In Defense of Poppery X: Weird Al Yankovic’s “White and Nerdy”

Pop example: Weird Al Yankovic’s “White and Nerdy”

What redeems it: “White and Nerdy” may be the perfect example of a musician knowing his audience.

People listening to Weird Al are almost invariably white, and almost invariably nerdy. No other subsection of the planet is as likely to listen to the parodic reimaginings of popular music Weird Al produces, as most humans are not as dependent on satire to free them from the constricting bonds of the overanalytic lifestyle.

As with the worrywart, overanalyzers are generally only free to stop analyzing their experience when they feel the necessary analysis has been responsibly dispensed with by someone else, usually equally capable of analysis. Weird Al shows a superior mastery of not only the musical forms (in parody) of the subjects of his satirical songs, but also of the silly subjects that overanalyzers fear all pop song lyrics eventually come down to. Weird Al anticipates the overanalyzers’ criticism of shallow lyrics and parodies them to everyone’s benefit.

Just some of Weird Al’s “White and Nerdy” lyrics, all of which refer to things that white, nerdy teens and adults generally like, are able to lay out the whole stereotypical life of a nerd:

"First in my class here at M.I.T.
Got skills, I'm a Champion of DND
MC Escher that's my favorite MC
Keep your 40
I'll just have an Earl Grey tea
My rims never spin to the contrary
You'll find they're quite stationary
All of my action figures are cherry
Steven Hawkings in my library"

By referring to things that geeks like – M.I.T., Dungeons and Dragons, m.i.b. action figures (and a sideways reference to Captain Picard's Earl Gray tea predilection) – “White and Nerdy” allows geeks to derive the same enjoyment, albeit of a different variety, from the Weird Al version of the song that fans of “Ridin’ Dirty” get from that song. Their enjoyment and fandom can be unabashed because Weird Al has already ironized what would typically need translation from ghetto to geek.

This is Weird Al’s usual m.o., as in the songs “Amish Paradise,” “Eat it,” or “Yoda,” each of which appeal to some element of the target demographic (chastity and industry as an alternative to the “gangsta” life, overeating [possibly to the point of obesity], and Star Wars fandom, respectively) as well as accomplishing the shutdown of overzealous, overworked critical faculties in its audience.

“White and Nerdy,” however, takes the accomplishments of previous songs to a new level by being, first, an extremely catchy and enviable tune, musically; and second, a song about the audience it appeals to.

The tune is, of course, almost identical to that of “Ridin’ Dirty,” a song about things most nerds have never done and will likely never do. The song features a lot of bass, and is best played loudly at stoplights from a car with tinted windows, chrome rims, and possibly hydraulics.

Nerds realize they aren’t cool enough to do this. It’s part of what makes them nerds – that they’re self-conscious enough to understand this. (For nerds or geeks who don’t have the social IQ necessary to distinguish between inappropriate and appropriate behavior for worrywart white people, “White and Nerdy” serves the helpful purpose of saving face for those who would have listened to “Ridin’ Dirty” instead.)

Still, do not be fooled: Nerds and geeks have just as much vanity as anyone. They enjoy hearing about themselves the way everyone does. To write a song to geeks about geeks, then, is excellent marketing. To understand the target demographic well enough to make that song a parody (the primary source of humor for many varieties of geek and nerd), is a stroke of genius.

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