyricist, perhaps the finest of the last fifty years along with Sir Tim Rice. Al's lyrics are so good that more often than not, they supplant the original material in people's memories.

I think my favourite of his is _The Hardware Store_ --- which I think is completely original? --- which demonstrates lyrics, musical ability, and the fact that he's also a damn good singer...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYzo6NJBKco

I mean, the chorus alone is a thing of beauty... and then you get to the breakdown in the middle!

Listen out for the automatic circumcisers!

Oh wow. This is an incredibly well-crafted piece of music. That vocal arrangement is insane!

How did I not know this song?? Thanks :)

Agreed, I'd even go so far to say he is on par with Flanders and Swann, although obviously targeting a different market.

Love Flanders and Swann. I just checked when they were active and they retired in 1967 so my fifty years estimate was right on.

Not just listeners, but the artists themselves!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Saga_Begins#History

I agree. It's sad how many popular tunes have incredibly lazy lyrics - one phrase that is repeated endlessly. Al has interesting lyrics running through the whole song.

A point he made in "Six Words Long".

Al is one of those rare celebrities who everybody likes. He deserves his success.

So.. similar to Jesus

We've asked you repeatedly not to do this here.

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