Tunesday : White and Nerdy

 

White and Nerdy

Written and Performed by "Weird Al" Yankovic

They see me mowin'

My front lawn

I know they're all thinking

I'm so white 'n' nerdy

Think I'm just too white 'n' nerdy

Think I'm just too white 'n' nerdy

Can't you see I'm white 'n' nerdy?

Look at me, I'm white 'n' nerdy!

I wanna roll with

The gangsters

But so far they all think

I'm too white 'n' nerdy

Think I'm just too white 'n' nerdy

Think I'm just too white 'n' nerdy

I'm just too white 'n' nerdy

Really, really white 'n' nerdy

First in my class here at M.I.T

Got skills, I'm a champion at D&D

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 that they're quite stationary

All of my action figures are cherry

Stephen Hawking's in my library

My-MySpace page is all totally pimped out

I got people begging for my top 8 spaces

Yo, I know Pi out to a thousand places

Ain't got no grills but I still wear braces

I order all of my sandwiches with mayonnaise

I'm a whiz at Minesweeper, I can play for days

Once you see my sweet moves you're gonna stay amazed

My fingers movin' so fast I'll set the place ablaze

There's no killer app I haven't run

At Pascal well I'm number one

Do vector calculus just for fun

I ain't got a gat but I gotta soldering gun

Happy Days is my favorite theme song

I can sure kick your butt in a game of ping pong

I'll ace any trivia quiz you bring on

I'm fluent in JavaScript as well as Klingon

They see me roll on my Segway

I know in my heart they think I'm

White 'n' nerdy

Think I'm just too white 'n' nerdy

Think I'm just too white 'n' nerdy

Can't you see I'm white 'n' nerdy?

Look at me, I'm white 'n' nerdy!

I'd like to roll with

The gangsters

Although it's apparent I'm too

White n' nerdy

Think I'm just too white 'n' nerdy

Think I'm just too white 'n' nerdy

I'm just too white 'n' nerdy

How'd I get so white 'n' nerdy?

I've been browsing, inspectin'

X-Men comics you know I collect 'em

The pens in my pocket, I must protect 'em

My ergonomic keyboard never leaves me bored

Shopping online for deals on some writable media

I edit Wikipedia

I memorized the Holy Grail really well

I can recite it right now and have you "ROTFLOL"

I got a business doing websites

When my friends need some code who do they call?

I do HTML for them all

Even made a homepage for my dog

Yo, I got myself a fanny pack

They were having a sale down at the GAP

Spend my nights with a roll of bubble wrap

Pop pop! Hope no one sees me get freaky!

I'm nerdy in the extreme

And whiter than sour cream

I was in AV club and Glee club

And even the chess team!

Only question I ever thought was hard

Was do I like Kirk or do I like Picard?

I spend every weekend at the Renaissance Faire

I got my name on my underwear!

They see me strollin'

They laughin'

And rollin' their eyes 'cause

I'm so white 'n' nerdy

Just because I'm white 'n' nerdy

Just because I'm white 'n' nerdy

All because I'm white 'n' nerdy

Holy cow, I'm white 'n' nerdy!

I wanna bowl with

The gangsters

But oh well it's obvious I'm

White 'n' nerdy

Think I'm just too white 'n' nerdy

Think I'm just too white 'n' nerdy

I'm just too white 'n' nerdy

Look at me, I'm white 'n' nerdy!

Mal and I went to Niagara Falls to see Weird Al on Sunday evening (Mal's birthday present this year) and we had a whole lot of fun. We thought it would be funny to show up in matching Hawaiian shirts, but as it turns out, all the white and nerdy cool kids in the audience were wearing Hawaiian shirts; quite a few even had a pattern with accordians on them that I have to assume are sold through Yancovic himself. I did find it bemusing that Weird Al did his big hit "Fat" — wearing the fat suit and everything — so I asked Mal later if that seemed inappropriate in 2026, and as socially conscious as Mal is, we concluded that it was OK: the audience at a Weird Al Yankovic concert understands that the joke is a parody of Michael Jackson's monster song "Bad" and its amazing video (a definite punching up) and not a joke about a fat person dancing around (which would be a lazy swat downwards). Without that context, it might be a bit offensive to the uninformed viewer, but we also agreed that the uninformed don't have a right to never be offended.

The opening act (nowhere did it say there would be an opening act) was Puddles Pity Party, and although I had never seen him perform (I have seen his image around online), I was fairly enchanted by his sad clown schtick; he can definitely sing. Mal was less amused; his ironic multimedia performance didn't land as funny to Mal (or to the young boy beside me who moped and fidgeted through the whole thing).

It was cool that Weird Al came in singing through the entrance nearest to us (just steps away), and then it felt like a party. He did all the songs I knew and a whole bunch I didn't — he even performed the themesong he wrote for the Captain Underpants movie, clips from the film playing along on a big screen — and every time focus shifted to the big screen after a number, Weird Al (and often a bunch of his band members) would appear in costume (Amish, Ricky and Lucy, white and nerdy), and the big encore had everyone return to stage in costumes from the various Star Wars movies, doing a song that Mal knew and was expecting.

Yo, I got myself a fanny pack

They were having a sale down at the GAP

Spend my nights with a roll of bubble wrap

Pop pop! Hope no one sees me get freaky!

Overall, it was a really fun evening, and especially because I got to spend it with just Mal; something that never happens often enough.