I am not white, but I like mayonnaise, and have since I was a kid. I remember we always made sandwiches with Weber’s white bread and Best Foods mayo, and one of my favorite comfort foods is a turkey and tomato sandwich on white bread with mayo. I’m surprised I don’t weigh 300 lbs. because of this. (No, I’m not going to tell you how much I weigh, but it’s way less than that):o
I’ve heard this a bit, and it makes me grin. A roast beef/corned beef sandwich on white bread is acceptable, but only if there’s no rye or wheat bread or any other substitute in the house. And that yellow crap isn’t mustard, I don’t care what you call it. Brown stuff for me, thanks.
And I’m as WASP as it gets… unless you look at me, at least. If you look at my family tree I’m largely German and Polish. I suppose the Polish might account for the dusky skin, nearly black curly hair, and round little knob of a nose. The first two had several of my Chicana classmates in high school convinced I was One Of Them, and the three together have convinced more than one complete stranger that I’m half-black. Far as I know I don’t have any Jewish ancestry (then again, neither did George Allen) and I’ve never been to New York City or Chicago, but this thread has me craving a reuben so badly.
I might have to make an excuse on Sunday to go to Katz’s for after-church lunch. Pickles. Potato chips. Reuben. Full. 
I also have to express skepticism about this supposed white-mayo-stereotype.
Mayo is incredibly popular in Mexico, at least it was when I lived there for 6 months. Street vendors would all have obligatory gargantuan jars of mayo for spreading on everything from tacos to hot dogs to… chicken tacos, to beef tacos (they eat a lot of frigging tacos), to everything else. I was never a mayo person at all (I am white) and it was actually there that I picked up the mayo habit. This wasn’t even in the tourist areas. So what gives, white people?
That’s funny. I’m Mexican and I’ve never heard nor seen of mayo on tacos. You may be thinking of crema.
I meant “unknown” as in, “unknown to us hopelessly out-of-touch old white nerdy people,” not “generally obscure.” We don’t know much of anything about the Top 40 anymore, and nothing whatsoever of rap. So we have to ask about whether Weird Al songs are parodies or not.
Nope, definitley mayo. We spent most of the time in Xalapa, Veracruz if the demographics make a difference. I remember in particular a street vendor lady who would always set up shop around the corner with a variety of things: enchiladas etc.
But she always kept a container of guacamole, and a huge tub of mayo. And she was very popular. But she wasn’t the only one with a mayo stash. And surely you’ve walked into a major Mexican grocer (like Chedraui) and seen the huge displays of nothing but mayonesa? They must be using it for something.
This is one particular stereotype that’s always bugged me. (Yes, I am white. Yes, I am a goy. Yes, I like mayonnaise.)
I contend that it is a Jew/Gentile division, and not necessarily a white/black one. As a lover of regional Southern-American cooking, I own many specialty cookbooks. A number of these are devoted to the African-American experience – soul food, if you will --*The Picayune Creole Cookbook; The Ebony Cookbook; Mama Dip’s Kitchen; Aspects of Afro-American Cookery; The Welcome Table; * Joyce White’s Soul Food; Sheila Ferguson’s Soul Food are among them.
Flipping randomly through these books, you encounter many recipes for dishes proudly presented at church socials and picnics, as well as at beery roadhouses and Harlem dives – potato salads, cole slaws, shrimp salads, macaroni salads, devilled eggs, chicken salads, ham salads…
Guess which ingredient figures largely in all of these.
But, but, but, how can you make tuna, shrimp, lobster, chicken salad without mayo??? And don’t get me going on that “Miracle whip” crapola.
Salad?
Yeah, and that’s all they…er, we…put in it.
That’s another thread. And nasty.
Yeah, Miracle Whip is nasty.
Mayo is good, but Kraft Sandwich Spread is the best.
What I find highly amusing is that Chamillionaire has the “White And Nerdy” song as a music selection on his Myspace page.
Oh, and a random note: I first heard “Ridin’” when I started my job as a delivery driver. I loved it for the first week it was on.
After that I bought a Richard Cheese CD (not a lot of radio stations to choose from in College Station)
I love that. After the ‘Coolio’ and ‘James Blunt’s Record Company’ incidents, it’s nice to have someone who doesn’t only have a sense of humour about it, but is happy to help promote the parody.
Don’t. Keep doing what you are doing as this stuff tastes neither like mayo nor mustard. It is just horrid and will ruin whatever you put it on.
(People put mayo on roast beef?! OMG!)
Remember “My Bologna”? Members of The Knack (“My Sharona”) heard the song, probably on Dr. Demento’s show, and liked it so much that they persuaded their own record label to release it as a single. A recording contract for Al followed, and the rest is history
I thought Kraft made Dijonnaise? Is this just a regional brand name difference? West Coast vs. East Coast?
Oh, before I forget, I have to share this little story.
My aunt had a huge crush on Donny Osmond back in the day. He is the reason that her favorite color is purple (remember those socks?)
So I e-mailed her a link to the White & Nerdy video with the comment, “See if you recognize the guy dancing behind Al”, figuring she would get a kick out seeing what Donny’s up to these days. She watched the video and wrote back:
“That was amazing. That was YOU. When did you do that? You are quite the
dancer. Very handsome.”
I shall attribute this faux pas to the fact that the video was small, and her eyes might not be what they used to be. sigh
Did you notice what Wikipedia article Al is editing in the video? And what he’s changing it to say?
Oh yes- Al always gets permission from the songwriters (and ever since the Coolio debacle, the singer) to record his parodies, and the songwriters get paid proper royalties. You can see that a lot of musicians have a sense of humor.
I caught the ‘YOU SUCK!’, but never noticed what the entry was. (And wouldn’t have caught the reference until it was pointed out. <_<) That’s amusing. Also, looking at Atlantic Records’ actual wikipedia entry, it mentions White and Nerdy was recorded as a replacement for Your Pitiful, which makes it even better.
(Sidenote, I think White and Nerdy is a much stronger song, so some good came of Atlantic being asses, apparently.)