Yesterday’s How I Met Your Mother on CBS was all about Weird Al Yankovic! Ted was a big fan and claimed that he was the inspiration for his 1985 hit Like a Surgeon. Well at the end of the show, you find out the truth with a flash back to past when Weird Al had shorter and fuller curly hair with bangs and a mustache that Tom Selleck envied.
There is only one problem with the show’s truth…it was truth reworked as a writers White & Nerdy fantasy. You see, yes the inspiration came from another person, but that person was the singer of Like a Virgin, Madonna herself, in a round about way! According to a Weird Al FAQ page here is what happened:
Madonna had just released her song, “Like a Virgin” and was walking down some street in New York when she questioned out loud, “I wonder when ‘Weird Al’ is gonna do ‘Like a Surgeon’.” A friend who was with her was also a friend of Al’s manager and the word got back to Al. He thought about it and said “Hey, that’s not bad! Mayybe I’ll do it.” This is the only case in which Al has created a parody based on a suggestion. Just to re-state, Al does NOT take suggestions for song ideas, unless you are Madonna, and it’s a decent suggestion.
Forgetting the truth, it was nice to Weird Al as he used to be in the funniest moment of the CBS sitcom all season!
And for you Weird Al fans like me, here is Like a Surgeon…the song that was inspired by Ted Mosby!!!
