Misplaced Pages

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Template:Future single

"White & Nerdy" is the first single from "Weird Al" Yankovic's album Straight Outta Lynwood, which will be released on September 26, 2006. It is a parody of the song "Ridin'" by Chamillionaire and Krayzie Bone. The song is a lamentation by the subject over his inability to "roll with the gangsters" because he is "just too white and nerdy", and includes references to concepts normally associated with nerds, such as Star Trek, Star Wars, Misplaced Pages, Dungeons & Dragons, Internet slang, computer science, and mathematics.

The single was leaked onto the Internet on August 27, 2006, almost one month before the record's release date. It is currently streaming on Chamillionaire's MySpace page as well as Yankovic's own MySpace page and Google Video.

Video

The single has an accompanying music video, which was recorded in high-definition video. The video was unique in that Yankovic personally recruited extras to participate in its filming. A request was posted via the blog on his MySpace page, and he received interest from a number of extras who were willing to work for free.

The video was leaked onto YouTube on September 17, 2006 just one day before the video was planned to be officially released at 9 PM Pacific time at AOL.com. Due to the leak, the premiere was cancelled, and AOL silently slipped the video onto their website hours before the premiere was set to take place. VH1 will start airing the video in "large rotation" on September 20. It is currently available to watch on Yankovic's MySpace page, as well as on several other video hosting sites.

Allusions

• In the video, White & Nerdy's top 8 Myspace friends include Bill Gates, Napoleon Dynamite, Mr. Peabody, Albert Einstein, Screech, Frodo, Pee Wee Herman and Tom.

• The White & Nerdy MySpace page reads:

About me:

4.0 GPA, Perfect Attendance Record, Mathlete State Finalist, Best Penmanship Award

Who I'd like to meet:

Sir Isaac Newton, Jenna Jameson, "Weird Al" Yankovic

• The MySpace page also has 27 friends including: 2 Bill Gates, 2 Napoleon Dynamite, 2 Pee-Wee Herman, 2 They Might Be Giants (one of which is real, the other was probably made by Al, since the Myspace address ends in 27), Hal Sparks, The Presidents of the United States of America, Ben Folds, Liam Lynch, The Barenaked Ladies, Jeffrey Ross, as well as Weird Al's band members.

• Seth Green and Donny Osmond both make cameos in the video. Seth Green's scene with action figures is a reference to his own show, Robot Chicken.

• The questions on the Trivial Pursuit Card in the video are as follows:

• (General) In what city is the largest ball of twine built by one man? (Also referenced in Al's song "The Biggest Ball of Twine in Minnesota"; answer: Darwin, Minnesota)
• (Entertainment) What's the deal with Lindsay Lohan? I mean, seriously?
• (History) F.D.R. -- Was he faking it?
• (Arts & Literature) On what page does Harry Potter die in the next book? (Days after the release of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, a meme that mentioned the death of a predominate character from the book and which page that occurred in the US publication had spread across the Internet; this question is likely based on this meme. J.K. Rowling has stated that a major character will die in the 7th book, and most fans believe that this very well could be Harry Potter himself.)
• (Science & Nature) What is the melting point of a gorilla's head? (This question was supposed to be changed to a gerbil's head, but the designer dropped the ball.)
• (Sports & Leisure) How many Wicket men are there on a 43-Man Squamish team? (Answer: 5)

• The Misplaced Pages article Al edits (by typing "YOU SUCK!" in big letters) is the article about Atlantic Records, which is a joke referring to the fact that the real-life Al didn't receive permission from the company to include a parody of James Blunt's song "You're Beautiful" on his new album. Incidentally, edits to the Atlantic Records article were restriced as of September 18, 2006.

• Weird Al also parodies the Star Wars Kid and is seen purchasing the Star Wars Holiday Special.

• While walking through a comic book store, Al is wearing a shirt with Carl Sagan on it.

• The X-Men comics that Al is holding are Uncanny X-Men issues 201, 210, 221 and 268.

• In the background where Weird Al is rapping on the street with the candles, the candles are in the shape of Pac-Man, parodying shots of the original song's video, which featured Chamillionaire rapping in front of a group of candles forming the Chamillionaire logo.

• The Javascript logo is borrowed from the O'Reilly Media book JavaScript: The Definitive Guide, including the rhinoceros on the cover.

• The equation in the background of the chorus is Schrödinger's wave equation for the hydrogen atom; however, there is an error in that Planck's constant is displayed in place of Dirac's constant.

• Al actually created Web pages for the filming: the "home page for dog" and his "pimped-out" MySpace page.

• The 20- and 8-sided dice Al rolls appear to be from the Dungeons & Dragons official dice set.

Notes

1. http://www.myspace.com/chamillionaire
2. http://www.myspace.com/weirdal
3. http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7939447080926152362&q=white+and+nerdy
4. September 5, 2006 blog post
5. August 16, 2006 blog post
6. September 18, 2006 blog post
7. http://www.weirdal.com/home.htm
8. ^ http://www.myspace.com/whiteandnerdy
9. White & Nerdy's Friends on the MySpace page
10. http://en.wikipedia.org/search/?title=Atlantic_Records&diff=76282989&oldid=75356101
11. http://www.weirdal.com/foofie/
12. http://www.myspace.com/whiteandnerdy

See also

• List of singles by "Weird Al" Yankovic
• List of songs by "Weird Al" Yankovic

External links

• Weird Al's home page
• Weird Al's MySpace page
• Chamillionaire's MySpace page
• Video for White & Nerdy on AOL.com
• Video for White & Nerdy on Google Video
• Video for White & Nerdy on YouTube
• Weird Al's "Home page for dog" that was used in the video
• The MySpace page that Al points to in the video

• 2006 singles
• "Weird Al" Yankovic songs