Brian Warwick paced his Vermont State University-Lyndon classroom, running a hand through his dark hair, bobbing on the heels of his sneakers. The screen behind him was frozen on an image of a gang member emerging from a manhole. Warwick looked from face to face, surveying his students' reactions to the video clip. A grown-up-ish interloper among the class of undergrads, I followed his gaze and noted the spectrum of expressions: some perplexed, others focused and studious. More than a few had that unmistakable blank visage of college kids who have rolled straight out of bed and into the classroom.
Most, however, were laughing quietly, some shaking their heads as if to say, "That's so dumb." In this setting, that was strangely a compliment.
Warwick is an associate professor in the VTSU music department. He's also a recording engineer who has collaborated with the varied likes of Stevie Nicks, Ludacris and Slayer. His crowning achievement is the Grammy Award he won for his work on "Weird Al" Yankovic's 2014 album, Mandatory Fun.
The clip on-screen was from the video for Yankovic's 1984 single "Eat It," a parody of Michael Jackson's 1982 smash "Beat It." Warwick had played both videos for his students, not as entertainment but as serious academic discourse.
"What was something you noticed that was similar to the original but deviated in a key way?" Warwick asked his students.
"The gang fight," one student answered, holding back laughter. "It almost looks the same, except for the rubber chicken."
"It Almost Looks the Same, Except for the Rubber Chicken" easily could have worked as the name of Warwick's class, which is actually called "'Weird Al' and His Polkas." Part of the university's Music Business & Industry program, the course, which debuted this semester, is an earnest study of Yankovic's extensive canon of pop music parodies, pastiches and, yes, polka medleys. After 40 years, the musician's place in American pop culture is unquestionable: The "Amish Paradise" and "Smells Like Nirvana" singer is, to borrow a phrase from Wolverine, the best there is at what he does.
Appropriately, VTSU's "Weird Al" class is itself sort of a parody.
"I had the idea for the class in a very 'Weird Al' kind of way," Warwick told me after class. "I saw that Harvard was offering this class called 'Taylor Swift and Her [World].' And I immediately thought, I should teach a class called ''Weird Al' and His Polkas.' It was just too perfect."
Warwick is certainly qualified to dissect Yankovic's body of work. After all, he's part of it. But Warwick's relationship with the music of "Weird Al" goes back to his childhood in the mid-1980s, when he received a red-and-yellow Sony tape deck and a cassette of Yankovic's Dare to Be Stupid.
"I wore that tape out," he recalled. "I became obsessed with his parodies." He also devoured Yankovic's polka medleys of pop hits played on accordion.
Warwick pitched the course to his program coordinator and the school's dean, both of whom gave an enthusiastic thumbs-up. So he set about designing the curriculum, centered on what he dubbed "the three Ps": parody, polka and pastiche.
"Yes, we all know the famous parodies, and we're studying those, for sure," Warwick said. "But his catalog is so much deeper than people realize."
He pointed to the brilliance of Yankovic's pastiches. Instead of parodying specific songs — à la "Beat It"/"Eat It" — these are originals written in the style of other artists, such as "Dog Eat Dog," his take on Talking Heads. Warwick illustrated the roots of this facet of Yankovic's work by introducing students to clips of the American musician and spoof composer Spike Jones, a key Yankovic influence.
"There's such a timeless element to what Al does," Warwick said. "It's this kind of ageless humor that doesn't really punch down. It's goofy and ridiculous, and whatever stick 'Weird Al' is poking you with is never that sharp. He wants everyone in on the joke."
Most of Warwick's class is studying audio production and will be focusing on the techniques Yankovic uses to shape-shift from genre to genre. But I had a much less technical question for the prof. Namely, how has Yankovic crafted such a long career spoofing other people's songs, and why hasn't anyone been able to duplicate that success?
"I'm always surprised by how relevant Al's music remains," Warwick said. "I think, first and foremost, people never get tired of laughing and being goofy, and Al gives listeners such an open license to enjoy being ridiculous. It speaks to all of our inner 11-year-old in some ways."
Paired with that silly abandon is what Warwick witnessed firsthand in the studio: Yankovic's razor-sharp wit, meticulous attention to detail and musical prowess.
"Al has made it so tough to try and do what he's done by being so, so good," Warwick asserted. "Pre-internet, this is a dude who was going to the library to research hernia operations, going through medical journals to write 'Living With a Hernia.'"
Parodies are legally protected as fair use, giving Yankovic the right to lampoon anyone he chooses. Yet he always seeks permission from the artists he's sending up and generally respects their wishes if they decline.
Yankovic's practice is "a great lesson for the students," Warwick said, particularly in an industry in which samples are used routinely and often without permission.
Warwick followed Yankovic's example and reached out to him for his blessing on the class. Not only did Yankovic give it, Warwick said the singer was honored to have a college class study his work and told him that he'd be happy to answer any questions or help design the curriculum.
Back in the classroom, Warwick pressed play on the "Eat It" video for a second viewing, just as Yankovic, dressed in red leather, did his best impression of Jackson's dance moves before biting savagely into a banana. Students bent over notebooks and laptops, thoughtfully taking notes.
It was a cool enough scene for me to briefly consider accruing more student loans to become a master of all things "Weird Al." (The class is available to non-VTSU students.) But then I remembered that I grew up in the 1980s. Yankovic has already taught me so much.