Reasons Why “Weird Al” Yankovic is a Genius and All Those Who Think Otherwise Are Wrong
1. He has outlasted almost every artist he’s parodied. Al has had a career spanning thirty years and he’s more popular today than ever before. When’s the last time you’ve heard something from Coolio, MC Hammer, Joan Jett, Men Without Hats, Survivor, Los Lobos, Don McLean, Dire Straights, Nelly, or the Backstreet Boys? Have you even heard of some of these artists? Al parodied them all back when they were cashing in their fifteen minutes. Now they’re nothing more than a memory, and a supposed ‘novelty’ act like Al is still in the public eye.
2. Half of his catalog is original music, people! I can’t even recount how many times I’ve heard of somebody trying to insult Al by claiming “he doesn’t even write his own music”. Well, 1. you’re a moron for making such a bold statement without actually researching anything, and 2. Weird Al’s best work is his original tracks.
3. He and his band are able to successfully record a diverse number of genres on each album. If you could think of any type of music at random, Al probably has a song (be it parody or original) in that style. Ska, punk, surf, experimental, sentimental, metal, polka, pop, ballad, just some of the genres the band has recorded.
4. Most of his original songs are actually in the style of a particular artist. Al is able to listen to the collective works of an act and then write his own completely original song in a way that makes it sound like a long lost song from that act. This is what we refer to as a ‘style parody’.
5. He has won three Grammy awards and sold more than twelve million albums in a world where comedy music is looked down on (because apparently mindless drivel about obscure love, dumbass rioting and general anti-intelligence triumphs over well-thought-out funny lyrics).
6. He has stood for thirty years as the reigning king of humorous recordings.
7. His concerts are some of the most elaborate stage shows in existence. Here are just a few things you might expect to see at a Weird Al concert: giant video screen (for playing videos with), costume changes for every freaking song, segways, back-up dancers, fake guitars, real guitars, a cell phone waved by every member of the audience, a twenty-minute long song, a medley of ten or more songs with new material written specifically for that tour, a two-minute long segment of synchronized a cappella gibberish, and maybe even the entire cast of Star Wars.
8. He has influenced a new generation of comedians and musicians to go into performing. Pat of the reason I do music right now is because of the music I heard by Al when I was younger. Other notable Al influenced artists include: MC Lars, MC Frontalot, MC Chris, Jonathan Coulton, Paul and Storm, and many others.
9. He never ages. No matter how old Al gets his music is still greatly appreciated and his hold on popular culture humor is still very vibrant and strong. Also, on a more literal basis, the dude never ages. He’s fifty-years old right now and he still looks like he did twenty years ago… is Weird Al Benjamin Button?
10. In the world of music, it has become one of the highest honors to any artist to have Weird Al make a parody of one of their songs. In fact Nirvana front man Curt Cobain claimed that he didn’t realize that his band had made it until Al did a parody of their song “Smells Like Teen Spirit” as “Smells Like Nirvana” on his 1992 album “Off the Deep End”. The art work for that particular album also parodies “Nevermind” by Nirvana. As Homer Simpson once said “He who is tired of Weird Al is tired of life”.
