Just Give Weird Al the Super Bowl Halftime Show Already
The periodic calls for a Super Bowl Halftime show featuring "Weird Al" Yankovic are louder than ever this year, with a petition picking up nearly 65,000 signatures in a day, and still rising. 65,000 Weird Al fans could be wrong, but they're not. This is a pretty good idea.
Weird Al supporters made their last push for a halftime show back in 2012 and, at the time, Yankovic said he'd be willing to do it, telling TMZ, "I'd be surprised if that's being seriously considered by the NFL, but prove me wrong!"
2012 wasn't his time. The 2013 halftime show correctly went to Beyoncé, an actual earthbound deity. But unless another Super Bowl is part of Queen Bey's map to world domination after her big Jay-Z divorce and/or publicity stunt, she's not going to do it again.
Al's time is now, while he's riding the success of his first-ever #1 album, Mandatory Fun, and basking in internet love thanks to his own Beyoncé-style week of music video releases. It's now, while we're constantly lamenting (or celebrating) that there are no more real rock stars.
Wrong: We've still got one, or at least a reasonable facsimile. And it's Weird Al.
Granted, younger generations may not have heard of him (although all those music videos probably helped a bit), and he might be too white and nerdy for the Super Bowl's huge, mainstream audience. But it's not as if seeing the Red Hot Chili Peppers topless appealed to the tween demographic, either.
The Super Bowl traditionally books the biggest, most mainstream acts possible, and in 2014, listening to Weird Al just isn't that weird anymore. Plus, you know you want to find out how the FCC will react when he parodies Janet Jackson's nipple slip from '04.
And if all that doesn't sway you, remember that the Halftime Show has, in the past, been entrusted to a promo for Disney's Indiana Jones ride, an Elvis-impersonating magician whose showstopping card trick didn't even work, and Kid Rock.