Weird Al won't perform Michael Jackson Parodies

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CELTICEMPIRE

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https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2019/jun/28/weird-al-yankovic-ditches-michael-jackson-parodies/

“Weird Al” Yankovic has stopped performing his Michael Jackson parodies in concert amid rekindled allegations involving the late King of Pop, he explained in an interview Thursday.

Speaking to Billboard, Mr. Yankovic said that both “Eat It” and “Fat” — his Grammy Award-winning parodies of “Beat It” and “Bad” — are purposely being excluded from his current tour following the release of “Leaving Neverland,” a two-part film aired by HBO featuring interviews with men who claim they were sexually abused by Jackson as children.

“I don’t know if that’s going to be permanent or not,” Mr. Yankovic told the magazine, “but we just felt that with what’s happened recently with the HBO documentaries, we didn’t want anybody to feel uncomfortable.”

“I felt I had enough fan favorites in the show that I could get away with it. I haven’t gotten a lot of pushback; There have been some people who have expressed disappointment, but we decided to err on the side of not offending people,” he added...
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Thoughts?
 
Good way to remind people he exists I suppose.
 
I expect it must be a little uncomfortable for Al to perform those songs nowadays, given that in order to do so he has to slip into the skin of the original artist somewhat. While he does have the top-tier parodist's skill to make a song his own, that wouldn't apply to anything by Jackson given that he was such an iconic performer. A lot of stuff you can karaoke your own way through but if you're performing anything by Michael Jackson then you're necessarily doing a Michael Jackson impression.
 
shadowplay said:
I saw the documentary and after that I don't know how anyone could perform or even listen to his music without feeling uncomfortable. I know I can't.
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I haven't seen the documentary but it only comes down to one thing: Either you believe them or you don't.

The court found MJ innocent. Not saying he actually IS innocent, but I acknowledge the possibility that he could be innocent. As someone who obviously wasn't there, I have no idea.

It's true that he seemed to be very creepy. But it's also true that someone with so much money would make a good target for lawsuits. So it's hard to know.
 
“I don’t know if that’s going to be permanent or not,” Mr. Yankovic told the magazine, “but we just felt that with what’s happened recently with the HBO documentaries, we didn’t want anybody to feel uncomfortable.”
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I think this is the key sentence. He's not intervening in the debate, he's not dictating to other artists or forbidding fans to enjoy those songs, he's simply saying that he cares more about his audiences than he does about having access to those songs.

Weird Al is by all accounts a thoroughly decent guy, and the above seems to be consistent with that.
 
Coming out and saying those songs aren't being performed is making a statement. The guy's got more than enough material to quietly just not have them in his set list.
 
Kyriakos said:
I would be surprised if Weird Al Yankovic is still relevant. How many years ago was his last half-decent parody hit?
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That has been said about him more than once. Then, he'll get just the right song, and just the right idea, and make another parody hit out of nowhere.
 
What is our society coming to when someone decides not offending people is more important than free speech. Weird Al must have been intimidated into silence by the politically correct goon squad
 
Kyriakos said:
I would be surprised if Weird Al Yankovic is still relevant. How many years ago was his last half-decent parody hit?
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Maybe it was "Saionara" parody of "Smells like a teen spirit" by Nirvana ?
 
Kyriakos said:
I would be surprised if Weird Al Yankovic is still relevant. How many years ago was his last half-decent parody hit?
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Mandatory Fun, his most recent album, was straight fire smh. Inactive is a contender for me for his best overall parody (although I find it very hard to choose one definitively).

 
Honest truth, when you do what Al does you're never really irrelevant and you rarely have an album without a few gems.

My sons are just getting into Star Wars. I had to play the Saga Begins and Yoda for them. They thought both were great.
 
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