Brightest Young Things

Do you think you're too cool for Weird Al Yankovic or something? Well, you're not.
Weird Al is awesome.

Some reasons for Weird Al's awesomeness:

• He has sold more than 12 million albums (more than any comedy act in history)
• Kurt Cobain described Yankovic as "a musical genius."
• In 1989 he made the hilarious movie 'UHF' co-starring the late Michael Richards, which was at one point my favorite movie of all time.
• Yankovic is his real last name.
• Chamillionaire credited Weird Al's "White & Nerdy" for his recent Grammy win: "That parody was the reason I won the Grammy, because it made the record so big it was undeniable. It was so big overseas that people were telling me they had heard my version of Weird Al's song."
• In high school he started the Volcano Worshipper's Club just to get an extra picture in the yearbook.
• He has a song featured in the original Transformer movie.
• He's a totally down to earth nice guy.
• His own fans have raised over $15,000 to try to get him a star on the Hollywood walk of fame for some reason.
• He has three Grammy Awards among nine nominations, four gold records, and six platinum records, and his first top ten Billboard album and single were both released in 2006, nearly three decades into his career. Awesome.

I had a sort of unhealthy obsession with Weird Al growing up. And Pee Wee Herman. Much to my father's dismay. And since he's playing at the Warner Theatre this Sat we decided to do a little tribute.

Many of us grew up on Weird Al's classic parodies, like Eat It:

[googlevideo]http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=720531919682264221&q=weird+al&ei=eaF2SOfnGoeIrgKUxbWiCw&hl=en[/googlevideo]

But he has some lesser known gems that are just as good, like the oddly touching Police parody 'King of Suede'

and my childhood favorite Kinks parody 'Yoda'. I didn't even freakin know the original when I was 10, it didn't matter.

So flash forward 15 years later, and who would have thought he's cranking out even more brilliant stuff, like this shockingly informed and hilarious nerdcore predecessor "It's All About The Pentiums":

[googlevideo]http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-98377375624850470&q=weird+al+It%27s+All+About+The+Pentiums&ei=JL52SKrQA4aCqwKiw62pCw&hl=en[/googlevideo]

But Al also does many "style parodies" which get less attention. This is where he writes his own material, but in the style of bands he admires, such as the B-52's, Nine Inch Nails, They Might Be Giants, Beastie Boys, etc. Weird Al has good taste. One of the most effective has been his Devo style parody 'Dare to Be Stupid'. Devo frontman Mark Mothersbough even commented in mock resentment that Weird Al did a better Devo than Devo did. Check out the awesome classic 80's video:

[googlevideo]http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2669001239364066043&q=weird+al+dare+to+be+stupid&ei=uqF2SNajLoaCqwKiw62pCw&hl=en[/googlevideo]

But my personal favorite is his Talking Heads style parody off the unfairly maligned 1986 "career ender" album Polka Party!:

Al has some straight up original comedy songs as well, this one being the theme song to many a relationship I've had:

Long before Girl Talk and 2 Many DJ's, Weird Al was creating frantic polka medleys of pop songs. His best is Polka Your Eyes out from 92's Off The Deep End:

And this one from '85 is fun as well:

Also worth checking out is The Alternative Polka from Bad Hair Day, and his polka version of Bohemian Rhapsody off Alapalooza.
Ok, if you're still not convinced Weird Al is awesome, from the UHF soundtrack, the epic Biggest Ball of Twine in Minnesota. Genius:

And if you're still not convinced, check out the equally epic Trapped in the Closet parody:

Ok, that's all, we just wanted to do a feature on how much we like Weird Al.
Go Netflix UHF and catch him at the Warner Theater on Sat.

[googlevideo]http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1830319515467628112&q=weird+al+uhf&ei=tNd2SL-1E6j2rAKr77WHDQ&hl=en[/googlevideo]