Michael Jackson Made Weird Al Yankovic
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Perhaps nobody in the entertainment business was as big a fan of Michael Jackson as Weird Al Yankovic. Yankovic is a genius in his own right but he really made a name for himself with his outstanding parodies of Jackson's hit songs Beat It and
Jackson's video for Beat It is a classic. For Yankovic it was just a template. What I appreciate about Yankovic is not just ability to cleverly write new lyrics to great songs and give them a humorous twist, but he also pays homage to the original music videos as much as possible. Take one of his greatest videos from earlier in his career, Eat It.
If you have seen the original Jackson video for Beat It then you will likely notice a number of similarities in the Eat It video. Yankovic also gives a tribute to the historic Thriller video at the end.
Yankovic has another Jackson parody that made him famous though. Fat is another food inspired parody of Jackson's Bad. Once again, the music video for Bad serves as the guide for the production of Yankovic's video for Fat.
I honestly can not listen to a song that receives a Yankovic rendition and sing the original lyrics in my head. To me watching certain music videos receives the same effect. Yankovic probably would have made a name for himself even without Jackson's songs to utilize, but I find it hard to believe Yankovic would have enjoyed as much success without him.
Remember, Nirvana didn't come around until the early 90's and Coolio's Gangsta's Paradise was not around until the mid 90's.
