Information about White & Nerdy

"White & Nerdy"
Single by "Weird Al" Yankovic
from the album Straight Outta Lynwood
B-side(s)	"Don't Download This Song"
Released	September 12, 2006
Format	CD, Digital Download, 12"
Recorded	July 22, 2006
Genre	Comedy/parody; Pop rap; Nerdcore
Length	2:50
Label	Volcano
Writer(s)	"Weird Al" Yankovic, H. Seriki, A. Henderson
Producer(s)	"Weird Al" Yankovic
Peak chart positions
#9 (U.S. Hot 100) #4 (Piczo Countdown) #12 (Pop 100) #80 (UK Singles Chart)
"Weird Al" Yankovic singles chronology
"Don't Download This Song" (2006) "White & Nerdy" (2006) "Canadian Idiot" (2006)
Straight Outta Lynwood track listing
"White & Nerdy" "Pancreas" "Canadian Idiot" "I'll Sue Ya" "Polkarama!" "Virus Alert" "Confessions Part III" "Weasel Stomping Day" "Close But No Cigar" "Do I Creep You Out" "Trapped in the Drive-Thru" "Don't Download This Song"

''' "White & Nerdy" is the second single from "Weird Al" Yankovic's album Straight Outta Lynwood, which was released on September 26, 2006. It parodies the song "Ridin'" by Chamillionaire and Krayzie Bone. The song both laments and revels in nerdiness, as recited by the subject who cannot "roll with the gangstas" because he is "just too white and nerdy", and includes constant references to stereotypically nerdy things, such as collecting comic books, playing Dungeons & Dragons, and editing Wikipedia.

Chamillionaire himself put "White & Nerdy" on his official MySpace page, and commented that he enjoys the parody. In an interview, he also stated he was pleasantly surprised by "Weird Al"'s rapping ability, saying: "He's actually rapping pretty good on it, it's crazy ... I didn't know he could rap like that."^[1]

The song became Yankovic's first career Top 10 hit on the Billboard Hot 100, its peak being #9 and beating his previous #12 peak for 1984's "Eat It". This was also his first Top 40 single since 1992's "Smells Like Nirvana".^[2] It peaked on the Hot Digital Songs chart at #5. Both the song and the music video reached #1 at the U.S. and Australian iTunes Store, and peaked at #1 on VH1's top 20 video countdown. Both "White & Nerdy" and Straight Outta Lynwood were recently certified gold by the RIAA.^[3]

Track listing

CD Single

The following tracks are on the single:

1. "White & Nerdy" – 2:50
2. "Don't Download This Song" – 3:54

The promo single only contains "White & Nerdy".

Promo 12" Single

The following three songs were featured as triple A-sides on a 12" promotional record:

1. "White & Nerdy" – 2:50
2. "Confessions Part III" – 3:52
3. "Trapped In The Drive-Thru" – 10:50

Video

The single has an accompanying music video, which was recorded in high def. The video was unique in that Yankovic personally recruited extras to participate in its filming. A request was posted via the blog on his MySpace page, and he received interest from a number of extras who were willing to work for free.

The video was leaked onto YouTube on September 17, 2006, just one day before the video was planned to be officially released at 9 PM Pacific time at AOL.com. Due to the leak, the premiere was canceled, and AOL silently slipped the video onto their website hours before the premiere was set to take place. VH1 started airing the video in "large rotation" on September 20, 2006, and it debuted at #5 on their Top 20 countdown.^[4] It is currently available to watch on Yankovic's MySpace page, as well as on several other video hosting sites.

It has reached the 4th position on the Viral Video Chart (for the last 365 days) as of 10 September, 2007.^[5]

References in video

• The two automobiles appearing in the video are a (modified) 1967 Blue Chevy Impala Convertible and a 2004 or 2005 Toyota Prius NHW20. The 1967 Impala has the License plate " 4LIFE"; the Prius has a California clean-air vehicle HOV Lane access sticker.
• In the video, "Weird Al" refuses a 40 and sticks to his Earl Grey tea, a drink that Captain Picard on commonly drinks.
• The comic book store briefly featured in the video is Golden Apple Comics, located in Los Angeles, California.^[6]
• In the video for Ridin', Chamillionaire is seen rapping in an empty street at night. On the pavement behind him, his personal logo is outlined in burning road flares. In the night scenes for Yankovic's video the same red-colored flares are in the shape of Pac-Man.
• In the background where Yankovic is rapping in front of Donny Osmond dancing in a "nerdy" manner, behind him is in black an equation which is the Schrödinger equation of the hydrogen atom containing the mistake that is substituted by a simple . This scene parodies shots of the original song's video, which featured Chamillionaire rapping in front of his own name, with Krayzie Bone doing some moves.
• In the rapping scenes with Donny Osmond, Weird Al has a jacket that says, "White & Nerdy". This parodies Chamillionaire's jacket that says, "Chamillitary".
• Al's character in the song indicates that he graduated first in his class at MIT (in reality, MIT does not actually give students a class rank).^[7]
• Yankovic refers to M.C. Escher as being his "favorite MC".
• When in his library, Al is seen reading Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time, which is also the book he is seen holding in his READ poster http://www.alastore.ala.org/catalog/img/pgraphic1-1044.jpg.
• Above and to the left of Yankovic's computer is a large poster of the Periodic Table of Chemical elements.
• Yankovic created his "pimped-out" MySpace page for the filming.^[8] "White & Nerdy"'s top eight MySpace friends are Bill Gates, Napoleon Dynamite, Mr. Peabody, Albert Einstein, Screech, Frodo, Pee Wee Herman and Tom.^[8] At the bottom of the page, Larry Groznic — a fictional geek columnist for The Onion who wrote a lengthy diatribe about Yankovic's Wikipedia entry — begs to be part of the "top 8". His profile is Yankovic's creation.^[10] Although Al claims that everybody begs for his top 8 spaces, he only has 27 friends, a number that is a recurring joke in Yankovic's music and videos.
• When Al raps "Yo, I know π to a thousand places..." a background displays the value of π to about 515 digits.
• A scene shows him playing Minesweeper on a Mac computer running OS X. The logged-in user is listed as "whitenerdy."
• When Al sings that he even has his name on his underwear, someone pulls a wedgie on him, exposing the name "Alfred" on the waistband. "Alfred" is "Weird Al"'s given name.
• The vehicle Al rides in the park is a Segway PT.
• The scene for the line, "I ain't got a gat, but I got a soldering gun" refers to his use of a tool for electronic assembly or repair, rather than a firearm. The tool he is holding is not actually a soldering gun, but a soldering iron.
• The questions on the Trivial Pursuit card in the video are as follows:

*(Geography) In what city is the largest ball of twine built by one man? (Also referenced in Yankovic's song "The Biggest Ball Of Twine In Minnesota".)

*(Entertainment) What's the deal with Lindsay Lohan? I mean, seriously?

*(History) F.D.R.—was he faking it?

*(Arts & Literature) On what page does Harry Potter die in the next book?

*(Science & Nature) What is the melting point of a gorilla's head?

*(Sports & Leisure) How many Wicket Men are there on a 43-Man Squamish team? (which is a MAD Magazine reference.)

• When Al professes fluency in both JavaScript as well as Klingon, he points to the cover of O'Reilly Media's JavaScript: The Definitive Guide (ISBN 0-596-10199-6) and the Klingon .
• While Yankovic is in the store browsing for X-Men comic books, he is wearing a shirt that reads "Carl Sagan is my homeboy".
• The comics in his left hand are Uncanny X-Men #268 (September 1990) in front and Uncanny X-Men #201 (January 1986) behind it. The comics in his right are Uncanny X-Men #221 (September 1987) in front and Uncanny X-Men #210 (October 1986) behind it.

• The Wikipedia article Yankovic vandalizes (by typing "YOU SUCK!" in large letters) is the article about Atlantic Records, referring to the company refusing permission for Yankovic to include "You're Pitiful", a parody of James Blunt's song "You're Beautiful", on Straight Outta Lynwood. This has inspired real-life vandals to attack the article on Wikipedia in a similar manner. Yankovic has said that he does not approve of the vandalism, though he admits being amused by it.^[11]
• The word "dog" is said at the same point in both Ridin' and this song; however, rather than in the original song, where it was "dawg" — slang for "friend" — Al's character is referring to his pet dog. The name of his dog, Foofie, may be a reference to UHF, where the first poodle to be thrown out the window in "Raul's Wild Kingdom" was named Foofie. Also, the words "pop pop" are said at the same time in the songs, except in the Weird Al version, the phrase refers to popping the bubbles of bubble wrap.
• Yankovic parodies the Star Wars Kid and is seen purchasing a bootleg VHS recording of The Star Wars Holiday Special toward the end of the video.
• Chamillionaire flashes a gang sign; Yankovic flashes a sign from Star Trek.

*In the final extreme-close-up frames of the Ridin' video, Chamillionaire throws up for L.A. Brims, an original constituent-element of the Bloods street gang. The rapper's left hand is turned knuckles-to-the-camera. His thumb and middle-two fingers are curled into his palm. His index and little fingers are held rigid, horizontal, and parallel to each other (differentiating the sign from Hook 'em Horns etc.)

*As Yankovic's video fades out, Al gestures to the camera within the same extreme close-up composition, showing the Vulcan gesture of salutation (known for accompanying the phrase Live long and prosper.) Yankovic's palm is to the camera, his little and ring fingers are pressed tightly together, as are his index and middle fingers. There is the typical wide gap between the middle and ring fingers, but atypically his thumb is held in, pressed against his index finger. (The thumb is typically held as far from the other fingers as possible.)

*There are several possible explanations for this. In the extreme close-up it may have been necessary to keep the thumb in to avoid obscuring the face. The sign Chamillionaire flashes has two points (little and index fingers.) In order to more closely parody the original throw up, Yankovic may keep the thumb in to remove a point from the typical three-pointed Vulcan gesture (two pairs of fingers plus a thumb.) It is also possible that Mr. Yankovic has the difficulty producing the gesture that several actors involved in Star Trek productions have experienced.

• There are two versions of the video; the televised version shows a closeup of Al in front of a Gap store but on the original Internet-released version Al is shown further away, with a Gap sign visible behind him. The original version of the video contains the Wikipedia logo in the scene where Yankovic is editing a Wikipedia article; on the televised version this logo has been removed. In the next scene, the words in the DVD box of Monty Python and the Holy Grail are also gone.
• Two of the top 8 on "White & Nerdy"'s MySpace page have been removed from his friends since the video.
• In the scene where Weird Al talks about how he can recite Monty Python and the Holy Grail, he is wearing a tee-shirt which has "Monty Python" written across the front.

Cameos

• Jordan Peele and Keegan-Michael Key of MADtv appear in the blue 1967 Chevy Impala Convertible at the beginning of the video.
• Seth Green appears in the scene with a wall of action figures. Green has a huge personal collection of action figures (including Star Wars) that are stored in a large storage unit he shares with Hugh Sterbakov http://www.kid4life.com/yoda2/green-sterbakov-interview.html. An episode from the second season of Green's show Robot Chicken contains a video created for another Straight Outta Lynwood song, "Weasel Stomping Day". Yankovic refers to his collection as "cherry" (as in virginal, indicating they have not been removed from their original packaging). The value of action figures decreases if they are removed from their original packaging, as the figurines in the video have been.
• Donny Osmond dances next to Yankovic in the scenes against the white background with the (incorrect) non-relativistic Schrödinger wave equation for hydrogen behind them. Weird Al asked Donny to appear because he was the 'whitest guy I could think of'.http://www.retrocrush.com/archive2006/weirdal/index.html
• Judy Tenuta appears as the woman who receives a power strip as a Christmas present. Tenuta is also a comedian who uses a small (concertina-sized) accordion in her act, was a regular on The Weird Al Show, and appeared in Yankovic's video for Headline News as Lorena Bobbit.

Extras

• Jon Katz, Michael Bueno, Tom Schuler, Peter Withers, John Reynolds, Jennifer More, Christina Rodriguez, Benjamin Baker, Jason Van Kemseke, George Garcia, Deb Anderson, Christina Malesci, Shawn Avery, Maxx Gillman, Mikel Browning, Diego Kontarousky, David Stephens, and Jack DeVries all volunteered to be extras in the video. This opportunity was advertised on Al's MySpace three days before the video's shooting.
• IGN Freelance Editor and MiraCosta College Chariot Copy Editor Jack DeVries is featured twice in the video: once playing Dungeons & Dragons at the beginning and at the end playing ten-pin bowling.

Errors

• In the first scene of the video, Jordan Peele pushes up his sunglasses to look at Al's character. In both cut-shots where we see Al's character, Jordan's glasses are down over his eyes, only to be back up again a split second later when the shot is restored.
• The equation in the background of the chorus is Schrödinger's wave equation for the hydrogen atom; however, there is an error in that Planck's constant (denoted h) is displayed in place of the similar Dirac's constant (denoted ).

Incorrect version as seen in the video:

:

Correct version:

:

• In the scene where Al turns down a sip of a 40, the bottle he's offered seems to be a tall water bottle, rather than a 40-ounce beer bottle.
• When Al is shown playing Minesweeper, he is using the keyboard to play. Minesweeper is usually played using the mouse.

Other videos

First Take dance with Donny Osmond

Also released was a video consisting of the first take of Yankovic and Donny Osmond's dance in front of a greenscreen. When Yankovic sings ROTFLOL, Osmond finger-spells the letters. [1]

Fan-made video

Yahoo! Music solicited online members to make a fans-only video for "White & Nerdy". The video was released in late 2006.^[12]

Live performances

On November 2, 2006, Yankovic performed "White & Nerdy" live on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. (He rode a Segway as he came on stage.) This being his first performance of the song, various background vocals from the original recording are played to allow him time to breathe during the fast-paced lyrics. Since, however, his band has provided live background vocals. On December 3, he performed the song live at the VH1 "Big In '06" Awards. Yankovic also performed the song during his 2007 tour, also using a Segway during the performance.

References

See also

• List of singles by "Weird Al" Yankovic
• List of songs by "Weird Al" Yankovic
• It's All about the Pentiums - a song with a similar topic; also by Yankovic
• Geek chic

External links

• Weird Al's home page
• Weird Al's MySpace page
• Chamillionaire's MySpace page
• Windows Media Streaming Video for White & Nerdy
• The MySpace page that Al points to in the video
• Official e-card for the song, includes quiz and video
• Music Video on Google Video
• "Making of" video
• Music Video on YouTube

•  • [ e] "Weird Al" Yankovic

Band members "Weird Al" Yankovic • Jon "Bermuda" Schwartz • Steve Jay • Jim West • Rubn Valtierra Discography EPs: ''Another One Rides the Bus E.P. (1981) Studio albums: "Weird Al" Yankovic (1983) • "Weird Al" Yankovic in 3-D (1984) • Dare to Be Stupid (1985) • Polka Party! (1986) • Even Worse (1988) • Peter and the Wolf (1988) • UHF (1989) • Off the Deep End (1992) • Alapalooza (1993) • Bad Hair Day (1996) • Running with Scissors (1999) • Poodle Hat (2003) • Straight Outta Lynwood (2006) Compilations: Greatest Hits (1988) • The Food Album (1993) • Greatest Hits Vol. II (1994) • (1994) • The TV Album (1995) Songs Singles: My Bologna (1979) • Another One Rides the Bus (1981) • Ricky (1983) • I Love Rocky Road (1983) • Eat It (1984) • King of Suede (1984) • I Lost On Jeopardy (1984) • This is the Life (1984) • Like a Surgeon (1984) • I Want a New Duck (1985) • One More Minute (1985) • Dare to Be Stupid (1986) • Living with a Hernia (1986) • Christmas at Ground Zero (1986) • Fat (1988) • Lasagna (1988) • I Think I'm a Clone Now (1988) • UHF (1989) • Money for Nothing/Beverly Hillbillies (1989) • Isle Thing (1989) • Smells Like Nirvana (1992) • You Don't Love Me Anymore (1992) • Taco Grande (1992) • Jurassic Park (1993) • Bedrock Anthem (1993) • Achy Breaky Song (1993) • Headline News (1994) • Amish Paradise (1996) • Gump (1996) • Spy Hard (Theme from the Motion Picture Spy Hard) (1996) • The Night Santa Went Crazy (1996) • The Saga Begins (1999) • It's All About The Pentiums (1999) • Couch Potato (2003) • eBay (2003) • Don't Download This Song (2006) • White & Nerdy (2006) • Canadian Idiot (2006) • Trapped in the Drive-Thru (2007) • Filmography Music videos • "Al TV" (1984-present) • The Compleat Al (1985) • UHF (1989) • The "Weird Al" Yankovic Video Library (1992) • (1993) • (1993) • (1996) • The Weird Al Show (1997-1998) • (1998) • "Weird Al" Yankovic Live! (1999) • (2003) Related articles Dr. Demento • •