weird did it all go wrong
Artist: “Weird Al” Yankovic
Song: “Skipper Dan”
Rating: C
I have to assume that the perennial parodist known as “Weird Al” Yankovic has moved into a difficult stage in his life and here’s why: all of his music videos since “White & Nerdy”, each and every one, has been an animated collection. Now he’s being subjected to releasing singles online, including this depressing ditty about what happens when a person with stocky arms reach for their golden plate dreams.
I, one embittered fan, want back my classic live-action videos, not these flash animation atrocities. No, they’re not that bad- most are actually good (this video is decent, at best) and some kudos has to be awarded to Yankovic for extending a hand to the hard-working artists of the Internet, less they be sentenced to fifty years cranking out airline safety videos. On the other hand, leave the flash animation to the internets. I want my ALTV.
Maybe it’s just a case of “It’s only considered classic because you enjoyed it as a kid” syndrome, but I find certain older works outright phenomenal. Consider the career-spanning works of “I Lost On Jeopardy” (best moment @ 1:47), “Gump” (best moment @ 1:33) and “Amish Paradise” (best moment @ 2:50). The Weird Al movie was fucking funny too. Of course, there will always be a special place in my heart for “Fat” (particularly the line at 0:28). Yankovic is still fairly funny in his songs, but the Al I know and loved wore jherri curls and uncle-glasses and did the live action videos like a good entertainment industry peon.
There’s nothing at all going wrong with Al’s career. These animated videos aren’t a replacement for the live action, they’re value-added.
In the past, when Weird Al released an album, it consisted of about half parodies and half original songs, many of them written in the style of, although not using the tunes of, bands Al enjoys. And if we were lucky, one or two of the parodies on each album would be accompanied by a video (hilarious, and tremendously expensive to make)
Starting on 2006′s Straight Outta Lynwood, Al commissioned animators whose work he admires to do animated videos for the original songs on the album. Thus, for Straight Outta Lynwood, we got the live-action White & Nerdy video to accompany the lead parody, plus the 6 animated videos.
Al is hoping to release another CD next year (assuming some other band has a big enough hit to be worth taking as source material for a lead parody) but in the meantime, he’s recording and releasing some of the original songs that will be on that album. Except for Craigslist (which has a low-budget but still well-done live action video) these will all have animated videos, again done by animators Al likes and trusts enough to give them free creative rein on his songs. Most likely when the album does come out it will have a live action video for whatever the lead parody is.
And, new CD or not, Al has said he plans to tour next year. So watch for Weird Al at a concert venue near you in 2010.
July 15, 2009 at 10:19 am