Donald Trump, Al Yankovic and Good Weird Versus Bad Weird
If you only publish two books about someone, you can still be dismissed as a casual fan. But if you publish a third book about an important cultural figure, you are forever linked in the public mind and imagination with the person you can’t stop writing about.
I co-wrote 2011’s Weird Al: The Book with its subject. I followed it up with 2010’s The Weird Accordion to Al and then 2021’s The Weird A-Coloring to Al. But I did not stop there. Weird Al: The Book was later released in paperback form by Scholastic, and I put out extended versions of The Weird Accordion to Al and The Weird A-Coloring to Al.
I am a bit of a “Weird Al” Yankovic fan. I am proud that my name is synonymous with his. Being asked to work on Weird Al: The Book with Al was surreal and amazing and changed my life.
So it is very weird that in the past few weeks, “weird” has gone from being a positive association with the most popular and successful parody artist in the history of American music to a pejorative phrase hurled happily in the direction of Donald Trump and J.D. Vance.
Donald Trump likes to call everybody to the left of Rudy Giuliani every name in the book. In his mind, every Democrat and at least twenty percent of Republicans are stupid, incompetent, crazy, dumb failures who hate America.
Trump’s spokesman has a one-size-fits-all template for any occasion. It doesn’t matter what happens; Steven Cheung will say that it’s fake news designed to distract the public from the Democrats’ radical, extreme policies and total failure.
Conservatives hurl so many insults so haphazardly that they’ve lost all meaning. They’re all about quantity, not quality. Trump has taught his minions that insults don’t have to be witty or sophisticated; they just need to be repeated so often that they take hold in the public mind.
Before he was picked as Kamala Harris’ Vice Presidential choice, Tim Walz stated the obvious when he pointed out that Donald Trump, a flim-flam man who used to pretend to be his own publicist in order to spread positive stories about himself, and J.D. Vance, who was briefly engaged in a passionate sexual relationship with a sofa, are weird.
Walz’s words were mild compared to the insults hurled in the left’s direction, yet they connected. Being called weird got under Trump and Vance’s skin. It landed in a way that other criticisms did not.
“Weird” almost instantly became synonymous with the Republican ticket in a way that had to make my colleague and co-author Al Yankovic feel weird.
There’s good weird, and then there’s bad weird. “Weird Al” Yankovic embodies good weird. Good weird embraces weirdness. Good weird understands that being different is something to celebrate, not be ashamed of. Good weird knows that there’s nothing inherently wrong about being weird and nothing inherently positive about being what passes for normal.
Bad weird, in sharp contrast, bitterly denies that it’s weird because it wants to be perceived as normal. Bad weird is strange in a toxic, destructive fashion.
Good weird creates. It is inclusive. Bad weird destroys. It’s in denial about its innate strangeness. Bad weird thinks that being weird is something to be ashamed of. Good weird knows that being weird is something to be proud of.
I am good weird. I love being weird, although, full disclosure, I wouldn’t mind having quite so many neurological conditions. I love being neurodivergent, but I wouldn’t mind being at least a little neurotypical. It might make life less excruciatingly difficult.
Donald Trump and J.D. Vance did not ruin “weird.” It’s too big and beautiful and broad a word for that. Weird remains special. Weird is mighty. Weird will outlast the threat to democracy posed by Trump and Vance.
Weird will endure beyond this surreal cultural moment, an era that can only be described as, well, unusual.
Nathan needs teeth that work, and his dental plan doesn't cover them, so he started a GoFundMe at https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-nathans-journey-to-dental-implants. Give if you can!
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