Some Friday Fun with Weird Al
Here are two videos which are a lot of fun but should also make us pause and think. They are by Weird Al Yankovic who is a music parody-artist and satirist. If you don’t know him, here is his web site.
The first video below is a collection of business buzz words done in a whiteboard style video. Clever and engaging but the entire video says nothing, yet, I feel the need to watch. Speaks to the technique and to the “emptiness” of much of our business jargon. One phrase which I would have liked to have seen was “do more with less.” The song is in the style of Crosby, Stills & Nash.
And here is what I might call the “School House Rock” update. A few tips on grammar in this “word play” video.
Also, Al’s marketing plan of a different video every day for 8 days during the release week was genius as was his ability to get the web portals to fund the development of the video (so they could have original content). A win-win. Al always seems to understand the latest distribution media. He got MTV (back when it played music) and he “gets” web content distribution and marketing–his album made it to the top of the Bill Board Charts. Clever guy for someone who claims to be “weird.” Maybe we could all benefit from a little “weirdness” in our design and delivery of instruction or even on our outlook on life.
Here he explains the strategy.
Enjoy your weekend.
Posted in: parody
Leave a Comment (3) ↓
I missed Weird Al. Once again, he showcases his creativity through the excellent use of images to represent the lyrics in these videos. This is certainly a good lesson for us Instructional Designers.
He is a wonderful diversion but in all good comedy there is truth!
Weird Al is a comedic genius, a tribute to his longevity, although only in certain circles, it’s an acquired taste obviously. But, his discussion points out a few things – innovate or die, there’s nothing wrong with trying it a different way, and a little humor can erase a lot of other mistakes. Collectively, people seem to take both themselves and their content far too seriously. The problem is that using humor is a contextual hand grenade with the pin pulled and the Instructional Designer’s hand on the spring release timer handle (** disclaimer: I just made that up, I have no idea what a grenade handle is called). While humor works, everyone better get the joke. Add to that our overly politically correct society at the moment, and I’m afraid to comment on pet hair lint without it offending someone. However, that should not prevent ID’s from taking a much more informal and conversational approach to their delivery, and if the humor is innocuous and “safe”, what the hell (yes, I typed that), why not use it…Yes, we could learn a few things from “Weird Al” Yankovic.