Fun Fact: The reason Prince is referenced in this song is because he has never allowed Al to parody a song of his. It even got to the point that when they were seated next to each other at the Grammys, Prince's lawyer told Al to not look a him.
In all due fairness, Al always asks the artist for permission before parodying a song. Prince refused him, and so Al never parodied a Prince song. He *did* give Prince this little shout-out. :)
Most people don't realize that Weird Al is actually a very intelligent person. He graduated High School at the age of 16 as class Valedictorian then went on to California Polytechnic State University where he graduated with a Bachelors in Architecture at the age of 20.
I think any reasonably intelligent person who has heard his music recognizes he is very intelligent. I'm not sure where your claim of 'most people don't realize' comes from.
He and Prince have a bad grudge towards each other. Unsurprisingly, Prince is the only musician who won't accept a parody of his music, while all the others feel honored when Al asks them.
A panda walks into a restaurant and orders dinner. When he's finished, he takes out a gun, points it at the ceiling, and pulls the trigger. The waiter yells, "WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT!?" The bear says, "I'm a panda! Google me!" So the waiter pulls out his phone and looks up Panda. Panda: Asian bear who eats shoots and leaves.
Weird Al is a real master of the English language. He got all but one line (the explanation of what a contraction is) to match the rhythm and syllable count of the original song, and make it not only make sense, but rhyme.
The "Irony is not coincidence" line is a direct dig at Alanis Morisette's song "Isn't it Ironic" --> Rain on your wedding day? Not ironic. A fire truck that is on fire? Ironic.
What is ironic about rain on your wedding day is the fact a lot of people spend a crap ton of money and spend months planning a perfect day. And then it rains and everything goes to shit.
Sadly, proof reading doesn't exist anymore. Makes me crazy that news sources don't seem to have an editor anymore who proofreads what they write before it goes out.
Hell even best selling authors have mistakes that editors should catch which has lead me to conclude that copy editors and proofreaders don't exist anymore. Not in publishing.
Oh, many outlets still do, but others just aren't profitable anymore and one of the first things getting cut when the numbers slip into the red is the editing department. Many articles and book you read online nowadays also happen to be self-published, so a few typos are almost inevitable. God knows I make plenty of mistakes even though I'm trying my best.
@@AndragonLea I know of a bestselling author that is published by a major publisher that has clear evidence of lack of editors going back to the 90's. The amount of times I have seen repeat sentences (or even whole paragraphs) in her books. Flipped or transcribed words/letters are common. Now it starts with her being dyslexic, but that only explains the manuscript they get from her. And she often is late on deadlines so publishing of the books are at times rushed (but they have pushed back deadline by a few years before and there is no set date for books to be released or by contract so if they take extra time to publish it doesn't matter). But That still doesn't explain the amount and consistency of mistakes making it into the final published books. It show a lack of copy editors and proofreaders. It has actually gotten better in recent years (less mistakes, she has been writing about half as many books. But still misses deadlines and rushed publication. Meaning it may have more to do with her making less mistakes in the original manuscript then the publisher catching them. Showing more evidence of them not proofreading or having a copy editor). There are other popular/big authors with major publishers that also have mistakes that should have been caught by a copy editor showing more evidence of even major publishers having a lack of proofreaders and copy editors. And yes most articles now are self published on the websites. But a single or a few proofreader and editors to look over them before making them public should not cost much. But This is why I say most "news sites" are just glorified blogs.
@@Duke00x Yeah, I agree with you that there isn't any excuse for the shoddy quality, I'm just pointing out that most of the so-called "News" websites aren't really profitable anymore. That's the reason why they tend to sensationalize or post polarizing to outright inflammatory content - they're desperate for people to click, even if just to disagree with them. It's also, in my opinion, why they skimp on or even outright drop editorial staff. It's really hard to show evidence of people not dropping a website because it didn't have any spelling mistakes so that department can't really show to any black on white numbers for why it should exist.
"Especially in the US." Exactly. When other countries teach English, they pay strict attention to the rules of the language. It is native-speakers who mangle the language the most, with our lackadaisical outlook on our language. Which is why, I think, US English speakers complain about all the RUUUULES other languages have--because they don't know about and don't care about the rules of the English language in the first place. A few years ago, I heard something appalling: many schools had dropped teaching grammar, because "it stunts their creativity!"
@@TammyJRizzo True ! I've seen so many Americans complaining about Grammar in Asian Languages. I'm like didn't they learn English, which is the hardest because of so many damn exceptions of rules in itself ?
American English still recognizes the subjunctive tense and the Oxford comma. Every other English speaking country including England does not. Just things to think about 🤔
I could care less but damned if I can't find that smidgen of care... Maybe I left it with my supply of fucks that I left at home... that's right I don't give a fuck because I have no fucks to give" -me several times in my life.
Katie Cav ....I sent it to my niece’s teacher. I guess she showed her class too, making sure to mention that I was who sent it to her. My niece is still mad at me! Lol!
My Favorite Planet ...Well....more or less, it was because her teacher mentioned both us by name, and it embarrassed her, and at her age...that’s reason enough to be upset with any grown up in her life.
There, Their, and They're... "They're" with the apostrophe replaced by the accurate letter and space, the result is: "They are". Take the "T" off "There" and you have "Here". "There" is connected to location. Take the "T" off "Their" and you have "Heir". Hence, "Their" deals with people. I know the three of them are tricky. That's how I double check myself. I get them wrong. There you have it.
I remember in first grade, I had to read the word "knife" when the teacher called on me. I said "ka-nife", using the K. She was all, "That's wrong. The K is silent, so we don't say it.". It pissed me off (and I think some of it was to do with my undiagnosed autism at that age - almost 40 years ago now). I was angry and snapped at her, "Well, if you aren't supposed to say it, then they shouldn't have it in there! Why is there a silent K? That's stupid!". I had a similar rant when we were learning phonics and the "ph" as an "f" sound came up. "If it sounds kind an F, why don't they just use an F?!?". Needless to say, I spent a lot of time in the principals office when I was in grade school. I'd learned coping mechanisms by Junior High and kept my mouth shut.
In 5 BC Julius Caesar invaded Brittan and made it part of the Roman Empire and they tried to get the Celts to speak Latin. Around the year 400 Germanic Tribes from central Europe pushed into western Europe (because the Huns from eastern Europe and Asia were pushing into central Europe), and with the Roman Empire falling apart there was nobody left to stop them. The Angles and Saxons moved into Brittan and it became Angle-land (or, England) and they brought their Germanic language with them and it mixed with the local Celtic language to become something rather different from the Germanic languages back on the Continent. Around the year 800s Viking Danes invaded and settled in the north part of England. They spoke a Germanic language, but one very different from Angle-ish. They found that, if they dumbed the language down (getting rid of most of the grammatical endings for words common in European languages) they could make words out better, and the strategy became more common. So English started using word order instead of suffixes for grammar. (They did keep a couple like -ing or -ed for verbs or the -s for plural nouns.) In the year 1066, a French Duke named William the Bastard, got sick of being called "the Bastard" all the time and so he invaded England and conquered it, ever after being known as William the Conqueror. He then tried to impose French on the English - but it didn't work out too well. But it left English with a lot of French words in their vocabulary that would retain their French spellings but with an English pronunciation. (Like the word French word language we spell lan-guage but pronounce Lang-wedge.) Of course the Academics still spoke Latin and Greek in the universities, so a lot of technical language borrows a lot of words from those languages. To summarize: English is a mish-mash of German, Celtic, Latin, Greek, and French words with a slightly dumbed down grammar based on word order. But those words borrowed from other languages often retain the spelling of their original languages that have different pronunciation rules so they become very hard to spell, because they follow the spelling rules of a different language. And, over time, vowels and consonants shift in their pronunciations, but, especially once the printing press forced people to come up with spelling rules to keep things consistent as more people learned to read, the spelling didn't change to reflect the new sounds people used when speaking (for example, many people today use the "d" sound when pronouncing "th" and say "dis", "dat" or "du" for this, that, and the). So the word "friend" didn't used to rhyme with "trend", but we keep the "i" there, because that's just how friend is spelled. For most of us, though, the first spelling rule we learn is "when two vowels go walking the first one does the talking, and it says its name." The second rule is "i before e except after c". Those two rules are mutually contradictory, so we give up on spelling as a fundamentally irrational arcane art invented to torture us on our weekly spelling tests. So we invented spell checkers to handle it all for us.
@@ithilnin123 Unfortunately, that's a false equivalency. Your example is a figure of speech while the L-Word is just a misuse. It wouldn't be so bad if everyone could figure out how to not use it incorrectly or frequently. Constant repetition, especially, is the reason why I prefer to stick with prescriptivism rather than descriptivism.
r0bw00d, it’s simply amazing that, instead of lecturing in a doctorate seminar in grammar for Oxford, you deign to share your, albeit unsolicited, comments with we “poor, uneducated simpletons” here on a UA-cam reaction channel. 🙄
@@r0bw00d No, he/she actually used "literally" correctly there. Weird Al's catalog does indeed go back decades, as opposed to figuratively (which in this case would be by hyperbole) using the expression with an artist whose catalog actually only goes back for a decade and a half.
LOL! Love your reaction! And yes, English is confusing because.... an 11th-century Germanic language married an 11th-century Latinate language and we are stuck with their offspring... 😲
darkanise Lmao the difference with French and English is that French has actual rules that aren’t broken as often as the “rules” in English. So if you actually DO study French and know what each letter sounds like and does in certain situations, than it’s actually pretty easy! :D Knowing the rules, you could look at a French word you’ve never heard pronounced and be able to pronounce it. Still need a dictionary for a definition though. I can’t say the same with English lol
@@HannibalFan52 Don't get me started on Gaelic, welsh and cornish. There is an author I read and she writes a book series with lots of celtic mythology influences. It took me years to realize Sidhe is pronunce SHE. And that is just the beginning. It is really bad when trying t read the books to someone else. And thank you because that is the name of one of the characters in her books (of course that character is now dead so It doesn't do me any good now. But if I even reading the books to someone else I will know).
@@Duke00x To get an inkling on Welsh, you might enjoy this song. (Note: LL is pronounced HL, aspirating over the L. You'll see what i mean.) ua-cam.com/video/1BXKsQ2nbno/v-deo.html
5:48 I can, definitely, agree with this sentiment. English is, unfortunately, one of the more complicated languages to learn for those whom aren’t native speakers. This is due to the fact that English has borrowed from so many other languages that it’s ended up being remarkably inconsistent
I will respectfully disagree there. From all the languages I know, English is by far the easiest. Latin based languages are even more inconsistent and have all sorts of illogical rules. Japanese, chinese, arabic and so on require you to learn an entirely different writing system. Some languages have incredibly weird sounds like German, Chinese and this really rare language in Africa (if IIRC) that uses clicks of the tongue to talk. English is basic by comparison and given that 90% of the internet is in English there's plent of opportunities to learn it.
In respectful disagreement... The English language has NEVER borrowed a word. It has never had any intention of returning any word it has made use of, counting on the 'open and notorious use' portions of law to retain use. So essentially, it would be stealing the word, except that the originating language does retain use of it.
Did anyone notice that Al committed a word crime? In the last phrase, he said "try your best to not drool" , which contains a split infinitive. It should read "try your best not to drool" . LOL
Dude, Weird Al is an extremely skilled songwriter, singer, and rapper, as well as a comedic genius. He's a flipping national treasure. Check out his skills on Hardware Store, and his creativity on his Star Wars series. Every artists knows they've made it if Weird Al parodies one of their songs. Michael Jackson actually helped him on two!
Sheesh, I find a new detail every time I watch a Weird Al video. Specifically, the name of the homeroom teacher on the flunked test near the beginning is Mrs. Krabappel from The Simpsons...
German is WAY easier than English. German is just ONE of the many languages that makes UP English. If you see a word in German, and know the pronounciation rules, you can say it perfectly, every time, without even KNOWING the word. You see a word in English, chances are there are at least two or three different ways to say it, at least one of which will be wrong and make no sense, the other way will change the meaning. That's true for almost every language, by the way. There are few languages in the world that are harder to learn than English.
Spanish is hard. You can search on google. Not only is hard to learn. Also is hard to speak with native speakers if you aren't one. We have so many dialects. It's not the same talking with an Spanish to talking with a Mexican, an Argentinian or Chilean.
Silent letters usually mean that that letter was pronounced somewhere at some time. English pronunciation used to vary by region. Somewhere people did, for example, pronounce the k in knife. That spelling survived and the pronunciation from a different region survived. After dictionaries came along, spelling stayed more static. There are some exceptions to that, such as American vs British English.
I always accepted those extra letters as ways to differentiate similar words, like where and wear. Your explanation is probably more historically accurate, but I never got mad at the extra letters.
Knife is like that because it's from old Norse. In Swedish it's still kniv to this day, and we very much pronounce it with the k. If there's a weird spelling to something, more than likely it's either from Old English or it's from another language.
"You really need a full-time proofreader, you dumb mouth-breather." That kills me every time. Something I should have printed out and posted over my computer when writing papers so that I'd remember to proof read the things carefully.
At 1:05, where he talks about "conjugate", it scans to his HR (homeroom) teacher as Mrs. Krabappel. This is in reference to The Simpsons, on which Al has made at least 3 appearances. Mrs. Krabappel was a regular character on the show for many years until Marcia Wallace, the voice actress who provided her voice, passed away.
Hutchlover Ds I was happy it’s vs its was in the song. I had a two year argument at my first job (pre smartphones) about the proper form of it’s. It was nice to be vindicated. 😂
English really is very complicated. It started with the Celts, then the Romans invaded, introducing Latin, then it was invaded by the Anglo-Saxons, introducing German, then it was invaded by the Normans introducing French and the Norwegians. With all those differing words, sounds, and rules, it's a miracle the whole language didn't just implode.
My pet peeves are people not knowing the formal distinction between can and may or the difference between less and fewer. For the record the word can asks if you are physically able to do some thing. The word may means you are asking permission. "Can I walk to the kitchen and get you a cup of coffee?" "I think you should be able to because your legs don't look broken." is the proper response. The usual and average response is "Yes please get me some coffee"
I disagree with one part of this song, though it's more of a personal preference. I prefer the Oxford comma because if you list things like this Purple, green, black and red it looks like you are grouping black and red together specifically as though they are part of the same thought apart from the other items, but in reality, they are all equal items on the same list. If they are equal, then separate them all out individually. It's not that hard and it's much less confusing.
Since you have done reaction to "Weird Al", and your phrase is "On the surgeon's table..." I wonder, have you heard "Weird Al" do "Like A Surgeon"? If not, you should; his parody of Madonna's "Like A Virgin" is awesome.
I've had a typo or two, though that is mostly due to the fact that I obsessively write and rewrite my comments before I post them in order to get what I consider the "perfect comment" across. Often that leads to me not completely deleting a part of the last comment and just looks let's kind go of fishing odd.
Hey Doc Rich! Love your reaction to this song! Yes, Weird Al did tell us to get out of the genepool if we're screwing up the English language, spelling and punctuation like this!😂 As you said though, English language is indeed complicated! Keep up the good work!
English snatches words from lots of other languages all the time. The truth is that the spelling is kept the same even when the word is pronounced quite differently in English than in the original language. Therefore, the letters that have a sound in the original language are kept in the word even if they are silent in English pronunciation.
If Weird Al decides to make a diss-track.. he does it well, very well... This man is a all-round genius and we're lucky to have his humor in our world :D Check out anything Al... his works go back to the late 70's up till today.. so there is plenty to discover.
A lot of words have letters that are silent now, but were originally pronounced. The word 'neighbor', for instance, comes from the German 'nachbar', in which the 'ch' is pronounced as in Bach. Language pronunciation does change over time, like the consonental shift identified by Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm (of fairy tale fame). However, once mechanical printing become commonplace (thanks to Thomas Caxton in England), spellings were fixed based on the pronunciation of the time. (If you think English is bad, try classical Latin, which has *nine* declensions.) If you can find it, watch Robert McNeil's nine-part series 'The Story of English'. It's fascinating.
English IS the hardest language to learn. All the other languages have clear and concise rules for punctuation, pronunciation, spelling, parts of speech, etc. When a native speaker of any other language tries to learn English, they are coming from a well-regulated grammar to our free-for-all. They learn one rule, and then have to learn 57 exceptions to that rule! And there are hundreds of such rules, with thousands of exceptions! And we have stolen so very many words from other languages that still keep their original, foreign pronunciation, and so many other stolen words that we have thoroughly Anglicized beyond recognition. English is a pidgin language, originating with Norman soldiers trying to hook up with Saxon barmaids, and about as legitimate as the other results were.
Fun fact: There is a grammatical error purposely inserted into this song to see if anyone notices it... SPOILER it's at the end, "Try your best to not drool." is a split infinitive or "a construction consisting of an infinitive with an adverb or other word inserted between to and the verb."
There are examples like people using "loose" when they mean "lose", where spell-checker can't help because "loose" is the correct spelling of *A* word, just not the RIGHT word. I once saw in a small (and pretty incompetent) Print Shop where they promoted the fact that they sold writing paper by putting the large word "STATIONARY" on the wall. To help them avoid further embarrassment, I pointed out the mistake to them, and they replied that spell-check had accepted the word as is. I said that was true as long as they wanted to use a word meaning "not moving", but not for paper. I suppose to be fair, the wall indeed never moved, and maybe they were bragging about that. Another time, I saw through large glass windows of a small day-care during its off-hours that they had various phrases displayed on the walls to educate the kids about things they should learn to say, such as, as it said, "Your welcome". I left a note in the door explaining their mistake, and later I saw (again during off-hours) that it had been corrected.
My friend and I once wrote our own parody country song trying to use as many negations as possible in one sentence. It started off as usual with an acoustic guitar and a bluesy feeling of things not being the way they used to be. And then a break for the chorus going: "Why can't ain't nobody don't never no mo'?" (And we're from Denmark and the Faroe Islands, respectively)
I a writer in poetry, books, song writing etc. I love the eras od the 1800s up to the 1990s too. I'm with you on the complexity of the English language. I'm also with you on the take silent letters out of words. I recently learnt from the American restoration show that shop used to be spelt shoppe but somewhere in history someone decided the last two letters weren't needed. I also learnt years ago from an antique store where I live that recently closed down they were called olde memories and treasures the the word old used to have a silent e at the end of it bur again somewhere in history someone decided the silent e wasn't needed.
I learned something from this because I think I may have flubbed the "could care less" v. "couldn't care less" line on many occasions because it's mostly used in anger. (I LOVE Al's videos!)
Now you understand why English is the hardest language out of the thousands of languages used on Earth, for non-anglophones to learn. I remember one of my HS English/Literature teachers told us that the English language gains 4,000 words per year! (And that was in the late 90s, the internet was still relatively new, there was no social media, etc.) Loved your point about silent letters! English: Telephone Spanish: Teléfono My guess is because English is an amalgamation of several languages. English is made up of Anglish (language of the Anglo Saxons), French (starting with the Norman Conquests), and a lot of German influence. Somewhere in all that mess we forced silent letters on ourselves. 🤷🏽♂️🤷🏽♂️🤷🏽♂️
I don't know what is more impressive; is it his abilities as a lyricist or a rapper? He can even sing really well. Just check out "eBay" or " The Saga Begins."
I love word crimes! Listen, every time I see a sign on the road that says "drive slow" I get a nearly irresistible urge to stop the car, jump out with a marker, and add "ly". The death of The American adverb drives me crazy! 😂
The reason why there are silent letters in english is because they WEREN'T ALWAYS SILENT--we used to pronounce them, then stopped, but that doesn't mean the spelling changed. 'Knife' used to be pronounced 'K'nyf' in Roman times, an English word, but for convenience we stopped pronouncing the K.
I actually had to study the history of English to understand where our spelling, pronunciation, and grammar rules come from. Most of the inconsistencies can be explained by word origins. A major event called “The Great Vowel Shift” explains why house and could are pronounced differently. The words steal and steel originate from different places, which is why stole is the past tense of one, and steeled is the past tense of the other, respectively. I don’t think most public schools go into this much depth when explaining grammar. For those of you taking English as a second language, I wish you the best of luck! For those who speak and write it your own way, remember what’s considered proper is a social construct independent of language, so more power to you! The more educated about language one is, the less one should really care.
English is something I made myself focus on when growing up. I don't have an awesome career, but at the very least I'm able to come across to a wider spectrum of people with authority. I'm cool with that.
The 'could(n't) care less' thing drives me crazy, but what annoys me even more is when people talk with double negatives. The their/they're/there thing annoys me, too!
Ot would probable take you one hell of a long time to go through all of Weird Al's catalogue. He has been recording continuously for over four decades.I love seeing other people enjoying his music and videos.
New subscriber, here. LOVE your channel. You've got a wonderful, upbeat vibe. As to Weird Al...he's the GOAT! He's been doing parodies for decades. My personal favorites are 'Tacky,' a parody of Pharrell Williams' 'Happy,', 'White and Nerdy,' a parody of 'Ridin,' by Chamillionaire and 'Fat' and 'Eat It' of Michael Jackons's 'Bad,' and 'Beat It.' (Michael Jackson even gave him use of the 'Bad' subway set for 'Fat.') Keep up the great work!
Shout out to Jarrett Heather, the guy who did the animation for this video pretty much all by himself even as he was working his normal full time job. Here's a quick local news story about him: ua-cam.com/video/rPN4OA7T1XQ/v-deo.html
Weird Al has 14 studio albums from 1983 to 2014. Earliest single in 1979 My Bologna. He has some other stuff sprinkled around like movie theme songs (Captain Underpants, for example). The most recent single would be the Hamilton Polka in 2018. He had a tour last year with an orchestra (great show). He's taking this year off from touring, though.
IMHO, EVERY English teacher should use this video in class. At least once. Tell me I'm wrong. This would be so perfect to pound in lessons so quickly in dense heads, and in a fun way at the same time.
"The word Crumb ends with a B but you never hear it. What's it doing back there, and how can you protect yourself?" - John Oliver reporting on W-ORD Channel 7 news.
I remember having to diagram sentences in 7-8 grade English in the 1970s. It was painful, and I didn't always catch on, but at least now I can identify proper English. The very reason I can't listen to more than two sentences out of Trump.
The cause of silent letters is from multiple spellings for words that sound alike, as the vocabulary grew, it had to get increasingly more inventive to spell them.
English is complicated. It is one of the hardest languages to learn to read and write. That is because it has incorporated words from many languages over hundreds of years.
What’s worse is that American English is a derivative form of English from England, which is turn is a derivative form of German. Which is part of the reason for the extra letters you mention; an example would be ‘grey’ and ‘gray’ or ‘color’ and ‘colour’. Both versions being correct, but one form used over the other.
Fun Fact: The reason Prince is referenced in this song is because he has never allowed Al to parody a song of his. It even got to the point that when they were seated next to each other at the Grammys, Prince's lawyer told Al to not look a him.
Did he ? Take a look at him ? :D
Wow, I had no idea... I thought Coolio was the only one to shun Weird Al.
Even cooler is that Al had his lawyer send Prince’s people a note instructing Prince not to make eye contact with him. So great.
Prince and Coolio were/are full of themselves.
In all due fairness, Al always asks the artist for permission before parodying a song. Prince refused him, and so Al never parodied a Prince song. He *did* give Prince this little shout-out. :)
I love how brutal Al is on this song, haha. He's such a famously nice guy that it just makes it all the funnier when he drops insults.
The source song, "Blurred Lines" deserves to insults and be turned into information.
Having met him in person I can attest he is the nicest of guys.
“I’ll literally smack you with a crowbar upside your stupid head!” ‘Weird al’ Yankovic.
Most people don't realize that Weird Al is actually a very intelligent person. He graduated High School at the age of 16 as class Valedictorian then went on to California Polytechnic State University where he graduated with a Bachelors in Architecture at the age of 20.
John Keeper oh shit!!!
I think any reasonably intelligent person who has heard his music recognizes he is very intelligent.
I'm not sure where your claim of 'most people don't realize' comes from.
I have had classes in the same buildings as Weird Al.
Favorite Line: Unless You're Seven (Or Your Name Is PRINCE)
Seasick Viking absolutely love this sentence of this song!!.
@@bigsisterlynx7554 As you can tell, I did too. I grew up listening to NPG, who constantly wrote song titles in proto-emoji.
yeah same here
I posted the exact comment and I should have saved myself the time.
Great minds think alike, I hope.
He and Prince have a bad grudge towards each other. Unsurprisingly, Prince is the only musician who won't accept a parody of his music, while all the others feel honored when Al asks them.
My English teacher used to tell us grammar is important, because there is a huge difference in,
Let's eat Grandma and Let's Eat, Grandma
Another involves assisting Jack, your uncle, off of a horse.
Punctuation.
Improper syntax
A panda walks into a restaurant and orders dinner. When he's finished, he takes out a gun, points it at the ceiling, and pulls the trigger.
The waiter yells, "WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT!?"
The bear says, "I'm a panda! Google me!"
So the waiter pulls out his phone and looks up Panda.
Panda: Asian bear who eats shoots and leaves.
That really is a good turn of phrase
Weird Al is a real master of the English language. He got all but one line (the explanation of what a contraction is) to match the rhythm and syllable count of the original song, and make it not only make sense, but rhyme.
The "Irony is not coincidence" line is a direct dig at Alanis Morisette's song "Isn't it Ironic" --> Rain on your wedding day? Not ironic. A fire truck that is on fire? Ironic.
What is ironic about rain on your wedding day is the fact a lot of people spend a crap ton of money and spend months planning a perfect day. And then it rains and everything goes to shit.
@@morgan9774 Still just a coincidence, not ironic at all (unless there's a large amount of chemical element 26).
Alanis Morisette once said that the most ironic thing about that song is that there was not a single actual example of irony! :D
The song is ironic because it's not about irony.🤔
Hyphenated ... Non-hyphenated ... THAT'S IRONY
Shout out to the cunning linguist pun. Also, Minesweeper in the background.
FYI .... I was the 69th thumbs up !
I've been searching various reaction videos for "Word Crimes" to find anyone else who caught that pun, and this is the first instance I found! :)
Robin Williams would have been proud.
I can play Minesweeper for days and days...
-Weird Al
@@alanr4447a It's probably because it's so obvious no one thinks to mention it, because we think everyone else got it too. :P
This is my favorite Weird Al parody! I just love how he crafts his parodies, that really takes takes some talent! Thanks for reviewing!
Mine too!!!!
Mine three. 😂😂🎉🎉
Mine Four🤣🤣🤣
Sadly, proof reading doesn't exist anymore. Makes me crazy that news sources don't seem to have an editor anymore who proofreads what they write before it goes out.
Hell even best selling authors have mistakes that editors should catch which has lead me to conclude that copy editors and proofreaders don't exist anymore. Not in publishing.
Omg. Right? Just download Grammarly people. It fixes everything. LOL.
Oh, many outlets still do, but others just aren't profitable anymore and one of the first things getting cut when the numbers slip into the red is the editing department. Many articles and book you read online nowadays also happen to be self-published, so a few typos are almost inevitable. God knows I make plenty of mistakes even though I'm trying my best.
@@AndragonLea I know of a bestselling author that is published by a major publisher that has clear evidence of lack of editors going back to the 90's. The amount of times I have seen repeat sentences (or even whole paragraphs) in her books. Flipped or transcribed words/letters are common. Now it starts with her being dyslexic, but that only explains the manuscript they get from her. And she often is late on deadlines so publishing of the books are at times rushed (but they have pushed back deadline by a few years before and there is no set date for books to be released or by contract so if they take extra time to publish it doesn't matter). But That still doesn't explain the amount and consistency of mistakes making it into the final published books. It show a lack of copy editors and proofreaders. It has actually gotten better in recent years (less mistakes, she has been writing about half as many books. But still misses deadlines and rushed publication. Meaning it may have more to do with her making less mistakes in the original manuscript then the publisher catching them. Showing more evidence of them not proofreading or having a copy editor).
There are other popular/big authors with major publishers that also have mistakes that should have been caught by a copy editor showing more evidence of even major publishers having a lack of proofreaders and copy editors.
And yes most articles now are self published on the websites. But a single or a few proofreader and editors to look over them before making them public should not cost much. But This is why I say most "news sites" are just glorified blogs.
@@Duke00x Yeah, I agree with you that there isn't any excuse for the shoddy quality, I'm just pointing out that most of the so-called "News" websites aren't really profitable anymore.
That's the reason why they tend to sensationalize or post polarizing to outright inflammatory content - they're desperate for people to click, even if just to disagree with them.
It's also, in my opinion, why they skimp on or even outright drop editorial staff. It's really hard to show evidence of people not dropping a website because it didn't have any spelling mistakes so that department can't really show to any black on white numbers for why it should exist.
No roasting... there are still folks online with atrocious grammar. English classes all over the globe should watch this, especially in the US
"Especially in the US." Exactly. When other countries teach English, they pay strict attention to the rules of the language. It is native-speakers who mangle the language the most, with our lackadaisical outlook on our language. Which is why, I think, US English speakers complain about all the RUUUULES other languages have--because they don't know about and don't care about the rules of the English language in the first place.
A few years ago, I heard something appalling: many schools had dropped teaching grammar, because "it stunts their creativity!"
@@TammyJRizzo True ! I've seen so many Americans complaining about Grammar in Asian Languages. I'm like didn't they learn English, which is the hardest because of so many damn exceptions of rules in itself ?
American English still recognizes the subjunctive tense and the Oxford comma. Every other English speaking country including England does not. Just things to think about 🤔
Hahaha, tru. Peple in the us has thee whorse speling
Dude, I upvoted real hard for being an American who knows not to say "I could care less"..
"I could care less", but why should I?
I could care less, but it would take too much effort.
I could care less but damned if I can't find that smidgen of care... Maybe I left it with my supply of fucks that I left at home... that's right I don't give a fuck because I have no fucks to give" -me several times in my life.
So true story...My mom showed this video to her middle school class when it came out.
Katie Cav ....I sent it to my niece’s teacher. I guess she showed her class too, making sure to mention that I was who sent it to her. My niece is still mad at me! Lol!
@@paganbornspiritbear8249 Why is she mad?
This video sure beats School House Rock.
My Favorite Planet ...Well....more or less, it was because her teacher mentioned both us by name, and it embarrassed her, and at her age...that’s reason enough to be upset with any grown up in her life.
There, Their, and They're... "They're" with the apostrophe replaced by the accurate letter and space, the result is: "They are". Take the "T" off "There" and you have "Here". "There" is connected to location. Take the "T" off "Their" and you have "Heir". Hence, "Their" deals with people. I know the three of them are tricky. That's how I double check myself. I get them wrong. There you have it.
I remember in first grade, I had to read the word "knife" when the teacher called on me. I said "ka-nife", using the K. She was all, "That's wrong. The K is silent, so we don't say it.". It pissed me off (and I think some of it was to do with my undiagnosed autism at that age - almost 40 years ago now). I was angry and snapped at her, "Well, if you aren't supposed to say it, then they shouldn't have it in there! Why is there a silent K? That's stupid!". I had a similar rant when we were learning phonics and the "ph" as an "f" sound came up. "If it sounds kind an F, why don't they just use an F?!?". Needless to say, I spent a lot of time in the principals office when I was in grade school. I'd learned coping mechanisms by Junior High and kept my mouth shut.
Most annoying word with silent letters is QUEUE. It's literally pronounced Q, followed by FOUR silent letters! WTF?
Like tea. That's why Americans tossed it out. Getting rid of the useless letters
@Katy TerBerg The word 'queue' comes from French, hence the weird spelling. Words that have weird spelling either come from French, Latin or Greek.
I pronounce it qweewee just to piss people off.
They're just politely waiting their turn.
As opposed to being figuratively pronounced that way?
I appreciate whoever said that English was three languages stacked on top of each other, and wearing a trench coat.
In 5 BC Julius Caesar invaded Brittan and made it part of the Roman Empire and they tried to get the Celts to speak Latin.
Around the year 400 Germanic Tribes from central Europe pushed into western Europe (because the Huns from eastern Europe and Asia were pushing into central Europe), and with the Roman Empire falling apart there was nobody left to stop them. The Angles and Saxons moved into Brittan and it became Angle-land (or, England) and they brought their Germanic language with them and it mixed with the local Celtic language to become something rather different from the Germanic languages back on the Continent.
Around the year 800s Viking Danes invaded and settled in the north part of England. They spoke a Germanic language, but one very different from Angle-ish. They found that, if they dumbed the language down (getting rid of most of the grammatical endings for words common in European languages) they could make words out better, and the strategy became more common. So English started using word order instead of suffixes for grammar. (They did keep a couple like -ing or -ed for verbs or the -s for plural nouns.)
In the year 1066, a French Duke named William the Bastard, got sick of being called "the Bastard" all the time and so he invaded England and conquered it, ever after being known as William the Conqueror. He then tried to impose French on the English - but it didn't work out too well. But it left English with a lot of French words in their vocabulary that would retain their French spellings but with an English pronunciation. (Like the word French word language we spell lan-guage but pronounce Lang-wedge.)
Of course the Academics still spoke Latin and Greek in the universities, so a lot of technical language borrows a lot of words from those languages.
To summarize: English is a mish-mash of German, Celtic, Latin, Greek, and French words with a slightly dumbed down grammar based on word order.
But those words borrowed from other languages often retain the spelling of their original languages that have different pronunciation rules so they become very hard to spell, because they follow the spelling rules of a different language. And, over time, vowels and consonants shift in their pronunciations, but, especially once the printing press forced people to come up with spelling rules to keep things consistent as more people learned to read, the spelling didn't change to reflect the new sounds people used when speaking (for example, many people today use the "d" sound when pronouncing "th" and say "dis", "dat" or "du" for this, that, and the). So the word "friend" didn't used to rhyme with "trend", but we keep the "i" there, because that's just how friend is spelled.
For most of us, though, the first spelling rule we learn is "when two vowels go walking the first one does the talking, and it says its name." The second rule is "i before e except after c". Those two rules are mutually contradictory, so we give up on spelling as a fundamentally irrational arcane art invented to torture us on our weekly spelling tests. So we invented spell checkers to handle it all for us.
Love this one!! 💁🏻♀️🙌🙌
“Blurred Lines” was the song you were thinking of here, Doc. As for Weird Al’s Catalog, it literally goes back decades! 😁
As opposed to it figuratively going back decades?
r0bw00d l, yep. Unfortunately, words used for time are not very literal anymore. “Oh man, ain’t seen you in a minute!” for example.
@@ithilnin123 Unfortunately, that's a false equivalency. Your example is a figure of speech while the L-Word is just a misuse. It wouldn't be so bad if everyone could figure out how to not use it incorrectly or frequently. Constant repetition, especially, is the reason why I prefer to stick with prescriptivism rather than descriptivism.
r0bw00d, it’s simply amazing that, instead of lecturing in a doctorate seminar in grammar for Oxford, you deign to share your, albeit unsolicited, comments with we “poor, uneducated simpletons” here on a UA-cam reaction channel. 🙄
@@r0bw00d No, he/she actually used "literally" correctly there. Weird Al's catalog does indeed go back decades, as opposed to figuratively (which in this case would be by hyperbole) using the expression with an artist whose catalog actually only goes back for a decade and a half.
LOL! Love your reaction! And yes, English is confusing because.... an 11th-century Germanic language married an 11th-century Latinate language and we are stuck with their offspring... 😲
If you hate words with letters you don't use, never study French.
darkanise Lmao the difference with French and English is that French has actual rules that aren’t broken as often as the “rules” in English. So if you actually DO study French and know what each letter sounds like and does in certain situations, than it’s actually pretty easy! :D Knowing the rules, you could look at a French word you’ve never heard pronounced and be able to pronounce it. Still need a dictionary for a definition though. I can’t say the same with English lol
Or Gaelic. Example: Siobhan, pronounced shuh-VAWN. See Lee Mack's comedy routine on Irish names.
Most of the words like that in english are originally french words.
@@HannibalFan52 Don't get me started on Gaelic, welsh and cornish. There is an author I read and she writes a book series with lots of celtic mythology influences. It took me years to realize Sidhe is pronunce SHE. And that is just the beginning. It is really bad when trying t read the books to someone else. And thank you because that is the name of one of the characters in her books (of course that character is now dead so It doesn't do me any good now. But if I even reading the books to someone else I will know).
@@Duke00x To get an inkling on Welsh, you might enjoy this song. (Note: LL is pronounced HL, aspirating over the L. You'll see what i mean.) ua-cam.com/video/1BXKsQ2nbno/v-deo.html
5:48 I can, definitely, agree with this sentiment. English is, unfortunately, one of the more complicated languages to learn for those whom aren’t native speakers. This is due to the fact that English has borrowed from so many other languages that it’s ended up being remarkably inconsistent
I will respectfully disagree there. From all the languages I know, English is by far the easiest. Latin based languages are even more inconsistent and have all sorts of illogical rules. Japanese, chinese, arabic and so on require you to learn an entirely different writing system. Some languages have incredibly weird sounds like German, Chinese and this really rare language in Africa (if IIRC) that uses clicks of the tongue to talk.
English is basic by comparison and given that 90% of the internet is in English there's plent of opportunities to learn it.
English can be mastered through thorough thought though.
In respectful disagreement... The English language has NEVER borrowed a word. It has never had any intention of returning any word it has made use of, counting on the 'open and notorious use' portions of law to retain use. So essentially, it would be stealing the word, except that the originating language does retain use of it.
"You should never write words using numbers, unless you're seven.. or your name is PRINCE!"
damn.. just damn!!!!
Did anyone notice that Al committed a word crime? In the last phrase, he said "try your best to not drool" , which contains a split infinitive. It should read "try your best not to drool" . LOL
Weird Al took one look at Blurred Lines said nope and turned it into a hilarious song to teach people about proper grammar.
Dude, Weird Al is an extremely skilled songwriter, singer, and rapper, as well as a comedic genius. He's a flipping national treasure. Check out his skills on Hardware Store, and his creativity on his Star Wars series. Every artists knows they've made it if Weird Al parodies one of their songs. Michael Jackson actually helped him on two!
Sheesh, I find a new detail every time I watch a Weird Al video. Specifically, the name of the homeroom teacher on the flunked test near the beginning is Mrs. Krabappel from The Simpsons...
Rich: The English language is hard.
Germans: Hold my beer
Japanese: Hold my 3 different writing systems.
Latin was no picnic either.
German is WAY easier than English. German is just ONE of the many languages that makes UP English. If you see a word in German, and know the pronounciation rules, you can say it perfectly, every time, without even KNOWING the word. You see a word in English, chances are there are at least two or three different ways to say it, at least one of which will be wrong and make no sense, the other way will change the meaning.
That's true for almost every language, by the way. There are few languages in the world that are harder to learn than English.
Spanish is hard. You can search on google. Not only is hard to learn. Also is hard to speak with native speakers if you aren't one. We have so many dialects. It's not the same talking with an Spanish to talking with a Mexican, an Argentinian or Chilean.
@@fazdoll Latin is the WORST.
My favorite line...." Everybody Shutup"! Lmao People know Math, I know Grammar!
Bruh this man is spitting fire, facts, and being halarious at the same time what a genius.
*hilarious🤣🤣🤣
The saddest aspect of this is that this entertainer is teaching things that teachers have stopped teaching.
Have teachers really stopped teaching these things? Is Language Arts not a thing anymore?
Yes, they have stopped teaching reading, writing, AND Arithmetic
Silent letters usually mean that that letter was pronounced somewhere at some time. English pronunciation used to vary by region. Somewhere people did, for example, pronounce the k in knife. That spelling survived and the pronunciation from a different region survived. After dictionaries came along, spelling stayed more static. There are some exceptions to that, such as American vs British English.
I always accepted those extra letters as ways to differentiate similar words, like where and wear. Your explanation is probably more historically accurate, but I never got mad at the extra letters.
Knife is like that because it's from old Norse. In Swedish it's still kniv to this day, and we very much pronounce it with the k. If there's a weird spelling to something, more than likely it's either from Old English or it's from another language.
@@andrewholden1501 There's a surprising amount of historical fact in that movie. The flagellants and the marginalia are additional nuggets.
"You really need a full-time proofreader, you dumb mouth-breather." That kills me every time. Something I should have printed out and posted over my computer when writing papers so that I'd remember to proof read the things carefully.
At 1:05, where he talks about "conjugate", it scans to his HR (homeroom) teacher as Mrs. Krabappel. This is in reference to The Simpsons, on which Al has made at least 3 appearances. Mrs. Krabappel was a regular character on the show for many years until Marcia Wallace, the voice actress who provided her voice, passed away.
Saw that too 😊
I wish he would’ve addressed to, too, two or their there they’re
Shake my head every time I see those go wrong.
CM Punk addresses those in Grammar Slam
Hutchlover Ds I was happy it’s vs its was in the song. I had a two year argument at my first job (pre smartphones) about the proper form of it’s. It was nice to be vindicated. 😂
Loose when you mean lose and dinning room drive me nuts, too. And people who say nucular.
Yes, many people don't understand homophones...😬
the most annoying is when people say "would of" and "should of"
IT'S SHOULD'VE AND WOULD'VE 🤣🤣
"white and nerdy" and "tacky" are also great and "trapped in the drive thru"
5:49 The word "queue" is a fantastic example of that. It's just "Q" with four random letters behind it that are not pronounced.
Al was the "Valedictorian" of my Aunt's high school class!! She loves him for what he has become!!! He is REALLY, that smart!! LOL
I always preferred saying "I could care less, but that would require you shutting the hell up."
You should do some Lonely Island. Lol I Just Had Sex, I'm on a boat, motherlover and Jack Sparrow. All amazing. Kinda the original Lil Dicky lol
don't forget the classic, jizz in my pants
Yesssss
don't forget the yolo song!
There should be a 'Captain' in there somewhere
i still listen to them regularly. Akon’s hook on I Just Had Sex is 🔥
No one ever does Weird Al's Everything You Know Is Wrong....
Black is white. Up is down. Short is long.
@@SpiritOfWanderlust it's one of my favorites..lol
Yeah that one and "One more Minute" are ones I think would be fun to see reactions to but you almost never do.
English really is very complicated.
It started with the Celts, then the Romans invaded, introducing Latin, then it was invaded by the Anglo-Saxons, introducing German, then it was invaded by the Normans introducing French and the Norwegians.
With all those differing words, sounds, and rules, it's a miracle the whole language didn't just implode.
My pet peeves are people not knowing the formal distinction between can and may or the difference between less and fewer. For the record the word can asks if you are physically able to do some thing. The word may means you are asking permission. "Can I walk to the kitchen and get you a cup of coffee?" "I think you should be able to because your legs don't look broken." is the proper response. The usual and average response is "Yes please get me some coffee"
the English language has multiple sources; words from Latin, Greek, Germanic, and others have been added to create the words we used and abuse today.
I disagree with one part of this song, though it's more of a personal preference. I prefer the Oxford comma because if you list things like this
Purple, green, black and red
it looks like you are grouping black and red together specifically as though they are part of the same thought apart from the other items, but in reality, they are all equal items on the same list. If they are equal, then separate them all out individually. It's not that hard and it's much less confusing.
I'm with you. The Oxford comma being optional is just awful.
Since you have done reaction to "Weird Al", and your phrase is "On the surgeon's table..." I wonder, have you heard "Weird Al" do "Like A Surgeon"? If not, you should; his parody of Madonna's "Like A Virgin" is awesome.
Autocorrect is the worst!!!! Who's with me?!!?!???!! Weird Al is a genius I've been loving him since the 80s when he took over MTV!
His dictionary is the twenty-seventh edition. Weird Al is known to use the number 27 as a running gag in his songs.
I've had a typo or two, though that is mostly due to the fact that I obsessively write and rewrite my comments before I post them in order to get what I consider the "perfect comment" across. Often that leads to me not completely deleting a part of the last comment and just looks let's kind go of fishing odd.
Weird Al made a video about people who keep saying *"Y'know what I mean?"* for absolutely no reason! 🤣
Hey Doc Rich! Love your reaction to this song! Yes, Weird Al did tell us to get out of the genepool if we're screwing up the English language, spelling and punctuation like this!😂 As you said though, English language is indeed complicated! Keep up the good work!
English snatches words from lots of other languages all the time. The truth is that the spelling is kept the same even when the word is pronounced quite differently in English than in the original language. Therefore, the letters that have a sound in the original language are kept in the word even if they are silent in English pronunciation.
If Weird Al decides to make a diss-track.. he does it well, very well...
This man is a all-round genius and we're lucky to have his humor in our world :D
Check out anything Al... his works go back to the late 70's up till today.. so there is plenty to discover.
A lot of words have letters that are silent now, but were originally pronounced. The word 'neighbor', for instance, comes from the German 'nachbar', in which the 'ch' is pronounced as in Bach. Language pronunciation does change over time, like the consonental shift identified by Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm (of fairy tale fame). However, once mechanical printing become commonplace (thanks to Thomas Caxton in England), spellings were fixed based on the pronunciation of the time. (If you think English is bad, try classical Latin, which has *nine* declensions.) If you can find it, watch Robert McNeil's nine-part series 'The Story of English'. It's fascinating.
5:38 They say English is the hardest language to learn. On the other hand I'm studying Japanese and I wonder sometimes.
It's the "th" that gets alot of people. Sometimes its sharp other times its silent.
English IS the hardest language to learn. All the other languages have clear and concise rules for punctuation, pronunciation, spelling, parts of speech, etc. When a native speaker of any other language tries to learn English, they are coming from a well-regulated grammar to our free-for-all. They learn one rule, and then have to learn 57 exceptions to that rule! And there are hundreds of such rules, with thousands of exceptions! And we have stolen so very many words from other languages that still keep their original, foreign pronunciation, and so many other stolen words that we have thoroughly Anglicized beyond recognition. English is a pidgin language, originating with Norman soldiers trying to hook up with Saxon barmaids, and about as legitimate as the other results were.
Fun fact: There is a grammatical error purposely inserted into this song to see if anyone notices it... SPOILER it's at the end, "Try your best to not drool." is a split infinitive or "a construction consisting of an infinitive with an adverb or other word inserted between to and the verb."
Weird Al’s the only guy who can kick my ass in grammar.
Except for the one person who still says “whom” in casual conversation.
Of who are you speaking? :-)
The argument in the original posting was about language...I think. but sometimes you "just be in a rush".... lol
I've been binge watching your reaction videos.
I LIKED you before, but I RESPECT you now that I know that you respect the language! :D
To me, the funniest line in the song is, "Unless you're seven..... Or your name is *PRINCE!!!* "
First time I heard that it had me howling.
THAT is a substantial list and an impressive rabbit hole when listening to Weird Al.
More Weird al for sure!!
we need the lose yourself reaction now!!!
There are examples like people using "loose" when they mean "lose", where spell-checker can't help because "loose" is the correct spelling of *A* word, just not the RIGHT word. I once saw in a small (and pretty incompetent) Print Shop where they promoted the fact that they sold writing paper by putting the large word "STATIONARY" on the wall. To help them avoid further embarrassment, I pointed out the mistake to them, and they replied that spell-check had accepted the word as is. I said that was true as long as they wanted to use a word meaning "not moving", but not for paper. I suppose to be fair, the wall indeed never moved, and maybe they were bragging about that. Another time, I saw through large glass windows of a small day-care during its off-hours that they had various phrases displayed on the walls to educate the kids about things they should learn to say, such as, as it said, "Your welcome". I left a note in the door explaining their mistake, and later I saw (again during off-hours) that it had been corrected.
My friend and I once wrote our own parody country song trying to use as many negations as possible in one sentence. It started off as usual with an acoustic guitar and a bluesy feeling of things not being the way they used to be. And then a break for the chorus going:
"Why can't ain't nobody don't never no mo'?"
(And we're from Denmark and the Faroe Islands, respectively)
I a writer in poetry, books, song writing etc.
I love the eras od the 1800s up to the 1990s too.
I'm with you on the complexity of the English language. I'm also with you on the take silent letters out of words.
I recently learnt from the American restoration show that shop used to be spelt shoppe but somewhere in history someone decided the last two letters weren't needed.
I also learnt years ago from an antique store where I live that recently closed down they were called olde memories and treasures the the word old used to have a silent e at the end of it bur again somewhere in history someone decided the silent e wasn't needed.
I have a love/hate feeling toward the question, “can I go to the ___?”
Always always always retort with “idk, CAN you!?” 🤦🏼♂️
My teacher always used to correct us on that :D ... May I
My second grade teacher did that. I learned it, though.
That was always my Dad's response 🤣
I learned something from this because I think I may have flubbed the "could care less" v. "couldn't care less" line on many occasions because it's mostly used in anger. (I LOVE Al's videos!)
You and I reacted to this video together, and I loved your reaction! I was laughing my @ss off at this song. 🤣
Weird Al is just great. Thank you for reacting to this. I stumbled across you and I must say, I like you. Keep up your good spirit.
Now you understand why English is the hardest language out of the thousands of languages used on Earth, for non-anglophones to learn. I remember one of my HS English/Literature teachers told us that the English language gains 4,000 words per year! (And that was in the late 90s, the internet was still relatively new, there was no social media, etc.)
Loved your point about silent letters!
English: Telephone
Spanish: Teléfono
My guess is because English is an amalgamation of several languages. English is made up of Anglish (language of the Anglo Saxons), French (starting with the Norman Conquests), and a lot of German influence. Somewhere in all that mess we forced silent letters on ourselves. 🤷🏽♂️🤷🏽♂️🤷🏽♂️
Wierd Al is a genius. He has made a career out of outstanding parodies.
If you want a bit on the English language, watch Eddie Izzard’s Language sketch
Eddie's awesome.
I don't know what is more impressive; is it his abilities as a lyricist or a rapper? He can even sing really well. Just check out "eBay" or " The Saga Begins."
I love word crimes! Listen, every time I see a sign on the road that says "drive slow" I get a nearly irresistible urge to stop the car, jump out with a marker, and add "ly". The death of The American adverb drives me crazy! 😂
The reason why there are silent letters in english is because they WEREN'T ALWAYS SILENT--we used to pronounce them, then stopped, but that doesn't mean the spelling changed. 'Knife' used to be pronounced 'K'nyf' in Roman times, an English word, but for convenience we stopped pronouncing the K.
That was fun. English teachers all love love that song. Please do "Inactive" soon. parody of Imagine Dragons "Radioactive" I think you'd like it.
I actually had to study the history of English to understand where our spelling, pronunciation, and grammar rules come from. Most of the inconsistencies can be explained by word origins. A major event called “The Great Vowel Shift” explains why house and could are pronounced differently. The words steal and steel originate from different places, which is why stole is the past tense of one, and steeled is the past tense of the other, respectively. I don’t think most public schools go into this much depth when explaining grammar.
For those of you taking English as a second language, I wish you the best of luck! For those who speak and write it your own way, remember what’s considered proper is a social construct independent of language, so more power to you!
The more educated about language one is, the less one should really care.
English is something I made myself focus on when growing up. I don't have an awesome career, but at the very least I'm able to come across to a wider spectrum of people with authority. I'm cool with that.
The 'could(n't) care less' thing drives me crazy, but what annoys me even more is when people talk with double negatives.
The their/they're/there thing annoys me, too!
You have no idea how many times I've been caught with my participles dangling. It's downright embarrassing. 😂😂😂
I've commented on another of your posts about how I appreciate your vocabulary. Thank you.
Weird Al says you gonna learn today!
Teaches you while making the song catchy and funny. Weird Al goes over the types of hernias in Living with a Hernia. Another great song to watch.
Weird Al - All about the Pentiums and Handy are my favorites
Bro hes teaching the youth look what eminem does the difference is is hes dumbing it down lol I love it haha
Doc Rich: "Have y'all ever had that thought, like, 'Why in the f@*k is this letter in here?' "
Me: More times than I can remember. 😀
Ot would probable take you one hell of a long time to go through all of Weird Al's catalogue. He has been recording continuously for over four decades.I love seeing other people enjoying his music and videos.
I have cousins from Burma and Korea and a sister in law from Poland who all agree English is freakin' hard to learn! I believe them.
New subscriber, here. LOVE your channel. You've got a wonderful, upbeat vibe. As to Weird Al...he's the GOAT! He's been doing parodies for decades. My personal favorites are 'Tacky,' a parody of Pharrell Williams' 'Happy,', 'White and Nerdy,' a parody of 'Ridin,' by Chamillionaire and 'Fat' and 'Eat It' of Michael Jackons's 'Bad,' and 'Beat It.' (Michael Jackson even gave him use of the 'Bad' subway set for 'Fat.') Keep up the great work!
With 14 studio albums to pull from, weird Al could keep you occupied for a while.
Shout out to Jarrett Heather, the guy who did the animation for this video pretty much all by himself even as he was working his normal full time job. Here's a quick local news story about him: ua-cam.com/video/rPN4OA7T1XQ/v-deo.html
Weird Al has 14 studio albums from 1983 to 2014. Earliest single in 1979 My Bologna. He has some other stuff sprinkled around like movie theme songs (Captain Underpants, for example). The most recent single would be the Hamilton Polka in 2018. He had a tour last year with an orchestra (great show). He's taking this year off from touring, though.
IMHO, EVERY English teacher should use this video in class. At least once. Tell me I'm wrong. This would be so perfect to pound in lessons so quickly in dense heads, and in a fun way at the same time.
"The word Crumb ends with a B but you never hear it. What's it doing back there, and how can you protect yourself?" - John Oliver reporting on W-ORD Channel 7 news.
Hyphenated ... Non-hyphenated ... That's irony at its best ....
English language is in fact three languages stacked on top of one another wearing a trenchcoat.
If I could give this beautiful quote from the dark realms of tumblr 50 likes, I would. Alas, I can only give it one.
I remember having to diagram sentences in 7-8 grade English in the 1970s. It was painful, and I didn't always catch on, but at least now I can identify proper English. The very reason I can't listen to more than two sentences out of Trump.
The cause of silent letters is from multiple spellings for words that sound alike, as the vocabulary grew, it had to get increasingly more inventive to spell them.
English is complicated. It is one of the hardest languages to learn to read and write. That is because it has incorporated words from many languages over hundreds of years.
What’s worse is that American English is a derivative form of English from England, which is turn is a derivative form of German. Which is part of the reason for the extra letters you mention; an example would be ‘grey’ and ‘gray’ or ‘color’ and ‘colour’. Both versions being correct, but one form used over the other.