‘Weird Al’ Yankovic just might be the halftime act at 2015’s Super Bowl XLIX; that is, if a petition on Change.org gets enough traction, and the NFL takes it seriously, that is.
CBS Sports is reporting that Weird Al fan Ed Ball has started a petition to replace the traditional Super Bowl halftime fare with something a little more… quirky. As he tells CBS Sports :
“Having [Weird Al] headline the Super Bowl XLIX Halftime Show would not only be overly accepted by the millions of views, but it would remain true to the standards and quality of the show business we have come to love and respect out of this prestigious event.”
Ed admits that he wrote the petition while drunk, according to the Huffington Post , but that hasn’t slowed down the petition; as of this post, the petition has reached 40,000 signatures.
Traditionally, the Super Bowl halftime show has favored acts that are popular at the moment (Black-Eyed Peas, Nicki Minaj), or who have had long and productive careers (Bruce Springsteen, Prince). With Weird Al, the NFL would get both: he’s been performing for over 40 years, and his current album, Mandatory Fun , is Weird Al’s first number one album, and the first comedy album to reach number one since 1963 (see this Inquisitr article).
Ball’s vision for the Super Bowl halftime show has Weird Al performing live with the artists he parodies. If his act were to focus on Mandatory Fun , instead of a career retrospective, that would put him on stage with the likes of Robin Thicke (whose “Blurred Lines” sparked the parody “Word Crimes”), Pharrell Williams (“Happy”/”Tacky”), Iggy Azalea (“Fancy”/”Handy”) and Lorde (“Royals”/”Foil”).
As an added bonus, Weird AL currently has what he calls a “style parody” – that is, a song that parodies a whole category of music, rather than a specific song – that would be perfect for the Super Bowl: “Sports Song,” which celebrates, and pokes fun at, the spectacle of halftime shows and school fight songs. And, it includes the inspiring lyric: “We’re great, and you suck!”
Weird Al and online petitions are old hat. In 2012, a similar petition to get Weird Al to play the Super Bowl halftime show in 2012 went nowhere, according to Huffington Post (the halftime show went to Beyoncé). And for years, fans have been petitioning to get Weird Al inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame (see this Inquisitr article).
If you would like to add your voice to the chorus calling for Weird Al to perform at the Super Bowl XLIX halftime show, the petition can be found here . And if you’d like to discuss whether or not having Weird Al do halftime makes good sense, we welcome your Comments.
Image via altrocklive.com