Autism and "Weird" Al Yankovic

[dhl02]

I worked in a place where the majority of the workforce was neurodiverse and one common theme was that there were a lot of people that enjoy Weird Al.

I've liked Weird Al since I first discovered him on MTV at age 6.

What say you?

 

[Ronald Zeeman]

Do not know much about him

 

[FIVER]

I worked in a place where the majority of the workforce was neurodiverse and one common theme was that there were a lot of people that enjoy Weird Al.

I've liked Weird Al since I first discovered him on MTV at age 6.

What say you?

My kids loved him!

 

[Tom]

Don't know if there is any connection, but I like him. Doctor Demento show also, which featured him early on and many other odd things.

 

[Streetwise]

I think some of his parodies are interesting not all

 

[SusanLR]

Like some of his stuff. More so when I was younger.

 

[Penumbra]

I'm not the biggest fan of Weird Al, but his was the first live concert I went to. It was at a county fair and I still remember it fondly.

 

[Bolletje]

I thought it was funny when I was a teenager, but I don’t consider myself a fan.

 

[Streetwise]

I worked in a place where the majority of the workforce was neurodiverse and one common theme was that there were a lot of people that enjoy Weird Al.

I've liked Weird Al since I first discovered him on MTV at age 6.

What say you?

What I do like is that he gets permission to do his version

 

[Trophonius]

Some of his videos are interesting, others are not.

Calling his videos a parody is quite a stretch. I understand parody as a content that takes an original work and changes elements to make it humorous, turning it into a joke. While Weird Al call all his videos "parodies", I believe most don't fit into what I consider to be a parody.

His song Amish Paradise is rightfully a parody of Gangsta's Paradise, because while the latter is a rap song, a genre associated mostly associated at the time with african american communities an representing the harsh realities of the subcultures they were born (and pushed) into, and that is precisely what Gangsta's Paradise is about, the song Amish Paradise is a rap song about the pleasant life in the Amish community, which when considering the original it's a funny twist. A similar comment applies to the song White and Nerdy, parody of Ridin'.

His song Foil, however, can barely be called a parody of Royals. It constructs nothing based on the theme of Royals, but only takes the original song instrumentation and puts wacky lyrics on top. I find most of his songs to be of this kind: wacky lyrics bearing no relation to the original song.

I find his originals to be more interest that his so-called parodies. I like this one

 

[clg114]

I worked in a place where the majority of the workforce was neurodiverse and one common theme was that there were a lot of people that enjoy Weird Al.

I've liked Weird Al since I first discovered him on MTV at age 6.

What say you?

I love his work!

 

[Markness]

I haven’t kept up with him. I sometimes listen to his older songs and I thought UHF was funny.

 

[Streetwise]

I haven’t kept up with him. I sometimes listen to his older songs and I thought UHF was funny.

Try livin with a hernia again his attention to detail is very neurodiverse

 

[Markness]

Try livin with a hernia again his attention to detail is very neurodiverse

What do you mean by living with a hernia?

 

[Streetwise]

What do you mean by living with a hernia?

He did a parody of livin in America by James Brown all of James Browns band played in his video and he used the same costume designer

 

[Markness]

He did a parody of livin in America by James Brown all of James Browns band played in his video and he used the same costume designer

That sounds funny!

 

[justin_havu]

I've loved his work since 1995 when I was given a copy of his debut album on cassette. I also admire the fact that he gets permission from the original artists to do his parodies. The coolest story to me is when he got permission from Michael Jackson to parody "Bad" and Michael even let Al use the subway set from his Moonwalker movie ("Badder" segment)

 

[Suzette]

I am, naturally, a very serious person. Weird Al helps connect me to my sense of the absurd. My husband and I both enjoy making up our own Yankovichian parodies and we often do so together.

 

[tkcartoonist]

Weird Al's backing band are, no joke, some of the most talented people in the industry. You'd have to be to be able to do so many different music styles.

 

[Binary_Bark]

In my experience it's not 'Weir Al' but Pink Floyd. Probably because 'Weird Al' is not a very big name here.