That's interesting because I never knew they had to get permission to do a song parody. I've heard a lot of them and I can't believe they got permission for some of them.
On the track, Yankovic raps, "Oh! Ozzy's family/Sho' loves profanity/Whoa, the insanity/Oh, dogs that crap and pee/Home of depravity?/No, they live happily."Eminem signed off on the parody but would not grant permission for a video, a first in Yankovic's eleven-album career.
Legally, he doesn't have to, but Weird Al always tries to get permission anyway. "Amish Paradise" was a mistake due to miscommunication -- Coolio didn't approve, but Weird Al thought he did. I don't know how it applies to videos.
Does Al get permission to do his parodies?
Al does get permission from the original writers of the songs that he parodies. While the law supports his ability to parody without permission, he feels it's important for him to maintain the relationships that he's built with artists and writers over the years. Plus, Al wants to make sure that he gets his songwriter credit (as writer of new lyrics) as well as his rightful share of the royalties.
What do the original artists think of the parodies?
Most artists are genuinely flattered and consider it an honor to have Weird Al parody their work. Some groups (including Nirvana) claim that they didn't realize that they had really "made it" until Weird Al did a parody of them!
What about Coolio? I heard that he was upset with Al about "Amish Paradise."
That was a very unfortunate case of misunderstanding between Al's people and Coolio's people. Short version of the story: Al recorded "Amish Paradise" after being told by his record label that Coolio had given his permission for the parody. When Al's album came out, Coolio publicly contended that he had never given his blessing, and that he was in fact very offended by the song. Al immediately sent Coolio a very sincere letter of apology for the misunderstanding, but has yet to hear back from him.
Have any artists ever turned Al down for a parody?
Even though most recording artists really do have a pretty good sense of humor, on a few very rare occasions Al has been denied permission to do a parody. Actually, the only artist to turn Al down consistently over the years has been… well, I would tell you, but my keyboard doesn't have that little "symbol thingy" on it.
They need licensing rights for the music, since Al isn't into "stealing," like "Vanilla Ice" when he sampled Queen's "Under Pressure."
There was a huge blow-up over a misunderstanding between Al and Coolio, over Al's "Ahmish Paradise" song and video, where Al thought he had their permission, but Coolio later said that he had never given it.
To be honest, I believe that Al is a musical comedy genius, on a level with Victor Borge (not musicly, but far funnier), and in a lot of cases, I love his videos more than the original he parodies. Most artists also love what Al does. For instance, Michal Jackson was so in love with "Eat It," that he gave Al the props and set for the "Fat" video. Madonna appeared in Al's "Like a Surgeon" video, and Nirvanah was said to have loved "Smells Like Teen Spirit."
But Al isn't limited to parodies. He also does "genre parodies," where he takes on an entire style, rather than parodying a song or band, but he's also done some originals that are a hoot. Like "Gotta Boogie," the flip side to "Another One Rides the Bus" single. It's a heavy disco beat song, and the chorus goes, "Gotta boogie on my finger and I can't shake it off!"
Mark