Internet petition wants NFL to book song parodist for the big game
There was a time when The Super Bowl half-time show was regarded as the joke of the event – “The Nation’s Bathroom Break.” But over the last decade it’s become a hot venue for major musical acts, increasingly from outside what the National Football League once considered its target audience. Now, a Change.org petition is rapidly accumulating signatures from fans who want the show to get Weird.
Specifically: They want the leadership of the NFL to draft famed pop-music parodist “Weird Al Yankovic” to headline this year’s show. the petition (which does not appear to have been started by affiliates of either the NFL itself, Mr. Yankovic or his label) points out his popularity with audiences the NFL might have difficulty drawing otherwise, and mentions the potential for other, more traditional famous musicians to join Yankovic onstage for parodies of their hits.
Originally gaining notoriety by submitting homemade comedy songs to the Dr. Demento radio show in the late-70s before scoring record deals for my “My Bologna” (a parody of “My Sharona”) and “Another One Rides The Bus” (“Another One Bites The Dust.”) But he shot to fame in the early days of MTV with videos that took his parodies of specific songs, artists and genres to another level. In 1989 he co-wrote and starred in the feature film comedy UHF. In a career first, his most recent album, Mandatory Fun, debuted on the Billboard Music Charts at #1, featuring the Robin Thicke Parody “Word Crimes” – the #39 single debut of which made Yankovic officially the third musician after Michael Jackson and Madonna to have a Top 40 single in every decade since the 1980s. He recently appeared as Sir Isaac Newton on Epic Rap Battles of History.
At this time, neither the NFL nor “Weird Al” Yankovic have responded to the petition.
Source: New York Post
