Word Crimes

Song: Word Crimes

Running Time: 3:42

Year: 2014

Album: Mandatory Fun

Lyrics: Word Crimes

Video: Yes

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Forum: Forum Discussion Page

Trivia

• During the music video, the name "George Newman" briefly appears during the reddit post in the video. This was Al's character in the feature film UHF.
• 27 appears multiple times in the music video:
  • During the line "If you don't know how to conjugate", 27 is the number of the question the lyrics is located on. (Timestamp 0:25)
  • During the line "To learn some grammar", there are 27 retweets on WowMuchShiba's tweet. (Timestamp 0:54)
  • During the line "It's less or it's fewer", 27 is seen at the bottom of the banner with "It's less" on it. (Timestamp 1:00)
  • A logo parodying the Merriam-Webster Dictionary's cover says "Twenty-Seventh Edition" at the bottom. (Timestamps 1:06 and 3:13)
  • During the line "At least a little", you can see "MODEL 274C" on the Care-O-Meter. (Timestamp - 1:12)
  • For a split second during the line "Use your spell checker" you can see "Col 27". (Timestamp 2:00)
  • During the line "Write words using numbers", multiple 27s can be seen. (Timestamp 2:03-2:05)
  • In the part of the song saying "I hate these word crimes!", an evidence marker with 27 on it can be seen next to the red pen. (Timestamp 2:09)
• Prince's (Deceased) use of numbers and letters in place of full words in song titles (e.g., "I Would Die 4 U") pre-dated the now-common practice lamented in the song. He temporarily changed his name to "", which is why that symbol appears in the video when he is mentioned.
• The name on the paper (at the "you flunked that class" part) in the video is Mrs. Krabappel. Mrs. Krabappel is the name of Bart Simpson's teacher on The Simpsons, a show which Al appeared on a few times.
• At the beginning of the music video when we see the dictionary flipping, we see Weird Al (In his 1980s look) playing an accordion.
• At the end of the music video balloons are lined up saying ""Weird Al" Yankovic has a big dictionary", this is a reference to the Blurred Lines music video in which balloons line up saying "Robin Thicke has a Big D".
• The dictionary pages at the beginning of the movie are from the "A" section. The pages used in the middle of the movie are from the "L" section. A-L spells "Al".
• The pages were scanned from Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of Basic English. An $11 paperback copy was destroyed to produce this parody music video.
• The diplomas certify Al as "Participle Pundit", "Master of Tékhne Grammatiké", "Grammarian" and "Licentiate of Subordinate Clauses" with an "Associates Degree in Conjugating Verbs", a "Doctorate of Spelling", a "Certificate of Achievement in Syntax Engineering", and a "Bachelor of Writing Good".
• The Care-o-meter has a certification sticker from the Division of Measurement Standards, a branch of the California Department of Food and Agriculture, where illustrator of the music video, Jarrett Heather, was employed full-time as a programmer analyst while creating this video on nights and weekends.
• The Care-O-Meter is manufactured by J. M. Heather Enterprises, Inc., and obvious reference to animator Jarrett Heather.
• The coffee stain on the "no X in 'espresso'" napkin is the same art used in the chorus of "Shop Vac", a video also illustrated by Jarrett Heather.
• The animated typewriter was created using a template from Creation Effects. No other templates or plug-ins were used.
• No particle systems are used in the animation. The fuse sparks, downvote arrows, pixelated stink-lines and raindrops are all keyframed.
• No photographs of chalkboards are seen in the final animation. The background of the chalkboard section was created entirely in Photoshop using a Wacom tablet and custom brushes. The dust and debris on the chalkboard are actually photographs of the night sky.
• An animatic for the music video can be seen by clicking here, it contains some unused lyrics, the original music track, and unused animated footage.
• When Al says "Okay now here's some notes," the music video's notebook features doodles of Trogdor the Burninator (from The Homestar Runner), and Pac-Man with two ghosts.
• The animatic playing during the line "Unless you're 7" is drawn by Ethan Heather, the then 7-year-old son of the music video's animator. At the end of that line, for a split second, you can see Ethan's signature at the bottom right corner.
• In the lyric, "Oh you're a lost cause" (timestamp 3:20), at the bottom right corner, it says "Learn your ABCs, doofus."
• Microsoft's Clippy makes a cameo at "Get it together/use your spell checker" and the Start Button directly after "I read your email" shows that the computer is using Windows 95.

  

  "Learn your abc's, doofus" (circled in red)