Al on Australian TV Alerts

marmousette · Post by **marmousette** » Tue Sep 20, 2005 2:20 pm

hello i am a french fan of weird al yankovic!

SORRY because i think my question doesn't have this place in this topic!but i don't know where put my question.

(and sorry for my bad english, i know is very bad)

here my problem!
on the official site of weird al yankovic, in the rubric "ask all" in the archive, i have to find a question which is put of al, this question are:

"Alison Cuomo-Nason of Keene, NH asks: Let me start by saying I'm a BIG Zappa fan and old enough to have seen him in concert many times during the late 60's & through the 70's. I absolutely LOVE "Genius in France"! You nailed it!! "GIF" is truly a masterpiece! (Thanks for doing it for ME!) Now to the question - I am curious if you are getting much criticism from the masses who have misinterpreted your intent and believe you wrote "GIF" in response to the war in Iraq? Great to see "Ask Al" back! (BTW- You ROCKED North Tonawanda! Looking forward to another 5 concerts this summer"

and the answer is:

"Thanks! Yes, let me now say for the record, I did not write Genius In France as any sort of political statement. I wrote the song long before the war in Iraq started, and it was never my intention to jump on any kind of bashing the French bandwagon. I was bashing the French before it was trendy"

so if I appeals has you it is that I do not arrive has to translate this answer and I think only I am mistaken but in what I believed conprendre it is that with final he does not love French or he makes fun of them? to only write to you I use a translator, and I think of being mistaken on what he meant finally I espere!

I espere that my demarche will not annoy you, it is right which me and my brother we adore weird Al yankovic, and forcing I would be disappointed if it had not trés one good opinions of French in general! but can be do not know of it not more than me, it is jsute if you could translate sinplement than he meant!

once again I excuse myself if my question does not have its place on this topic, but I do not know or the poster and I do not have reussi has the poster on the international topic thanks has you.

aurélie.

Post by **mewrio** » Tue Sep 20, 2005 3:14 pm

to the forum.

I am not sure I have understood the question - in fact, I am mostly just guessing. But what I think you are trying to ask is whether or not Al has anything against the French.

I think it is safe to say that Al does not have anything against any country, not to mention hate them. Al is, from what I hear, a dedicated Christian. Genius in France is mostly a mix of two different comedy elements - style parody and stereotypical figures, not to mention the many puns.

I won't lie to you - there is a steretypical French character which can sometimes be depicted in various media (particularly in TV comedy). But as far as I know, this doesn't involve the French person being an idiot. I think what Al tried to do here is, simply, to find a stereotype and include various puns about being an idiot into a song. And again, I am going to be honest here - it is fairly common to poke fun at the French in our culture. But it's also common to make fun of heaps of other stereotypes. And if all of these cultures became angry at every portrayl of themselves in an American TV show, the world would be a lot more hostile than it is now.

Al has not written a song saying that he doesn't like French people. He could have replaced "France" with "Australia" or "Germany" and it would probably work just as well.

That's all I can really write on the matter at the moment. I need to sleep on it. If any of the rest of the forum sees this, please feel free to continue the discussion.

marmousette · Post by **marmousette** » Tue Sep 20, 2005 4:55 pm

thank you!
I understood what you says!
finally my reaction was a little stupid! because as you say it it is rather current to see a comic stereotyper a country or a culture of a persons an other nationality.
I think that I was upset because I like much Al yankovic and all that it does is really genial !
And fact of the sorrow is to imagine that it is something against the French in general, in any case thank you to have answered! and I remain well on available continuing the discussion with pleasure (best than my translator can help me)

aurélie.

the translation is bad, I will like to better do! excuse me if you have evil for reading. I do not arrive has to better do I will test another translator.

Post by **scottidog** » Wed Sep 21, 2005 5:39 am

Aurelie,

I don't think Al dislikes the French. I think Mewrio is right, he was just taking a stereotype that is already there and using it to make a joke. He didn't write it to make fun of the situation between America and France just before the invasion of Iraq. The song was written and recorded well before that happened.

There was a poll or something several years ago that said that Jerry Lewis was the favorite comedian of the French. I like Jerry Lewis, but many people think his comedy is juvenile and stupid. So they thought the French were stupid if they liked him. I think that was part of the stereotype Al was playing on.

Al makes fun of a lot of things in his songs, but as he says - his songs are not autobiographical. They're just meant to be funny.

marmousette · Post by **marmousette** » Wed Sep 21, 2005 6:16 pm

of agreement! thank you for the explanation! this reassures me

Wed Sep 21, 2005 6:19 pm

marmousette @ Sep 20 2005, 02:20 PM wrote: hello i am a french fan of weird al yankovic!

aurélie.

Although this not the right Topic for it :

to another European member .

Please stay.

Post by **Mystik Tomato** » Thu Sep 22, 2005 7:58 am

Mystik Tomato @ Sep 6 2005, 07:28 AM wrote: Do ya think that any channel will have UHF on it? coz they show some CRAP normally. (I mean, come on! 8 Mile and not UHF? WTH?)

Remember when I said that? Well, the ABC's having a contest, to see what Australia's favourite film is.

Get UHF on Aussie TV Here!

Post by **mewrio** » Tue Dec 27, 2005 4:47 pm

Good news everyone. Remember my video capture device? Well, eventually I got it working on a laptop, and I had just enough time today to capture the In Entertainment clip. This was a little interview Al did about 2 years ago while he was touring in Australia. It's nothing groundbreaking, but I still thought it was fun. At the end there's a bit of the (easy) trivia question about Al.

Here's the video. If you're on DSL or faster you can stream it if you want to; otherwise, right click and Save As... or whatever. It's 10 megs so dialup people: be patient.

Apologies for the out-of-sync audio at the beginning... it fixes itself though.

Post by **mewrio** » Sun Mar 12, 2006 11:10 am

This is really obscure, but an Australian publicist who had some connection to Al (anyone have any names?) was on the Einstein Factor tonight. Does anyone know if it will get repeated on ABC2 any time soon?

Post by **KnottyEmily** » Thu Mar 16, 2006 7:16 am

i haven't been able to find any info on the rerun of the Einstein Factor but the episode of the simpsons that Al features in [Three Gays Of The Condo] will be showed during the marathon that's currently on Fox8 on Foxtel

it's showing on march 26th, and it's the 10th episode that day [eventhough i don't think the marathon actually stops, the TV guide lists the marathon as starting at 6am each day, so from 6am march 26th, it's the 10th episode]. The Foxtel guide doesn't give times for each episode, so you'll have to keep checking or have a rough guess