Eat It up
Website picks the Top 10 videos from Weird Al Yankovic’s notorious career
Anthony Augustine

Top 10 Weird Al Videos— srobbin.com/2006/09/27/top-10-weird-al-videos — No one knows the power of video more than the king of parodies, Weird Al Yankovic. Throughout his career, Weird Al has used his high-concept videos as his main calling card, cranking out four or five clips per album. You may not be a fan of his silly satire and constant critique of pop culture, but you have to admit that videos such as Eat It and Amish Paradise have had a huge effect on Al’s career. The singer released Straight Outta Lynwood on Sept. 26, and Al has already loaded five videos to his MySpace page (www.myspace.com/weirdal), but don’t expect much new material to make it into this Top 10 list.

The Notorious Gnarls Biggie— www.gnotorious.com — Mashups are old news to some people, but a host of bedroom producers are out there trying to make the next Grey Album, so you’ll still stumble upon projects such as The Notorious Gnarls Biggie. Meshing samples from Gnarls Barkley’s debut, St. Elsewhere, and clips of legendary New York MC Biggie Smalls, Gnarls Biggie may not match Danger Mouse’s tour de force but does have a handful of iPod-worthy cuts. The copyright police have removed the tracks from Sound Advice’s MySpace page several times, but you can still grab them from this site.

Imperial history of the Middle East — tinyurl.com/f2s6s — If you thought it was difficult to understand what’s been going on in the Middle East this summer, try taking a look at the bigger picture. It doesn’t get any easier — but thanks to this 90-second web video you no longer need an honours degree in history to figure out what’s been happening in the area over the past 5,000 years.

Borat deleted movie scene— tinyurl.com/n7tlv — British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen has come under heavy criticism lately for his character Borat, a fake journalist from Kazakhstan. Part of Cohen’s critically acclaimed Ali G show and also the star of a full-length movie — Borat, which recently premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival — Borat may be a victim of his own success. Baron Cohen has already had to abandon England as his home base because the popularity of his program makes it increasingly difficult for the comedian to keep pulling off stunts that require people to believe he’s a real journalist. If you haven’t seen Borat in action, this short exchange at a supermarket is a good example of what to expect from the character.

In the future everyone will be Hitler for 15 minutes— beautifulatrocities.com/archives/2005/06/in_the_future_e.html — In his recent underground show in Los Angles, British guerrilla artist Banksy had a piece that flipped Andy Warhol’s classic quote and suggested that in our image-dominated future everyone will be anonymous for 15 minutes. In this collection of quotes some bloggers suggest that everyone will eventually be compared to Hitler.

Anthony Augustine is a freelance music and pop culture writer who spends way too much time in front of the computer. He also hosts a weekly two-hour electronic music program on CKUW 95.9 FM Got a site you think he should see? E-mail him at anthony.alloneword@gmail.com.