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Uh, Weird Al gets authorization for all of his parodies. See Here, it's about halfway down the page.

We're bought and sold for corporate gold

That's a great song!! Props to Weird Al for sponsoring!!

No, Larry Wall is "Weird Al" Yankovic without the hair.

There's a reason for that. Larry Wall is in fact Weird Al. Same shirts, same glasses, same silly grin! I bet you've never seen both of them together. Al is Larry with a wig.

Actually, Larry's homepage isn't unknown. It's here.

For:
Limp Bizkit
Chuck D.
The Offspring

Against:
Metallica
Dr. Dre
Madonna

On the Fence:
Weird Al (Question 4)

Anyone know any other artists' stance?
-----

Here's a slightly unforseen consequence of Napster:

Take a look at this month's "Ask Al" column over at weirdal.com. One of the first questions asked is what Al thinks about Napster. He jokingly references Metallica and pokes fun at the music industry's portrayal of the entire issue. He seems pretty cool about it.

But the next question really brings a different issue to light. Apparently, Weird Al's name is being attached to some songs that he had absolutely no involvement in. Some of the songs are pretty lewd, too-- and Al tries to keep his stuff relatively clean. That, he says, is the biggest problem he has with the free download services such as Napster: people wrongly attribute (sometimes crappy) music to him.

So where does he go with that? Certainly, it's not possible to stop distribution (look how well that worked for Metallica) of the songs. And what if the songs are intended for free distribution anyway (probably not, but it COULD be the case)? He can't get accounts yanked for distributing public-domain songs, can he? But now he's getting a reputation as a pervert-- how does he stop that?

Food for thought.

Here's a slightly unforseen consequence of Napster:

Take a look at this month's "Ask Al" column over at weirdal.com. One of the first questions asked is what Al thinks about Napster. He jokingly references Metallica and pokes fun at the music industry's portrayal of the entire issue. He seems pretty cool about it.

But the next question really brings a different issue to light. Apparently, Weird Al's name is being attached to some songs that he had absolutely no involvement in. Some of the songs are pretty lewd, too-- and Al tries to keep his stuff relatively clean. That, he says, is the biggest problem he has with the free download services such as Napster: people wrongly attribute (sometimes crappy) music to him.

So where does he go with that? Certainly, it's not possible to stop distribution (look how well that worked for Metallica) of the songs. And what if the songs are intended for free distribution anyway (probably not, but it COULD be the case)? He can't get accounts yanked for distributing public-domain songs, can he? But now he's getting a reputation as a pervert-- how does he stop that?

Food for thought.

Ok, so now we know what Lars thinks. But, I think the question everyone really wants answered is, "what does Al think?"

Wonder no longer. Here are the brilliant insights of Weird Al Yankovic, courtesy of Ask Al Q&A's for May, 2000:

Jeremy McCarthy of Fairfield, CT asks: Hey Al!!!!! What do u think about Napster? I just want to know if you approve.

I have very mixed feelings about it. On one hand, I'm concerned that the rampant downloading of my copyright-protected material over the Internet is severely eating into my album sales and having a decidedly adverse effect on my career. On the other hand, I can get all the Metallica songs I want for FREE! WOW!!!!!

Al has spoken.

Asked of Weird Al: Hey Al!!!!! What do u think about Napster? I just want to know if you approve.

Al Answers: I have very mixed feelings about it. On one hand, I'm concerned that the rampant downloading of my copyright-protected material over the Internet is severely eating into my album sales and having a decidedly adverse effect on my career. On the other hand, I can get all the Metallica songs I want for FREE! WOW!!!!!

Taken from Ask Al

hold on a sec here. i've never posted on /. before, but this made me do it. Weird Al did get permission from Coolio at a party, but when he noticed the song's success, he decided it would be "cooler" if he went against the song and said that "[he's] not down with that." at the AMA's. Coolio did get his share of the royalties, though. He seemed to be happy with that much. Check this out, though. Al's Album is doing better than Coolio's. HA! Lay off Al, man. He owns you, and he's got a nice car, too. And Coolio never wrote the song himself, either, does anyone else remember "Pasttime Paradise" (MPEG Sample) by Stevie Wonder? Well, I sure do. The rap bastard.

hold on a sec here. i've never posted on /. before, but this made me do it. Weird Al did get permission from Coolio at a party, but when he noticed the song's success, he decided it would be "cooler" if he went against the song and said that "[he's] not down with that." at the AMA's. Coolio did get his share of the royalties, though. He seemed to be happy with that much. Check this out, though. Al's Album is doing better than Coolio's. HA! Lay off Al, man. He owns you, and he's got a nice car, too. And Coolio never wrote the song himself, either, does anyone else remember "Pasttime Paradise" (MPEG Sample) by Stevie Wonder? Well, I sure do. The rap bastard.

hold on a sec here. i've never posted on /. before, but this made me do it. Weird Al did get permission from Coolio at a party, but when he noticed the song's success, he decided it would be "cooler" if he went against the song and said that "[he's] not down with that." at the AMA's. Coolio did get his share of the royalties, though. He seemed to be happy with that much. Check this out, though. Al's Album is doing better than Coolio's. HA! Lay off Al, man. He owns you, and he's got a nice car, too. And Coolio never wrote the song himself, either, does anyone else remember "Pasttime Paradise" (MPEG Sample) by Stevie Wonder? Well, I sure do. The rap bastard.

The IMDB (Internet Movie DataBase) shows that she did voices such as Daphne on the new Scooby Doo, Bimbette on Beauty And The Beast, and some voices for Star Wars EP1-TPM.

She even did vocals on Weird Al's "Pretty Fly For A Rabbi" ("How ya doin', Bernie?")

A great talent has been lost and this is very sad.

Wherever you are Mary Kay, I hope you are at peace.

Russ

for the cut and paste impaired:
http://www.weirdal.com/aa.htm

Not being entirely flip, but Weird Al Yankovic has apparently had the surgery. if you went to his site and emailed him, he might answer. He seems enough like a regular guy...

Mark Edwards
Proof of Sanity Forged Upon Request

Some of the nice (informed sounding) quotes from the lyrics:

• ...And postin' "Me too!" like some brain-dead AOL-er
• You've got your own newsgroup, alt.total-loser
• In a 32-bit world, you're a 2-bit user

It ain't a movie, but it's decent usage of tech-stuff in pop culture. I get the impression we have to take it where we can get it.

Greg

I still think Weird Al is great. My favorite will always be "The Good Old Days" though.

Weird Al's official web page has several pictures of him with very different looking haircuts. I think he really likes to change it to look like the people that he is making fun of...
official site

According to the FAQ on his official home page, Weird Al has had LASIK and no longer needs glasses. The short hair is, evidently, a wig.

So, take a look at these pictures of Weird Al:

http://www.weirdal.com/alshair.jpg
http://www.weirdal.com/ricky2.jpg
http://www.weirdal.com/ricky3.jpg

Yes, they don't at first look like Weird Al, but they're from his web site and he claims they are pictures of him.

So what's the proof? Look at the ear lobes. Larry's don't hang, but Al's do.

--
Timur Tabi
Remove "nospam_" from email address

So, take a look at these pictures of Weird Al:

http://www.weirdal.com/alshair.jpg
http://www.weirdal.com/ricky2.jpg
http://www.weirdal.com/ricky3.jpg

Yes, they don't at first look like Weird Al, but they're from his web site and he claims they are pictures of him.

So what's the proof? Look at the ear lobes. Larry's don't hang, but Al's do.

--
Timur Tabi
Remove "nospam_" from email address

So, take a look at these pictures of Weird Al:

http://www.weirdal.com/alshair.jpg
http://www.weirdal.com/ricky2.jpg
http://www.weirdal.com/ricky3.jpg

Yes, they don't at first look like Weird Al, but they're from his web site and he claims they are pictures of him.

So what's the proof? Look at the ear lobes. Larry's don't hang, but Al's do.

--
Timur Tabi
Remove "nospam_" from email address

According to the official Weird Al website, or at least according to documents linked from there, Al is not related to Frankie. Just thought I'd mention it.

From the Weird Al FAQ:

What does Al do for fun in his spare time??

Eat, sleep, go to the movies, go for long walks, watch TV, listen to CDs and play around on the computer.



That's all I need to know.