World of Weird Al Yankovic

USA for Africa parodies should've stopped at "We Are The Wack Pack." Just my opinion. :-)

Awesome news about Bill Plympton, he's an awesome animator
Moreso than John K

[MOD WARNING: Explicit content and lots of bad words in the following link. Not to mention really crappy impersonations and horrible caricatures.]

But I hope it won't be too much like that old internet cartoon from 6 years back:
(warning: some explicit content in the following link)
http://www.campchaos.com/show.php?iID=231

Mattee @ Jan 12 2006, 01:06 PM wrote:
But I hope it won't be too much like that old internet cartoon from 6 years back: http://www.campchaos.com/show.php?iID=231

The concept does sound very similar, but I'm sure if Al does indeed do something like that, it will be very different (and a lot more funny, too).

Wow! That video really sucked, but at the same time it seems frighteningly close to what the rumors are suggesting. If it's all true, this could lead to some bad press for Al, which people suggesting that he "ripped off" the concept.

In fact, I wonder if that cartoon is where Al got the idea... It wouldn't be the first time Al "borrowed" a concept from elsewhere ("Trigger Happy"). This whole thing is kind of bothersome to me...

BTW, the above post needs to have some sort of explicit content warning before the link.

Wow! That is similar!

very bothersome indeed

The thing is, Al is so careful to destroy all the fan letters with parody ideas in them. I can't think of a reason why Al would "borrow" an idea for what sounds like a lead parody from not just a random fan, but a fully functioning, popular website. Either the original report is fake (which I'm hoping it is) or Al's never even seen that video.

By the way, what do you mean by the Trigger Happy comment Jeremy?

mewrio @ Jan 12 2006, 09:56 PM wrote: The thing is, Al is so careful to destroy all the fan letters with parody ideas in them. I can't think of a reason why Al would "borrow" an idea for what sounds like a lead parody from not just a random fan, but a fully functioning, popular website. Either the original report is fake (which I'm hoping it is) or Al's never even seen that video.

By the way, what do you mean by the Trigger Happy comment Jeremy?

In the movie, "Top Secret!" which Al has said is his favorite movie, BTW, the lead character is a recording artist and they play many of his songs throughout the film. One of those is a song in the style of the Beach Boys which is about guns and shooting. I forget the name of the song, but I think it's something like "SKeet Surfing?" Anyway, it's quite obvious that Al got the idea for "Trigger Happy" from his favorite movie. Whether you call it an homage or a rip-off doesn't really matter. The fact remains that it was not an original idea of Al's. Given all that, however, I can say that "Trigger Happy" is FAR superior to the "Top Secret!" bit.

Also, now that I think of it, there's another scene in that movie that VERY closely resembles the video for "One More Minute." Yet another example of Al borrowing an idea.

Now, as for Al using an idea that's already been done as the subject of the lead parody/video, that's another question entirely. People have reported in the past that Al was not the first person to turn "American Pie" into a song about "Star WArs," although he certainly was the first to write one about Episode I. So, it's not impossible to imagine.

Now, let's look at what we know. If all rumors and spoilers so far are true, then we know these three facts:

1) The lead song is a parody of "We Are The World"
2) The lead song is called "Don't Download This Song," and is pressumably about illegal music downloading
3) The video for the lead song is animated

Other than the title of the song, all of this is perfectly matched with that video that Mattee posted.

Now, I'm not calling Al a plagerist (?), and I'm sure Al's will be infinitely better without a doubt. However, this seems like more than just a coincidence.

(this was years ago) I have also seen articles about al's new song "bimbo number 5" so we can't believe it all

lookatthenumbersinIandlaugh @ Jan 12 2006, 09:25 PM wrote: (this was years ago) I have also seen articles about al's new song "bimbo number 5" so we can't believe it all

That has been on the Non-Al list for years.