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Straight Outta Lynwood
"Weird Al" Yankovic
Volcano, 2006
REVIEW BY: Jeff Clutterbuck
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: 10/16/2006
Everyone’s Weird Al Yankovic story starts out the same way: “Well I first heard him in middle school and thought he was funny!”
My story is no different. Weird Al is at the forefront of many of my middle school memories. Here was a guy with a sense of humor that seemingly applied perfectly to my age group. Luckily, as I have aged, my enjoyment of Weird Al’s material has not diminished -- which either means he creates timeless humor or I haven't matured much beyond age 13. Maybe it's a bit of both, since some (hell, most) of his songs are sophomoric in nature but are by no means exclusionary to adults.
Today, much of what I find compelling about Yankovic’s music is how well he pulls off the parodies. “Canadian Idiot” and “White And Nerdy,” in particular, play out as carbon copies of their serious counterparts, and yet again one needs to give serious props to Yankovic’s band for nailing the various sounds.
Then, of course, there is the razor sharp wit. The best example of this comes from the lead single “White And Nerdy.” On the surface, it would appear easy to mock the nerd, but how does one go about it without it sounding clichéd? Weird Al does it by combing the present day for cultural references. Wikipedia, Java Script, Minesweeper, Star Trek, a pimped out MySpace profile and the ever present ROTFLOL are all proudly mentioned as how nerdy Yankovic’s character is, set to the tune of Chamillionarie's hip-hop hit “Ridin.” It's hilarious.
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