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White & Nerdy

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"White & Nerdy"
Song
B-side"Don't Download This Song"

"White & Nerdy" is the second single from "Weird Al" Yankovic's album Straight Outta Lynwood, which was released on September 26, 2006. It parodies the song "Ridin' (a.k.a. Ridin' Dirty)" by Chamillionaire and Krayzie Bone. The song both laments and revels in nerdiness, as recited by the subject who cannot "roll with the gangstas" because he is "just too white and nerdy", and includes constant references to stereotypically "nerdy" things, such as collecting comic books, playing Dungeons & Dragons (D&D), and editing Wikipedia, as well as stereotypically "white" things, like watching Happy Days, playing ping pong, and "eating all my sandwiches with mayonnaise".

Chamillionaire himself put "White & Nerdy" on his official MySpace page, and commented that he enjoys the parody.[1] In an interview, he also stated he was pleasantly surprised by "Weird Al"'s rapping ability, saying: "He's actually rapping pretty good on it, it's crazy ... I didn't know he could rap like that."[1]

The song became Yankovic's first career Top 10 hit on the Billboard Hot 100, a record 23 years after his first appearance on the Hot 100 chart with "Ricky" in 1983. It peaked at #9, beating his previous #12 peak for 1984's "Eat It". This was also his first Top 40 single since 1992's "Smells Like Nirvana".[2] It peaked on the Hot Digital Songs chart at #5. Both the song and the music video reached #1 at the U.S. and Australian iTunes Store, and peaked at #1 on VH1's top 20 video countdown. Both "White & Nerdy" and Straight Outta Lynwood were certified gold, and later platinum, by the RIAA.[3] This marks the first time any one of Yankovic's singles has been certified platinum.[4]

Track listing

CD single

The following tracks are on the single:

  1. "White & Nerdy" – 2:50
  2. "Don't Download This Song" – 3:54

The promo single contains only "White & Nerdy".

Promo 12" single

The following three songs were featured as triple A-sides on a 12" promotional record:

  1. "White & Nerdy" – 2:50
  2. "Confessions Part III" – 3:52
  3. "Trapped in the Drive-Thru" – 10:50.

Music video

The single has an accompanying music video, which was recorded in high definition. The video, loosely parodying the video for Chamillionaire's Ridin', following the song's lyrics, shows Yankovic, dressed as a stereotypical nerd with a button-up shirt, dress slacks, and horn-rimmed glasses, attempting to fit in with the "gangsters" but instead either scaring them away, causing them to flip him off (shown on the scene where Yankovic is riding on a Segway in the park), or to direct him away from their group and instead towards a herd of other nerds (shown when Yankovic is in a bowling alley). These scenes include shots that directly parody the "Ridin'" video, including similar outfits by both artists. Yankovic is seen at night dancing in front of a set of road flares arranged in the form of Pac-Man, similar to the shot of Chamillionaire in front of the figure of a lizard, his personal logo. Another repeated scene shows Yankovic along with Donny Osmond—the "whitest guy I could think of", according to Yankovic[5]—dancing in front of the Schrödinger equation for a hydrogen atom,[6] mimicking shots of Chamillionaire and Krayzie Bone from the "Ridin'" video. Whereas Chamillionaire's video ends with the artist throwing up a gang hand sign to the camera, "White & Nerdy" ends with Yankovic giving a mistaken version of the Vulcan salute (his thumb is against the side of his hand instead of perpendicular).

Al depicted expressing his opinion about Atlantic Records on Wikipedia

Further interspersed among these shots are additional shots of Yankovic demonstrating his "white and nerdy" life, some cases depicting more than just the statements in the lyrics. One scene shows Yankovic blanking out the Wikipedia page for Atlantic Records, replacing it with the words (in excessively large type) "YOU SUCK!", referencing his recent trouble with the company in getting permission to release "You're Pitiful", a parody of James Blunt's song "You're Beautiful"; the video is the first appearance of Wikipedia in a music video.[7] The video shows a fictional Trivial Pursuit card, with questions that include the location of "The Biggest Ball of Twine in Minnesota", on what page Harry Potter would die in the next book, and the number of Wicket men there are on a 43-Man Squamish team.[8] Yankovic is shown making a shady deal with a thug in a back alley to acquire a bootleg VHS copy of The Star Wars Holiday Special.[9]

In addition to Osmond, there are other cameos in the video. Jordan Peele and Keegan-Michael Key of MADtv appear in the blue 1967 Chevy Impala convertible at the beginning of the video, two "gangsters" that are scared away by Yankovic's nerdiness. Seth Green appears in front of a wall display of action figures; Green has a huge personal collection of action figures (including Star Wars) that are stored in a large storage unit he shares with Hugh Sterbakov.[10] Judy Tenuta, a regular on The Weird Al Show and who previously appeared in "Headline News", appears as the woman who receives a power strip as a Christmas present. Other actors were personally recruited by Yankovic through a post on his MySpace page, from which he received several interested extras that said they would appear for free. These extras include: Jon Katz, Michael Bueno, Tom Schuler, Peter Withers, John Reynolds, Jennifer More, Christina Rodriguez, Benjamin Baker, Jason Van Kemseke, George Garcia, Deborah Schuler, Cristina Malesci, Shawn Avery, Maxx Gillman, Mikel Browning, Diego Kontarousky, David Stephens, and Jack DeVries. IGN Freelance Editor and MiraCosta College Chariot Copy Editor Jack DeVries is featured twice in the video: once playing Dungeons & Dragons at the beginning and at the end playing ten-pin bowling.

The comic book store featured in the video is Golden Apple Comics, located in Los Angeles, California.[11] while the Gap store is located on Wilshire Boulevard in Santa Monica.

Also in the comic book store, he is wearing a yellow jersey that says "Carl Sagan is my HomeBoy".

The video was leaked onto YouTube on September 17, 2006, just one day before the video was planned to be officially released at 9 PM Pacific time at AOL.com. Due to the leak, the premiere was canceled, and AOL silently slipped the video onto their website hours before the premiere was set to take place. VH1 started airing the video in "large rotation" on September 20, 2006, and it debuted at #5 on their Top 20 countdown.[12] It is available to watch on Yankovic's MySpace page, as well as on several other video hosting sites and P2P theaters.

As of September 10, 2007 it reached the 4th position on the Viral Video Chart (for over 365 days).[13]

Other videos

Fan-made video

Yahoo! Music solicited online members to make a fans-only video for "White & Nerdy". The video was released in late 2006.[14]

Live performances

On November 2, 2006, Yankovic performed "White & Nerdy" live on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. (He rode a Segway as he came on stage.) This being his first public live performance of the song, various background vocals from the original recording are played to allow him time to breathe during the fast-paced lyrics. Since then, however, his band has provided live background vocals. On December 3, he performed the song live at the VH1 "Big In '06" Awards. Yankovic also performed the song during his 2007 tour, also using a Segway during the performance. This tradition copies the way he moves his Segway on the music video, only during these shows he is not wearing the same nerdy garments as he did on the music video.

Chart positions

Chart (2006) Peak
Position
Swedish Singles Chart 14[15]
UK Singles Chart 80
U.S. Billboard Hot 100 9
U.S. Billboard Hot Digital Songs 10
U.S. Billboard Pop 100 12

See also

References

  1. ^ a b MTVNews.com story
  2. ^ News on Yankovic's official site The text, in case the homepage changes: BREAKING NEWS "White & Nerdy" is the Hot Shot Debut (the highest charting debut single of the week) on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart. It enters at #28... which already makes it Al's highest charting single in over 22 years!
  3. ^ www.weirdal.com
  4. ^ "White & Nerdy" Certified Platinum
  5. ^ retrocrush.com
  6. ^ However, the equation shown is incorrect in that ħ (reduced Planck's constant) is replaced by a .
  7. ^ Adams, Cameron. “Weird Al Yankovic.” Herald Sun, October 5, 2006.
  8. ^ Goodman, Elizabeth (2006-09-28). ""Weird Al" Yankovic: Not One to Neglect the Details". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 2009-06-30. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  9. ^ Liebenson, Donald (2008-11-16). "'The Star Wars Holiday Special': May the farce be with you". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2009-06-30. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  10. ^ kid4life.com
  11. ^ http://www.goldenapplecomics.com/orchard/wierdal/index.php
  12. ^ The Official "Weird Al" Yankovic Web Site
  13. ^ Viral Video Chart - White and nerdy
  14. ^ Weird Al Yankovic Music Videos on Yahoo! Music
  15. ^ Swedish Chart @ finnishcharts.com
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