Students at Vermont college prepare to get 'White & Nerdy' in new class on Weird Al

LYNDON, Vt. (TND) — Students signing up for ProfessorBrian Warwick's new class at Vermont State University (VTSU) should not even dare to be stupid, because a course on "Weird" Al Yankovic is no joke.

Alfred Matthew Yankovic has been a cornerstone of American popular music and comedy for over 40 years now, since releasing his first parody single, "My Bologna," a parody of The Knack's "My Sharona" in 1979 and self-titled debut album in 1983. In that time, he's released over 150 songs, earned five Grammy awards, sold over 12 million albums and influenced generations of comedians and musicians from the Lonely Island and Jimmy Fallon to "Hamilton" composer Lin-Manuel Miranda and the YouTube series Epic Rap Battles of History.

Warick, a music and performing arts professor, argues those decades of crafting some of the most beloved comedy song in the modern American canon have made Yankovic just as much a worthy subject of collegiate study and analysis as Taylor Swift. He cites the multitude of new college courses on the pop billionaire, ranging from philosophical analysis of her songs to discussions of her business acumen, as the motivation to organize this new class on the man behind such parodies as "Another One Rides the Bus" and "I Want a New Duck."

Al Yankovic‘s work is not just about the parodies. It’s also about his tribute or pastiche songs, where it’s actually an original work by Al Yankovic, but he’s paying tribute to another artist,” Warwick told a Vermont news station. “It just gives us an avenue to start studying the 20th century and pop culture in the 20th century.

Cultural critics have argued that what makes Weird Al's work stand out is the strength of it, the "genius," as the word is often thrown about him by devotees and converted critics. In his songwriting and parody performance is a way of looking at deconstructing the almost last-half century of American pop music and seeing what really works.

Weird Al is a perfectionist, every bit as much as Michael Jackson or Kurt Cobain or Madonna or any artist he has ever spoofed," Miranda told the New York Times in 2020. "So, you get the musical power of the original along with this incredible twist of Weird Al’s voice and Weird Al’s brain. The original songs lose none of their power, even when they’re on a polka with burping sound effects in the background.

VTSU senior Alexandra Hayes echoed this appreciation in her comments to the the same Vermont news station Warwick addressed.

"This guy’s just really smart: Just like really smart critiques. Like, he really makes a parody worth listening to."