"Weird Al" Yankovic: Difference between revisions

=== Tropes named after "Weird Al" Yankovic: ===

* [[Drives Like Crazy]] ("She Drives Like Crazy")

* [[Indexed and Nerdy]] (from "White & Nerdy")

** [[Asian and Nerdy]]

* [[All of Them]]: In "Jerry Springer": "Baby, I've been sleepin' with your sister." "Which one?" "All of 'em!"

* [[Animated Music Video]]: Several, including "Skipper Dan", "Another Tattoo", and "Party in the CIA".

* [[Arc Number]]: [http://weirdal.wikia.com/wiki/27 27.]

* [[As Himself]]: In the series finale of [[Johnny Bravo]], he played himself alongside Don Knotts as himself and Gary Owens reprising his role of the [[Dynomutt Dog Wonder|Blue Falcon]].

** His first non-concert appearance in Weird Al's works was the video for "Headline News", in which he portrayed Crash Test Dummies pianist Ellen Reid. A noble start.

* [[Call Back]]: One of "Al'"s costumes in "Perform This Way" has a hat with a train on it; this hat was also seen in "White and Nerdy".

* [[The Cameo]]:

** In Al's work:

* [[Fun With Palindromes]]: The lyrics of "Bob" (a style parody of [[Bob Dylan (Music)|Bob Dylan]]) are all palindromes.

* [[Game Show Appearance]]: The subject of "I Lost on Jeopardy". Amusingly, he later appeared on ''Rock & Roll Jeopardy!''… and lost. (However, he played a celebrity edition of ''[[Wheel of Fortune]]'' in 1994 and won.)

* [[Genre Roulette]]: His band is good enough to play ''any'' type of music.

* [[Getting Crap Past the Radar]]: Although he's a mostly family-friendly singer, lyrics in several of Weird Al's songs go into grey territory. Notable examples include "You Don't Love Me Anymore", which talks about a woman having sex with an entire hockey team, and "Headline News" which mentions the Lorena Bobbitt incident.

** Also he actually delayed his album (which would later be "Off the Deep End") just so he could do a parody of a song off Micheal's new album (Dangerous).. only for Micheal to offer Al any song but Black or White (Which Al wanted to parody), because Micheal didn't want to lower the song's message.

* [[Mind Screw]]: "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05av9iJvgiQ Everything You Know Is Wrong]", among others.

* [[Minsky Pickup]]: He throws this into several of his polka numbers.

* [[Misplaced Sorrow]]: "Why Does This Always Happen to Me?" is all about this.

*** A similar example is on the album "Running With Scissors", where the [[Nine Inch Nails (Music)|Nine Inch Nails]] style parody "Germs" is followed by an intensely happy polka (the first track in the medley being the ''[[Spice Girls (Music)|Spice Girls]]'', for crying out loud). [[Mood Whiplash]] at it's finest, folks.

** Within the song "That's Your Horoscope for Today", the prediction for Sagittarius goes from the lighthearted, silly predictions for others to '''"Kill them"''' in a deep, evil sounding voice without any music playing, then jumps straight back to silly in the very next line.

* [[Motor Mouth]]: The middle of "Hardware Store". He speaks at a rate of ''242 words per minute'', or all of the below in ''30 seconds'' and ''in one breath''.

{{quote| They've got Allen wrenches, gerbil feeders, toilet seats, electric heaters<br />

** Also, a hatred of Prince, especially in his fake interviews.

* [[Runs With Scissors]]: The title and image art of his album [[Exactly What It Says On the Tin|"Running With Scissors."]]

{{quote| My friends are getting kinda worried,<br />

They think I'm turning into some kind of freak.<br />

Aw, but they're just jealous, 'cause I've seen ''Porky's'',<br />

[[Arc Number|Twenty-seven]] times this week. }}

** [[Ear Worm|Since You Been Gone]], an acapella number done entirely by Al's numerous inflections.

* [[Serious Business]]: Going through the Drive Thru is very serious, and don't you dare forget the onions.

* [[Shave and A Haircut]]: Often appears near the end of the polka medleys.

* [[Shoulders of Doom]]: When performing "Dog Eat Dog", a style parody of [[Talking Heads (Music)|Talking Heads]], Al wears a suit with ''massive'' shoulderpads as a spoof of David Byrne's [[Memetic Outfit]]. He also wears it briefly in the "UHF" video.

{{quote| ''[[Gilligan's Island (TV)|There's no phone, no lights, no motorcar,]]''<br />

''[[Gilligan's Island (TV)|Not a single luxury!]]''<br />

** According to [http://www.weirdal.com/aaarchive.htm#0400 Word of] [[Word of God|Al]], "Slime Creatures from Outer Space" includes a line from an [[SCTV]] sketch, and the vinyl of ''Dare to Be Stupid'' had "[[Talking Heads (Music)|More Songs About TV and Food]]" etched into the inner groove.

** "Alpocalypse" has a song called "CNR" which contains a shout-out to Jim Croce.

{{quote| ''A year later, after "White And Nerdy",''<br />

''On the grind, still tryin', still flyin' birdies.'' }}

What a bummer }}

* [[Unintentional Period Piece]]: All of his parodies hark back to some (possibly forgotten) hit or the era it came from. "Headline News", however, is not only a parody but recounts a few of the big news stories of the early 1990's:

* [[Useless Spleen]]: "Pancreas" has the line "My spleen just doesn't matter."

* [[What Could Have Been]]: Bassist Steve Jay almost got a chance to audition for [[Frank Zappa (Music)|Frank Zappa]], but didn't quite make it. So then he answered a newspaper ad from some guy named Al...

** As mentioned above, the real Wikipedia entry for Atlantic Records had to be locked because of legions of ticked-off Al fans doing the same thing.

* [[Writer Revolt]]: ''Girls Just Wanna Have Lunch'', widely considered his worst song by a wide margin, and [[Springtime for Hitler|deliberately so]].

** Or... Yes, Virginia: Now Santa Claus Is Dead. Some guy from the SWAT team blew a hole through his head.

* [[Yiddish As a Second Language]]: "Pretty Fly For A Rabbi," among others.

** Al himself has relayed a story of a television appearance he had soon after the surgery and shaving off his moustache (''[[The Drew Carey Show]]'', season 4 episode 4, "Drew Between the Rock and a Hard Place"). The people at the TV studio wanted him in his "classic" look, and got him prop eyeglasses and a fake moustache. Al described the experience as surreal, "like I was wearing a Weird Al costume". [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hE3vIE5QBo4 See it here].

** Averted, however, with a recent appearance on ''[[How I Met Your Mother]]'' -- [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVaSaya_4QQ the segment Al appears in] takes place in 1985, and he looks almost ''exactly'' like he did in those days.

* [[You Watch Too Much X]]: Al has described himself as watching too much television. Also the focus of a few songs, like "Cable TV".

** Al has a song about television on nearly every album. Enough for his label to compile them into a full-length album of its own.