At this level, Weird Al Yankovic is mainly the elder statesman of musical comedy. The man has been writing parody songs because the ’70s, together with worldwide hits like “Eat It” and “Like a Surgeon.” He’s parodied huge franchises, too, like his 1999 track “The Saga Begins,” which narrates the occasions of Star Wars: The Phantom Menance set to the tune of Don McLean’s American Pie:
Generally talking, Weird Al likes to get the permission of the artists he parodies earlier than he makes his songs. That’s not one thing he has to do — parodies aren’t thought-about copyright infringement underneath U.S. legislation — however he tries to do it anyway relatively than danger ticking somebody off.
And there are occasions it hasn’t labored out. For occasion, he advised The Hollywood Reporter in regards to the time he wished to make a parody of “Hedwig’s Theme” from the Harry Potter motion pictures, written by legendary composter John Williams. “Whenever it was, a decade or two ago, I approached the movie company just to get a general blessing like, ‘Hey, I’d like to do a Harry Potter parody,’” Yankovic remembered. “And I think they said no, or never responded or whatever.”
George Lucas beloved Weird Al’s Star Wars parody
If you don’t know the title “Hedwig’s Theme,” I can roughly assure you’ll bear in mind the music. It’s all around the authentic Harry Potter motion pictures, in addition to the Fantastic Beasts prequels:
These days, Yankovic isn’t fairly as valuable about getting permission to do parodies, no less than relating to huge franchises like Harry Potter. “If I’m doing a franchise, it’s usually better to do it and ask for forgiveness rather than permission,” he mentioned. “[…] When you are dealing with franchises, and you ask permission, you know, there’s so many people that can say no, and they usually do.”
I’m undecided whether or not Weird Al obtained permission from Lucasfilm for “The Saga Begins” again within the day, though in response to the singer, the studio’s response concerned telling him, “You should’ve seen the smile on [George Lucas’] face.” When Yankovic makes a parody of your work, everyone wins.
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h/t CBR
