Search

[Phitney]

Guys, Weird Al is releasing a new video every day for 8 days! Some of been "meh," but this one is the best so far because Margaret Cho:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsWo8apgLys

"Foil" was alright, too.

[Rapture Ready Blowhard]

Foil was my favorite, by far.  Strangely enough, Weird Al was one of the first secular artists I started to listen to.  I grew out of it and pretty much forgot about him for years, until I met one of my best friends in college who describes his discovery of Weird Al as almost life changing.  I can't even remember how many times the two of us watched UHF, but it never got old.

[dakotafloyd]

I've always been an Al fan, even though I thought the last couple albums didn't really stack up. Stoked on these videos and their popularity, though. "Word Crimes" is definitely a favorite so far, although the second verse of "Foil" is Al at his finest.

Was pretty disappointed with today's song though ("Sports").

[jer]

I've only seen word crimes so far, but it's awesome.

[Anna Karina]

Adults listening to Weird Al is dumb and stupid.

[Semi]

Word Crimes was actually provocatively stupid to me, as a layman student of linguistics. I don't know if it's actually sarcastic or not, he might be making fun of "grammar-nazis" but I doubt it because all the "grammar-nazis" are eating it up and using it as an excuse to pick on people for their spelling/grammar. Which is terrible.

[dakotafloyd]

I liked "Word Crimes" from the perspective of a copy editor, but it can definitely be problematic in terms of valuing dialects and home languages.  By setting a standard for "proper English," "Word Crimes" brings a lot of questions to rise, such as the complex relationships between education and class, race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, etc.

Coming from the perspective of a former ESL teacher, I did find that the song automatically puts native-English speakers on a pedestal.  By the song's standards, English Language Learners shouldn't even attempt to string together sentences or phrases unless they want to be seen as inferior or face ridicule from their English-speaking peers.

Another gripe, most of the stuff in the song isn't even "grammar" as Al seems to imply pretty early on.

All of this being said, I think it's a good parody as long as it's seen as just that.  I think Al did a good job of turning a terribly misogynistic song into something a little more playful, and I've actually seen a lot of people posting things about that.  While it does address some common spelling and syntax issues, "Word Crimes" probably shouldn't be used as a teaching tool, unless presented as a fun accompaniment piece and not the law.

[dakotafloyd]

Adults listening to Weird Al is dumb and stupid.

Well, I guess I

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMhwddNQSWQ

[RankResistance]

Everything Semi and Dakota said up there. I battle constantly with my co-workers re: grammar/usage and so on. I teach alongside a lot of people who will no doubt show this on the first day of school. But they are also the type of people who deduct points in red ink for everything that isn't standard written English. Some of them are real dirtbags and have practices that, from my observation, comes off as straight-up racist at times.

I grew up with Weird Al. I still like Weird Al. I don't listen to his music, but I will watch these videos at least once through because of the comfort factor.

[Semi]

Dare to be Stupid has the most cleverly written lyrics of any song ever. Will totally tattoo that shit on my body someday.

[Anna Karina]

Dare to be Stupid has the most cleverly written lyrics of any song ever.

May I introduce you to my friend Phil Ochs.

[tinybitsofheart]

Dare to be Stupid has the most cleverly written lyrics of any song ever.

May I introduce you to my friend Phil Ochs.

The fact that you're mentioning Phil Ochs and Weird Al in the same sentence really has me tickled right now.

[Semi]

Dare to be Stupid has the most cleverly written lyrics of any song ever.

May I introduce you to my friend Phil Ochs.

I do a cover of The Ballad of William Worthy with my band and I actually rewrote Love me I'm a liberal (into Love me I'm neoliberal) a few days ago, Ochs has some amazing lyrics as well.

Well, there really is no need to travel to these evil lands
Yes, and though the list grows larger you must try to understand
Try hard not to be surprised if someday you should hear
The whole world is off limits, visit Disneyland this year

[Aegir]

The polka medleys are still good. The parodies I grew out of years ago.

[dakotafloyd]

Aaaaaand Weird Al's record went number one.  First time in his 30+ year career.

[lindsey]

i never really got into weird al when i was younger because i thought it was stupid, but i like it more the older i get actually. his lyrics ARE really clever and making parodies as excellent as his seems really difficult. i love how sincere he is and how unapologetically HIMSELF he is, especially for someone who has been in the music industry long enough to see how far being fake gets you. and the fact that he had a #1 record after being around for so long for some reason makes me really happy like how bad can things really be if people are still spending that much money on a weird al record.

[Semi]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lIrggalp3o

I love this video