World of Weird Al Yankovic

That's okay ... just something I found myself wondering about this afternoon while looking at the cover and listening to the song. Just found it somewhat strange.

And for the record ... I think "Bob" is an awesome music video!

It's a really, nice VIDEO. Of couse, Couch Potato would have been better, but as long as Em's happy, that's all we should care about...

Also, I think maybe the reason he didn't give thanks to Dylan is because, it was a style parody. He could have possibly given thanks to Zappa, because Dweezil played the opening guitar thingy.

And Frank Zappa was specifically one of his musical idols/role models.

As opposed to Dylan, who's pretty much EVERY songwriter's idol.

TheMeccaOfAlbinoPoodles @ May 29 2004, 01:30 AM wrote: [ http://img64.photobucket.com/albums/v194/TheMecca/Bobbidvid.jpg ]

I was wondering if Al got permission to parody the Dylan video. He seems to get permission to do everything, wether he needs it or not. I wonder if he asked someone if he could parody the Dylan Video? I would imagine he probably asked someone. Does anyone know?

iancook @ Mar 9 2005, 12:44 PM wrote: I was wondering if Al got permission to parody the Dylan video. He seems to get permission to do everything, wether he needs it or not. I wonder if he asked someone if he could parody the Dylan Video? I would imagine he probably asked someone. Does anyone know?

Permission isn't needed for just a visual parody since there is nothing for the original artist to collect a royalty on.

Although it wasn't about "Bob," an interviewer once asked Al if he had to ask Prince for permission to parody his videos for the "UHF" video. Al explained that he doesn't need to permission to wear a silly mustache and do the Batusi.

CatraDhtem wrote: Although it wasn't about "Bob," an interviewer once asked Al if he had to ask Prince for permission to parody his videos for the "UHF" video. Al explained that he doesn't need to permission to wear a silly mustache and do the Batusi.

Btw, Mecca's right. Bob is a video!

algonacchick @ Mar 9 2005, 03:47 PM wrote: Btw, Mecca's right. Bob is a video!

Dave

Permission isn't needed for just a visual parody since there is nothing for the original artist to collect a royalty on.

Although it wasn't about "Bob," an interviewer once asked Al if he had to ask Prince for permission to parody his videos for the "UHF" video. Al explained that he doesn't need to permission to wear a silly mustache and do the Batusi.

I see your point, but with that mind set, I don't think that he needed Eminem's permission to do his video. I just think that Al doesn't want to rock the boat with that one. I have been reading up on the Parody laws, and theoretically, Al could get away with making parodies of anyones songs without asking and not get in trouble, but of course many would inevitably take him to court and it would cost him out the nose. It's just cleaner and safer to get the permission in the first place.

So, he probably didn't ask or anything, but I know that he always stays on the safe side...

iancook @ Mar 9 2005, 06:19 PM wrote: I see your point, but with that mind set, I don't think that he needed Eminem's permission to do his video. I just think that Al doesn't want to rock the boat with that one.

Well, the thing with "Couch Potato" was tricky because Al probably did not specifically ask Eminem for permission to do the video, so the discussion probably wouldn't have even come up if Eminem didn't decide to make that one of his stipulations in allowing Al to record the song.

Yeah, Al could have argued it, but then he would have risked Eminem simply refusing permission for the song outright. Losing a video probably seemed like a better alternative to Al than losing both a video and a lead-off song parody.

Now, if Al hypothetically never even considered recording a "Lose Yourself" parody but still wanted to pair another song with a video that parodied Eminem's (similar to how he parodied Extreme for the video of "You Don't Love Me Anymore"), then no, he probably wouldn't have encountered any problem at all. After all, Eminem often does that himself.

Remember it's Al's own choice to seek permission before recording parodies, even though in interviews he's usually the first to admit that he probably doesn't really need to. So yeah, if he so desired he could just run amok and take shots at everything in sight without checking if it's okay first, but since he does respect and admire these artists, the least he can do is ask for their permission first. Al's just that nice.