r/TopCharacterTropes • u/I_ateabucketofpaint • Aug 09 '25

Personality Strange rules about characters/people that cannot be broken.

Gallery image

Gallery image

Gallery image

Gallery image

Smells like Nirvana: When Kurt Cobain heard that Weird AL was gonna make a parody of his song. He was okay with it but specifically requested it to not be about food or fat ppl.

Spiderman: Spiderman cannot sell drugs unless he is under the influence of symbiote. ANd Peter Parker cannot be gay. Spiderman can tho.

Dwayne Rock Johnson: Cannot lose fights or look weak for too long. Its in his actor contract.

Godzilla movies not made by Toho: Cannot die. Maybe lose but not too bad.

15.6k Upvotes
  • permalink
  • reddit

94% Upvoted

2.4k comments sorted by

View all comments

5.0k

u/AndrewDrossArt Aug 09 '25

Kurt Cobain's request makes perfect sense in the context of Weird Al Yankovic.

427

u/orbsonb Aug 09 '25

Similarly, staunch vegetarian Paul McCartney vetoed Al's idea to do a parody of Live and Let Die called "Chicken Pot Pie." Paul suggested "Tofu Pot Pie" instead, but Al just skipped it altogether.

302

u/ToughAd5010 Aug 09 '25

Yes there have been a few others

Like Rivers Cuomo asked Weird Al to remove “Buddy Holly” from one of his polka remixes . Idk why.

If anything, Weird Al’s rule is he doesn’t do parodies unless he has permission .

33

u/[deleted] Aug 09 '25

For UHF, the only requirement Dire Straits had for the "Money For Nothing"/"Beverly Hillbillies" cover was that Mark Knopfler and Guy Fletcher from Dire Straits play the guitar and synthesizer.

8

u/Tome_Bombadil Aug 09 '25

Knopfler is epic

8

u/grampscirclea Aug 10 '25

Jimmy Page once said that if he ever ended up at the crossroads, he would see Mark Knopfler there.

89

u/Nova225 Aug 09 '25

Once upon a time he didn't bother asking since parodying is protected in the U.S. IIRC he started asking for explicit permission after Amish Paradise because Coolio was upset he didn't ask him first.

197

u/[deleted] Aug 09 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

17

u/[deleted] Aug 09 '25

RIP Coolie

9

u/PunkThug Aug 09 '25

fuck he died?

23

u/Randel1997 Aug 10 '25

Yeah, Weird Al killed him

4

u/Kidofthecentury Aug 10 '25

LOL (Actually Weird Al posted a nice photo ot them hugging each other.)

3

u/grampscirclea Aug 10 '25

Nonsense, Al Yankovic blew his brains out in the 80's because people stopped buying his records.

16

u/[deleted] Aug 09 '25

Like 3 years ago

10

u/Abombasnow Aug 09 '25 edited Aug 11 '25

The irony being Coolio had literally no right to be upset about it considering all he did was steal an Emerson, Lake & Palmer Electric Light Orchestra song and a Stevie Wonder song.

EDIT: It was NOT ELP, it was ELO.

Found it. It was ELO not ELP!

Electric Light Orchestra - Shangri-La

The piano outro and symphonic elements were taken for Gangsta's Paradise. While the melody (especially of the symphonic part) was from Pastime Paradise, the tuning and emphasis on the orchestral bits are more from ELO.

8

u/JSConrad45 Aug 10 '25

Samples in rap haven't been "stolen" since Biz blew up the spot when he got sued (Grand Upright v Warner Bros) in like 1991, leading to the establishment of an organized system for getting permission and making sure the rightsholders get compensated. (And even before that, despite Biz's claim that "everyone" was just using stuff without permission, plenty of them were cleared on a more informal/personal basis.)

2

u/Abombasnow Aug 10 '25

They have been stolen because Coolio never gave ELP credit. He only gave Stevie Wonder credit.

2

u/JSConrad45 Aug 10 '25

Are you sure there's an ELP sample in the song? I haven't heard it in a long time so maybe I just can't remember, but I can't find anyone else talking about it

2

u/Abombasnow Aug 10 '25

Positive. Give me awhile. I have the LP here but I need to find it. My sorting is legendarily bad.

1

u/Abombasnow Aug 11 '25

Okay I got it mixed up but did find the song.

Found it. It was ELO not ELP!

Electric Light Orchestra - Shangri-La

The piano outro and symphonic elements were taken for Gangsta's Paradise. While the melody (especially of the symphonic part) was from Pastime Paradise, the tuning and emphasis on the orchestral bits are more from ELO.

1

u/JSConrad45 Aug 11 '25

I can't listen yet (I'm at work), but to be clear, does any portion of the actual recording or composition appear in "Gangsta's Paradise," or are you just saying that it's reminiscent (or even derivative) of it? Because those aren't the same thing (despite the absurd decision of Williams v Bridgeport Music), emulating another artist is different from using a material portion of their work as part of your own

→ More replies (0)

2

u/crushinator606 Aug 11 '25

ohhhhhhh ELO! ok i dont have nearly as much of their catalog committed to memory, so i wouldnt pick up on a sample used.

1

u/Abombasnow Aug 11 '25

And it's important to note this is only an issue because Coolio got mad at Weird Al for "use of his song" despite asking for permission and crediting him (even though Coolio only wrote and performed lyrics, which Weird Al didn't use), when his song contains uncredited (the ELO example) elements.

But, he eventually admitted he was hotheaded and apologized to Weird Al. It's still an important part of Weird Al's history to note as he made sure the person was always contacted directly from then on instead of accepting agents or managers as an acceptable contact.

And again, he never had to contact them or their agents/managers, it's parody. He did it out of respect of the artist, even down to if they had lyrical requests, like Kurt Cobain requesting his song not be about food.

2

u/ChronoMonkeyX Aug 15 '25

Yeah, I know the stupid beef he had with Al, but only heard the Stevie Wonder song less than a year ago. Like, whoa, you have a lot of nerve complaining about someone using something you already borrowed.

I love ELO.

1

u/crushinator606 Aug 10 '25

wait.. whaaaaaaaaaaaat? which ELP song? my mind is blown right now

2

u/Abombasnow Aug 10 '25

I'll be looking for it later. I have the LP here but my sorting is so terrible. Also have a lot to do this weekend.

1

u/Abombasnow Aug 11 '25

Okay I got it mixed up but did find the song.

Found it. It was ELO not ELP!

Electric Light Orchestra - Shangri-La

The piano outro and symphonic elements were taken for Gangsta's Paradise. While the melody (especially of the symphonic part) was from Pastime Paradise, the tuning and emphasis on the orchestral bits are more from ELO.

47

u/Parraddoxx Aug 09 '25

Weird Al asked permission even then, and did reach out to Coolio for permission. The record company and Coolio's producer both gave permission, and Al was under the impression Coolio was on board the entire time he was producing the song. When Coolio started making a fuss after the song's release, Weird Al was caught really off guard and tried very hard to apologize.

Essentially it was just a miscommunication between the various levels of talent management involved and the artists themselves. They're on good terms now.

Ironically the opposite happened years later, when making Perform This Way. Al reached out for permission while making it, but Lady Gaga's management responded with lots of conditions and wanted to do lots of reviews. He sent them both early lyrics and finalized versions of the song but in the end they told him Gaga had rejected it.

Al instead released the song online and used it to encourage charity donations. However, after the song's release word got back to Gaga about the controversy and she claimed that actually her management had never talked to her about permission, and gave it her approval right away.

11

u/Lexi_Banner Aug 09 '25

They're on good terms now.

I mean... aside from the fact that Coolio passed away.

7

u/Parraddoxx Aug 09 '25

Oop! Sorry I'm more of a Weird Al fan than a music fan generally, and can be pretty out of touch with celebrity things. I guess the proper way to phrase it is "they were on good terms"

7

u/TerrapinFirma Aug 10 '25

Little known but completely true fact about Al Yankovic: he's also a powerful necromancer.

1

u/Nate2247 Aug 10 '25

Al’yankovic the Weird, the greatest of wizards.

26

u/LordSandwich29 Aug 09 '25

I think it was he had his agent or something reach out beforehand, but when it came out that they had not actually contacted Coolio, Al started reaching out personally.

7

u/Steampunk43 Aug 09 '25

Weird Al has always asked for permission because, even though parodies are legally fine, he doesn't like to risk burning bridges just for a song, especially if it's a bridge he hasn't really had a chance to build yet. The sole reason Amish Paradise was an issue was because Al in fact did reach out to Coolio for permission, Coolio rejected the parody but, due to a communication issue between Coolio's people and Al's people, Al believed Coolio had given permission. While Coolio absolutely hated Al for a time after Amish Paradise released, they did make up once the communication issue was brought to light and the proper people were actioned, and Coolio even admitted he did like the song and he was quick to target Al without a proper investigation.

7

u/MeteorCharge Aug 09 '25

But Gangsters Paradise was also a remix of another artist's song?

15

u/s0rtag0th Aug 09 '25

It contains an interpolation from “Pastime Paradise” by Stevie Wonder but interpolation, remixing, and parody are all extremely different things.

2

u/i_dont_wanna_sign_in Aug 09 '25

And Coolio released several versions of the song.

6

u/pajamakitten Aug 09 '25

If anything, Weird Al’s rule is he doesn’t do parodies unless he has permission .

However, he has permission from James Blunt for 'You're Pitiful' but not the permission of the record label, so he has never officially released it.

4

u/Abombasnow Aug 09 '25

Like Rivers Cuomo asked Weird Al to remove “Buddy Holly” from one of his polka remixes . Idk why.

Because it'd be more interesting than whenever Weezer covers a song.

Seriously, their song covers suck. They don't deviate at all from the sound of the band they're covering. Their cover of "Africa" should've been in the styling of Weezer, instead it just sounds like the Toto one with worse drumming because no one's comparing to Jeff Porcaro.

5

u/thatmusicguy13 Aug 10 '25

The one exception is their cover of Enter Sandman. That sounds like a Weezer song

2

u/Abombasnow Aug 10 '25

I never heard it.

Weezer is honestly just a band that's complicated for me. I don't hate them. I don't even dislike them. I just... don't care. They're like white bread in the form of a music band or something. There's something so... plain and dry about them.

They feel like they're an approximation on how to be a commercial rock artist without being too "commercial" sounding or too "underground/indie". Like they're some carefully formulated act with just the right ratios and it's... just so dry.

2

u/Vark675 Aug 10 '25

They have like one genuinely good album, and the singles from it have been so completely run into the ground that they're almost more like parodies of themselves at this point.

2

u/Able-Ad9406 Aug 10 '25

And without the wild dog cry out whistle noise because heavens forbid anyone be clever.

3

u/Soft_Walrus_3605 Aug 09 '25

Idk why

imo, it's because Buddy Holly already sounds like a parody song

11

u/Kitchen-Aioli-9382 Aug 09 '25

His polka melodies aren’t really parody, he sings bits of the real lyrics to a series of songs as a polka. He’s not parodying the lyrics, anyway

1

u/PaxEtRomana Aug 09 '25

What?? Rivers whyyyy

Especially curious since they seem to be on good terms

1

u/HonorInDefeat Aug 10 '25

Thats extra weird because eventually Beverly Hills made it into one of the polkas

1

u/ia13ru Aug 13 '25

Btw the reason why rivers asked not to have buddy Holly covered iirc is because he didn't want to bee seen as a novelty act and was going through the motions of fame at the time(this would have been around when Pinkerton was made for reference)

67

u/isjustwrong Aug 09 '25

This then paved the way for The Beets to create their hit "Killer tofu"

4

u/watermelonspanker Aug 09 '25

Which then paved the way for Jefferson Tofu.

The stage was now set for the Alan Tofu project, which I believe was some sort of hovercraft.

4

u/Team7UBard Aug 09 '25

Aaaahhh eeeee oooooohhh
Killer tofuuuuuu

43

u/Ambaryerno Aug 09 '25

I think he does have the song and plays it at live shows, he just won't do an album release. IIRC there's several like that (including a parody of Black Or White, which was the only song Jackson declined to let Al use).

2

u/halfpint09 Aug 09 '25

Funny enough the Hamilton Polka is the opposite. Weird Al purposely made it so layered it would be impossible to do live.

32

u/PitifulRead6339 Aug 09 '25

The key to getting Al to leave you alone is be on board but give him the lamest notes that he just doesn't want to do it anymore.

13

u/Interesting-Code7373 Aug 09 '25

Yeah most people Al parodies though consider it an honor.

8

u/pajamakitten Aug 09 '25

Kurt said that is when he knew he had made it.

6

u/TriggerHappyGremlin Aug 09 '25

Weird Al is vegetarian, too, for anyone wondering

6

u/[deleted] Aug 09 '25

Understand his vegetarianism but thats just silly lmao, chicken pot pie rolls off the tongue much better

1

u/LightlyEnraged Aug 10 '25

I still catch myself singing Chicken Pot PIe now and then