You know that friend of yours who always brags that he met some D-list celebrity one time and they totally became BFF and they always hang out whenever you’re not around? “Weird Al” Yankovic knows him all too well, because all of our humblebragging friends are the target of today’s newest music video from “Mandatory Fun.” Perhaps his most visually impressive video from this #8VideosIn8Days experiment, “Lame Claim to Fame even brings Dr. Demento, the man who originally discovered Weird Al so many years ago, back into the mix, making it a pretty awesome video. But then, I’ve said the same about the other six videos that he’s released in the last week, so I’m clearly biased.
Meanwhile, Weird Al issued apology on Twitter last night for one of the lines in the amazing “Word Crimes,” which has apparently offended people in the United Kingdom. Specifically, “That was sarcastic (Oh, psych!), ‘Cause you write like a spastic” has people upset because spastic is a slur against people with disabilities. Al didn’t know that – and judging by the responses to his Tweet, many other people didn’t know it either – so he apologized accordingly.
Here’s one of the complaints about the use of spastic:
weird al yankovic’s song “word crimes” is ableist. sorry. even if you look past the “not using correct grammar makes you bad!” thing, it says “like a spastic” which uh… i shouldn’t have to explain that.
But you probably should, since a lot of people still don’t know how that word is offensive to certain people. Additionally, at least two people think that “Word Crimes” also promotes “classism and potentially racism.” It’s f*cking Weird Al, you guys. The worst thing that his songs ever promotes is polka music.