Patterico's Pontifications

11/13/2011

My Brush With Greatness Weird Al

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 6:08 pm



The Los Angeles Times has an article about Weird Al Yankovic — which reminds me: did I ever tell you guys my Weird Al story?

This happened several years ago. Mrs. P. and I were at a They Might Be Giants concert at the House of Blues, and at one point she said to me that she thought the guy standing next to us was Weird Al.

“I don’t know,” I said. “He’s not wearing glasses, for one thing. And where’s the mustache?”

“I don’t think he wears them any more,” Mrs. P. said. “But I heard the guy next to him talking to him. I think it’s him. For one thing, he told the guy he was.”

“Hmm,” I said. “The hair looks similar. But I’m suspicious.”

To understand what follows, you have to understand that I kind of have a deadpan sense of humor. What you also have to understand is that some people have told me that the more accurate term to describe my sense of humor is not “deadpan” but rather “not funny.”

They’re wrong, of course. Those people just don’t get it. There’s a reason I love “Curb Your Enthusiasm” so much — namely, because when I watch Larry David going around offending everyone in sight while amusing himself, I recognize a kindred spirit. But when people watch his show, they’re expecting comedy, so that makes it funny. Maybe if I had a guy walking behind me doing rim shots every time I made a deadpan joke, people would find my humor funnier.

Anyway. I said to Mrs. P.: “I’m going to ask him.”

So when Weird Al was done talking to the other guy, the following conversation ensued:

ME: So my wife tells me you claim to be Weird Al.

WEIRD AL: I don’t “claim to be.” I am Weird Al.

ME: Well, I’m not sure I believe you.

WEIRD AL: [Not smiling] Well, I am.

ME: You’re going to have to convince me. How about you sing a couple bars of “Eat It”?

WEIRD AL: [Not smiling] No.

Eventually we overcame that awkward moment, I believe after my wife explained that I didn’t mean to be rude, I just have an offbeat sense of humor and Al should ignore me the way other people do. We discussed a Saturday morning show he had going on, our mutual appreciation of They Might Be Giants, and exchanged other pleasantries.

Still, I learned a valuable lesson: sometimes people who are famous for supposedly having a sense of humor are actually quite humorless when you meet them in person.

116 Responses to “My Brush With Greatness Weird Al”

  1. [*Rim shot*]

    Patterico (f724ca)

  2. I wasn’t planning to quit my day job. Why are you advising me not to?

    Patterico (f724ca)

  3. My Weird Al story involves his debut before the Missing Persons @ Santa Monica Civic and hurling beer cups filled dirt + rocks @ Weird Al + the stage after me massacred classic Beatles tunage 😉

    Steven W. (5dd2d7)

  4. That’s hilarious!!!!!!

    daleyrocks (bf33e9)

  5. Weird Al groped me.

    DohBiden (ef98f0)

  6. I’ve read the same sort of thing about Christopher Guest (This Is Spinal Tap, Princess Bride, Best In Show, A Mighty Wind) as well.

    The following is from his Wikipedia page:
    Guest is sometimes off-putting in interviews and promotional appearances (having been described by reviewer Warren Etheredge as, “rude, condescending and intolerable”), as well as with people who have met him outside of the work environment because contrary to expectations of him as a comedian he often seems deadpan, even dour. Of this, Guest has said, “People want me to be funny all the time. They think I’m being funny no matter what I say or do and that’s not the case. I rarely joke unless I’m in front of a camera. It’s not what I am in real life. It’s what I do for a living.”

    Susan (94ab0d)

  7. I think famous people or even Weird Al have to have their guard up. And maybe he didn’t think the request to sing Eat It to be funny.

    AZ Bob (26b8e0)

  8. Steve Martin refuses to sign autographs. Instead he gives you a small card stating something along the lines of, “I had a pleasing encounter with Steve Martin.”

    [note: fished from spam filter. –Stashiu]

    Gazzer (8d55f3)

  9. Sorry, Pat, but you were kind of being an asshole.

    Dirty Old Man (daf1dc)

  10. Sorry DOM but you need to stop projecting.

    DohBiden (ef98f0)

  11. I kind of like his sardonic responses to a stranger who starts out calling him untrustworthy, demands that he identify himself, and expects a free concert.

    Bart (72326f)

  12. No Doh; you’re not.

    Dirty Old Man (daf1dc)

  13. I kind of like his sardonic responses to a stranger who starts out calling him untrustworthy, demands that he identify himself, and expects a free concert.

    I do too!

    Patterico (f724ca)

  14. I think famous people or even Weird Al have to have their guard up. And maybe he didn’t think the request to sing Eat It to be funny.

    In his defense, I probably wouldn’t have in his position either.

    Again, if you picture me as Larry David — who is actually sort of a jerk, at least as portrayed on the show — a lot of things make sense.

    Patterico (f724ca)

  15. “sometimes people who are famous for supposedly having a sense of humor are actually quite humorless when you meet them in person.”

    He’s a human being. Performers meet a lot of fans, and sometimes they just get fed up.

    Look up the article “Xenogenesis” by Harlan Ellison (based on a speech he made). SF fan behavior ranges from niceness through the merely thoughtless (types of which I’m ashamed to say I did a couple of times in the past) to the criminal. Other celebrities will have similar stories.

    Nate Whilk (40c401)

  16. I’ve often heard that comics aren’t that funny in real life. The Village Voice’s Michael Musto even wrote a column about it. And in a strange coincidence, a fellow who used to work at the LA Times wrote a blog post about his experiences with the comics I grew up watching. He thinks one reason they aren’t that funny is because comedy is a tedious, humorless art.

    DRJ (a83b8b)

  17. Now I know why I like your blog, Patterico. My wife says that I said something funny once, but that she can’t remember what it was…

    MD in Philly (3d3f72)

  18. Is it true Pattericos tears cure cancer?

    DohBiden (ef98f0)

  19. Larry David has better writers; you, OTOH, were being a bit of a jerk.

    You might as well have just said:
    So, you’re Weird Al, say something funny!

    AD-RtR/OS! (ce0593)

  20. The joke of the post is that I wasn’t really being that funny, and Weird Al sort of acted appropriately.

    In other words, the joke of the post is that people often don’t get my jokes.

    Except that not that many people seem to be getting the joke of my post.

    There’s a lesson in there somewhere. For someone.

    Patterico (f724ca)

  21. You sure he didn’t put his hand up your shirt?

    DohBiden (ef98f0)

  22. Big Weird Al fan here so am convinced the encounter was All Your Fault, Patterico. /kiddin’

    Seriously though,

    Comment by DRJ — 11/13/2011 @ 7:16 pm

    Interesting, and thanks for the link. Someone whose name escapes me said many (not all of course) crave laughter and approval precisely because they’re melancholy people on the whole, or something.

    That said though, was impressed with how well he treated these guys who IMO deserved more snark than he gave them. You can tell he’s having a little trouble staying polite. Heh.

    Thanks for the link, Patterico — a fun read.

    no one you know (3e92e3)

  23. And yes There were threats that if you voted against Uribe you’d be assassinated but um as far as i know he didn’t order those people to say that.

    DohBiden (ef98f0)

  24. When you asked Al to sing, he should have asked you for some legal advice.

    When I was in college, I had to pick up Steve Martin at the airport (during his “Wild and Crazy” period). He didn’t want to talk at all, and I finally asked him why. He said he was tired of people asking him to be funny; if I wanted to talk, he wanted to discuss art. So we did for the rest of the drive to UCLA for his comedy gig.

    [note: fished from spam filter. –Stashiu]

    Simon Jester (3f7945)

  25. I’m trying to remember who Weird Al is. One thing that’s clear from the story is that, if not for your wife, you’d be in trouble more often.

    angeleno (466338)

  26. Hmmm. I got filtered, and I didn’t say anything nasty! Oh well.

    Simon Jester (3f7945)

  27. You might as well have just said:
    So, you’re Weird Al, say something funny!

    Comment by AD-RtR/OS! — 11/13/2011 @ 7:37 pm

    Brian Regan mimics the audience at the very beginning of one of his albums: “Hey pal, you got some jokes? Whyn’t you start crankin’ em out, circus boy?”

    no one you know (3e92e3)

  28. I knew there were many good reasons I like you, NOYK. Brian Regan is hysterical.

    Simon Jester (3f7945)

  29. Better Half, who has no sense of humor none zero zip nada zilch, thought this was hysterical.

    JD (84c177)

  30. “Weird Al” has sold more than 10 million albums, still works the very lucrative college and state fair circuit, and has a 35+ year career. He has a degree from Cal Poly SLO (that means he is smart).

    Everybody reading this knows who “Weird Al” is. He doesn’t know who any of us are.

    Please remember this before talking to (or judging) comedians offstage: they are sad clowns inside, things that normal people find funny haven’t been funny to them in a very long time, and they hate the audience.

    Timesdisliker (06ab2d)

  31. Sometimes I feel the same way. If only people could understand why my dickish humor is funny, they’d laugh like crazy.

    carlitos (49ef9f)

  32. Comment by Simon Jester — 11/13/2011 @ 8:08 pm

    He sure is. Think I like “I Walked on the Moon” best, esp the airport routine. Any favorite routines?

    no one you know (3e92e3)

  33. Hey leftys I wouldn’t throw around the word Corrupt or humnorless if I were you.

    DohBiden (ef98f0)

  34. And Carlitos your not bad.

    DohBiden (ef98f0)

  35. The life of a performer is a parade of folk who think you’re “on” when you’re not. Lovers, family, friends, listeners, stalkers, …, strangers. Dane Errickson is a role I played, he’s not me and never was. Weird Al handled you better than I frequently did such exchanges.

    htom (412a17)

  36. Better Half, who has no sense of humor none zero zip nada zilch, thought this was hysterical.

    See? Better Half gets me!

    Good for her.

    Patterico (f724ca)

  37. Careful the left will accuse of yyou of supporting Nuclear Power because you wanna see us all die of Radiation Poisoning.

    I think your ok but the left don’t.

    DohBiden (ef98f0)

  38. There are also those comedians who are neither funny onstage or off, like Will Ferrell.

    Crispian (b586f4)

  39. Will Ferrell is like a mound of pubic hair.

    DohBiden (ef98f0)

  40. When I read the Larry David profile in Rolling Stone and learned that he was actually a nice, sensitive guy I was very disappointed but then I thought maybe he was taking Leon’s advice and was topsey turving the mother f*%k*er.

    PC14 (738e3d)

  41. My not bad what?

    carlitos (49ef9f)

  42. Unlike then, Patterico is a bigger star today than Weird Al.

    AZ Bob (26b8e0)

  43. At least you got a verbal response, Patterico. That’s more than Larry got.

    DRJ (a83b8b)

  44. Patterico, ya know I love ya but this is a case where I think it’s likely you approached Mr. Y in the wrong way. Frankly it sounds to me like you absent-mindedly approached him in your default day-job style, i.e. as a prosecutor, rather than as a bystander/fan.

    I’d also second what a lot of folks have said about comedians when they’re not “on.” I remember reading years ago about how, almost to a person, fans who informally meet David Letterman are universally disappointed: he’ll shake their hands, smile and nod, but simply refuses to talk or even say ‘hello.’ (Supposedly because he’s learned to automatically suspect everyone expects him to be funny, and he’s not good at it in those kinds of situations.) And then there’s Johnny Carson, who from what I’ve read was worse than unfunny; he was supposedly downright cold, abrupt, and prone to just ignore the fans he met in public.

    qdpsteve (f1c59f)

  45. I mean your not a lefty.

    DohBiden (ef98f0)

  46. When I lived in LA, I would see Hollyweird people from time to time. Patterico, my wife lived in fear that I would mortify her, because I had little fear of talking to actors (they are just chattering parakeets, mostly). Once I was in line to see a play, and in front of me was Enrico Colantoni (back in his “Just Shoot Me” days), in a truly silly looking beret. I talked with him about pest control (dealing with fleas and such in new homes). I think he kind of enjoyed the fact I wasn’t starstruck. And I used to see Michelle Forbes during that period of time she couldn’t get acting gigs (too proud for “Star Trek, the Next Generation”). I wanted to ask her how she felt about sci-fi, but I couldn’t bring myself to torture her. Besides, it was a nice Indian restaurant and I didn’t want to annoy the very nice owners.

    When I was in college, I got to meet a few “celebrities,” and they ranged from normal to very silly. Roger Daltry was very odd. Rod Stewart was surprisingly normal. I was kind of nervous meeting them, but I was 19 at the time.

    Still, celebrity is a weird thing. Fortunately, I will never, ever have to worry about it!

    Simon Jester (3f7945)

  47. Everybody reading this knows who “Weird Al” is. He doesn’t know who any of us are.

    Oh, he certainly knows who Patterico is!

    AD-RtR/OS! (ce0593)

  48. I didn’t meet Weird Al only once, I’ve met him about 12 or 15 times by now, most recently just last night… he does a fair number of meet & greets after shows, and I’ve been to a lot of shows. I have to say, your take-away lesson from that encounter was completely mistaken. Al is much quieter offstage, he’s not bouncing off the walls, but he’s not the “sad clown” of myth. He’s actually a pretty happy guy and it’s not that hard to crack him up. He will even clown around with fans sometimes, pose for joke photos, etc.– but it’s people he knows at least a little bit, and he’s joking WITH them, not performing on demand. If people are reasonably polite to him, he’s always courteous in return. After all, he even gave you a second chance after your wife interceded. In the circumstance you met him in, he’d also have been trying to stay “under the radar” a little bit so that the TMBG show (he’s a big fan) didn’t devolve into a Weird Al autograph session, which would have been no fun either for him or for the band that was actually performing.

    Helen (0271d3)

  49. @47- Agreed. Met him back in the mid 80’s when we were marketing one of his early videos. He was in NY from LA for an AM meeting to go over the roll out, some music store appearences and we were surprised at how subdued he was. Thought it was due to jet lag but as the day wore on it was clear was just a quiet, happy dude when not getting $ to go into his act.

    DCSCA (9d1bb3)

  50. Did I tell you about the time I met Colonel Sanders in a greasy spoon restaurant called the Toddle House, on Euclid Avenue, in Lexington, at about 1:00 in the morning?

    What’s that you say? You don’t care? How could you not care?

    The Dana who grew up in Kentucky (3e4784)

  51. MD in Philly wrote:

    Now I know why I like your blog, Patterico. My wife says that I said something funny once, but that she can’t remember what it was…

    Now I remember! It was, “Will you marry me?”

    Mrs MD in Philly (3e4784)

  52. Ahem,

    #49 is very, very funny…but not written by Mrs. MD in Philly, unless she runs a nice looking website without my knowledge…in fact, not sure if #49 written by a female, (Mrs. MD in Philly is- almost used our name there inadvertantly)

    Don’t know if #49 was meant to be funny, advertisement for their web site, or both. It looks like a very professional site, but not related to MD in Philly.

    Should I request payment if they have a spike in hits? An appointment to the editorial board? An invitation to the “holiday party” (I learned a Hannukah song in elementary school…)?

    MD in Philly (3d3f72)

  53. TMBG… that’s soooo gay!

    Just kiddin’… way cool…

    http://youtu.be/_puTAZp-USs

    ColonelHaiku (09a0f9)

  54. Did you ask him to make your kids famous? http://www.wired.com/underwire/2011/08/weird-al-weird-fan/

    Ale (888dc8)

  55. My not a lefty what?

    carlitos (49ef9f)

  56. Speaking of They Might Be Giants, here’s my favorite use of a TMBG song [NSF Obama fans].

    no one you know (325a59)

  57. My not a lefty what?

    Comment by carlitos — 11/14/2011 @ 5:51 am

    Appreciate your patience, and your thoughtful post. Hope you’re going to succeed, and that your efforts mean you’re going to ensure that their there they’re going to bear fruit.

    no one you know (325a59)

  58. What a chod.

    ODB (0f13a8)

  59. MD in Philly wrote:

    Should I request payment if they have a spike in hits? An appointment to the editorial board? An invitation to the “holiday party” (I learned a Hannukah song in elementary school…)?

    An appointment to the editorial board is possible, but the pay is somewhat lower than it would be for the editorial board for The Philadelphia Inquirer; I hope that this won’t be a problem.

    Our payment schedule for a spike in hits is on par with our salaries for editorial board members.

    The Editor who goes by many adjectives on this site (3e4784)

  60. by the use of strike thru, you imply that weird al is not great. I object.

    but yes, i too have a great talent for joking without people realizing i am joking. like here was a conversation in law school. The difference is that I let them off the hook quickly.

    Me: Just today the Supreme Court struck down that computer indecency law, arguing that you cannot treat simulated child porn like the real thing. They had carved out a special rule for child porn based on the fact that you had to abuse children to create it, so therefore if no actual children were hurt, the rule doesn’t apply.

    Friend: Yeah, its a tough thing, but i guess so.

    Me: Also for some reason the Catholic church came out praising the decision.

    Friend (goes bug eyed): no f—ing way, you’ve got to be kidding me!

    Me: Yes, I am kidding.

    (with apologies to any catholics. i know, it was a cheap and easy joke, but I am weak…)

    Aaron Worthing (e7d72e)

  61. The irony is that the word is just too absurd for even Weird Al to satirize.

    narciso (ef1619)

  62. The esteemed Mr Worthing wrote:

    Me: Also for some reason the Catholic church Penn State University came out praising the decision.

    FTFY

    The Catholic Dana, with a daughter who's a Penn State student (3e4784)

  63. I once ran into Bob Hope at NBC studios. I said “Say, aren’t you Bill Cosby?”.
    He wasn’t amused.

    Red Skelton, on the other hand, was a very nice guy in person.
    Did you know that Red never used the telephone?

    Retired Geezer (b88236)

  64. That’s because there are no phones in boxcars, and no place to recharge my cell.

    Freddie the Freeloader (3e4784)

  65. Carlitos I don’t agree with your posts but I respect you.

    DohBiden (ef98f0)

  66. I’ve often heard that comics aren’t that funny in real life. The Village Voice’s Michael Musto even wrote a column about it. And in a strange coincidence, a fellow who used to work at the LA Times wrote a blog post about his experiences with the comics I grew up watching. He thinks one reason they aren’t that funny is because comedy is a tedious, humorless art.

    Comment by DRJ — 11/13/2011 @ 7:16 pm
    DRJ, please come back!

    The Emperor (7e047b)

  67. Dana

    Well, that joke was told about a decade ago, so…

    Aaron Worthing (e7d72e)

  68. I think what Patterico is trying to say is that he has a gift of being unfunny and annoying sometimes and depending on how you view that trait, it can be funny. More like what I try to do here once in a while. 🙂

    The Emperor (c98127)

  69. Unlike most stars, I am a really nice, loving funny person…. I promise. And I always have a big smile even when I am asleep. 🙂

    The Emperor who knows what it's like to be a celebrity. (044fb2)

  70. EPIC unfunny FAIL.

    ColonelHaiku (09a0f9)

  71. My point exactly.. I am the master of unfunny that tends to be funny. Sorry pat…

    The Emperor, King of Unfunny. (6409a0)

  72. Bill Cosby… can be a Class “AAA” assh*le. My late bro-in-law’s father – a retired teacher and avid golfer – met Mr. Cosby while playing golf on a course somewhere in L.A. County in the late 70’s. Said father was about the most soft-spoken, congenial person you would find. He said Cosby was the most unpleasant man he had ever encountered… which was saying something, as said father was known to be an “if you have nothing nice to say about a person, keep your mouth shut” sort of guy.

    ColonelHaiku (09a0f9)

  73. Dana,

    btw, i will hasten to point out that in fact catholic clergy are no more likely than any faith to sexually abuse children. the problem in that scandal wasn’t that more of the priests were doing it, it was that the church was not responding in a way that in 20/20 hindsight was correct.

    and really some of this sounds like 20/20 hindsight. the church believed in forgiveness and reform. to an inappropriate degree, we can see now, but its not like they though the abuse was okay or something…

    i’m not catholic and i have quite profound doctrinal disagreements with them as is obvious by the fact that i am not catholic. but fair is fair. my joke WAS cheap.

    Aaron Worthing (e7d72e)

  74. Just my opinion but this isn’t a post about Weird Al. It’s a post about Larry David, and that Patterico’s sense of humor is more like Larry David’s.

    DRJ (a83b8b)

  75. @Aaron.
    Are you a protestant? A pentecostal? An evangelical a Mormon or a baptist?

    The Emperor, King of Unfunny. (c5cd61)

  76. I went to an Al concert in 1985, and then again last week. He’s outstanding in concert; you should go if you like him at all.

    Aside: Aaron/72: You’re wrong about the rate and the handling. Read more.

    –JRM

    JRM (de6363)

  77. Emperor, there’s no proof that you sleep with a smile on your face, since nobody is willing to sleep with you.

    The really mean Dana (3e4784)

  78. Harsh.

    DohBiden (ef98f0)

  79. @Mean,
    I sleep alone.. It sucks yes but it comes with the being a celebrity territory.

    The Emperor who sleeps alone with a big smile... (c5cd61)

  80. emperor

    i am a presbybaby, and the wifey is catholic, actually.

    Here’s the biggest sticking point i have with the catholics, fwiw… i mean i have littler ones, but this is the thing that really bugs me.

    They will tell a woman who has been beaten by her husband that she cannot divorce him. I think they are fine with extended separations, but she cannot divorce him. And of course if she meets anyone else and marries him, she’s really off the reservation. i have seen that situation up close in a family member we helped to get away from that, and i think the catholic church’s position is morally skewed.

    The way i see it its like the act of intentionally killing of a human being. To intentionally kill a person almost always involves a sin, but the sin is not always on the person “pulling the trigger.” If a guy is rushing at you with a knife and you shoot and kill him, you haven’t sinned; the knifeman did.

    The same with divorce. I have the unfashionable view that there is a sin in every divorce, but its a point of debate who committed the sin. Applied here, when a woman divorces a man because she is sick of getting beat around and is afraid her child will learn that kind of behavior is acceptable, she ain’t sinning when she files for divorce; he committed the sin by making it necessary.

    And yeah, i posed all of this to my wife and she never had a good answer.

    Aaron Worthing (e7d72e)

  81. Weird Al groped me.
    Comment by DohBiden — 11/13/2011 @ 6:19 pm

    — That was the other Weird Al . . . you know — the former Vice President.

    Icy (c571cf)

  82. Comment by Aaron Worthing — 11/14/2011 @ 8:30 am

    This isn’t a Catholic thread but (lessee, how brief I can make this) just for the record, getting divorced is not considered a sin in the Catholic Church if, as you point out, there are circumstances which make it necessary for safety, or very serious things like the spouse is unrepentantly cheating.

    The fact that the Church considers a marriage covenant if freely and properly entered into (hence the relatively complicated teaching regarding annulments) undissolvable is what leads to the remarriage prohibition.

    Shorter noyk: in the CC, divorce may be needed. Divorce and remarriage, not OK if there was indeed a valid marriage # 1, or it’s adultery.

    no one you know (325a59)

  83. An ode to Lovey, in the spirit of Weird Al:
    He sleeps alone,
    Yeah yeah with nobody else;
    You know when he sleeps alone,
    He prefers to sleep with himself!

    Icy (c571cf)

  84. Bart: You know, Conan, I have a lot to say. I’m not just a one-line wonder. Did you know that a section of rain forest the size of Kansas is burned every single —
    Conan: Just do the line.
    Bart: [glum] I didn’t do it.
    [Everyone laughs and cheers]
    Conan: [laughs] Great material. We’ll be right back.
    [Music starts, and Conan dances. Bart half-heartedly joins him]
    Conan: Sit perfectly still: only I may dance!

    Icy (c571cf)

  85. Aaron, I think the catholic church is more invested with the need to protect the sanctity of marriage and can be a little inflexible in their attempt to do that. Of course they know that these laws may not stop divorces as is evident in the statistics that point to the contrary, it at least makes their parishioners think twice before rushing off to the divorce court. It’s more of a check system. Question is is it effective?

    The Emperor who sleeps alone with a big smile... (3dadb6)

  86. Catholics get divorced at the same rate as non-Catholics, Love?

    Methinks thy proboscis is lengthening a tad bit.

    Icy (c571cf)

  87. The emperor casts doubt upon his own celebrity:

    I sleep alone.. It sucks yes but it comes with the being a celebrity territory.

    Uhhh, no, being a celebrity means you don’t have to sleep alone, ever, even if your wife is out of town. Or even if she’s not.

    Arnold Schwarzeneggar (3e4784)

  88. @Arnold, not when your wife is Hillary!

    Bill Clinton (357c91)

  89. 47.I didn’t meet Weird Al only once, I’ve met him about 12 or 15 times by now, most recently just last night… he does a fair number of meet & greets after shows, and I’ve been to a lot of shows. Helen, you have met the character ‘Weird Al’, who is still performing at the meet-and-greet (and when he is promoting videos, etc.). When Al is enjoying a concert as an audience member, he is not there to entertain anybody.

    People much smarter than me have said that ‘comedy is like baseball; everybody has made at least one amazing play, and that is all they remember’. Like driving, 90% of the public thinks they are above average. Trying to make a joke at Bob Hope or Weird Al is like walking up to A Rod in a restaurant and throwing a fastball at him.

    Timesdisliker (52587c)

  90. Bill, that’s because even the muscle that I have that you’ve never seen is more pumped up than yours.

    Arnold Schwarzeneggar (3e4784)

  91. We actually enjoy Weird Al and went to a couple of his concerts. I had friends who attended Cal Poly San Luis Obispo contemporary to him when he actually got his first song on Dr. Demento. My wife ran across him many years ago, outside an office building in Universal Studios where she was at a professional meeting. As she was dressed in a suit, when she said that she was a fan, he expressed disbelief. So she recited the lyrics to one of his songs.

    We ran across him again, amusingly, in Pueblo Colorado at a downtown mall some hours before a concert there that we were attending.

    He was very pleasant and engaging to her.

    SPQR (26be8b)

  92. Well, I found the “No” in response to your request to be convinced funny.

    tek (2063de)

  93. Touche Arnold… Could I interest you with a quick revenge sex with Hillary? That way we can be even… Come on Arnold, save a marriage!

    Bill Clinton (f3ef9a)

  94. @Icy,
    are you having reading problems? 🙂 My point is that these prohibitions have helped to put a check on the rate of divorce in the catholic church but it has not necessarily stopped catholics from seeking divorce. The statistics prove that more christians are divorcing now than ever..

    Bill Clinton (70e7a9)

  95. Damn! just blew my cover.

    The Emperor (b7d933)

  96. Please reconsider the possibility that you’re just not funny. And that maybe that the guy didn’t care for being ordered to perform by a stranger.

    I like Weird Al and have heard from several sources that he’s good people. Sorry you felt the need to be a butthole.

    AMartel (88c646)

  97. Bill, I really prefer straight women.

    Arnold Schwarzeneggar (3e4784)

  98. #90 Helen, you have met the character ‘Weird Al’, who is still performing at the meet-and-greet (and when he is promoting videos, etc.). When Al is enjoying a concert as an audience member, he is not there to entertain anybody
    Yes, to a degree he’s still working when he’s doing the meet & greets… but I’ve also spoken to him several times in a context that was absolutely not related to his career activities and which I won’t mention so people don’t show up there, and while he’s not joking, he’s still quietly affable & friendly. Al is amazingly consistent… I’ve seen him described as a decent, considerate guy not just by fans & creative people he collaborates with, but by his crew, his band (he still has the same players– after 30 years, that says something) the girl helping with the T shirt sales table, the woman who used to do his hair, people who work at hotels he’s stayed at, managers of concert venues and families who have interrupted him when he’s visiting Disneyland with HIS family.

    Helen (fd06c7)

  99. Wasn’t Peter Sellers something of a terror?

    Fritz (4aaed7)

  100. I don’t know how all this talk cures my sleeping alone because I am a celebrity problem. 🙁

    The Emperor still sleeps alone with a smile (3db71b)

  101. NYOK

    Okay, you are right, this is off topic and I am probably guilty of threadjacking. And it looks like you are right about it not being a sin to divorce, although I have said this to many catholics, including priests and you are the first to make this point. But what you say does line up with that this site says on the subject:

    http://www.cdop.org/pages/AOfficeFamilyFAQDIvorce.aspx

    But certainly remarriage is against the rules, which is just as indefensible. If they recognize that my relative was right to leave the jerk, they should recognize that she should be able to move on with her life and find a new husband and a new father for her daughter.

    Of course the dumbest discussion I have ever had on catholic doctrine was with my then-unmarried sister in law. One time I mentioned that the church is against birth control, and she said, “oh, then I should stop taking mine, right?” mind you, she was serious and not joking.

    So I said, “you also aren’t supposed to have sex before you are married either. So if you are going to break that rule, you might as well break the other, too.” not that I am against pre-marital sex, but I also am not against birth control either.

    I have also said that I have yet to meet a single catholic who obeys all of those rules.

    And the funniest? My wife and I were talking about going to pre-marital counseling before we got married. It was required before we could get married in a catholic church under the theory that since they hate divorce they want to make dang sure you definitely are right to marry. And one night she says, “so we are going to see a priest and he will give us pre-marital counseling, and then after we get married if there is any problems, he will be our marital counselor.”

    So I said, “um, honey?”

    “Yes”

    “Isn’t a priest fundamentally unqualified to be a marriage counselor?”

    “No, no they have training in psychology.”

    “Yeah, but life experience seems pretty important on this one.”

    I mean the contrast couldn’t be greater. At her church she had priests who swore to be celibate and they were all men. At my church at the time there was both a man and a woman, and they were both married… to each other. I used to say, “if he said anything stupid, she was there to correct him.”

    By the way, I have read there is a loophole to the “no married priests” rule. Apparently normally Episcopalian priests can convert and instantly become catholic priests. And quite rationally the church said that if you are a married Episcopalian priest, and convert, you are not required to divorce or annul your marriage to become a catholic priest—because they don’t want to make you choose between the two. Fwiw.

    Anyway, big picture, while I have things I disagree with the catholic church about—as evidenced by the fact I am not catholic—overall I think the faith is more often than not a positive influence in the world. No hate here, just disagreement.

    Aaron Worthing (e7d72e)

  102. Most people do not know how incredibly draining being a recognizable celebrity is, due to the attention of fans as you attempt to lead a normal life.

    Celebrities who deal well with this, and maintain an air of courtesy whenever recognized, are rare and should always be lauded for it.

    Being as famous as I am, I can certainly sympathize.

    SPQR (26be8b)

  103. Famous?
    On what day will that be?
    Sometime around the Twelfth of Never?

    AD-RtR/OS! (885414)

  104. Just my opinion but this isn’t a post about Weird Al. It’s a post about Larry David, and that Patterico’s sense of humor is more like Larry David’s.

    I agree.

    Well, I found the “No” in response to your request to be convinced funny.

    Me too.

    Patterico (f724ca)

  105. AD, I’m shocked you doubt my fame.

    SPQR (26be8b)

  106. SPQR, you made me laugh.

    Dana (4eca6e)

  107. Damn! just blew my cover.
    Comment by The Emperor — 11/14/2011 @ 11:22 am

    — When your sleep partner is the five-digit mandible at the end of your right forelimb you don’t need to announce the blowing of your cover.

    It already knows.

    It was there.

    And now it needs a bath.

    Icy (c571cf)

  108. no, it rubs the lotion on its skin and does as its told.

    ColonelHaiku (09a0f9)

  109. I see, Pat, that you crossed out “greatness.” That is in error. Weird Al is indeed “great” — the greatest musical satirist of the final quarter of the 20th Century, and thusfar the only great one of the 21st Century. He ought to be spoken of in the same breath with Peter Schickele, Allan Sherman, Ray Stevens, and, yes, Tom Lehrer. Yankovic and Lehrer have in common a keen sense of framing and almost always perfect rhyming, something I believe is due to the precise minds of Cal-Berkeley math professor Lehrer and Yankovic, who was an architecture major at Cal Poly – San Luis Obispo.

    While “Eat It” and “Fat” are classics, IMHO, his magnum opus is Off The Deep End, the CD which contained the “Smells Like Teen Spirit” goof “Smells Like Nirvana” (“Crank the volume, ears are bleedin’ / I still don’t know what I’m singin’ / We’re so loud and incoherent / Boy, this oughta bug your parents!”) but Side One ends with “When I Was Your Age,” a song that nobody I have ever come into contact with has been able to hear without cracking up. One can envision an elderly man lecturing the Occupunks with the song’s lyrics.

    The handful of times I’ve had “brushes with greatness,” I’ve expressed appreciation for whatever it is they’ve done I’ve enjoyed, and moved on. They have a right to down time to eat, travel, exercise, renew their driver’s licenses, or whatever common activity that put them in contact with the general public. This is especially true of comedians, who are constantly under pressure to be the life of the party wherever they go.

    With all due respect, Pat, I’m pretty darn sure that if someone recognized you as a L.A. County prosecutor, you wouldn’t want people to interrupt a trip to the urinal to pump you for details about, say, the Conrad Murray trial.

    L.N. Smithee (7471fa)

  110. My Weird Al story involves his debut before the Missing Persons @ Santa Monica Civic and hurling beer cups filled dirt + rocks @ Weird Al + the stage after me massacred classic Beatles tunage 😉

    Comment by Steven W. — 11/13/2011 @ 6:14 pm

    He recounted the disastrous opening for Missing Persons in what I believe was a Behind The Music special on VH1. After being run off stage and leaving the venue shortly thereafter, a kid in the lobby recognized him. “Aren’t you Weird Al?” the kid said. Al said “Yeah!” Kid: YOU SUCK!

    As much as I love Missing Persons (Terry Bozzio is on the short list of the greatest drummers alive), it says something that Missing Persons is long gone, and Weird Al is still rocking.

    L.N. Smithee (7471fa)

  111. SPQR is a fake celebrity. It takes one to know. How do I know he’s a fake? Well for one, he puts his food in his mouth and baths himself. Right? Who does that, huh?

    The Emperor who knows real celebrities cause he is one. (9ae02a)

  112. Comment by Aaron Worthing — 11/14/2011 @ 1:49 pm

    Thank you for the very thoughtful (and thought provoking) post. In the interest of the thread, won’t reply except for two things:

    1: that’s a terrific link w/ concise replies to FAQs about these subjects; hadn’t seen it but now have it bookmarked; thanks for linking.

    2: I have also said that I have yet to meet a single catholic who obeys all of those rules.

    Well now you can say that you know one. 🙂 And there are lots more of us. 😉

    no one you know (325a59)

  113. …Side One ends with “When I Was Your Age,” a song that nobody I have ever come into contact with has been able to hear without cracking up. One can envision an elderly man lecturing the Occupunks with the song’s lyrics
    Comment by L.N. Smithee — 11/14/2011 @ 10:23 pm

    Now that is pretty darn funny.

    no one you know (325a59)

  114. 109.no, it rubs the lotion on its skin and does as its told.
    The Colonel doth speak
    unto the darkness within us
    yet bringeth yon laugh

    Timesdisliker (65dcd8)

  115. combine iambic
    pentameter with haiku
    dissonance brings peace

    Timesdislaiku (65dcd8)


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