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Friday, October 20, 2006

Genius of Yankovic

Slate has a great article exploring "25 years of Weird Al." It truly is remarkable how current he's been able to stay ever since 1981's Another One Rides the Bus. I know Weird Al a different animal (maybe more of a parasite), but I can't think of any other performers who have stayed at the forefront of pop culture for a period that spans Queen to MIA.

His latest is White 'n Nerdy, which uses Chamillionaire's Ridin' as a basis to parody the world of geek – from Dungeons and Dragons to MySpace to Wikipedia to X Men to ROTFLOL. W 'n N is the hottest YouTube music video for the month. Check it:

posted by jds @ 10/20/2006 11:57:00 AM  

3 Comments:

  • At 10:02 PM, Blogger F_D said…

    Um... Word.

    It is pretty ridiculous how relevant he's managed to stay. The truly remarkable thing is (from my perspective) is that the kind of parody that he's perfected is easy for anyone to pull off as a one-off - - but he's got it down such that it stays fresh without him having to reinvent himself. (B/c why not let pop culture refresh itself on your behalf?)

    In summary: UHF IN THE HOUSE!

     

  • At 8:19 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Reprint of earlier comment:

    Anonymous said...
    I know it's common to call Weird Al a parasite, but I don't see it. Al gets permission and pays royalties, and he and his band play the music with genuine respect (go to a live Weird Al show sometime-- those are real musicians at the top of their game) Our pop culture has plenty of excesses and absurdities, and Weird Al, the faithful jester, holds them up for our enjoyment and enlightenment. ~OE

    11:55 AM

     

  • At 6:32 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    to his credit he has some really great rhymes in there and the songwriting while funny as hell is ace.

    favorite part of this whole thing is that chamillionaire was actually rocking this track on his myspace area for awhile.

     

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