American pop-culture pride

There are two things I’ve always said made me feel strangely proud to be an American: Playboy magazine and “Weird Al” Yankovic. Playboy, however, is going out with a whimper, whereas Al is still creating and still enjoying commercial success, so I’ll give him the gold medal.

To me, the nerd is an American creature: I think that up until the last few decades or so, a nerd in any other country was just an outcast, weirdo, or loser.

In Al’s case, however, with his family’s encouragement, he was able to fuse his unusual musical abilities, intelligence, and obsession with offbeat comedy and create a successful, seemingly fulfilling career. How cool is that? Something about Al’s brain, the sheer silliness of his work, and the fact that he apparently is a nice, decent guy just fills me with glee and makes me happy that we can claim him as one of our own.