:spock: You are a douche bag I would like to see you do better.

That is awesome.

Musical chops? Are you kidding?
He can hold a note, but he's no vocalist.

Yeah, I'm sure Leno would consider Weird Al Yankovich one of the greats.

This conversation has gotten stranger the longer it's gone on today.
No respectable historian in comedy would deem Weird Al comedic genius.

I'm sorry I have better taste in comedy than some of the people who've posted in this thread.

I stand by that statement. Well... Everything except the word "exposed". I misspoke.
I chose the wrong word. You all have certainly been exposed. But given this line of discussion I don't know that I'm talking to people truly knowledgeable about comedy.

You identify who the great contributors were (to comedy) in the last 30 years and no way in Hell Weird Al's name comes up. Unless you don't know Jack and Shit about comedy.

He's the greatest parody artist of the modern era.

That counts for something.

That's a little ridiculous. Dane Cook steals his material word for word and adds hand motions to think he's funny. Al takes bad songs like this one, changes the words and makes them enjoyable to listen to. He obviously has some sort of talent or he wouldn't have a grammy award.

Absolutely.

But that does not count for "genius".

You're making my point for me.
The only way his contributions could ever be called comedic genius were if he was lumped in a category with a bunch of mediocre comics.

When I think of comedic genius...
I think Lenny Bruce.
I think Redd Foxx.
I think Richard Pryor.
I think George Carlin.
I think Bill Cosby.

IMO, he's a great entertainer, whether you see him as comedic or not. It's cool to take theses songs and twist them like he does. He just makes them fun, if not funny.

I'm not suggesting that he has no entertainment value.
I don't even take exception to the argument that he's funny.
His parodistic style is among the very best as song parodies go.

My problem is with him being called "genius".

That word is so overused.
And has no application to this discussion.

I don't think he's a genius but I think your taking that title a little too seriously. To say he couldn't hack it in comedy or music is stupid when he's done both for over a quarter of a century. You may not like his songs but he's obviously made it or he wouldn't still be doing it. Obviously he's not the funniest man alive but I'd like to hear who you think makes better parody songs. He's obviously the best at what he does.

And rightly so.

He's not doing comedy or music in their purest forms.
He's a parodist of popular songs. That's a category unto itself.

One more time...slowly.
I've already conceded the argument that he's the very best at doing song parodies.

My problem is with him being called a "genius" as it relates to music or comedy.

People don't share in your obvious passion for the word genius. Maybe it's because you feel you are underappreciated in that area? Either way. I think he's very musically talented (is musically a word...lol). Moreso than he is with writing.

This has nothing to do with feeling underappreciated in this forum.
My reputation would suggest otherwise.

I just don't like when people assign terms like "genius" and "great" to parties undeserving. I heard Mitch Holthus call Brandon Flowers a GREAT player the other night. Made me cringe.

He's a rookie who's performed fairly well in just 5 games, but to call him a great player at this point is flat absurd.