All this thinking about Weird Al reminded me of one my all-time favorite Onion articles, “I Must Take Issue With the Wikipedia Entry for ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic.” I went back to read it, and I’m a little embarassed how much it resembles the blog post I wrote last night.

I wrote:

Weird Al has adapted to the Internet better than any artist his age. His “White & Nerdy” has over 36 million views on YouTube, and is currently the site’s #39 video of all-time. The song was his career peak, going all the way to #9 on the Billboard Hot 100 (his previous best - “Eat It” at #12 in 1984). Really, it’s hard to believe Weird Al survived at all - much less thrived - before iTunes and YouTube.

Here’s an excerpt from the Onion article:

An even greater case could be made for Yankovic as cultural barometer—Nirvana, an extremely popular ’90s grunge band, publicly stated that they knew they had “made it” after Yankovic chose to parody “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” and the polka medleys that appear on Yankovic’s albums provide the consummate pastiche of popular songwriting styles for our times. But I believe I have already made my point. A radical overhaul of this particular entry is necessary to befit a man who has bestowed upon us the gift of laughter for more than two decades. However, I could not forgive myself if I failed to mention that, by deftly aping the musical stylings of such a wide variety of bands, Yankovic shows that his talents supercede those of the artists he parodies.

(I swear I’m done posting about Weird Al for a while)