Weird Al Yankovic on Rolling Stone

[Yankovic-Gretzky]

Weekend Rock Question: What's the Best 'Weird Al' Yankovic Video?
Cast your vote in our weekly poll

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By Andy Greene
July 18, 2014 9:05 AM ET

It's been a pretty incredible week for "Weird Al" Yankovic. The parody king hasn't scored a genuine hit since 2006's "White and Nerdy," but every day this week he's released a new video, and they've all killed. We especially love "Foil," his parody of Lorde's "Royals." His new album Mandatory Fun is Number One on iTunes and he might even score the top album on the Billboard charts next week.

Now we have a question for you: What is your single favorite "Weird Al" Yankovic video? We know that's a very difficult question. How can one possibly pick between classics like "Smells Like Nirvana," "Bedrock Anthem" and his immortal classic "Fat?" There's also lesser-known gems like "Dare to Be Stupid," "Living With A Hernia" and "Skipper Dan." Vote for any video you want, but please only vote once and only for a single selection.

You can vote here in the comments, on facebook.com/rollingstone or on Twitter using the hashtag #WeekendRock.

'Weird Al' Leads Nerdy Marching Band in 'Sports Song' Video
The clip is the fifth of eight to promote Yankovic's new LP 'Mandatory Fun'

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By RYAN REED JULY 18, 2014 12:05 PM

"Weird Al" Yankovic has always come off as more of a band geek than a jock – a theory supported by the new music video for "Sports Song," a cut from his latest LP, Mandatory Fun. In the spirited clip, which debuted Friday at Funny or Die, the parody master leads a marching band on a football field, offering "empirical evidence" that his team will triumph over a faceless opponent.

At one point, Yankovic promises that his squad will "grind up your guys into burger meat," though adding that he's "speaking in the metaphorical sense." Elsewhere in the goofy clip, he asks the opposing side to "save us all some time and give up now" and leads a chant of "We're great, and you suck!" (Later: "OK, full disclosure: We're not that great – but nevertheless, you suck!")

"Sports Song" is the latest in Yankovic's ongoing, week-long video series, which will include eight videos. So far this week, he's unleashed four installments of pop parody greatness: recruiting a gang of comedy pals (including Jack Black and Aisha Tyler) for "Tacky," a riff on Pharrell's funky anthem "Happy"; pointing out prevalent grammar errors in the Robin Thicke-aping "Word Crimes"; defending his thoughts from the Illuminati in "Foil," a parody of Lorde's "Royals"; and proving his skill with a socket wrench in the Iggy Azalea send-up "Handy."

In related news, A.V. Club has shared a funny new Q&A with Yankovic, in which he discusses the worst living conditions he's ever experienced, his hatred of karaoke and dominating the Eighties game show Family Double Dare.

[Yankovic-Gretzky]

'Weird Al' Shares 'First World Problems' in New 'Mandatory Fun' Video
The parody maestro's latest is a Pixies spoof

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By Zach Dionne
July 19, 2014 1:25 PM ET

The Eight Days of Al — an unofficial extended holiday commemorating "Weird Al" Yankovic's newly released 14th studio album, Mandatory Fun — is still in full swing. The sixth video of the series is "First World Problems," one of the first new clips to not directly parody a current popular song. Yankovic instead opts to bite the Pixies' style to riff about the hardest parts of life — showers getting cold after a mere hour, friends calling instead of texting (c'mon, bro!), and the perils of low thread counts on the sheets. Check out the "First World Problems" premiere at PopCrush.

“I told [director Liam Lynch] that I didn’t want to be myself; I wasn’t Weird Al in this video — I was kind of like this douchey character,” Yankovic told PopCrush about his latest. “So we thought, ‘OK, we’ll find you a douchey blonde wig … [which was made of] real human hair … and I tried it on, and it fit, and we had fun with it!” Here's the full explainer clip:

Al's other parodies this week have included “Tacky” (based on Pharrell's "Happy"), “Word Crimes" (a grammarian riff on Robin Thicke's "Blurred Lines"), "Foil" (a new food-oriented classic to the tune of Lorde's "Royals"), and "Handy" (the inevitable spoof of Iggy Azalea's "Fancy"). Yankovic told Diffuser he's offering such a concentrated blast of videos because "things burn really quickly, things tend to go viral for a day, and I figure, 'Well, ok, I'll let each of my videos go viral for day.'"

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[Yankovic-Gretzky]

'Weird Al' Shames Name-Droppers in 'Lame Claim to Fame' Video
Latest 'Mandatory Fun' track celebrates using the same napkin dispenser as Steve Carell and knowing an extra from 'Wayne's World 2'
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By Daniel Kreps
July 20, 2014 12:44 PM ET

Another day, another new and hilarious "Weird Al" Yankovic music video. The Mandatory Fun release party continues with "Lame Claim to Fame," which takes aim at all the name-droppers as well as boasters of viral achievements. ("I posted 'First!' in the comments of a YouTube video.") Inspired musically by Southern Culture on the Skids' "Camel Walk," the trucker hat-wearing star of Yankovic's stop-motion animation video brags about having jury duty with Art Garfunkel and sharing an elevator with Christian Slater. "My best friend's brother was an extra in Wayne's World 2," Yankovic sings. "I got me an email from the prince of Nigeria… well, he sure sounded legit."

"Lame Claim to Fame" is the Sunday delivery of what has been "Weird Al" Week 2014. So far, Yankovic has also dropped the Lorde-parodying "Foil," the Pixies-informed "First World Problems," the Iggy Azalea-spoofing "Handy," the Pharrell satire "Tacky," the satirical fight song "Sports Song," and "Word Crimes," an attack on Robin Thicke's "Blurred Lines." Hopefully, his takeoff of Imagine Dragons' "Radioactive," dubbed "Inactive," is around the corner.

"Weird Al" opted to release a barrage of videos rather than spacing them out due to the 24-hour lifespan of a viral video, and this visual onslaught appears to be working: Mandatory Fun is on pace to top the Billboard 200 for the first time in Yankovic's career, as long as he can hold off Jason Mraz's Yes! One thing's for sure: According to Billboard, Mandatory Fun will definitely give "Weird Al" his best first week album sales since Neilsen SoundScan started keeping track in 1991.

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[Yankovic-Gretzky]

Weird Al Takes on Crosby, Stills & Nash for 'Mission Statement' Video
Low-key folk parody is the last in Yankovic's week-long video series

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By Ryan Reed
July 21, 2014 11:45 AM ET

Monday, July 21st marks the end of a hilarious viral era: With his new clip for "Mission Statement," premiered on Wall Street Journal's Speakeasy Blog, "Weird Al" Yankovic ends his week-long run of video premieres in low-key fashion, singing about mumbo-jumbo corporate jargon in a harmonic style reminiscent of Crosby, Stills & Nash's folk anthems "Carry On" and "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes."

"We must all efficiently operationalize our stratgies," sings Yankovic in wide, stereo-spanning vocal harmonies over peaceful acoustic guitar strums. Elsewhere in the Mandatory Fun cut, he delivers mouthfuls about how to "leverage our core competencies" and "holistically administrate exceptional synergy," as an animated whiteboard supports the lyrics with illustrations.

I wanted to do a song about all the ridiculous double-speak and meaningless buzzwords that I’ve been hearing in office environments my entire life,” Yankovic said. “I just thought it would be ironic to juxtapose that with the song stylings of CSN, whose music pretty much symbolizes the antithesis of corporate America.”

As Speakeasy notes, Yankovic discussed the track in his recent Reddit AMA chat, noting that he bumped into Graham Nash while in New York. After Nash asked Yankovic when he planned to record a "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes" parody, he responded by playing "Mission Statement" for him on his iPhone.

On Sunday, Yankovic unveiled the video for "Lame Claim to Fame," which took aim at humble-braggers, name-droppers and self-congratulatory losers of modern web culture; the parody master has also shared the Lorde-parodying "Foil," the Pixies-inspired "First World Problems," the Iggy Azalea-spoofing "Handy," the Pharrell-lampooning "Tacky," the marching band fight song "Sports Song," and "Word Crimes" which riffs on Robin Thicke's "Blurred Lines."

Yankovic's viral rampage was designed to capitalize on the fleeting nature of viral videos. That strategy appears to be paying off, as Mandatory Fun is on pace to top the Billboard 200. As Billboard reports, the album will mark Yankovic's best first week of LP sales since Neilsen SoundScan began keeping track in 1991.

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[Yankovic-Gretzky]

Mandatory One: 'Weird Al' Tops Chart for First Time in 30-Year Career
Parody king is first comedy performer to hit Number One since 1963

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By Steve Knopper
July 23, 2014 3:05 PM ET

Fill in the blanks: According to Nielsen Soundscan, album sales are down ___ percent and tracks are down ___ percent. Did you guess 15 and 13? Congratulations! You have been paying attention to 2014's strangely consistent download-business collapse. Your prize, a beautifully retro RIAA platinum-album certification plaque, will arrive any day.

WEIRDEST COMEBACK EVER: I admit to giving up on "Weird Al" Yankovic after an unfortunate period in the late Nineties when my 11-year-old nephew insisted on loudly singing his parodies, then correcting me when I inadvertently sang the originals instead. But Al's new Mandatory Fun is surprisingly great — "I'll fix your plumbing when your toilets overflow," he sings on "Handy," a spin of Iggy Azalea's "Fancy" — and his video-a-day marketing campaign should serve as a music-business manual for all artists putting out albums. Unbelievably, Mandatory Fun, which sold 104,000 copies, is the first Number One comedy album since Allan Sherman's My Son, the Nut in 1963. (That's the one with "Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah," and, yes, the album is available on Spotify.) It's also the first Number One for Yankovic in his 31-year career.

DOG DAYS OF SUMMER—OFFICIALLY: The top 10 was dominated by debuts as Jason Mraz (Number Two, 81,000 copies), Rise Against (The Black Market, Number Three, 53,000) and Kidz Bop (Number Four, 46,000) all joined Weird Al. Aside from the singles collection NOW (Number Eight, 23,000) and Blake Shelton (Based On a True Story . . ., Number 10 with a 386 percent sales increase thanks mostly to $5.99 iTunes prices), many albums dropped sharply this week, with Frozen, Sam Smith's In the Lonely Hour, Ed Sheeran's x and Trey Songz' Trigga losing sales in the double-digit percentages. These are supposed to be our biggest pop albums! Maybe artists will get fed up soon and stop releasing them.

OVER TO YOU, 5 SECONDS OF SUMMER: Three reasons Becky G's "Shower" could be the summer's sleeper hit: 1) It was produced by Dr. Luke; 2) it has 3.7 million YouTube views and 14.6 million Spotify streams; 3) it mentions the Fourth of July; 4) it mentions dancing in the mirror and singing in the shower; 5) "la-da-di, la-da-da, la-da-da"; 6) it jumped 18 spots, to Number 25, on the Ultimate Chart, which measures online criteria and often predicts hit singles; 6) Ariana Grande and Iggy Azalea notwithstanding, it's July 23rd and we haven't experienced a truly all-encompassing summer single.

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[DrDecay]

Great articles!! I wonder with all the success that Al has had with Mandatory Fun that maybe he will be asked to be on the cover of Rolling Stone? That would be so freakin' awesome! You gotta wonder...

[Yankovic-Gretzky]

The Inevitable, Unfortunate Porn Parody of 'Weird Al''s 'UHF' Arrives
Spoof of Yankovic's 1989 cult classic hits the Internet after he scores his first number one record

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By Jon Blistein
July 24, 2014 1:44 PM ET

Thirty years into his career, "Weird Al" Yankovic has finally received two of the biggest honors a proprietor of pop parody can receive: His first ever number one record, and a parody of his own work. Unfortunately, the latter comes in the form of new porn gallery that spoofs "Weird Al"'s 1989 cult comedy film UHF.

The new stills come courtesy of WoodRocket.com, a website that's been in the porn parody game for some time, ruining all of your favorite things from Game of Thrones to Spongebob Squarepants (you don't even want to know the awful pun names they came up with for those). As The AV Club points out, a press release for the UHF gallery calls it "one of the strangest, sexiest and most unforgettable things to ever hit the Internet." Minus "sexiest," that description is right, but for all the wrong reasons.

Models Lily Bergman and Jessica Dawn recreate the film's various characters, and yes, one of them does don a "Weird Al" mustache and wig, plus one of his signature Hawaiian shirts. Other "sexy" shots include Stanley Spadowski and his beloved mop, Wheel Of Fish’s Kuni, and Raul of Raul’s Wild Kingdom. Topping it all off is the occasional fly swatter and an homage to the scene where shop teacher Joe Earley (Emo Philips) mangles himself with a table saw.

Yankovic hasn't responded to the UHF porn parody directly, though this tweet — presumably about his new album Mandatory Fun debuting atop the Billboard 200 — does pull double duty: "If you’d told me 30 years ago this would happen, I never would’ve believed it. If you’d told me 2 WEEKS ago, I never would’ve believed it."

Luckily, the eight new videos "Weird Al" just dropped to celebrate the release of Mandatory Fun have provided enough good stuff to help negate all this UHF nonsense. "Weird Al" kicked things off last week with his Pharrell spoof "Tacky," and went on to parody Iggy Azalea with "Handy," Lorde with "Foils" and Robin Thicke with "Word Crimes." Yankovic also lampooned fight songs on "Sports Song," used Southern Culture on the Skids' "Camel Walk" as inspiration for poking fun at humblebragers on "Lame Claim to Fame," and even sent up one of his favorite artists, the Pixies, on "First World Problems." The viral torrent wrapped up on Monday with "Mission Statement," a pastiche of Crosby, Stills & Nash, which contained hints of "Carry On" and "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes."

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http://www.avclub.com/article/weird-al- ... off-207273" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[TMBJon]

Fly swatter????? FLY SWATTER????????????????????????

[The Sporkman]

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/ ... e-20140725" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[mrmeadows]

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/ ... e-20140725

Awww...the bit about Al hearing the news about MF debuting at #1 was kinda touching. Just a sec, I think I have something in my eye....