‘Weird Al’ Yankovic Is Putting His Smithsonian Exhibit on Pause Pending Trump Takeover
President Donald Trump plans to perform a “comprehensive review” of the materials and exhibits in the eight museums of the Smithsonian Institution in order to ensure that the national educational organization is in line with his values and his interpretation of our national history. Hopefully, Trump isn’t a huge Coolio fan.
Founded in 1846, the Smithsonian Institution has long served as a nonpartisan national museum group that doesn’t belong to any three branches of the federal government, but instead serves the entire American population through the preservation of and research into our shared history and culture. If Trump manages to overhaul one of America’s most important cultural achievements to fit his narrow, uneducated and prejudiced worldview, what was once a source of national pride will become a parody of an educational institution — and we’ll even lose our best parodies, too.
In a recent interview with Vulture, beloved parodist and accordion-player Alfred Matthew "Weird Al" Yankovic revealed that the Smithsonian Institution had reached out to him to solicit donations for a dedicated “Weird Al” exhibit, but he’s since decided to hold off on sending any of his priceless memorabilia “until the dust settles.”
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He simply couldn’t risk letting his Hawaiian shirts fall into the wrong tiny hands.
When asked which of his signature, oversized, oversaturated shirts is his favorite, Al answered, “The Hawaiian shirt that I wore for the bulk of my movie UHF. It’s an orange Hawaiian shirt. I haven’t worn it since the movie. There’s nothing that screams ‘custom’ about it, so the stylist probably found it in a thrift store.”
“In fact, I was getting ready to donate it to the Smithsonian,” Al explained, revealing, “I had several things I was going to give to the museum because it requested it for a ‘Weird Al’ exhibit, but I’m putting that on hold because, as you may have heard, the Smithsonian is going through some changes right now, and I’m waiting until the dust settles.”
Al concluded of his most valued possession that the President may rob of its rightful place in our national cultural history, “It may or may not ever make its way there, but it’s certainly the most prized shirt of my life.”
In a letter that the White House sent to the Smithsonian Institution on Tuesday, White House officials wrote of Trump’s planned and unprecedented overhaul of the eight Smithsonian museums, “This initiative aims to ensure alignment with the President’s directive to celebrate American exceptionalism, remove divisive or partisan narratives, and restore confidence in our shared cultural institutions.”
“Within 120 days, museums should begin implementing content corrections where necessary, replacing divisive or ideologically driven language with unifying, historically accurate, and constructive descriptions across placards, wall didactics, digital displays, and other public-facing materials,” the letter continued, a directive that critics of the President worry will lead to, among other ends, the gutting of the National Museum of African American History and Culture and the end of its preservation of the true history of the Civil Rights Movement.
If Trump succeeds in bending the Smithsonian Institution and all its important work to his will, a couple missing Hawaiian shirts will be the least of our problems. But, even still, how exactly does Trump plan on educating America’s schoolchildren the history of American culture without presenting them with an unbiased account of “Amish Paradise”?
