White & Nerdy
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
This article documents a current single. Information is likely to change as the song remains in the charts. |
| "White & Nerdy" | ||
|---|---|---|
 |
||
| Single by "Weird Al" Yankovic | ||
| Released | September 12, 2006 | |
| Recorded | July 22, 2006 | |
| Genre | Comedy/Parody | |
| Length | 2:50 | |
| Label | Volcano | |
| Writer(s) | "Weird Al" Yankovic, H. Seriki, A. Henderson | |
| Producer(s) | "Weird Al" Yankovic | |
| Chart positions | ||
| "Weird Al" Yankovic singles chronology | ||
| "Don't Download This Song" (2006) |
"White & Nerdy" (2006) |
|
"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'" by Chamillionaire and Krayzie Bone. The song both laments and revels in nerdiness, as recited by the subject who can't "roll with the gangstas" because he is "just too white and nerdy", and includes constant references to stereotypically nerdy things, such as editing Wikipedia and playing Dungeons & Dragons.
Chamillionaire himself put "White and Nerdy" on his official MySpace page, and commented that he enjoys the parody. In an interview, he also stated he was pleasantly surprised by Weird Al's rapping abilities, praising them by saying "He's actually rapping pretty good on it, it's crazy [...] I didn't know he could rap like that."[1]
The single was leaked onto the Internet on August 27, 2006, almost one month before the record's release date. It is currently streaming on Chamillionaire's MySpace page [2] and Yankovic's own MySpace page.[3]
The song has become Yankovic's first career Top 10 hit on the Billboard Hot 100, its peak being at #9 and besting his previous #12 peak for 1984's "Eat It", as well as his first Top 40 single since 1992's "Smells Like Nirvana".[4] It debuted on the Hot Digital Songs chart at #10. It also has reached #2 at the U.S. iTunes Store, and peaked at #1 on VH1's top 20 video countdown.
Contents |
[edit] Video
The single has an accompanying music video, which was recorded in high-definition video.[5] The video was unique in that Yankovic personally recruited extras to participate in its filming. A request was posted via the blog on his MySpace page, and he received interest from a number of extras who were willing to work for free.[6]
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 cancelled,[7] 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, it and debuted at #5 on their Top 20 countdown.[8] It is currently available to watch on Yankovic's MySpace page, as well as on several other video hosting sites.
The video is also in rotation on MTV Hits.
A trivia quiz can be found on his song's website.[9]
The video also was number 1 for Google Video's top 100 on November 25, 2006
[edit] References in video
- The two automobiles appearing in the video are a (modified) 1967 Chevy Impala Convertible and a 2004 or 2005 Toyota Prius NHW20. The 1967 Impala has the License plate "OG 4LIFE"; the Prius has a California clean-air vehicle HOV Lane access sticker.
- When Al refers to himself making a homepage for his dog, he is lampooning the slang usage of "dawg", which is slang for a friend. The name of his dog Foofie is a reference to the Pentium chip flaw known as f00f.
- Al's character in the song indicates that he graduated first in his class at MIT, a top U.S. math, science, and engineering school. MIT does not actually give students a class rank. (Al himself attended Cal Poly SLO)[10]
- When in his library Al is reading Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time.
- Yankovic refers to M. C. Escher as being his "favorite MC". M. C. Escher is famous for his geometrically impossible illustrations and repeating patterns, such as Relativity. This was joked when the video was being judged on Video on Trial
- The reference to drinking Earl Grey tea as an alternative to the "gangsta's 40" refers to the preferred beverage of Captain Jean-Luc Picard of Star Trek: The Next Generation.
- The questions on the Trivial Pursuit card in the video are as follows:
-
- (Geography) In what city is the largest ball of twine built by one man? (Also referenced in Yankovic's song "The Biggest Ball of Twine in Minnesota"; answer: Darwin, Minnesota)
- (Entertainment) What's the deal with Lindsay Lohan? I mean, seriously?
- (History) F.D.R.—was he faking it?
- (Arts & Literature) On what page does Harry Potter die in the next book? (Days before the release of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, a meme that mentioned the death of a prominent character from the book and the page on which it occurred in the U.S. publication had spread across the Internet; this question is likely based on this meme. J. K. Rowling has stated that a major character will die in the seventh book, and some fans believe that this very well could be Harry Potter himself.)
- (Science & Nature) What is the melting point of a gorilla's head?
- (Sports & Leisure) How many Wicket Men are there on a 43-Man Squamish team? (Answer: 5)
- The Wikipedia article Yankovic vandalizes (by typing "YOU SUCK!" in big letters) is the article about Atlantic Records, referring to Yankovic's not receiving permission from the company to include "You're Pitiful", a parody of James Blunt's song "You're Beautiful", on Straight Outta Lynwood. This has inspired real-life vandals to attack the article on Wikipedia in a similar manner. Yankovic has said that he does not approve of the vandalism, though he admits being amused by it.[11]
- Yankovic parodies the Star Wars Kid and is seen purchasing a bootleg VHS of The Star Wars Holiday Special toward the end of the video.
- A spray paint marking that is seen on the side of a dumpster near the end of the video has been claimed to be a Lambda and could possibly be a reference to the video game Half-Life (the logo for the game is an orange Lambda with a circle around it) or even the movie Revenge of the Nerds (the fraternity in the movie is Lambda Lambda Lambda). Both claims are disputed as it only slightly resembles a lambda, there is only one of them (the fraternity symbol would be three Lambdas in a row), and it does not conform very well to the Half-Life logo.
- In the background where Yankovic is rapping on the street with the road flares, the road flares are in the shape of Pac-Man, parodying shots of the original song's video, which featured Chamillionaire rapping in front of a group of road flares forming the Chamillionaire logo.
- The equation in the background of the chorus is Schrödinger's wave equation for the hydrogen atom; however, there is an error in that Planck's constant (denoted h) is displayed in place of Dirac's constant (denoted
).
- Incorrect version as seen in the video:
- Correct version:
![\left[ - \frac{\mathbf{h}^2}{2 \mu} \nabla^2 - \frac{\mathbf{e}^2}{\mathbf{r}} \right] \psi\left(\mathbf{r}\right) = E \psi \left(\mathbf{r}\right).](../../../math/6/4/4/644d5dadd125872c19857bb233102537.png)
![\left[ - \frac{\hbar^2}{2 \mu} \nabla^2 - \frac{\mathbf{e}^2}{\mathbf{r}} \right] \psi\left(\mathbf{r}\right) = E \psi \left(\mathbf{r}\right).](../../../math/a/d/a/ada6886689beaa55bad017ed637101e3.png)
- Yankovic created his "pimped-out" MySpace page for the filming.[12] "White & Nerdy"'s top eight MySpace friends are Bill Gates, Napoleon Dynamite, Mr. Peabody, Albert Einstein, Screech, Frodo, Pee Wee Herman and Tom[12]. At the bottom of the page, Larry Groznic — a fictional geek columnist for The Onion who wrote a lengthy diatribe about Yankovic's Wikipedia entry — begs to be part of the "top 8". His profile is Yankovic's creation.[13] Although Al claims that everybody begs for a top 8 space, he only has 27 friends. It should be noted that the URL for all of his Friends have 27 after their name[verification needed], a number that is a recurring joke in Yankovic's music and videos.
- Above and to the left of Yankovic's computer is a large poster of the Periodic Table of Chemical Elements.
- While Yankovic is in the store browsing for X-Men comic books, he is wearing a shirt that reads "Carl Sagan is my homeboy". Carl Sagan was a notable astronomer and science popularizer, world-famous for his Cosmos: A Personal Voyage television series, and played a key role in the Hollywood film Contact.
- The comics in his left hand are Uncanny X-Men #268 (September 1990) in front and Uncanny X-Men #201 (January 1986) behind it. The comics in his right are Uncanny X-Men #221 (September 1987) in front and Uncanny X-Men #210 (October 1986) behind it.
- The scene with him playing Minesweeper (a game included with the Microsoft Windows operating system dating back to version 3.1) is actually being played on a Macintosh. The logged in user is listed as "whitenerdy". The reason that the Finder is the currently active application listed in the menu bar is because Minesweeper is running as a Dashboard widget.[14] He is shown as using a keyboard to play this normally mouse-controlled game.
- According to the cover of the yearbook, he was in high school in 1985. In reality, Yankovic graduated from Lynwood High School in 1976.[1]
- Yankovic points to the cover of O'Reilly Media's JavaScript: The Definitive Guide (ISBN 0596101996), a popular Javascript text, as his rap brags of fluency in the subject.
- There are two versions of the video; the televised version shows a closeup of Al in front of a Gap store but on the original Internet-released version Al is shown further away, with a Gap sign visible behind him. The original version of the video contains the Wikipedia logo in the scene where Yankovic is editing a Wikipedia article; on the televised version this logo has been removed. In the next scene, the words in the DVD box of Monty Python and the Holy Grail is also gone.
- When Al raps that he has "... pens in my pocket I must protect 'em", he implies that a pocket protector is meant to protect pens, which is incorrect; it is to protect shirt pockets from ink stains.
- At the end of the video, Al flashes the Vulcan salute in place of a gang sign.
- In the song Al says "Ain't got no grillz but I still wear braces" which is poking fun at Chamillionaire, who wears braces. It also pokes fun at the fact that whereas rappers are choosing to wear grillz made of precious stones and metal on their teeth, nerds tend to have to wear braces.
[edit] Cameos
- Jordan Peele and Keegan-Michael Key of MADtv appear in the blue 1967 Chevy Impala Convertible at the beginning of the video.
- Seth Green appears in the scene with a wall 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 [2]. An episode from the second season of Green's show Robot Chicken contains a video created for another Straight Outta Lynwood song, "Weasel Stomping Day". The term cherry is used here improperly as it refers to action figures in their original packaging, which is not the case with the action figures displayed.
- Donny Osmond dances next to Yankovic in the scenes against the white background with the non-relativistic Schrödinger wave equation for hydrogen behind them.
- Judy Tenuta appears as the woman who receives a power strip as a Christmas present. Tenuta is also a comedian who emphasizes a small (concertina-sized) accordion in her act, was a regular on The Weird Al Show, and has also appeared in Yankovic's video for Headline News.
[edit] Extras
- Jon Katz, Michael Bueno, Tom Schuler, Peter Withers, John Reynolds, Jennifer More, Christina Rodriguez, Benjamin Baker, Jason Van Kemseke, George Garcia, Deb Anderson, Christina Malesci, Shawn Avery, Max Gillman, Mikel Browning, Diego Kontarousky, David Stephens and Jack DeVries [3]
- IGN Freelance Editor and MiraCosta College Chariot Copy Editor Jack DeVries is featured twice in the video: once playing Dungeons and Dragons at the beginning and at the end playing ten-pin bowling [4][5].
[edit] Other Videos
[edit] Fan-made video
Yankovic announced on his website that he is teaming up with YAHOO! Music to make a fans-only video for White & Nerdy. The deadline for submissions to Yahoo! was October 26, 2006.[15] This video has been released.
[edit] Live performances
On November 2, 2006, Yankovic performed "White and Nerdy" live on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. (He rode a Segway as he came on stage.) On December 3, he performed it live at the VH1 "Big In '06" Awards.
[edit] References
- ^ MTVNews.com story
- ^ http://www.myspace.com/chamillionaire
- ^ http://www.myspace.com/weirdal
- ^ 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!
- ^ September 5, 2006 blog post
- ^ August 16, 2006 blog post
- ^ September 18, 2006 blog post
- ^ http://www.weirdal.com/home.htm
- ^ http://www.whiteandnerdy.com
- ^ Permanent Record, Al In The Box Retrieved on October 28, 2006
- ^ Adams, Cameron. “Weird Al Yankovic.” Herald Sun, October 5, 2006.
- ^ a b http://www.myspace.com/whiteandnerdy
- ^ White & Nerdy's Friends on the MySpace page.
- ^ The minesweeper widget for free download, from Apple.com
- ^ Yahoo! Music website, October 13, 2006
[edit] See also
- List of singles by "Weird Al" Yankovic
- List of songs by "Weird Al" Yankovic
- It's All About The Pentiums - a song with a similar topic; also by Yankovic
[edit] External links
- Weird Al's home page
- Weird Al's MySpace page
- Chamillionaire's MySpace page
- Windows Media Streaming Video for White & Nerdy
- The MySpace page that Al points to in the video
- Official e-card for the song, includes quiz and video
- Carl Sagan is My Homeboy T-Shirt
- Music Video on Google Video
- "Making of" video
