World of Weird Al Yankovic

Sorry but there is definitely an "anymore" qualifier.

man this topic turned to smurf - jeff dunham, overpriced tickets, dave matthews band, urban dictionary definitions. what a joke. however i must weigh in on all of this (and if it is deleted or moved to trash i will have my account deleted).

al's tickets and merchandise are in fact seriously overpriced. however the counterargument "oh well jeff dunham tickets cost 40 dollars more or i paid 40 dollars more for my tickets in another country" is stupid. we are talking about weird al, not jeff dunham, or dave mathhews. what this is all comes down to is priorities. and while in the past i may have said doing x or y - in regards to paying for weird al smurf - doesn't make you a bigger fan, paying that much money for tickets and t-shirts does make you a bigger fan. at least a better fan. especially if you've gonna sit around bitching. the fact that i cannot bring myself to buy a shirt (which are generally just poor quality) or pay to go to a show means i like weird al less than someone who did. and if i wasn't this poor i'd probably go to the shows, but i'd still bitch about the prices.

and for the record jeff dunham was funny for a few days, but for whatever reason seems to now be somewhat of a joke to other (generally better) comedians and people who just wanna smurf on someone successful. and the dave matthews song "so much to say" is about all i can stand from him. what the smurf is his deal with all the back up jazz in his shows? my god, i remember catching a few minutes of a show at alpine valley and i was like, is this still the same song? is it even dave matthews. i just don't get it. however in the whole scheme of things he's way bigger than weird al and his tickets should cost more. (it's more sad to think jeff dunahm is bigger than al.)

as far as "you're dead to me," i've probably used it in cases where the person i said it to i "respected" in some way and also in cases where i didn't really respect him. i think however there's a certain sense of respect that dave matthews has from everyone just by being dave matthews. also i don't know about the history of his ticket prices but i suspect they have gone up over time, and thus respect - if it ever existed - would slowly decline relative to the rise of prices for dmb tickets. still, i would probably never use the "you're dead to me" line on dave matthews, and i probably wouldn't even see a dmb show if i was given the tickets for free.

Wow. Um, I probably shouldn't be that upset over the price of a t-shirt, but it is quite expensive considering the tickets, gas, food, etc., although it's not the band's fault about the prices of food/beverages. Especially considering the amount of money they've made and their 'love' of their audience, I'm sure they could knock the prices down. I've been to plenty of events and a lot of them offer things with a reasonable range of $15-$20. Over that is pushing it, but ultimately it comes down to the consumer and what they're willing to pay. Nobody twists someone's arm and says "You must buy this t-shirt/hoodie/poster/etc."

Back on topic, I don't know if a 2012 tour is likely. I'd assume it comes down to next summer and how dates look for that supposed tour/album. 2 years away is too far in advance to predict a tour, I'd suppose.

HappyGilmore wrote:Wow. Um, I probably shouldn't be that upset over the price of a t-shirt, but it is quite expensive considering the tickets, gas, food, etc., although it's not the band's fault about the prices of food/beverages. Especially considering the amount of money they've made and their 'love' of their audience, I'm sure they could knock the prices down. I've been to plenty of events and a lot of them offer things with a reasonable range of $15-$20. Over that is pushing it, but ultimately it comes down to the consumer and what they're willing to pay. Nobody twists someone's arm and says "You must buy this t-shirt/hoodie/poster/etc." .

well you see i think there is a sense that fans get where they feel they must buy weird al merchandise to be a true fan. on the surface you want to say that is wrong, but in reality it is very true. you really have to be willing to pay for overpriced things to be a dedicated fan. however the elitism that flows from people who do purchase these things is really worse. i'm not sure if there's any avoiding it, but the "how can you bitch about the cost of this band shirt when THIS band shirt cost more?!?!?!" is pretty silly.

Well, Well, Well wrote:

HappyGilmore wrote:Wow. Um, I probably shouldn't be that upset over the price of a t-shirt, but it is quite expensive considering the tickets, gas, food, etc., although it's not the band's fault about the prices of food/beverages. Especially considering the amount of money they've made and their 'love' of their audience, I'm sure they could knock the prices down. I've been to plenty of events and a lot of them offer things with a reasonable range of $15-$20. Over that is pushing it, but ultimately it comes down to the consumer and what they're willing to pay. Nobody twists someone's arm and says "You must buy this t-shirt/hoodie/poster/etc." .

well you see i think there is a sense that fans get where they feel they must buy weird al merchandise to be a true fan. on the surface you want to say that is wrong, but in reality it is very true. you really have to be willing to pay for overpriced things to be a dedicated fan. however the elitism that flows from people who do purchase these things is really worse. i'm not sure if there's any avoiding it, but the "how can you bitch about the cost of this band shirt when THIS band shirt cost more?!?!?!" is pretty silly.

Sad that it comes down to that sort of elitism. Debating about how many concerts they've been to, how many autographs, how many t-shirts, etc. I'm not sayin everyone here does that, but I've seen it, and I usually try to stay away from it. Although I did comment on the prices of the DMB merch. To me it seemed high, and I wouldn't buy it. Sadly, I know people who've spent more than that on multiple shirts, posters and various other merch, in an essence to prove they're a bigger fan.

well we should take it easy here - if there's one thing nobody likes, it's a defensive elitist. but the little bit i have read here in touring/live appearances about the laminate vip pass thing is pretty sickening. i'm not sure you can really blame the fans though, but instead you have to blame weird al and/or the company that allows things like the vip pass, overpriced shirts, etc. to be sold. because they know if they put something up for sale for even a semi-popular musician, it's going to sell. "how much does it cost?? it must be worth it!" i guess it's just the business of the music industry.

Perhaps we should have a topic about the cost of tickets and merch, but this topic isn't for that.

right this is about jeff dunham, dave matthews, urban dictionary, not to mention a possible tour in 2012.

Well, Well, Well wrote:right this is about jeff dunham, dave matthews, urban dictionary, not to mention a possible tour in 2012.

Okay I'm creating a topic about ticket prices and merchandise costs as Bobbi suggested. I'll cut this conversation into that topic too.

scottidog wrote:Perhaps we should have a topic about the cost of tickets and merch, but this topic isn't for that.

True, true. I apologize.