History TakeThat / Music

** His parody "[[Music/{{Alapalooza}} Achy Breaky Song]]" is about someone who would rather listen to ''anything'' other than Music/BillyRayCyrus's Achy Breaky Heart".

** The video for "Word Crimes" illustrates irony vs. coincidence: A picture of a burning fire truck is labelled "irony", a picture of [[Music/AlanisMorissette a wedding couple being rained on]] is labelled "weather".
*** [[Music/{{Prince}} The artist formerly and once again known as Prince]] never allowed Al to parody any of his songs. "[[Music/MandatoryFun Word Crimes]]" includes these lines:

-->What's the matter with the tune he's writin'\\

** Weird Al's original song "One More Minute" was written in reaction to a real-life romantic breakup; in the video version, he tears up a photo of the ex-girlfriend in question.

** The video for "[[Music/StraightOuttaLynwood White & Nerdy]]", at the line "I edit Wikipedia", has Weird Al [[RetconningTheWiki vandalizing]] the Atlantic Records page on [[Website/{{Wikipedia}} That Other Wiki]], replacing the article with "'''YOU SUCK!'''" WebVideo/AMVHell noticed. In Number 4, there is a clip for "White & Nerdy", where a character edits the Wikipedia page on Obesity, changing it to "'''YOU'RE FAT!!!'''" This shot at Atlantic Records was actually the ''end'' of an extended TakeThat. See below.

** ''[[Music/PoodleHat Couch Potato]]'' is Al's rant against mediocre and poor tv shows to the tune of Music/Eminem's '[[Film/EightMile Lose Yourself]]''. Shows lambasted include ''Series/TheKingOfQueens'' (which JumpedTheShark in the first minute), ''Series/AmericanIdol'' (host Creator/SimonCowell is described as someone who "opens his mouth, always says something foul"), ''Series/FearFactor'' (which Al says he felt the need to take a long shower after watching), and ''[[Series/EverybodyLovesRaymond Everybody Tolerates Raymond]]''.

---What's the matter with the tune he's writin'\\

Or play Music/VanillaIce

** His parody "[[Music/{{Alapalooza}} Achy Breaky Song]]" is about someone who would rather listen to ''anything'' other than "[[Music/BillyRayCyrus's Achy Breaky Heart]]".

* Music/WeirdAlYankovic mostly avoids TakeThat in his parodies, but there are a few exceptions. One of the reasons Al's songs are as good as they are is that indeed, most of the time they're not even a TakeThat; they tend to be sentiments in their own right. Which is far, far more than most parodies we hear on the radio can say for themselves. Of course, Yankovic asks permission of the artists before he does parodies of their work, and his Take Thats are rather gentle compared to most of these examples.
** His parody "Achy Breaky Song" is about someone who would rather listen to ''anything'' other than Music/BillyRayCyrus's "Achy Breaky Heart."
** "This Song's Just Six Words Long" is also a jab at the song it parodies, Music/GeorgeHarrison's cover of the James Ray song "Got My Mind Set On You", the chorus of which is simply the title sung over and over.
** "Smells Like Nirvana" is about Music/{{Nirvana}}'s [[IndecipherableLyrics mumbled lyrics]]. Music/KurtCobain's comment was something to the effect that this was the moment he truly realized that Nirvana had hit the big time: Weird Al wanted to do a parody of one of ''their'' songs.
** The unreleased song "It's Still Billy Joel to Me", which [[OldShame probably should stay unreleased]].

** Then there's "Don't Download This Song", which is a parody of [[DigitalPiracyIsEvil anti-digital-piracy sentiment]]. The kicker? He ''put it up on his website for free''.
** The video for "White & Nerdy", at the line "I edit Wikipedia", has Weird Al [[RetconningTheWiki vandalizing]] the Atlantic Records page on [[Website/{{Wikipedia}} That Other Wiki]], replacing the article with "'''YOU SUCK!'''" WebVideo/AMVHell noticed. In Number 4, there is a clip for "White & Nerdy", where a character edits the Wikipedia page on Obesity, changing it to "'''YOU'RE FAT!!!'''" This shot at Atlantic Records was actually the ''end'' of an extended TakeThat. See below.
** Originally, Al's plan for the album ''Straight Outta Lynwood'' was to include "You're Pitiful", a parody of James Blunt's "You're Beautiful", and make that the first single from the album. Blunt was perfectly fine with this and gave Al permission to go forward. At the last minute, Atlantic, Blunt's label, threatened legal action to keep the song off the album. Al, not wanting to deal with a lawsuit, complied... by proceeding to distribute the track for free on the Internet. At live shows, when Al performs "You're Pitiful", he parodies Blunt's disrobing in the original music video by removing layer upon layer of T-shirts. One of the shirts reads "ATLANTIC RECORDS SUCKS".
** ''Couch Potato'' is Al's rant against mediocre and poor tv shows to the tune of Eminem's ''Lose Yourself''. Shows lambasted include ''Series/TheKingOfQueens'' (which JumpedTheShark in the first minute), ''Series/AmericanIdol'' (host Creator/SimonCowell is described as someone who "opens his mouth, always says something foul"), ''Series/FearFactor'' (which Al says he felt the need to take a long shower after watching), and [[Series/EverybodyLovesRaymond Everybody Tolerates Raymond]].
** The narrator of "[[Music/{{RunningWithScissors}} Albuquerque]]" complains that his first time on an airplane was marred by the in-flight movie: ''Film/BioDome'' with Creator/PaulyShore. This is considered a more pressing concern than [[SkewedPriorities the plane crashing into a hillside and exploding in a giant fireball with no survivors.]]
** Weird Al has made one specific verbal TakeThat, in an interview rather than in a song, and even then its a really, really mild TakeThat. In response to rapper Music/{{Coolio}} saying that he did not authorize "Amish Paradise" (a parody of the rapper's own "Gangster's Paradise"), Weird Al said, "Yeah, well... I notice he is still cashing the royalty checks we send him."

*** "Word Crimes" also includes this lyric: "You should never/Write words using numbers/Unless you're seven/Or your name is Prince." [[Music/{{Prince}} The artist formerly and once again known as Prince]] was apparently so averse to song parodies that his lawyer instructed Al not to make eye contact with Prince at an awards show. At this point in the song, the video displays the weird symbol Prince briefly adopted in lieu of his name.
** The narrator of "Trapped in the Drive-Thru" mentions he's watching "something stupid" on TV. Several lines later, it's implied to be ''Series/BehindTheMusic''.
** "I'll Sue Ya" is a mockery of [[FrivolousLawsuit frivolous lawsuits]], portraying the suit-happy narrator as short-tempered, stupid, and hypocritical; many of the lawsuits he claims to have filed are references to real ones. It also contains a couple take-thats to the narrator's ''targets'': While listing all the people he's sued and why, he includes Delta Airlines because they sold him a ticket to New Jersey "and it ''[[PlaceWorseThanDeath sucked]]''." Later he sues Creator/BenAffleck, but instead of saying why, he just [[{{Beat}} pauses]], then says, "Aw, do I even need a reason?"

--> "CNN got Dummy Don on the air / Talkin' 'bout he smell that ganj' in the air / Dummy don't know and Dummy don't care / Get that punk motherfucker outta here!"