Too Good To Be Made Fun Of

I think one of the quickest ways for a celebrity to make themselves more likable to the general public is to show they have a sense of humor about themselves. After all, they get paid large sums of money to do something most people would be willing to do for free, so acknowledging they got very lucky and can laugh at their own good fortune shows they don't take themselves too seriously and realise they aren't exactly curing cancer. That is why I was surprised this afternoon when I read a story alleging that Lady Gaga had shot down a proposed parody of her song "Born This Way" by artist 'Weird' Al Yankovic. Al wanted to change the song to "Perform This Way" and make it all about how Gaga dresses weird. Not the funniest thing I have ever heard of, but of all the people I figured would have been ok with a having a laugh at her own expense, a woman who once wore a meat dress would have been near the top of my list.

Whatever you may think of him as an artist, there is something unseemly about artists who do not allow their songs to be parodied by Weird Al, as if their music is somehow better than everyone else's. Personally, I know whenever I hear an artist refused to sign the necessary waivers I immediately think less of them. I was never able to look at the Red Hot Chili Peppers the same way after they complained about how Al turned their biggest hit into a song about "The Flintstones" (because when you go on stage just wearing a sock to sing about your heroin addiction, you are clearly the voice of a generation). I also lost all respect for Coolio when he waited until he won a Grammy to say that he never allowed Weird Al to do a copy of his song, when we all know that he did. It's not like Al makes these decisions on his own. If the record label and their army of lawyers never got permission, they never would have released the single. I'm sure Coolio happily cashed the checks at the time, so don't try and act high and mighty after the fact. Karmicly, he deserves being banished to the world of marginal celebrity reality shows... (Let's move on, because I'm actually getting angry at Coolio as I type this.)

Furthering the bad vibes from this story comes allegations from Yankovic that Lady Gaga made him jump through all sorts of hoops while leading him to believe she eventually intended to sign off on the parody. Originally she just wanted to see the lyrics (which Weird Al agreed to) but changed her mind and wanted to hear the final product, making Yankovic go through the entire process of recording the song, only to have Gaga deny permission once he was done. Also, just to add another bad karma log to the fire, because he thought the original song was a great human right anthem, Yankovic had planned to donate any proceeds from the track to the Human Rights Campaign, which won't happen now that the song won't be included on his album. Instead, Yankovic is allowing people to download the track for free through his website and asking them to donate to the HRC anyway. (By the way, Team Gaga, that's how you create good PR.)

But, here's the main reason this was all unnecessary: the song is terrible. I heard a copy of it this afternoon and it's not funny or very clever. I mean, I didn't have high expectations to begin with and yet this didn't even meet those. I'm sure Lady Gaga isn't suffering financially, but she could have signed off, gotten a little extra money in the bank and the tune would have been forgotten by the time the checks cleared. Instead she comes across as someone who thinks her music is above reproach. Then again, I guess when you surround yourself with people willing to tell you being carried into an awards ceremony in a giant egg is a wonderful idea, a balanced sense of self-worth is out of the question.