Nobody actually cares about either as anything more than making an inconsequential point, though, so it's not a big deal
I was genuinely shocked by it ("Aw, not Al...." :( ), as per my posts to LL (and hl in the other thread) before it blew up itt
― boney tassel (sic), Friday, 18 July 2014 04:40 (nine years ago) link
I'm pretty surprised someone would use the word "spastic" as a pejorative in 2014 too but then again I'm not familiar with Weird Al nor do I care about him. Also never been to the USA.
― uxorious gazumping (monotony), Friday, 18 July 2014 04:42 (nine years ago) link
xp Fair enough, but as someone with several family members with pretty severe disabilities, I find that people love occasionally pointing out a spot of inappropriate language, but are perfectly content to ignore the issues otherwise. My school of thought is that as long as there's a world where a show like Derek exists, I have a really hard time caring about such a minor issue.
― kaygee, Friday, 18 July 2014 04:46 (nine years ago) link
spaz if you want to
― nova, Friday, 18 July 2014 05:29 (nine years ago) link
Weird Al seems a bit eugenicist, too, with his desire to get grammar offenders out of the gene pool — perhaps less compassionate than The Onion's old nation's educators alarmed by poorly written suicide notes. The heroic persistence of Yankovic marches alongside the progressive normalization of geek culture, which may find itself enraged that the tools it created have made the voices of those it hates all the more publicly visible/audible ("we gave them Spell Check, yet look what they do!"). Weird Al generally seems innocuous enough to me, but this song seems to feed off some genuine resentment (even if it's not quite Al's own so much as something that "just works" for the song — not that I know one way or the other). What happened to daring to be stupid? One could care less about these things!
― eatandoph (Neue Jesse Schule), Friday, 18 July 2014 06:44 (nine years ago) link
Yes Weird Al Yankovic is deliberately advocating for Eugenics, great call and excellent interpretation
― kaygee, Friday, 18 July 2014 07:00 (nine years ago) link
This is ilm. We can ruin anything.
― Johnny Fever, Friday, 18 July 2014 07:03 (nine years ago) link
the entire premise of the song is dickish grammar nazi shit that anyone over 20 should have grown out of
sorry i didn't realise he was some sort of national treasure or w/e but yknow, deal
― lex pretend, Friday, 18 July 2014 07:31 (nine years ago) link
Can we all just go back and watch the "Foil" video again?
Seriously. Do it now if you haven't done it already.
― Elvis Telecom, Friday, 18 July 2014 07:46 (nine years ago) link
The "I" of Weird Al's songs is alway Weird Al himself. He is also a fat surgeon who was in Nirvana.
― Three Word Username, Friday, 18 July 2014 08:02 (nine years ago) link
he cannot pretend
― chikungunya manatee (Sufjan Grafton), Friday, 18 July 2014 08:03 (nine years ago) link
he must actually be it
also he was in love with ricky?
― everybody loves lana del raymond (s.clover), Friday, 18 July 2014 10:47 (nine years ago) link
yes, i'm glad you got the joke!
― guwop (crüt), Friday, 18 July 2014 12:13 (nine years ago) link
With proper disciple "humour" is not necessary
― sinister porpoise (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Friday, 18 July 2014 12:40 (nine years ago) link
I'm pretty offended by Al's use of the word "Weird." Is it meant as a perjorative? Isn't he reifying received norms with its usage? Perhaps "Decentered/Problematized Al" would serve as a more useful nomiker.― relentlessly pecking at peace (President Keyes), Thursday, July 17, 2014 9:32 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― relentlessly pecking at peace (President Keyes), Thursday, July 17, 2014 9:32 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
genius post imo
― Now I Am Become Dracula (underrated aerosmith bootlegs I have owned), Friday, 18 July 2014 12:40 (nine years ago) link
http://www.avclub.com/article/weird-al-yankovic-answers-our-11-questions-206949
5. How would your enemies describe you?WAY: Very poorly, I’m sure. Probably using monosyllabic words, bad grammar, improper syntax. I have to assume my enemies are idiots.
WAY: Very poorly, I’m sure. Probably using monosyllabic words, bad grammar, improper syntax. I have to assume my enemies are idiots.
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Friday, 18 July 2014 14:43 (nine years ago) link
otm based on available sample
― blap setter (darraghmac), Friday, 18 July 2014 15:10 (nine years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cqg-YZhr3bA
― voodoo chili, Friday, 18 July 2014 16:15 (nine years ago) link
so i googled to see whether weird al has ever acknowledged that his "trigger happy" was a total jack of "Skeet Surfin" from Top Secret and all i found was a big interview he did with the dissolve about Top Secret where he mentions how great "skeet surfin" is without bringing up "trigger happy."
maybe he made a deal with z.a.z. where in exchange for them not suing he has to praise the movie whenever possible?
― da croupier, Friday, 18 July 2014 16:18 (nine years ago) link
lol i love that naked gun scene
― maura, Friday, 18 July 2014 17:04 (nine years ago) link
i'm sure he takes a lot of inspiration from other comedy and sometimes it's just more transparent than it usually is. when the guy's whole thing is parodying ostensibly 'serious' songs, there's a weird gray area as far as borrowing from fellow comedians. i was always annoyed at "Truck Drivin' Song," which is like a carbon copy of the whole concept of Monty Python's "Lumberjack Song."
― some dude, Friday, 18 July 2014 17:09 (nine years ago) link
the new one, "sports song," is up - some funny lines but my least favorite so far, people doin the "I will hip you to how silly sports fandom is" thing is like
c'mon bro
― Now I Am Become Dracula (underrated aerosmith bootlegs I have owned), Friday, 18 July 2014 17:12 (nine years ago) link
sports song is like straight from the tom lehrer era
― dilligaf escape plan (Whiney G. Weingarten), Friday, 18 July 2014 17:13 (nine years ago) link
clearly inspired by "Fight Fiercely Harvard", but he takes it somewhere else, and it's good.
― Three Word Username, Friday, 18 July 2014 17:15 (nine years ago) link
It's no "Fight Fiercely, Harvard".
― how's life, Friday, 18 July 2014 17:15 (nine years ago) link
xp fuck
Heh, while looking up to see if I could find any info on the "Trigger Happy"-"Skeet Surfin" connection I found this thread from a newsgroup from 1992.
― MarkoP, Friday, 18 July 2014 17:16 (nine years ago) link
Oh wow, I never even heard "Fight Fiercely Harvard." It's pretty decentered/problematized that I made that connection anyway, wow.
But yeah, it's so Tom Lehrer/Allen Shermany that I was kind of disappointed that the video wasn't like full of fur coats and triangular flags
― dilligaf escape plan (Whiney G. Weingarten), Friday, 18 July 2014 17:22 (nine years ago) link
HURL THAT SPHEROID DOWN THE FIELD
― Star Gentle Uterus (DJP), Friday, 18 July 2014 17:29 (nine years ago) link
DEMONSTRATE TO THEM OUR PROWESS, DO!
― Three Word Username, Friday, 18 July 2014 17:52 (nine years ago) link
Tim and Eric have the best sports song
― chikungunya manatee (Sufjan Grafton), Friday, 18 July 2014 17:54 (nine years ago) link
do you wanna go sit in the cell where we put the guy who said Flying Conchords are better than Weird Al?
― some dude, Friday, 18 July 2014 18:09 (nine years ago) link
BECAUSE THERE'S PLENTY OF ROOM
― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Friday, 18 July 2014 18:17 (nine years ago) link
a nice roomy cell sounds nice yes thank you
― chikungunya manatee (Sufjan Grafton), Friday, 18 July 2014 18:22 (nine years ago) link
VG forgot to mention that we filled it with farts
― Star Gentle Uterus (DJP), Friday, 18 July 2014 18:26 (nine years ago) link
are they smelly farts?
― chikungunya manatee (Sufjan Grafton), Friday, 18 July 2014 18:28 (nine years ago) link
lots of people eating fried and poached eggs around here. they are probably smelly.
― chikungunya manatee (Sufjan Grafton), Friday, 18 July 2014 18:30 (nine years ago) link
pickled weiners.
― how's life, Friday, 18 July 2014 18:33 (nine years ago) link
also vegemite
― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Friday, 18 July 2014 18:36 (nine years ago) link
FWIW I find it kind of endearing (if bizarre) that this weird release format is putting really close, brief attention on what are, videos aside, obviously Weird Al album tracks, a dicey category of song for at least two decades. Love the guy at his best but buying a Weird Al CD always involved some recognition that there would be some lame jokes that didn't work, some concepts pushed too far, some forced wackiness etc etc - - - so yeah surprise surprise not all these tracks are genius, I'm just amazed he can still actually knock out a few parody songs that people like and laugh at, this late in his career.
― Doctor Casino, Friday, 18 July 2014 19:24 (nine years ago) link
*gives weird al a treat**pats weird al on head*
― chikungunya manatee (Sufjan Grafton), Friday, 18 July 2014 19:30 (nine years ago) link
i think the pastiches on this one are better executed than the straight-up parodies tbh
― ciderpress, Friday, 18 July 2014 19:39 (nine years ago) link
"on this one" hardly necessary there imo
― difficult listening hour, Friday, 18 July 2014 19:58 (nine years ago) link
yeah, still blown away by the pixies one
― chikungunya manatee (Sufjan Grafton), Friday, 18 July 2014 20:04 (nine years ago) link
there should be a playlist of pixies parody songs
― Philip Nunez, Friday, 18 July 2014 20:06 (nine years ago) link
There is no class of patients referred to simply as "spastic" by doctors in North America (and I don't think in the UK either). The word sometimes is used as an adjective to describe a pattern of gait or a form of dysarthria.
thanks for clearing this up Plasmon; I would hope it was obvious that I was referring to the former usage as being nonexistent in the US
many many xp
― Οὖτις, Friday, 18 July 2014 20:06 (nine years ago) link
It's called Indie Cindy.
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Friday, 18 July 2014 21:17 (nine years ago) link
haaaa
― guwop (crüt), Friday, 18 July 2014 21:17 (nine years ago) link
My piano teacher from high school has been in Al's touring band for >20 years :)
― schwantz, Friday, 18 July 2014 21:19 (nine years ago) link