Nerds According To Al.

[Weirdalover]

Weird Al's nerddom brought him riches Print E-mail
Written by NICK POWILLS
Believe it or not, sometimes the cliché is true: I recently looked up "nerd" in the dictionary and saw this star’s name.

"Well, I'm not just a nerd; I am king of the nerds. I am a nerd supreme," Weird Al laughs as our phone conversation begins. "Nerd is kind of a derogatory term, though. It means someone who is bright and studious and probably pays a lot of attention to detail and it probably affects their social life to some extent. A lot of the most successful businessmen in the world are nerds. Did you know that?"

Oh, of course I did. Bill Gates is a nerd. Donald Trump doesn’t think he is, but is certainly a nerd. Mark Cuban, nerd. In reality, nerds control probably over 50 percent of the world’s cash flow. Amazing, huh?

And once a nerd makes the money, some of the stereotypical abuse ceases.

"I don’t think Bill Gates gets towels smacked across him," Al says while preparing for a night of parody onstage in Phoenix.

Weird Al is a nerd too – not as filthy rich as some of other pocket protecting brainiacs already mentioned here, but he surely isn’t anywhere close to poor either. His parody albums sell millions of copies and bring in Alfred Yankovic enough cash to last him a lifetime – all because he was smart and decided to craft the art of parody.

His most recent album, "Poodle Hat" is a Grammy-winning compilation featuring parodies of hits by Nelly, Eminem, Avril Lavigne, Billy Joel, Papa Roach, System Of A Down, and The White Stripes. Nerdy Al knows how to work it!

LIFE WASN’T ALWAYS EASY

Vicious amounts of teasing are always directed at nerds in high school. It’s almost in the daily routine of the high school ruling class to pick on the ugly duckling or the smart kids who lack social acceptance.

"High school is a tough time for most people. It wasn't my shining hour," Al says. "It wasn't horrible though. Every now and then in gym class, people would flick towels or throw garbage cans at you or try and shoot things at you. Things like that would happen. It wasn’t always easy."

Al wasn’t just considered a nerd for his looks, but also his smarts - he graduated as Valedictorian at the tender age of 16. After graduation, he enrolled at California Polytechnic State University at San Luis Obispo, where he worked toward a degree in architecture.

The architecture, obviously, didn’t work out, but Al soon did up styled up his mustache and thickened his glasses for a music career. And got a perm?

"Wait a second," Al corrects me. "The first thing I have to clear up is that it isn’t a perm. It’s naturally curly. My hair style could change from day to day. Maybe I will try a Mohawk next. You never know."

NERDS: DON’T GIVE UP, HOPE IS OUT THERE

Weird Al has your back, he just feels a little uncomfortable being your superhero idol.

"Nerds look up to me? That’s kind of frightening," he says. "But I guess if that helps you get through life somehow, I am glad to be a service."

And if you indeed are a nerd, just listen to Weird Al Yankovic’s advice and you will be just fine.

"Um, just hang in there and floss regularly and hopefully someday your dreams will come true," Al laughs as we say our goodbyes and he goes back to promoting.

[Themagic#27]

Why has this topic been neglected?! That was such a cute piece on nerds, haha. I personally love being a nerd, and, actually, I've never caught any hell over it. I guess because I've found myself a great little group of nerds at my school, who are all kind, intelligent people, and many of my friends have a very clear idea of what they want to do in life. And I think they can do it.

Good to see Al standing up for the nerds of the world!

NERDS RULE. ♥

[KnottyEmily]

they sure do. I've been on both sides, when I was in primary school and in my first few years of high school I was part of the "popular" crowd, but I realised that they weren't really my friends, none of us were really. We only stuck together because we all knew that if we left the group the rest of them would give us hell for it. I did leave the group, and they did make the rest of my time at that school slightly unenjoyable. The only thing that got me through it was my new group of friends, they weren't exactly nerds, but the were no where near popular, and I had some of the best times of my life with those guys.

Then I moved schools and my first group of friends were popular, but then I became friends with some nerdier guys and they didn't want to know me anymore...you'd never pick any of us as nerds though, but I guess as soon as you take an interest in computers...