L
Leopard
Guest
Probably not. Mr. Yankovic has mentioned numerous times that he gets permission from other composers and performers before performing parodies of their work. Where permission is not given, he does not parodize even though legally he does not require premission. For example, Michael Jackson had asked him not to parodize HIStory as he (Jackson) thought it had too serious a message to be parodized. (Snack all Night, a parody of Black or White, has not been released for this reason, but lyrics purported to be those of this song may be found on the internet.)…Hmmm… could it be that our friend Al may be a bit paranoid out of fear of possibly having offended someone throughout the years with one of his many parodies??? Just wonderin’…
Mr. Yankovic has also shown a tremendous talent for making lemonade when someone in the music industry hands him a lemon. When Marshall Mathers withdrew permission for a video for Couch Potato, Mr. Yankovic parodied that situation in one of his Al TV videos. In this video, Mr. Yankovic created a parody of an interview with Mr. Mathers from video clips of actual interviews. In response to a “question” from Mr. Yankovic, Mr. Mathers “answers”:
“I believe in…artistic expression.” Mr. Yankovic then responded:
“So you think, for example if somebody wanted to do, oh, I don’t know, a parody of somebody else’s video, they should be able to… artistically express themselves and just do it?!”
Mr. Mathers was then shown speechless. Later in the interview, Mr. Yankovic started playing Couch Potato on a boombox while reading a newspaper, while Mr. Mathers was shown getting unhappier until he punched Mr. Yankovic in the face. All in all, I think the whole situation is far funnier than a simple video of Couch Potato would have been.
I have only been able to see in live once though 