What’s the nerd equivalent of Street Cred?
October 16, 2006 6 Comments
I purchased “Weird Al” Yankovic’s newest album, “Straight Outta Lynwood,” the weekend after it came out, and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed it since then. It’s a solid album, it’s got some of his best work ever, and it’s hard to top “White & Nerdy” for sheer awesomeness.
In fact, there’s only one thing that keeps me from fully enjoying the album: toward the end of the “Pet Sounds”-esque song “Pancreas,” Al says:
My pancreas attracts every other pancreas in the universe
With a force proportional to the product of their masses
And inversely proportional to the distance between them
Woo woo woo woo.
Of course, it’s inversely proportional to the distance between them, squared.
But it’s hard to be upset by any song which references the Islets of Langerhans.
As a bonus, here’s the awesome video for “White & Nerdy.”
Dubito Ergo Sum 
Now that version of that song is so much better than the original. And the video for it just made my day.
Interestingly, Weird Al sings “the distance between them” at the end of that line in two slowed-down, deliberate and identically sung voices (squared?) in _Pancreas_. Hmm. Wonder if that’s why. He’s used the way he sings a song lots of times before to make a point. Better that than believe that (gasp!) Weird Al made a MISTAKE!
Actually, that’s pretty clever. I’m actually convinced…there’s no way that’s not intentional. Al has a background in architecture (which requires some engineering, I’d imagine), and he has the Schrödinger equation in the background of the White & Nerdy video. I can’t doubt his physics credentials, but I know I was waiting for the “squared” at the end of that line when I first heard it.Now, I see, I’ve been outsmarted again. Kudos, Al.
Who needs street cred if you’ve got nerd fury?
The video is hilarious. Nick and I watched it over and over, pointing accusingly at each other!Too bad someone messed up the sound on the projector or we would have watched it in physics club.
TOO STINKIN FUNNY.My father in law showed this to us over Thanksgiving. I was crackin up. In generally Weird Al is lost on my, but this particular song is just TOO funny! I watched the video a few more times on your site. Thanks for a good laugh.Mrs. Meg Logan