Weird Al Reaches Out With A ‘Mission Statement’ Mocking Corporate America (Video)
It has been a fabulously fun eight days for all the Weird Al Yankovic fans. Each day he has released a video from his new album Mandatory Fun. We’ve already seen the likes of “Word Crimes” (parody of Robin Thicke’s “Blurred Lines”), “Tacky” (a spoof of Pharrell Williams’ “Happy”) and “Foil” (a spin on Lorde’s “Royals”).
The fun isn’t over yet, my friends. Today Weird Al has released “Mission Statement,” which is a strong reminder of Crosby, Stills and Nash’s “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes” per Pitchfork. “Mission Statement” is a hilarious tribute to all the absurd corporate world terminology used in board rooms daily. Words like monetizing, synergy, operationalize and core competencies are put together lyrically in such a way to make you realize how bizarre these words and phrases can be.
Weird Al tells Wall Street Journal:
“I wanted to do a song about all the ridiculous double-speak and meaningless buzzwords that I’ve been hearing in office environments my entire life. I just thought it would be ironic to juxtapose that with the song stylings of CSN, whose music pretty much symbolizes the antithesis of corporate America.”
The visual concept of the video was brilliant, and Weird Al sought out a company named TruScribe to make his vision a reality. Wall Street Journal reports that Eric Oakland, chair and chief innovation officer of TruScribe reveals that it took 10 months to create Weird Al’s “Mission Statement” video.
“We hadn’t done anything like that before,” Oakland states.
What does CSN think about “Mission Statement”? Weird Al ran into Nash while doing an interview last year, and Nash asked Yankovic when he was going to record a parody of “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes.” Immediately, Weird Al whipped out his phone and played the recorded “Mission Statement” for him. How’s that for ironic instant gratification? Yankovic says Nash loves it as reported by Wall Street Journal.
“Mandatory Fun” debuted at #1 this week on Billboard charts, a first for Weird Al Yankovic, selling over 104,700. Yankovic’s closest competition was Beyoncé who had half as much exposure as Weird Al over the past week, and his music “dwarfed the viral play of stars as big as Justin Timberlake and Jay-Z in the last week,” according to NY Daily News.
Upon realizing the incredible success of “Mandatory Fun,” the last album Yankovic plans to record, his response to the Associated Press was:
“This has been an amazing week. I can’t even tell you. I have been doing roughly the same thing for many, many years, and this is the best week of my life in terms of like the response from people. It’s just insane and it’s extremely gratifying. It’s hard for me to wrap my head around it.”
Please let us know your thoughts on today’s release of “Mission Statement” in the comments section below. What is your opinion of the video, the album or Weird Al himself?
Photo Credit: Seenitheardit.com
