Before there was Between Two Ferns, there was the interview portion of AL-TV. Well, first there was AL-TV, just in a general sense, Weird Al’s MTV parody that aired on the music channel starting in 1984. These segments, lasting up to four hours, were mostly Weird Al taking over MTV to play the music videos he wanted to see. Interspersed would be fake interview segments with popular artists of the time.
In a 2003 airing, Weird Al interviewed Avril Lavigne, who was riding the popularity wave of her debut album Let Go the year before. Notably, this album featured the song “Complicated”, which Al then parodied on his 2003 album Poodle Hat.
These interviews were often awkward and stilted, but not for lack of personality on Al’s part. It was because they were Frankensteined together with footage left over from MTV interviews. Since AL-TV was already on the network, MTV allowed him access to the footage. From there, he would conduct an interview as if the artist were actually responding to his commentary.
Fake interviewing at its finest. The Avril Lavigne segment was included in an hour-long episode also featuring Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake, Celine Dion, and Eminem.
Weird Al Asks Avril Lavigne: ‘Britney Spears or Hitler?’ in Fake Interview
As for the actual interview itself, it’s certainly something. At the time, Avril Lavigne was 19 years old, and her youth comes through in her answers during the actual MTV interview. She was headstrong, loud, and had a confident attitude at that time, but she was still a young woman thrust into the spotlight.
So, her answers are a little unsure and a bit awkward. Paired with Weird Al’s bizarre questions, it makes for a painful interview. Or it would be if it were real, anyway.
At one point, Al brings up the “Anti-Britney” moniker that Lavigne had been saddled with early on. Critics and the media wanted to set her up as the antithesis of Britney Spears, and Al leaned into this, asking if she thought she was better than Britney.
“I’m no better than anyone else, and no one else is any better than me,” Lavigne replied, looking distracted and possibly a little uncomfortable by whatever the original question was.
Who Asked the Original Questions that Make Avril Lavigne Respond Like This, I Just Want to Talk
When Al doubled down, saying, “Except for Britney Spears, right?” Lavigne reiterated her point. “Britney Spears isn’t better than anyone else,” she stated.
“Oh, really?” said Al. “Not even Hitler?”
Now, in a real interview situation, Avril Lavigne would probably be swept out of the room by her team the second that question left Weird Al’s mouth. Luckily, we’re not watching a real interview situation, so things can get as weird as possible. In either case, Lavigne’s response was a confused, “Uh…”
Al added, “Put it this way: Are you more against Britney Spears, or more against Hitler?”
“I’m not really sure who I’m against,” said Lavigne, visibly confused. “But I know I’m against…I don’t know who I’m against. But I think that, um…okay I lost myself.” One can only imagine the actual question that warranted that response.
Photo by Peter Pakvis/Redferns
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