Ha! You’ve obviously never heard of Madonna!
To be honest, I wasn’t even aware that “I lost on Jeopardy!” was a parody of another song.
If you have ever seen Al in an interview he comes across as a stone normal guy who knows he has been very lucky in life and as a result does not take life too seriously.
We should all have such luck and attitude.
About his parents. I went to a couple of concerts at the Greek Theatre where his mother came out and introduced him. It was cute and funny as hell.
Later when his parents died I thought back and realized that here was a son that loved his parents, and parents that were proud of their son.
Heck of a guy and on my short list of celebrities I would like to sit down with and have a beer and chat.
I’m wondering if he was asking because he perceives Weird Al as childlike or childish. I’ve never heard anything about Weird Al as an individual that indicated that he was immature, unprofessional, or stupid – quite the contrary – but I could kinda see how someone only passingly familiar with his music might think “This guy’s been doing goofy song parodies for decades? Is he stuck at age 11 or something?”
I don’t think that’s a fair assessment of Weird Al’s music, I’m just trying to imagine what your employee might have been thinking.
Did they play themselves in The Compleat Al? I always wondered, because those two were really wooden actors.
Yes, according to the IMDB listing, his parents played themselves.
One thing that shouts out “surprisingly regular guy” to me is the stability of his band. Hardly any changes over a long period of time. E.g., his drummer has been with him since 1980.
Crazy people fire or drive off co-workers.
He has avoided all drugs, including alcohol, and has been a vegan for a bit now.
Crazy people tend not to have that sort of lifestyle.
You know who else had that sort of lifestyle?!
I don’t know for sure, but I suspect that he may be very mildly autistic, or have some issue of his own. He’s one of my best workers, but he also has the same social worker as my “special needs” employee.
He’s even better when he’s not parodying a specific song. That, as indicated by others, is just too easy.
He parodies entire genres.
Case in point: “Dare to Be Stupid.” Weird Al out-Devo’d Devo. Mark Motherbaugh* professed to hating him for sculpting a thing of Devo-esque beauty.
*Jokingly, I hope, but Motherbaugh is kind of hard to read sometimes.
I expect using his puny human brain he has trouble with quantum and causality paradoxes.
Otherwise, he seems to be fine and dandy.
I love those. My favorites are Dog Eat Dog, which is a great Talking Heads-style song, Craigslist, which is done in the style of the Doors, and Bob, which sounds like Bob Dylan singing entirely in palindromes.
Go hang a salami, I’m a lasagna hog.
I love “Craigslist”! The bit about the packing peanuts gets me every time.
I first saw it last night and it was the most perfect and beautiful DEVO video ever, and I have a lot of them. I assume Mothersbaugh was similarly in awe.
The OP question hits me as similar to the idea that ‘such-and-such work of art must have been created using drugs.’ Some people just don’t understand creativity, or how someone could writes songs like “Melanie” or “Albuquerque” without being as crazy as the songs’ narrators.
I believe he went vegetarian (or was it vegan) so that makes me want to say yes, definitely mental issues, but he’s not a dick about it, so that makes me want to say no, he doesn’t.
running coach writes:
> . . . He does have a dark and twisted side to his humor . . .
Compared to who? Look at the songs of Tom Lehrer, for instance. Lehrer is an even better satirist, I think. There is a considerably darker and more twisted side to Lehrer’s humor than to Weird Al’s. Of course, there has to be a certain amount of cynicism in any satirist in order for them to do satire at all, but Weird Al has surprisingly little darkness or twistedness in his humor.
Prince, iirc.
Revenge killing: I Remember Larry
Sociopathic selfishness: Why Does This Always Happen to Me?
Stalking, voyeurism, and suicide: Melanie
More stalking: Do I Creep You Out?"
Domestic violence: You Don’t Love Me Any More
Animal Abuse: Weasel Stomping Day
Fat-shaming: Fat
:p:D