h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I only have two minor comments:

The word 'if' should be replaced by 'is' in this sentance:

'It's All About the Pentiums', if from his 1999 'Running with Scissors' album

This typo appears to be my fault. I did not notice it until now.

More importantly, this entire paragraph was cut from the bottom:

If you would like to learn more about Al Yankovic, please visit his web site: [URL removed by moderator]You can also try to pick up a copy of his biography, 'The Authorized Al', but that might be difficult, as it has been out of publication for some time.

Otherwise, it's great!

Do you think that the obsession with the number 27 has something to do with the cult of 27.
If you don't know, there is a conspiracy theory surrounding all rock stars who died (or dissapeared) aged 27.
Lennon, Joplin, Hendrix, Cobain, Vicious, Edwards. It's actually quite frightening.
Considering his backcatalogue I'd guess that Weird Al is over 27 and therefore has nothing to worry about but it is a common fear in rock music (much like Macbeth in theatre.)

No, no 27 isn't a number that Al is afraid of, but he knows of the conspiracy, and enjoys making fun of it (for instance, on the cover of his Running With Scissors album, he's wearing a jogging outfit with the number 27 on the front).

BTW, I want to say that this was a great article. However, "Dare To Be Stupid" is not an original title. I think the original was something like "Dare To Be Different." However, this goes to prove your point about his parodies being more popular than his originals.

Oh, and *THANK YOU* for mentioning the Yoda Chant! I *LOVE* that thing, whether live *or* on the tape! I almost had it memorized, but realized that I couldn't make my tongue move fast enough at the very end (when he starts making the scissor motions with his hand.)

Anyway, thanks for writing such a great article. Although, it can be argued that you beat me to making an article about UHF.

I hate to argue, but I'm pretty sure Dare to be Stupid was an original.
Intended as a "style-parody" of Devo, Mark Mothersbaugh admitted to being jealous of Al's ability to create such beauty.
Unless I'm totally confused.
And I, personally, count "You Make Me", "Biggest Ball of Twine In Minnesota", and "Albequerque" among my favorite songs of all time. I'm a fan who loves his originals just as much as his parodies.
And my girlfriend is in love with "Eddie Veder".
I'm so proud.

Oops, sorry about missing the typ I guess everyone makes mistakes.

As for the last paragraph, well I think I took the bit about buying the book because it just seemed like advertising, and what with the new moderation stuff we're all still getting used to, I thought that it would probably be safest to just snip that bit. I'm not sure if it was me that oomped out the link to his official site. It probably was though. I have to admit that I'm more toward the opinion that if someone did wnt to find out more, they could use a search engine to find it. But to be quite honest, I think you've covered just about everything in this article.

It's a great piece, I just wish Al played over on these shores now and again.

I HATE the way that if you stick a next to a word ending in o without a space it turns it into a !!!! Can't they do something about that!!!

yay! wonderful article! i love it!
i've been a weird al fan since 'my bologna'!
i was a bit surprised that you didn't mention the style parodies, tho, dare to be stupid was indeed a style parody and there have been several others. nine inch nails comes to mind, elvis, beastie boys, and the beach boys too.

for anyone who's interested, the link to his site is on my page and has been for some time.

i would be hard pressed to name just one favorite, i love them all.

great job! i'm going to put a link to your article on my page!

Just another voice to add to the chorus of "we love it"s. Great entry about a great, great man. I also agree completely that Al's originals are underrated; though if you speak to me next week, I'll probably say that, no, his polka medleys are his real contribution to Western Civilization (my favorite, I think, being the polka version of Metallica's "Enter Sandman").

Anyway, the main reason I'm writing is to update a footnote: Puff Daddy/Sean "Puffy" Combs has asked that his name be changed *again*, this time to P. Diddy, whatever the heck a "diddy" is. This behavior has led The Onion to lampoon him with the headline "Puff Daddy changes name to P. Diddley Ding-Dong Doofus." God bless those people.

About 27: Weird Al originally used the number 27 in a couple of songs pretty much at random. (I would guess it was the first number he could think of with four syllables to fill out his intended rhythm.) Anyway, he didn't originally realize that he had reused the number.

Then fans asked about these two instances, wondering if there was something special about 27. They just assumed that Al must have some intelligent reason for reusing an arbitrary number. Since they seemed so interested, he decided to pretend that there was a sort of conspiracy going on. And before long it became a self-fulfilling prophecy.

It's kind of ironic that Weird Al didn't learn about the 'conspiracy of 27' involving dead rock stars until later.

Thank You, Thank You, Thank You! Weird Al is an indespensible part of americana and modern humor in general, as far as I'm concerned, and funny as heck, too!
(Actually, me & my freinds' dirty little secret is that we think he's pretty hot. Really! There's this picture on his fansite that has him clean-shaven, hair at obligitory boyband length (not to applaude boybands, of course...) and what we like to refer to as "brooding eyes" *drool*. It was really weird 'cause we were talking about the American Pie-Episode 1 parody, and one of my freinds turn to me and says: "Is it just me, or did he look kinda hot in that video???" The rest is history.)

That's hilarious. When I was growing up, Weird Al was viewed as a sort of prototype nerd, or as the perpetually unsexy bachelor of rock. It seemed he was trying to hide himself behind the thick black-framed glasses, curly afro-like hair, and loud Hawaiian shirts. Then look what happened. It hasn't been long since he's changed his look, and he he's already married! Perhaps he was just a *really* late bloomer...

For anyone with a region 1 capable DVD player you can buy '"Weird Al" Yankovic: The Videos' on DVD, which includes the following:

Ricky, I Love Rocky Road, Eat It, I Lost On Jeopardy, This Is The Life, Like A Sugeon, One More Minute, Dare To Be Stupid, Living With A Hernia, Christmas At Ground Zero, Fat, Beverly Hillbillies/Money For Nothing, UHF, Smells Like Nirvana, You Don't Love Me Anymore, Jurassic Park, Bedrock Anthem, Headline News, Amish Paradise, Gump, and Spy Hard.

Jolly funny it is too, well worth a purchase. I also read a rumour that Disney (of all people) own the rights to UHF and do plan to release it on DVD, on region 1 at least, although there is no schedule yet, so don't hold your breath.

A great Entry on the Great Al. I've been a fan since I first heard "Ricky". My fifth-grader 10 year old self had that song memorized before I found out the name of Weird Al Yankovic.

I'm curious as to what the criteria for "most popular songs" were. My absolute favorites were not on the list.

As to 27 I think Al addressed his use of it in an "Ask Al" section on his website saying that it was in his opinion the funniest number or some such.

>As for the last paragraph, well I think I took the bit about buying the book because it just seemed like advertising

Is it still advertising, if it is a product that can no longer be purchased, anywhere? I guess that does not matter much, anyway. Fans of Al will find out about the book, sooner or later.

>I'm not sure if it was me that oomped out the link to his official site

A link to the Official site is still located on the side banner, for some reason, even though it is not in the actual article. I guess this is good enough.