Photo Courtesy of salon.com
As if Weird Al Yankovic hasn’t received enough attention recently – what with the release of his latest parody album Mandatory Fun reaching Number One of the Billboard charts, and for delightfully teasing fans by dropping one hilarious music video per day in anticipation of the album’s release last month, on top of it all he now has the chance to perform the next Super Bowl halftime show! Ed Ball of Seattle, Washington, has created a (serious) petition to encourage the White House to urge the National Football League to choose Weird Al as the Super Bowl halftime entertainment.
The petition can be found at Change.org and has collected over 50,000 signatures as of Thursday morning August 7th. “For decades Weird Al has entertained fans, young and old, with his popular clever parodies and unique sense of humor,” Ball writes on the petition page. “Having him headline the Super Bowl XLIX Halftime Show. would not only be overly accepted by the millions of views, but it would remain true to the standards and quality of the show business we have come to love and respect out of this prestigious event. The songs of artists that he is parodying could join him on stage to accompany, as well as other surprise appearances from well-known actors/actresses, adding more prestige and star power. The theatrics alone would be hilarious and a welcoming change, and draw a wider audience of fans that typically would not tune into the championship game or half-time show.”
Even though the petition is in full force now, and is being taken seriously by tens of thousands of people, Ball admits that he created it “after enjoying a few drinks,” hence the few typos and errors. Once the petition received 20,000 signatures, he reassured fellow signees that he would indeed enjoy seeing Weird Al perform at the Super Bowl halftime show. Upon reaching 50,000 signatures, he wrote, “Wow!!! Fifty thousand+ signatures!!! You guys and gals rock!!! Thanks again for all the love, keep spreading the word!! Let’s get this to 100K and make it known world wide that we can make a change and our collective voice can be heard by the NFL: We want AL at the Super Bowl!!! I will keep everyone posted once I hear from the King of Parodies himself!!!”
Ball has yet to hear a statement from Weird Al on this movement, however, it’d be hard to imagine he wouldn’t at least be intrigued by Ball’s idea. Ball envisions a throng of pop stars parodied on Mandatory Fun (reviewed on the Encyclopedia of Music here) performing the original versions of their hits before Weird Al takes the stage with his rendition of each stars’ song. All we can say is FDRMX would love to see Pharrell sing “Happy” in Weird Al’s “Tacky” music video outfit while Weird Al wears Pharrell’s token hat. Fingers crossed for Ball’s petition to reach that 100K mark and for Weird Al to agree! In the meantime, check out the Best Weird Al Parodies of All Time and a review of the music video for “Tacky.”