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Celebrity

'Weird Al' never did a parody of a Prince song and never will for a pretty cool reason

Prince was the only celebrity that told 'Weird Al' Yankovic 'no' to a parody song.

Weird Al; Prince; parody; Drew Barrymore
"Weird Al" Yankovic via Wikicommons/Prince via Wikicommons

"Weird Al" never did a parody of a Prince song and never will.

It seems as though everyone knows who Prince was. His music crossed generations and had most of the world belting out tunes like "Raspberry Beret" and "1999," but it turns out there was one celebrity that had to keep their hands off of his songs.

"Weird Al" Yankovic explained on "The Drew Barrymore Show" that there was only one musician that turned him down on making a parody of his songs. It was Prince. The man was serious about his music and even after his death there were supposedly more than 8,000 songs that were in his vault never having been released.

But one would think after the musician's death in 2016 that Yankovic would simply ask his estate permission to parody one of the songs. It's obvious that most of the songs are timeless gems that are easily recognizable and people still listen to fairly regularly. So why didn't he? The answer may take you by surprise.


Yankovic made a career out of doing parodies of popular songs, with his first big hit being a play on Madonna's "Like a Virgin" except his was titled "Like a Surgeon." The video questionably had a lion in the operating room of a surgeon, played by Yankovic, hoping not to get sued for malpractice. Yankovic famously did a parody of Michael Jackson's "Beat It," but his version was called "Eat It" and he stuffed his face with all kinds of sweets while he sang funny new lyrics.

The parody king could hit the top of the charts all over again with a Prince song but don't hold your breath. "I had a lot of what I thought were good ideas and he never was into it," Yankovic told Barrymore. When talking about asking the estate for permission, he said, "I don't want to do that because I've always respected the artist's wishes and Prince made his wishes pretty clear. I still respect that."

What a cool thing for Yankovic to do when plenty of people likely would've taken the opportunity. Watch the exchange below.

Nature

Pennsylvania home is the entrance to a cave that’s been closed for 70 years

You can only access the cave from the basement of the home and it’s open for business.

This Pennsylvania home is the entrance to a cave.

Have you ever seen something in a movie or online and thought, "That's totally fake," only to find out it's absolutely a real thing? That's sort of how this house in Pennsylvania comes across. It just seems too fantastical to be real, and yet somehow it actually exists.

The home sits between Greencastle and Mercersburg, Pennsylvania, and houses a pretty unique public secret. There's a cave in the basement. Not a man cave or a basement that makes you feel like you're in a cave, but an actual cave that you can't get to unless you go through the house.

Turns out the cave was discovered in the 1830s on the land of John Coffey, according to Uncovering PA, but the story of how it was found is unclear. People would climb down into the cave to explore occasionally until the land was leased about 100 years later and a small structure was built over the cave opening.

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via Pexels

A couple celebrates while packing their home.

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A growing number of people are reevaluating traditional relationships and entering lifestyles that work for them instead of trying to fit into preexisting roles. It makes sense because the more lifestyle options that are available, the greater chance we have to be happy.

A recent trend in unconventional relationships is married couples "living apart together," or LATs as they are known among mental health professionals.

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Family

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Marie Kondo playing with her daughters.

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It also sparked backlash from parents who insisted that keeping a tidy home with children was not so simple. It's one thing to get rid of an old sweater that no longer brings you joy. It's entirely another to toss an old, empty cereal box that sparks zero joy for you, but that your 2-year-old is inexplicably attached to.

To be fair, Kondo never forced her way into anyone's home and made them organize it her way. But also to be fair, she didn't have kids when she wrote her best-selling book on keeping a tidy home. The reality is that keeping a home organized and tidy with children living in it is a whole other ballgame, as Kondo has discovered now that she has three kids of her own.

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Pop Culture

YouTube star MrBeast sponsors 1,000 people's cataract surgery to help them see again

"I had never heard of MrBeast so I almost hung up. But gratefully did not hang up."

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Blindness touches people's lives around the world and YouTube star Jimmy Donaldson, more popularly known as MrBeast, is trying to do something about it. Donaldson made it his mission to help 1,000 people regain their eyesight with the help of Dr. Jeff Levenson, an ophthalmologist and surgeon in Jacksonville, Florida.

Levenson has been operating a program called "Gift of Sight" for over 20 years. The program provides free cataract surgery to uninsured people who are legally blind for free, so long as they meet certain criteria. Levenson had never heard of Donaldson, and he almost hung up on him when the YouTube star called to ask about a partnership.

"I had never heard of MrBeast so I almost hung up. But gratefully did not hang up," Levenson told CNN.

After figuring out that Donaldson was indeed a real person who wanted to help others, the duo called around the Jacksonville area to determine the people who needed help the most. They got their list of clients from free clinics and homeless shelters, which covered the United States portion of the surgeries.

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If you're in the group of people who need to be entertained, look no further than Gaël Monfils, a professional French tennis player that has earned the nickname, "The Entertainer." Monfils turned pro in 2004 and has multiple championship matches under his belt, and yet he still takes the time to be...extra while playing.

In a compilation video uploaded to TikTok, we see the 36-year-old tennis player dancing after hitting the ball across the net just out of his opponent's reach. But of course, he also doesn't hit the ball like your average player, either. In one part of the video, Monfils jumps up extremely high and bicycle kicks as he hits the ball with his tongue hanging out of his mouth.

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