Weird Al Missed an Opportunity with "Word Crime"

"Weird Al" Yankovic has made his career from harmless, goofy parodies like "Eat It," "Like a Surgeon," and "Amish Paradise," becoming an icon for corny 11-year-olds everywhere. But for once, it seems he might have missed the mark with a "Blurred Lines" parody called "Word Crimes." Yeah, you heard right: a "Blurred Lines" parody. If it sounds familiar, that's because it is.

After the whole "Blurred Lines" rape culture controversy, the market became kind of flooded with parodies of Robin Thicke's song. There's an Amanda Bynes-centric one by drag queen divas DVW, a gender-flipped feminist parody, even the Muppets took a stab at it. So to say that Yankovic is late to the game is a bit of an understatement.

And the song itself is a sort of swing and a miss. The title "Word Crimes" recalls so many of the original song's issues that the only question before you listen to it is if Yankovic is pro or con. Is he, too, criticizing the sexist language used in the lyrics? Or does he think that this criticism comes from the PC police trying to censor lyrics? It turns out that the answer is neither. Instead, the song is a takedown of grammar police on the Internet... how's that for controversy?

In fact, it's surprising that Yankovic even decided to cover the song at all. Sure, he certainly isn't afraid of poking fun at popular music, but it's purely innocent fun — not the type that pairs well with the most controversial hit of last summer. But then to parody the song and then completely ignore the controversy surrounding it? It's confusing at best and harmful at worst.

Not only is Yankovic parodying the song a year after it's been parodied all over YouTube, he's doing so while completely ignoring the social context surrounding it. Some could think that Yankovic is trying to poke fun at the debate surrounding the song, but most likely, those who aren't Weird Al fans will probably spend their time watching other artists do it better.