Trivia / Straight Outta Lynwood

• Career Resurrection: While three years was the standard amount of time Al would spend between albums, his career had taken a considerable slump around the Turn of the Millennium. His first album of the 2000s, Poodle Hat, was not only a critical failure but failed to get a single once Eminem revoked permission to shoot a video for Al's "Lose Yourself" parody, meaning promotion was minimal. Then, while on tour, his parents both died from carbon monoxide poisoning, forcing him to take some time off afterwards to recuperate. Then, while working on this album, James Blunt's record label, Atlantic Records, revoked permission to parody "You're Beautiful" (as "You're Pitiful"), forcing Al to write a completely different song at the eleventh hour. Thankfully, "White and Nerdy" became his biggest hit to date and Al's status as a star musical comedian has been alive and well ever since.
• Defictionalization: Many fans have recreated the Wiki Vandal stunt from the "White And Nerdy" video. Wikipedia has had to lock the page occasionally as a result and committing the stunt will result in banishment from editing.
• Dummied Out:
  • T-Pain is listed in the "special thanks" section of the liner notes because he granted permission for Al to parody "I'm 'n Luv (wit a Stripper)" as "I'm 'n Luv (wit The Skipper)"; Al later decided to not record the parody, but left T-Pain's name in the liner notes as a thank-you.
  • Similarly, Al intended to include a snippet of "Photograph" by Nickelback in "Polkarama", the album's polka medley, but Al could not find a way to include the song without it sounding "wedged in or tacked on", so he left it out. Nickelback, like T-Pain, were still thanked in the liner notes for giving Al permission to use the song.
• Referenced by...: The SCP Foundation lists the mobile task force assigned to SCP-2915, Psi-25, by the codename "Trapped in the Drive Thru".
• Serendipity Writes the Plot: The Gangsta Rap-style cover art was actually finalized before Al wrote "White and Nerdy." When the first song was still "You're Pitiful," the joke was going to be that this tough-looking album started off with a sappy acoustic ballad. It ended up working better when the first song was changed to a parody of an actual gangsta rap song.
• What Could Have Been:
  • "You're Pitiful" (a parody of James Blunt's "You're Beautiful") was intended to be the lead single for the album, but while James Blunt gave his blessing, Atlantic Records revoked permission at the last second, supposedly out of fear that it would make Blunt a One-Hit Wonder (which happened anyway). Interestingly, Chamillionaire, whose song "Ridin'" was parodied instead, also became a one-hit wonder.
  • One parody Al had in line to replace "You're Pitiful" was "Bad Date" (Daniel Powter's "Bad Day"). Powter denied permission at first, but he backed down the day before Al recorded "White and Nerdy". By that time, "the train had left the station" according to Al.
  • A parody of T-Pain's "I'm 'n Luv (Wit A Stripper)" (as "I'm 'n Luv (Wit The Skipper)") was written, but never recorded. Al has performed it a few times in concert as part of a medley.
  • Various other parody ideas included "Holodeck Girl" (Gwen Stefani's "Hollaback Girl"), "I.R.S." (Rihanna's "S.O.S.") and "HairyBack" (Justin Timberlake's "SexyBack"), but were never recorded. Nickelback gave Al permission to use "Photograph" in his polka medley, but Al couldn't make it work (he still thanked Nickelback in the liner notes, though).
  • Canadian music channel MuchMusic held a contest for amateurs to create a music video for "Canadian Idiot", but it was canceled when they couldn't get enough entries.

---