white and nerdy

Chamillionaire himself put "White and Nerdy" on his official MySpace page, and commented that he enjoys the parody. In an interview, he also stated he was pleasantly surprised by Weird Al's rapping abilities, praising them by saying "He's actually rapping pretty good on it, it's crazy [...] I didn't know he could rap like that."^[1]

The single was leaked onto the Internet on August 27, 2006, almost one month before the record's release date. It is currently streaming on Chamillionaire's MySpace page ^[2] and Yankovic's own MySpace page.^[3]

The song has become Yankovic's first career Top 10 hit on the Billboard Hot 100, its peak being at #9 and besting his previous #12 peak for 1984's "Eat It", as well as his first Top 40 single since 1992's "Smells Like Nirvana".^[4] It debuted on the Hot Digital Songs chart at #10. It also has reached #1 at the U.S. iTunes Store, and peaked at #1 on VH1's top 20 video countdown.

Video

The single has an accompanying music video, which was recorded in high-definition video. The video was unique in that Yankovic personally recruited extras to participate in its filming. A request was posted via the blog on his MySpace page, and he received interest from a number of extras who were willing to work for free.

The video was leaked onto YouTube on September 17, 2006 just one day before the video was planned to be officially released at 9 PM Pacific time at AOL.com. Due to the leak, the premiere was cancelled, and AOL silently slipped the video onto their website hours before the premiere was set to take place. VH1 started airing the video in "large rotation" on September 20, 2006, and it debuted at #5 on their Top 20 countdown.^[5] It is currently available to watch on Yankovic's MySpace page, as well as on several other video hosting sites.

The video is also in rotation on MTV Hits.

A trivia quiz can be found on his song's website.^[6]

The video also was number 1 for Google Video's top 100 on November 25, 2006

References in video

• The two automobiles appearing in the video are a (modified) 1967 Chevy Impala Convertible and a 2004 or 2005 Toyota Prius NHW20. The 1967 Impala has the License plate "OG 4LIFE"; the Prius has a California clean-air vehicle HOV Lane access sticker.

• In the video, Weird Al is shown wearing a total of 24 different outfits in addition to a cameo of him from the top up in the shower.

• In the background where Yankovic is rapping on the street with the road flares, the road flares are in the shape of Pac-Man, parodying shots of the original song's video, which featured Chamillionaire rapping in front of a group of road flares forming the Chamillionaire logo.

• Al's character in the song indicates that he graduated first in his class at MIT, a top U.S. math, science, and engineering school. In reality, MIT does not actually give students a class rank. (Al himself attended California Polytechnic State University)^[7]

• Yankovic refers to M.C. Escher as being his "favorite MC." M.C. Escher is famous for his geometrically impossible illustrations and repeating patterns, such as Relativity. This was joked when the video was being judged on Video On Trial.

• When Al says in the video that M.C. Escher is his favorite MC, which is another name for rapper, he is ironically shown wearing a DJ outfit.

• When in his library Al is reading Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time.

• Above and to the left of Yankovic's computer is a large poster of the Periodic Table of Chemical Elements.

• Yankovic created his "pimped-out" MySpace page for the filming.^[8] "White & Nerdy"'s top eight MySpace friends are Bill Gates, Napoleon Dynamite, Mr. Peabody, Albert Einstein, Screech, Frodo, Pee Wee Herman and Tom^[8]. At the bottom of the page, Larry Groznic — a fictional geek columnist for The Onion who wrote a lengthy diatribe about Yankovic's Wikipedia entry — begs to be part of the "top 8". His profile is Yankovic's creation.^[9] Although Al claims that everybody begs for a top 8 space, he only has 27 friends, a number that is a recurring joke in Yankovic's music and videos.

• When Al raps "Yo, I know pi to a thousand places..." a background that displays the value of pi actually shows it out to about 515 digits.

• In the song Al says "Ain't got no grills but I still wear braces" which is poking fun at Chamillionaire, who wears braces. It also pokes fun at the fact that whereas rappers are choosing to wear grills made of precious stones and metal on their teeth, nerds tend to wear braces.

• The scene with him playing Minesweeper (a game included with the Microsoft Windows operating system dating back to version 3.1) is actually being played on a Macintosh. The logged in user is listed as "whitenerdy". The reason that the Finder is the currently active application listed in the menu bar is because Minesweeper is running as a Dashboard widget.^[10] He is shown as using a keyboard to play this normally mouse-controlled game.

• The scene for the line "I ain't got a gat, but I got a soldering gun" refers to his use of a tool for electronic assembly or repair, rather than a firearm. Al does not actually have a soldering gun, but rather a soldering iron, holding it in a pistol grip fashion. A soldering gun has a pistol-shaped appearance and is used for electrical work that requires high heat, such as large gauge wires for power distribution like those used in automobiles etc. A soldering iron has a pencil grip form, and delivers more precise control of heat for electronic components such as semiconductor devices that would be damaged by excessive temperature.

• The questions on the Trivial Pursuit card in the video are as follows:

• (Geography) In what city is the largest ball of twine built by one man? (Also referenced in Yankovic's song "The Biggest Ball of Twine in Minnesota"; answer: Darwin, Minnesota)
• (Entertainment) What's the deal with Lindsay Lohan? I mean, seriously?
• (History) F.D.R.—was he faking it? (reference to Roosevelt's polio)
• (Arts & Literature) On what page does Harry Potter die in the next book? (days before the release of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, a meme that mentioned the death of a prominent character from the book and the page on which it occurred in the U.S. publication had spread across the Internet; this question is likely based on this meme. J.K. Rowling has stated that a major character will die in the the seventh and last book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, leading some fans to believe it may be Harry Potter himself, as Rowling has hinted in the past that he may not survive until the end of the series.
• (Science & Nature) What is the melting point of a gorilla's head?
• (Sports & Leisure) How many Wicket Men are there on a 43-Man Squamish team? (Answer: 5)

• Yankovic points to the cover of O'Reilly Media's JavaScript: The Definitive Guide (ISBN 0-596-10199-6), a popular Javascript text, as his rap brags of fluency in the subject.

• The equation in the background of the chorus is Schrödinger's wave equation for the hydrogen atom; however, there is an error in that Planck's constant (denoted h) is displayed in place of Dirac's constant (denoted ).

Incorrect version as seen in the video:

Correct version:

• The comics in his left hand are Uncanny X-Men #268 (September 1990) in front and Uncanny X-Men #201 (January 1986) behind it. The comics in his right are Uncanny X-Men #221 (September 1987) in front and Uncanny X-Men #210 (October 1986) behind it.

• The Wikipedia article Yankovic vandalizes (by typing "YOU SUCK!" in large letters) is the article about Atlantic Records, referring to Yankovic's not receiving permission from the company to include "You're Pitiful", a parody of James Blunt's song "You're Beautiful," on Straight Outta Lynwood. This has inspired real-life vandals to attack the article on Wikipedia in a similar manner. Yankovic has said that he does not approve of the vandalism, though he admits being amused by it.^[11]

• The word "dog" is said at the same point in both Ridin' and this song; however, rather than in the original song, where it was "dawg," which is slang for a friend, Al is referring to his actual dog. The name of his dog Foofie is a reference to the Pentium chip flaw known as f00f.^{citation needed]} It may also be a potential reference to UHF, where the first poodle to be thrown out the window in "Raul's Wild Kingdom" was named Foofie.

• According to the cover of the yearbook, he was in high school in 1985. In reality, Yankovic graduated from Lynwood High School in 1976.^[12]

• In the sequence in which Al gets "freaky" with bubble wrap, the glass-domed object on the table (right foreground) appears to be an orrery.

• The name "Alfred" on the underwear is Weird Al's given name.

• A spray paint marking that is seen on the side of a dumpster near the end of the video has been claimed^{attribution needed]} to be a Lambda and could possibly be a reference to the video game Half-Life (the logo for the game is an orange circled lower case lambda, λ) or even the movie Revenge of the Nerds (the fraternity in the movie is Lambda Lambda Lambda). Both claims are disputed as it only slightly resembles a lambda, there is only one of them (the fraternity symbol would be three Lambdas in a row), and it does not conform very well to the Half-Life logo.^{citation needed]}

• Yankovic parodies the Star Wars Kid and is seen purchasing a bootleg VHS of The Star Wars Holiday Special toward the end of the video.

• At the end of the video, Al flashes the Vulcan salute in place of a gang sign.

• There are two versions of the video; the televised version shows a closeup of Al in front of a Gap store but on the original Internet-released version Al is shown further away, with a Gap sign visible behind him. The original version of the video contains the Wikipedia logo in the scene where Yankovic is editing a Wikipedia article; on the televised version this logo has been removed. In the next scene, the words in the DVD box of Monty Python and the Holy Grail is also gone.

• Note: These reference points are in general order of appearance.

Cameos

• Jordan Peele and Keegan-Michael Key of MADtv appear in the blue 1967 Chevy Impala Convertible at the beginning of the video.

• Seth Green appears in the scene with a wall of action figures. Green has a huge personal collection of action figures (including Star Wars) that are stored in a large storage unit he shares with Hugh Sterbakov [1]. An episode from the second season of Green's show Robot Chicken contains a video created for another Straight Outta Lynwood song, "Weasel Stomping Day". The term cherry Yankovic uses is believed to refer to his own action figure collection (not shown) that has never (presumably) been opened, which is a joke about Green having his collection open and displayed on the bookshelf, although 'cherry' can also refer to something being cool or fresh.

• Donny Osmond dances next to Yankovic in the scenes against the white background with the non-relativistic Schrödinger wave equation for hydrogen behind them.

• Judy Tenuta appears as the woman who receives a power strip as a Christmas present. Tenuta is also a comedian who uses a small (concertina-sized) accordion in her act, was a regular on The Weird Al Show, and has also appeared in Yankovic's video for Headline News.

Extras

• Jon Katz, Michael Bueno, Tom Schuler, Peter Withers, John Reynolds, Jennifer More, Christina Rodriguez, Benjamin Baker, Jason Van Kemseke, George Garcia, Deb Anderson, Christina Malesci, Shawn Avery, Max Gillman, Mikel Browning, Diego Kontarousky, David Stephens and Jack DeVries

• IGN Freelance Editor and MiraCosta College Chariot Copy Editor Jack DeVries is featured twice in the video: once playing Dungeons & Dragons at the beginning and at the end playing ten-pin bowling [2][3].

Other videos

Fan-made video

Yankovic announced on his website that he is teaming up with YAHOO! Music to make a fans-only video for White & Nerdy. The deadline for submissions to Yahoo! was October 26, 2006.^[13] This video has been released.

Live performances

On November 2, 2006, Yankovic performed "White and Nerdy" live on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. (He rode a Segway as he came on stage.) On December 3, he performed it live at the VH1 "Big In '06" Awards.