Weird Al - White and Nerdy
Weird Al has a way of coming out of nowhere and grabbing the attention of a generation of nerds, well, just about once per generation of nerds. For me it was Michael Jackson (video), for some it was Nirvana (video), and maybe even The Kinks for a few. There is something beatuiful about the nerdification of pop culture. Of course there were a few misses in there as well.
This was mostly before the internet, of course. A song from his upcoming release Straight Outta Lynwood titled “White and Nerdy” has been leaked and is currently doing its rounds on the Web:
Original: Chamillionaire - Ridin’ Dirty (video)
Nerdification: Weird Al - White and Nerdy (audio)
The copy on putfile currently has over 1250 diggs, and for good reason: the lyrics are f’ing hilarious.
Got people beggin’ for my top eight spaces
Yo, I know pi to a thousand places
Ain’t got no grills but I still wear braces
One question I’ve always had is what the original artists think of these parodies. Well, the artist responsible for “Ridin’ (video),” Chamillionaire, has put the Weird Al version up on his Myspace profile. I guess he likes it. Weird Al also notes that the video is finished, which is less surprising than the fact that he has an active Myspace blog.
Update: Youtube has a copy of Al’s video, proving that he is actually cooler than previously thought.
Update: The RIAA has forced Youtube to remove the video (which was previously hosted here). This is an unfortunate tragedy. I wonder if they would allow it if Al’s label understood how good it would be for his career.
Update: Youtube is hosting the video again:
