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Weird Al Yankovic has released the music video for "Perform This Way", a parody of Lady Gaga's "Born This Way" which is the first single off his new album. Weird Al fans have been anticipating the video ever since the controversy over whether Lady Gaga would approve the song caused Yankovic to announce in April that "Perform This Way" would not be on the album.

Yankovic tried to get permission from Lady Gaga for the parody, but her manager shot down the idea without forwarding the song to Gaga herself.  Weird Al fans were disappointed until Lady Gaga came to the rescue, approving the song.The video features Yankovic's head superimposed on a the body of a young woman, dancing and donning crazy outfits (including a version of Lady Gaga's infamous meat dress). Proceeds from "Perform This Way" will go to Human Rights Campaign, due to what Yankovic describes as the "human rights anthem" nature of Lady Gaga's original song.

(via Laughing Squid)

Some of today's musical artists just don't seem to understand that it's an honor when "Weird Al" Yankovic parodies one of your songs. Back in 1985, Madonna was canny enough to slip the suggestion to Weird Al that "Like a Surgeon" would be a humorous title for a "Like a Virgin" parody. But her would-be successor, Lady Gaga, humorlessly shot down a Weird Al parody of "Born This Way" called "Perform This Way," according to a posting on Yankovic's blog which documents the bizarre saga. You can read the whole thing there, but to make a long story short, Yankovic sent the following pitch for the song to Gaga's camp:

I’d like to do a parody of Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way” called “I Perform This Way.” The basic concept is that I, as a Lady Gaga doppelganger of sorts, describe the incredibly extravagant ways in which I perform on stage. Meat dresses and giant eggs would most likely be referenced, but also much more ridiculous made-up examples of bizarre wardrobe and stage production. As with all my parodies, it would be respectful of the artist, while having a bit of fun with her larger-than-life image.

Gaga's camp proceeded to stonewall Yankovic, then ultimately shot him down. (Luckily, he released the audio to YouTube, and you can hear it below.)

Last week, a fairly impressive trailer for zombie game Dead Island pretty much punched our emotions in the face twice; once because it was ridiculously sad and very well made, and twice because the game is going to be a sandbox, zombie apocalypse, first-person shooter with four player drop-in co-op, which most likely means the emotional investment displayed in the trailer won't make effectively translate to the game. After all, it's pretty difficult to be emotionally invested when your buddies are teabagging zombie corpses in drop-in co-op.

Well, it only took a handful of days before someone--specifically Vareide Productions--recreated the trailer in Minecraft. Yes, it's pretty hilarious.

(Vareide Productions via Joystiq)

You know that back when you were playing The Legend of Zelda, you wondered, "What was really going on with Link? And Zelda? Was it ... like ... weird for them?" Obviously, John Hughes knew the teenage mind the best in the '80s and early '90s, so why wouldn't he have taken a crack at video game fan fiction? So here, in glorious VHS quality, is what that trailer would look like. "I gave her my heart ... she gave me ... a jar." (Joystiq)

YouTube user eikemz uploaded this--I don't know, parody?--of the Pokémon theme song, but with Jesus-centric lyrics. The YouTube video's description simply states, "This is our MTV project for our TREDTRI class in DLSU." If I may recite a choice excerpt of lyrics:

I wanna be like Jesus Christ,

Like no one ever does.

To live by Him is my real test.

To please Him is my cause.

After I finish not being able to tell if the lyrics are a parody or serious, I begin to wonder if the reused clip segments and unfortunate timing and rhythm are in the vein of public access parody overlords Tim and Eric, or just how these guys roll.

(via BuzzFeed)

Ever wonder what would happen if public access spoof overlords Tim and Eric tried their hand at Doctor Who? Pretty much what you see above, except someone would discover their chippy, there'd probably be some shrimp and white wine, and there'd obviously be some kind of Cinco-branded TARDIS for sale that requires users to remove their teeth before use. The point is, this Turkish Doctor Who seemed like it couldn't possibly be real at first, but then io9 kindly reminded us that Turkish remakes are totally bonkers to begin with. Luckily(?) for us, this Turkish Doctor Who is indeed a spoof of what would happen if there really was a Turkish Doctor Who, created by majoringram over at b3ta.com.

Parodies of the logo of what many to consider to be one of the first hardcore punk bands, Black Flag--probably most known for their lead singer, spoken wordsmith, and guy who unpredictably didn't murder me when I once hugged him outside of a House of Blues, Henry Rollins--have been sprouting up across the Internet for the past few days. Fairly simple, the parodies are both audible and visual puns, and some of the funniest are conveniently located after the break.

Remember Nickelodeon's Doug? He dressed like a quail and had multicolored friends? Well, comedy group Dr. Coolsex provides us with a pretty fun live action trailer for what Doug's life would be like in the real world.

Poor Porkchop.

(via BuzzFeed)

You might know the rock band OK Go for its music, but you probably know them better for their elaborate viral music videos: "Here It Goes Again," the YouTube sensation of coordinated treadmill dancing, is currently the 57th most popular video on the site; "This Too Shall Pass" utilizes an gigantic Rube Goldberg contraption built over four months by Syyn Labs across two floors; the most recent "End Love" is again another feat of coordinated--this time in stop-motion!--dancing. Now, Babelgum has released a parody video titled "OK Go’s New Viral Video: Giant Pie," which suggests that perhaps the band should stop producing increasingly complicated videos, and simply return to their roots: you know, music. Watch the amusing music video / mock-behind-the-scenes after the jump.

Britain's second largest newspaper, the Daily Mail, began their article on the supposed recall of the iPhone 4 (screenshot here, since the original has been pulled) in this way:

The much vaunted new iPhone 4 may be recalled, Apple boss Steve Jobs revealed last night. Posting a message on the social networking site Twitter, the tycoon said: "We may have to recall the new iPhone.  This I did not expect."

There was just one problem: the tycoon didn't actually say it.

A few YouTubers have put together a funny, well-edited homage to the Cash4Gold commercials for all of the poor kids who get more Mac products as gifts than they know what to do with: Gold4Macs.

"Every year, my parents send me an iPod for Christmas, and one for my birthday. I don't think they know what an iPod is. I want gold!" Video after the jump: