Alfred Matthew Yankovic (born October 23, 1959, in Downey, California), is a musical humourist with a career spanning thirty years.Raised in Lynwood, Al got an accordion and lessons for his seventh birthday; according to him, his parents made the decision because "The world needed one more accordion-playing Yankovic" (the first being polka legend Frankie Yankovic; the two are not related). When he went to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo for an architecture degree, he worked for the school's radio station as a disc jockey, where he got the nickname "Weird Al".He sent three songs to the Dr Demento Show, "Belvedere Cruisin'", "Dr. D Superstar" (never aired), and "My Bologna", a parody of "My Sharona" by The Knack. The Knack's lead singer heard "My Bologna", contacted Al, and got "My Bologna" released as a single. Despite a slow start, including a disastrous opening for Missing Persons, Weird Al released his first album on Scotti Bros. Records in 1983.In 1989, Weird Al starred in the film UHF, and he had a short-lived CBS "kids' show" in the 1990s, The Weird Al Show. He provided the voice of the Squid Hat on The Grim Adventures Of Billy And Mandy (as well as being the announcer in the fighting game based on the show). He has been involved with the Transformers franchise twice: his song "Dare To Be Stupid" was played in the 1986 movie, and he provided the voice of Wreck-Gar in Transformers Animated. He had a recent cameo (as himself) in the Scooby-Doo crossover episode of Batman The Brave And The Bold, where he defeated the Joker with his accordion.Usually releases a new album and goes on tour once every 2-3 years, thus John Garabedian of Open House Party has stated that "Every album is his comeback album, and then he goes away until the next one..."Unlike other parodic artists, Al and his band (who have been together since the 80s) from the second album on (the first album used accordion on every track in keeping with Al's trademark talent) have kept extremely close to the original melodies and instrumentation of the parodied song. The most extreme example is in "Trapped in the Drive-Thru", based off "Trapped in the Closet" by R. Kelly. To those not in the know, it sounds exactly like the original. Al is very sympathetic to geek communities and frequently gives them recognition in his songs.Responsible for the Weird Al Effect, where a parody remains popular long after the original, and his habit of using pop cultural metaphors (AKA "Pulling a Weird Al") led to his being the former trope namer for that.Since there are a lot of songs floating around LimeWire and other peer-to-peer networks falsely attributed to Al, The Not Al List was created to catalog these. A lot of these songs are raunchy, offensive, and the lead vocal vaguely sounds like Al, so since Al is the most-visible parody musician, his name gets attached to them, despite having subject matter and lyrics he would never touch. Even with the occasional subtext, he still aims to be (in his words) a "more or less family-friendly" performer.The best way to tell if a given parody song is his is to look for music videos of them on YouTube. Take your heart medication first. Wouldn't want to Die Laughing.Studio album discography:
Tropes associated with "Weird Al" Yankovic include:
Affectionate Parody: Pretty much all of his original works fall under this. It helps that he always asks permission from the source artist to do a parody of one of his/her/their songs (even though legally he's not required to do so).
Michael Jackson gave Al permission to parody any of his work that he wanted for the rest of his life. The only condition was that Al not record a version of his "Black or White" parody (titled "Snack All Night") as he felt it would cheapen the message of the song. Al agreed and plays the song only at his live shows. Interestingly, this helped Al shake off what he believed to be a dependency on parodies of Jackson, which he already felt were getting a bit stale even before approaching him to parody a song from Dangerous (it doesn't help that those parodies are all food-related).
The only song for which he didn't actually have permission was "Amish Paradise", but there was nothing malicious about it; a miscommunication led Al to believe he actually did have permission, and by the time it was cleared up, it was too late.
However, Coolio (the original artist), got over it and gave Al a hug. As Al put it, "I doubt I'll be invited to Coolio's birthday party, but at least I don't have to wear a bulletproof vest to the mall anymore."
And then he ended up having the exact opposite problem he did with Coolio, this time with Lady Gaga. He announced that his 2011 album was delayed after he was given a flat "no" by her manager when he sent her a recording of "Perform This Way", a parody of "Born This Way" which was intended as the leadoff single. After several hours of Internet Backlash it was revealed that the manager never gave her the song to listen to out of the assumption she would hate it. This of course, turned out to be completely untrue and that upon actually hearing it Gaga said she loved it.
The only Weird Al parody that isn't affectionate is the early 1980s demo "It's Still Billy Joel to Me," which may be part of the reason it didn't appear on his debut album.
Al has also said that "Achey Breaky Song" is pretty harsh, apologized to Billy Ray Cyrus for it and donated the song royalties to the United Cerebral Palsy Association.
That song actually bashes several artists, though Billy Ray Cyrus gets the worst of it. Al recalls being asked by Donny and Marie to play the song on their talk show. The looks on their faces made it clear that they hadn't heard the lyrics which include "You can torture me with Donny and Marie." As mentioned earlier, the singer preferred them, among other artists, to Billy Ray.
"You're Pitiful' a parody of James Blunt's "You're Beautiful" received Blunt's approval and was all ready to be included on "Straight out of Lynwood". But at the last minute, Atlantic Records stepped in and said Al could not put the song in the album. So instead, he released it for free on the internet. And then performed it in concert, slowly peeling off layers of clothing (in parody of the original song's video), one article of which was a t-shirt saying "Atlantic sucks" (and later "Atlantic still sucks").
His White and Nerdy video has Al defacing their Wikipedia page with a big YOU SUCK on it.
All of Them: In "Jerry Springer": "Baby, I've been sleepin' with your sister." "Which one?" "All of 'em!"
Animated Music Video: Several, including "Skipper Dan", "Another Tattoo", and "Party in the CIA".
Anti Christmas Song: "The Night Santa Went Crazy" and "Christmas at Ground Zero".
Anti-Love Song: He's got five great ones: "Since You've Been Gone", "I'm So Sick of You", "You Don't Love Me Anymore", "One More Minute", and let's not forget "I Was Only Kidding".
Some freaks are burning crosses out on my front lawn,
And I don't believe it! All the Cheetos are gone!
"Confessions, Part 3" is all about this. Apparently having a babymama on the side was forgivable, but eating the last of the Rice Krispies was the last straw!
As Himself: In the series finale of Johnny Bravo, he played himself alongside Don Knotts as himself and Gary Owens reprising his role of the Blue Falcon.
Also in an episode of Batman The Brave And The Bold which was doing an homage to an era of Scooby Doo that featured this trope once per episode.
Author Appeal: Most of his parodies are about TV, movies and food.
Awesome, but Impractical: Al doesn't perform the song "Hardware Store" because he isn't sure he could pull the coda off again, especially live.
Similarly, "Albuquerque" - he saves it for the encore, as it wrecks his throat and makes it difficult for him to sing anything else afterward.
Badass Boast: Al's rap parodies tend to be full of these, in keeping with the spirit of the artist being parodied. "It's All About the Pentiums" is a great example. "White and Nerdy" combines this with equal amounts of Self-Deprecation.
"Virus Alert" lists, among the other consequences of the virus, making you physically attracted to sheep.
The spoken interlude of "Jerry Springer" also mentions this. "That goat doesn't love you!"
In "CNR", Charles Nelson Reilly "made sweet, sweet love to a manatee."
Big Eater: Not Al himself, but some of his songs are about this (most obviously, "Fat", "My Bologna", and "Eat It") enough to compile an album in the early 90s. The trope is inverted with his song called "Grapefruit Diet".
In fact, Al became a Vegetarian in the 90s, severely lessening his chances of becoming a Big Eater in the future.
He's also said that watching himself eat while in the fat suit during the filming of "Fat" convinced him he never, ever wanted to be fat himself.
In "CNR", several lines say that Charles Nelson Reilly is this, and also an Extreme Omnivore.
"He ate his own weight in coal/and excreted diamonds every day." "He can eat more frozen waffles/than any other man I know." "I've seen the man unhinge his jaw/and swallow a Volkswagen whole."
"Pretty Fly for a Rabbi" uses Yiddish to make puns such as "The parents pay the mohel and he gets to keep the tip."
"Perform This Way" has « Excusez-moi, qui a pété? », which means "Excuse me, who farted?"
"Taco Grande", much like the song it parodies, is filled with Gratuitous Spanish. While Al's simple phrases are mostly things about foods he wants and paying for them, Cheech Marin's cameo in the bridge is a lengthy recommendation and description of a particularly hot dish and the side effects of eating it, ending by asking if the stupid customer can understand what he's saying.
Bland Name Product: Taco Belle, Starbux, Toysaurus and Homey Depot among others in the music video for "I'll Sue Ya".
Also pretty much every product shown in the "Whatever You Like" video, which is interesting, since many real-world products are named in the song.
Blatant Lies: "(This Song's Just) Six Words Long". The title/chorus might be just six words, but the filler's certainly not. A common fan debate is whether the song's title and lyrics are actually "(This Song Is Just) Six Words Long", which makes seven words.
Blind Without 'Em: His eyesight was extremely poor until he got Lasik surgery in 1997. By then, his glasses had become such an iconic part of his look that fans were disappointed.
I lost one of my socks in the drier I can't find my wallet and my hair is on fire
Brand Name Takeover: Arguably the reason so many non-Al songs are attributed to him. There are thousands of amateur parody artists out there (all you need is an idea and a recorder to make one), but Al is the big guy on the block - no other parody artist comes close to his success. His name has probably become so synonymous with song parodies that this trope kicked in. Al doesn't like it for the reasons explained in the lead.
Brick Joke: After 11 minutes of insanity, the song Albuquerque finally winds its way back to the original point: AL...HATES...SAUERKRAUT!.
Butt Monkey: Ruben Valtierra is often put down by everyone else, probably due to the fact that he was originally added purely to handle keyboard duties on tour while Al (who usually does them on albums) handles other duties. Mostly just played for comedy, though it's notable that he wasn't credited or appeared at all on any albums before Running With Scissors (where he appeared face-down, with scissors sticking out of his back).
His first non-concert appearance in Weird Al's works was the video for "Headline News", in which he portrayed Crash Test Dummies pianist Ellen Reid. A noble start.
Call Back: One of "Al'"s costumes in "Perform This Way" has a hat with a train on it; this hat was also seen in "White and Nerdy".
Al works his mentor, Dr. Demento, into many of his videos.
"I Lost On Jeopardy": The music video takes place on a reproduced version of the 1964-75 set and features both Art Fleming and Don Pardo reprising their roles plus cameo appearances by band members, family members, Demento, and even the guy who sang the song Yankovic was parodying (Greg Kihn).
Seth Green and Donny Osmond make pretty hilarious cameos in the music video of "White and Nerdy"; Weird Al later returned the favor.
Drew Carey shows up in "All About the Pentiums".
Dick Van Patten shows up in a lot of his videos.
Al in other works:
All three The Naked Gun movies. The first and last were As Himself. In the second movie, he's the criminal who Frank opens the door on.
Al has directed several of Ben Folds' videos, and appears as himself in his role as the director in the video for "Rocking The Suburbs".
Al has played the tambourine with Hanson quite a few times.
He also got a humorous moment in Michael Jackson's music video for "Liberian Girl", which is a music video about a bunch of celebrities waiting to film a music video...
Blair Underwood:[Seeing Al's hairdo from behind, and assuming it's Michael] Mikey?
Canada, Eh?: Parodied in "Canadian Idiot," which is a satire on American nationalism.
He's also quite fond of Canada, being one of the few artists that actually tours the country instead of just making "obligatory" stops in Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal.
During the bridge of "Jurassic Park" and the end of "Cavity Search".
The bridge of "Nature Trail to Hell"
"Albuquerque", but a box of one dozen starving, crazed weasels will do that.
Classically Trained Extra: "Skipper Dan" is built on this trope. It's the tale of a former up-and-coming, critically-acclaimed Broadway actor... who is stuck giving shows on the "Jungle Cruise" at Disneyland.
Conspicuous CG: The video for "Perform This Way" features Weird Al's head pasted over a woman's body. The effect works for the most part, but it looks just slightly off...
Crossdresser: Often cross dresses in his music videos.
Just listen to "Truck Driving Song".
Curse Cut Short: The last part of "Another Tattoo", at the very end, is the closest he ever comes to swearing in a song (and those times he included "slut", "hell", and, if you count it, "crap" in his lyrics don't count). The line in question? "Ow! Motherf..."
I'd rather spend eternity eating shards of broken glass Than spend one more minute with you [...] I'd rather rip out my intestines with a fork Than watch you going out with other men
Cause I'm stranded all alone In the gas station of love And I have to use the self-service pumps
Deadpan Snarker: Watching Al in candid interviews where he drops the act reveals a subdued, deadpan humor and dry, sharp wit. A good example of this is the VH-1Behind the Music special.
And: "There's enough people that do unfunny music. I'll leave the serious stuff to Paris Hilton and Kevin Federline."
Deconstruction: Not by him, but with his participation: the Behind The Music featuring Weird Al — who's never had any real career adversity (by music-industry standards) or scandal — deconstructed entertainment behind-the-scenes shows.
Die Laughing: In the video for "Party in the CIA", some of the agency's enemies have caught up with Al, and Al dies this way.
Digital Piracy Is Evil: Averted. Al doesn't have that many problems with people downloading his songs, and instead has many more problems with false attribution, the type that labels him as the author of such songs as "Wienie in a Bottle", "Elmo's Got a Gun", and others that he wouldn't be caught dead singing.
He parodied the phenomenon with "Don't Download This Song", which, ironically, was DRM-free when most online retailers were stuck with it and can be downloaded legally for free.
Al also has a habit of leaking one or more songs from his upcoming albums early, usually by posting it to YouTube or some other such site.
And now for some Irony. YouTube seems to have blocked one person's upload of his music videos in the U.S. due to copyright concerns from Sony...said person is Weird Al himself.
Al also mentions in the DVD Commentary for The Weird Al Show coming across a fansite that was distributing episodes of the show, saying that he was fine with it as long as they stopped after the official DVD release by Shout! Factory.
Al himself authorized his album Alpocalypse to be streamed over the internet a week before its release date.
Disney Acid Sequence: During the instrumental in the middle of the video for "Jurassic Park." This may be a parody of the music videos from the 60's (the era that "MacArthur Park," the song being parodied, was released).
Disproportionate Retribution: In "One More Minute", a malt shop was burnt down just so the song's narrator doesn't want to remember his ex.
In "Albuquerque", he divorces the girl of his dreams and leaves their two kids because she wanted to join the Colombia Record Club
Disturbed Doves: These show up in the music video for "If That Isn't Love" during a couple of repeats of the chorus.
The last verse of "I Remember Larry". The singer ends up tying Larry's mouth with a rag, "[dragging] him by the ankles to the middle of the forest and [stuffing] him in a big plastic bag".
It's hard to bargle nawdle zouss??? With all these marbles in my mouth
And according to the insert for the CD, those are the actual lyrics.
Fan Flattering: Al's band (not Al himself, though he loves his fans, too) recorded the song "Al's Band". The third to last stanza has:
Straight Outta Lynwood we hit top ten White And Nerdy went platinum too We really hope that someday we might do it again If we do we know that it’s all thanks to you All thank you's to you And you're welcome too Come and see us play when you can Then you can see for yourself what is Making all of this happen You're the reason why we play
Game Show Appearance: The subject of "I Lost on Jeopardy". Amusingly, he later appeared on Rock & Roll Jeopardy! in 2001… and lost.
However, he fared much better on a Celebrity Edition of Wheel of Fortune in May 1994. Approrpiately, he won $27,800 on his first appearance, and $2,700 more on the "Friday Finals" tournament at the end of the week.
Genre Roulette: His band is good enough to play any type of music and Al himself can sing in a multitude of styles, able to pull off rock (both classic and modern), country, pop, reggae, boyband, soul, rap, folk and more vocals.
Getting Crap Past the Radar: Although he's a mostly family-friendly singer, lyrics in several of Weird Al's songs go into grey territory. Notable examples include "You Don't Love Me Anymore", which talks about a woman having sex with an entire hockey team, and "Headline News" which mentions the Lorena Bobbitt incident.
In the music video of "Amish Paradise", watch the guy churning butter after the girl walks by.
The singer of "The Truck Drivin' Song" mentions wearing nipple rings and crotchless panties.
In "One More Minute", the narrator is in "the gas station of love", and he has to use the "self-service pumps".
Let's not forget this part of "Close But No Cigar"
She was gorgeous, she was charming Yeah, she was perfect in every way Except she was always using the word 'infer' When she obviously meant 'imply' And I know some guys would put up with that kind of thing But frankly, I can't imagine why
And for no reason now I'll sing in French Excusez-moi, Qui a pété? (Translation: Excuse me, who farted?)
Greatest Hits Album: The Essential "Weird Al" Yankovic, Greatest Hits, Greatest Hits II, and Permanent Record, a four-disc box set of Weird Al's favorite tracks from "My Bologna" to his then-latest single, "Headline News" (which was only available on that box set and Greatest Hits II).
Hell of a Heaven: "Everything You Know Is Wrong" has someone violating Heaven's dress code, and getting stuck with the room next to the noisy ice machine for all eternity. (Suggesting that Heaven is a mid-priced hotel.)
Hitler Cam: Used in "One More Minute" at the end, where Al rips out 'his' (plastic) heart.
Hypocritical Humor: Amish Paradise contains the line "I know I'm a million times as humble as thou art"
Al once made a cameo appearance on Some Jerk With A Camera to...rant about how much he hates celebrity cameos.
Hollywood Nerd: Al played this image up early in his career with the large glasses, white guy Afro, and cheesy mustache. Once he ditched these, around the time "Running with Scissors" came out (although a few videos before then didn't have them), it was suddenly discovered that Mr. Yankovic is actually very good-looking to go along with his geeky charm.
Hollywood Silencer: A sound effect in "Party In The CIA"note A lyrical parody of "Party In The USA" by Miley Cyrus. Lampshaded by the lyric "And my silencer was on".
Iconic Outfit: Earlier in his career, there was a particular pair of horrendously ugly pants given to Al that he wore at every concert (which can be seen on his first album cover). He eventually ditched them. Later, he was known for his large collection of Hawaiian-print shirts and Vans sneakers. He still pulls these out, though not as frequently.
In The Style Of: At least half of Al's non-parodies mimic the style of another significant musician, perhaps the most famous being "Dare To Be Stupid", his take on Devo. In addition, every album but the first and fifth contains a medley of recent hit songs performed as a polka.
"Dog Eat Dog" parodies the Talking Heads, and even includes modified versions of lines from "Once in a Lifetime". Al even puts on a David Byrne-style giant suit when performing this song live.
"Trigger Happy" is a take on the style of of every Beach Boys song ever. Except for the ones he later homaged with "Pancreas".
"Bob" is a bunch of palindromes sung like Bob Dylan. The video even parodies "Subterranean Homesick Blues".
"Close But No Cigar" is an absolutely spot-on pastiche of the band Cake's signature style, including blurty trumpet, ad-libs (yelled off-mic), and rampant Vibra-Slap abuse.
"You Make Me" is a parody in the style of Oingo Boingo, complete with various percussion, a prominent horn section, and distinct guitar solo, all sounding quite Boingo-esque.
In a lot of cases, his "style parodies" are a result of not getting permission to do a parody of an actual song by the band. For example, after Trent Reznor refused to let him do any Nine Inch Nails songs, Weird Al came out with "Germs," which clearly borrows from several NIN songs.
For similar reasons, he has done two songs in the style of Prince: "Traffic Jam" and the indirectly Beck-styled "Wanna B Ur Lovr".
"If That Isn't Love" is mostly a style parody of his close friends, the boys of Hanson, but there's definitely a few jabs at Justin Bieber in there too.
"Mr. Popeil" is a style parody of The B-52's, with Al's female backing vocalistsnote (one of whom, Lisa Popeil, is the daughter of the "Mr. Popeil" the song's named after) doing a perfect imitation of Kate Pierson and Cindy Wilson and Al himself doing the Fred Schneider part.
In a slightly less musical example, Carnival of the Animals, Part Two (the B-side to Peter And The Wolf) includes recited poetry in the style of Ogden Nash.
It's All About Me: "Waffle King", "Why Does This Always Happen To Me?", and "If That Isn't Love" all feature this trope in different ways.
It Will Never Catch On: Al's first show with his band was opening for Missing Persons. It was a disaster, with people booing them offstage and Al wondering if he should give up music.
Karmic Death: "I Remember Larry" which has Larry being murdered by the target of many of his malicious gags, with the target making it sound like it was only another malicious gag.
Limited Wardrobe: Al has almost always been seen wearing a loud Hawaiian shirt, black trousers, and brightly-patterned Vans shoes since the 1980s. Until Al had his vision corrected with LASIK eye surgery in the 1990s, his distinctive large wire-rimmed eyeglasses were also part of his trademark look.
As one [adult swim]Eye Catch observed, if you went back to 1984 and told people that Weird Al was still relevant in 2006 while Michael Jackson had flamed out, they likely wouldn't believe you.
Long Runner Line Up: Jon "Bermuda" Schwartz, Jim West, and Steve Jay have been with him for almost as long. This is an unusual example in that these three are almost totally overshadowed by Weird Al himself.
Al reportedly didn't realize just how harsh this was until the album was released. To make up for it, proceeds for the song were donated to Billy Ray Cyrus's charity of choice (United Cerebral Palsy Association).
Love Martyr: "You Don't Love Me Anymore" takes this trope to extremes.
Also "Good Old Days", a James Taylor-esque folk ballad about childhood. However, this particular childhood involved torturing rats with hacksaws, burning down a corner store and brutally beating the shop owner, and taking a girl from highschool to a dance, and shaving her bald and abandoning her in the desert.
Michael Jackson: The only artist to have more than one song parodied on a studio album, and one of very few whose songs have been so high that Al had to change the key for the parody.
A perfect example is on the album "Straight Outta Lynwood," after his Rage Against the Machine parody "I'll Sue Ya." After an angry song like that one, there's an abrupt guitar chord, which is directly followed by a one-second pause going into "Polkarama," which has the Dance Craze "Chicken Dance" as an intro. Of course, THAT goes into a polka cover of "Let's Get it Started" by The Black-Eyed Peas.
A similar example is on the album "Running With Scissors", where the Nine Inch Nails style parody "Germs" is followed by an intensely happy polka (the first track in the medley being the Spice Girls, for crying out loud). Mood Whiplash at it's finest, folks.
Within the song "That's Your Horoscope for Today", the prediction for Sagittarius goes from the lighthearted, silly predictions for others to "Kill them" in a deep, evil sounding voice without any music playing, then jumps straight back to silly in the very next line.
Morally Ambiguous Ducktorate: Given the content of the song "I Want A New Duck," one presumes a duck of less-than-ideal behavior was already being dealt with.
Motor Mouth: The middle of "Hardware Store". He speaks at a rate of 242 words per minute, or all of the below in 30 seconds and in one breath.
They've got Allen wrenches, gerbil feeders, toilet seats, electric heaters Trash compactors, juice extractors, shower rods and water meters Walkie-talkies, copper wires, safety goggles, radial tires BB pellets, rubber mallets, fans and dehumidifiers Picture hangers, paper cutters, waffle irons, window shutters Paint removers, window louvers, masking tape and plastic gutters Kitchen faucets, folding tables, weather stripping, jumper cables Hooks and tackle, grout and spackle, power foggers, spoons and ladles Pesticides for fumigation, high-performance lubrication Metal roofing, waterproofing, multi-purpose insulation Air compressors, brass connectors, wrecking chisels, smoke detectors Tire gauges, hamster cages, thermostats and bug deflectors Trailer hitch demagnetizers, automatic circumcisers Tennis rackets, angle brackets, Duracells and Energizers Soffit panels, circuit breakers, vacuum cleaners, coffee makers Calculators, generators, matching salt and pepper shakers...
Let it be known that the aforementioned listing is the main reason Al won't do the song on tour. He apparently doesn't think he can do it again.
Also in the middle of "Your Horoscope for Today," also all in one breath:
Now you may find it inconceivable or at the very least a bit unlikely that the relative position of the planets and the stars could have a special deep significance or meaning that exclusively applies to only you, but let me give you my assurance that these forecasts and predictions are all based on solid, scientific, documented evidence, so you would have to be some kind of moron not to realize that every single one of them is absolutely true. Where was I?
Mockumentary: Two, actually. There's the rare "The Compleat Al," made to help promote the Dare To Be Stupid album, and the Disney Channel combination Mockumentary / Rockumentary "There's No Going Home", which was included as an Easter Egg on the Running With Scissors album.
Mohs Scale of Rock and Metal Hardness: Generally from 1 (e.g. "You Don't Love Me Anymore") to 5-6 (e.g. "I'll Sue Ya", "Germs"). "Bite Me" is the exception - it meets the criteria for a 10.
I hopped up and said, "I don't know, do you want to get something delivered?" And she's like, "Why would I want to eat liver? I don't even like liver." I'm like, "No, I said 'delivered'." She's like, "I heard you say liver." I'm like, "I should know what I said." She's like, "Whatever... I just don't want any liver."
Mouthful of Pi: In White and Nerdy the title character claims to know Pi to a thousand places.
Nice Guy: Although fair-use law regarding parody mean Al doesn't need anyone's permission, he makes sure that he does have permission from an artist in order to poke fun. This has worked out for him in several ways, with the originals artists often contributing resources to the final project to thank him for his politeness.
Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: Many of his songs, mostly the ones involving talk shows, are LOADED with this!
Nose Nuggets: "Gotta Boogie". ("Gotta boogie on my finger and I can't shake it off!")
"Not Making This Up" Disclaimer: In the booklet that came with Permanent Record, Al notes that the song "Midnight Star" (about ridiculous tabloid headlines) contained mostly real headlines from various tabloids. He specifically noted that he held onto one about The Incredible Frog Boy from the Weekly World News for years.
Once an Album: Almost every albumnote "Weird Al Yankovic" and "Even Worse" are the odd ones out here contains one polka medley of songs popular at the time note The exceptions being "The Hot Rocks Polka", which is a medley of Rolling Stones' songs from a wider span of time, and "Bohemian Polka" is a double-speed full cover of "Bohemian Rhapsody", and one song in any style ripping on TV shows popular at the time. There's also always at least one song about food.
Oh, I accidentally shot Daddy last night in the den
I mistook him in the dark for a drug-crazed Nazi again
Now why'd you have to get so mad?
It's just a lousy flesh wound, Dad
You know I'm trigger happy, trigger happy every day
Parody Assistance: Sometimes Al gets more than just permission to parody an artist's songs. Michael Jackson donated the subway set used for "Badder" (the kid version of "Bad" filmed for Moonwalker) to Yankovic for his parody "Fat", Ray Manzarek of The Doors played keyboards and bass on "Craigslist", and Mark Knopfler would only allow Al to parody "Money for Nothing" if he was permitted to do the guitar work himself.
Ben Folds played piano on "Why Does This Always Happen To Me"... which is a parody of Ben Folds songs. "Genius in France", a style parody of Frank Zappa features Frank's son Dweezil on guitar.
Though more of a stretch, singer and voice coach Lisa Popeil has done female backup vocals for Al since 1983. The first song to feature her? "Mr. Popeil", a song that makes fun of her father's products and brother's infomercials in the style of The B-52's.
James Brown arranged for Al to record the music video for "Living With a Hernia" using the backdrop where he performed the original "Living in America" song in Rocky IV.
On Al's 2011 album Alpocalypse, he did a style parody of Hanson called "If That Isn't Love." Al and the Hanson brothers are friends, and Taylor Hanson plays keyboards on the song.
The "Smells Like Nirvana" video actually had some of the actors from the original "Smells Like Teen Spirit" video including the janitor.
Precision F-Strike: In "Jerry Springer"; appropriately, Yankovic himself doesn't use the word, but guest vocalist Tress MacNeille does during a portion of the song parodying a typical episode of the show:
Tress MacNeille: Woofie, you bitch!
...and even then it's a pun on "female dog".
Yankovic himself finally gets one in with the comparatively mild "You cheap bastard!" during the outro of "Don't Download This Song".
Pun: Real life example: one of his long time band members goes by "Bermuda" Schwartz.
Another possible example in "I Remember Larry," after he talks about tying the titular pranker's mouth with a rag and leaving him for dead:
If the cops ever find him, who knows what they'll say But I'm sure if ol' Lar were still with us today He would have to agree with me - it was a pretty good gag!
Most of "Party at the Leper Colony", but especially:
There's a guy in the hot tub, I don't know who Wait a minute, it looks like Stu!
From "Perform This Way," regarding Gaga's meat dress, which the woman in the video also wears:
I'll strap prime rib to my feet, cover myself with raw meat I'll bet you've never seen a skirt steak worn this way
Ripped from the Headlines: "Headline News" has three verses describing the American kid who got caned in Singapore, the Nancy Kerrigan incident, and Lorena Bobbitt.
And new verses (from the 2007 tour) about Paris Hilton's DUI and Britney Spears' going commando and head shave.
"Midnight Star" contains several headlines from actual supermarket tabloids including one about "The Incredible Frog-Boy!"
Self-Backing Vocalist: A large amount of the time. Notable exceptions include female vocals, lines low enough to be sung by Steve Jay, and several songs such as "Trigger Happy" and "Don't Download This Song".
Since You Been Gone, an acapella number done entirely by Al's numerous inflections.
Self-Deprecation: Al has admitted (re "Skipper Dan") that he feels a certain sympathy with actual Disney Jungle Cruise tour guides, as his own live shows can get repetitive for him. This makes the following line a bit of a Take That Me:
Shoulders of Doom: When performing "Dog Eat Dog", a style parody of Talking Heads, Al wears a suit with massive shoulderpads as a spoof of David Byrne's Iconic Outfit. He also wears it briefly in the "UHF" video.
According to Word ofAl, "Slime Creatures from Outer Space" includes a line from an SCTV sketch, and the vinyl of Dare to Be Stupid had "More Songs About TV and Food" etched into the inner groove.
"Alpocalypse" has a song called "CNR" which contains a shout-out to Jim Croce.
There is even a Shout OutTO Al out there. Chamillionaire's remix of "Ridin'" called "Ridin' Overseas" mentions "White And Nerdy". (1:59 in the linked video)
A year later, after "White And Nerdy",
On the grind, still tryin', still flyin' birdies.
"Running With Scissors" has two shout-outs to Monty Python. "The Truck Drivin' Song" to "The Lumberjack Song" (both about a man in a masculine occupation who likes to dress in ladies' clothing) and in "Albuquerque" a donut shop that has no donuts (referencing the "Cheese Shop" sketch).
White and nerdy also mentions Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
As mentioned above, Shaped Like Itself line in "Albuquerque" is a reference to the Cheech And Chong song, "Basketball Jones."
"Trigger Happy" and "Pancreas", his Beach Boys homages; the former song has elements of "Fun, Fun, Fun", "Catch A Wave", "No-Go Showboat", "Surfin USA", and "Little Deuce Coupe" in it; the latter has elements of "Our Prayer", "Do You Like Worms", "God Only Knows", "I Know There's An Answer", "Wind Chimes", "Heroes and Villains", and "Good Vibrations", all in one song.
In live performances of "Skipper Dan", Al even uses the two-fingered style of pointing at things required of actual Disneyland cast members.
Signed Up for the Dental: According to "Party In the CIA", they have a better dental plan than the FBI.
Small Reference Pools: In addition to the part about parody musicians, there are a number of people to this day (as evidenced by the comments left on videos on YouTube) that don't realize Al does original songs as well, due to his biggest hits all being parodies.
Spell My Name with an S: He doesn't like it when people pronounce his last name "Yank-o-VITCH" (or spell it with an 'H'). His band elaborates in "Al's Band".
Spiritual Successor: "Polka Face" is essentially "Polkarama!" with more modern songs.
Face to Face with "Weird Al" Yankovic, a Web Original which sees Al "interviewing" celebrities, is this to Al TV.
Spoofed With Their Own Words: Weird Al usually thinks up silly imagery to put into his song parodies, but in "Perform this Way," most of the lyrics mention things Lady Gaga has actually done, like being born out of an egg on stage.
Stalker with a Crush: "Melanie". Complete with peeping into her bathroom with a telescope and willing to jump out a 16 story window for her love.
Stock Scream: During the "Perform This Way" video, after the line, "I'll poke your eye out with a dress like this." S/he hits a backup dancer with the spiky dress and, well... "AAUGH!"
Subverted Rhyme Every Occasion: Al does this a couple of times to get around cursing, like in this couplet from "I'm So Sick Of You":
You don't have an ounce of class You're just one big pain in the neck!
Also "This Song Is Just Six Words Long":
I know if I put my mind to it I know I could find a good rhyme here note Probably a rip on the parodied song rhyming the word "it" with ..."it."
Take That: "One More Minute" was written to get over an ex, and he rips her picture in the video.
Not to mention the lengthy one against Atlantic Records over his James Blunt parody "You're Pitiful," which eventually led to Wikipedia being forced to lock Atlantic's entry due to excessive vandalism.
Which was caused by Al pretending to deface that entry in his video for "White and Nerdy".
There's also the unreleased "It's Still Billy Joel to Me" (parody of "It's Still Rock and Roll to Me"), which is no more than one long attack on Billy Joel.
Al generally tries to avoid blatantly making fun an artist who has given him permission to parody their work, but sometimes he does his fair share of good-natured ribbing, example include the above mentioned "It's Still Billy Joel to Me," "Smells Like Nirvana," and "Perform This Way."
"Brady Bunch" and "Achy Breaky Song" are thematically similar, in that Al would rather do literally anything than watch/listen to the aforementioned subjects (The Brady Bunch and "Achy Breaky Heart", respectively). In the case of the latter, Al chose to donate the single's grosses to a charity of Billy Ray Cyrus' choice after deciding the song was on the harsh side.
"My Baby's In Love With Eddie Vedder" is more sarcastic than harsh, and Al even apologizes in the liner notes.
"I'll Sue Ya" is about Al's string of frivolous lawsuits. "I sued Delta Airlines, 'cause they sold me a ticket to New Jersey. I went there, and it SUCKED!"
When he comes to Ben Affleck, there's silence in the spot where normally he gives the reason for the lawsuit. Finally he just asks "do I even need a reason?"
Al rags on Pauly Shore every once in a while.
Usually, his Al TV fake interviews with music celebrities are Affectionate Parodies with just some light ribbing. His Kevin Federline interview, however, is just nine minutes of Al completely ripping into his music, his personal life, and him in general.
"TMZ" manages to be a Take That to the website and the bad celebrity behavior that ends up on the website.
Generally averted by Weird Al in his song "It's All About The Pentiums." Some of the jokes haven't aged well (Y2K, the trademark "Pentium" itself has moved from top-of-the-line CPUs to cheap bottom-shelf models, etc.), but the "Hundred Gigabytes of RAM" remains an impossibly large amount, and the "Flat Screen Monitor Forty Inches Wide" is still huge. However, it is oddly appropriate given that he talks about getting a top of the line model that was obsolete before he even opened the box.
The screen issue in the song is an Averted Trope because TV companies have the same problem with TV sets as monitor manufacturers have - there's only so big you can make them. The ratio to human eyes and human perception remain the same. If the price for the bigger sets went down, they would have to introduce a room-size to be their top, money-making model, and living rooms are only so big. Getting back to Weird Al, he actually lampshades this in "Frank's 2000 inch TV". (A 2000 inch TV set would be 166 feet)
Weird Al's first popular music polka medley was released in 1984 and titled "Polkas on 45", referring to 45 rpm record singles. At the time it was a bit of a joke - polkas were from an era long before 45's. Now that 45's have been out of mainline production for almost a quarter century so both are considered quaint now, taking away from the original intention.
It's likely his original intention was to reference Stars on 45, a group well known for making disco medleys of other people's songs. He did the same thing, but with a polka! (The title of his second polka medley, "Hooked On Polkas", referenced fellow disco medley project Hooked On Classics.)
Of course, Stars on 45 themselves was named after the 45rpm singles.
On Bad Hair Day, Al has a song called "Phony Calls", about the old pastime of prank phone calls - a practice which has been practically killed for the amateur by caller ID and star-69.
One of the prizes Al misses out on in "I Lost On Jeopardy" is a 20-volume set of encyclopedias. Encyclopedias which are that comprehensive are no longer published in hardcopy form.
On "White and Nerdy", Al says "My MySpace Page is totally pimped out. Got people begging for my top eight spaces". Back in 2006 when the song was released, MySpace was the top social networking site. However, it was eventually superseded by Facebook- which engages in no such ranking- and now MySpace is much more of a niche site that has nowhere near as many users.
Teen Genius: Al was one growing up not only graduating high school at the age of sixteen, but was also valedictorian.
The Show Must Go On: Al went ahead with a concert just hours after learning his parents had passed away in their home from accidental carbon monoxide poisoning.
Toilet Seat Divorce: Apparently the Columbia Record Club is too big of a commitment for Al.
''The only question I ever thought was hard Was do I like Kirk or do I like Picardnote Given that he mentions liking Earl Grey tea earlier, its possible the answer is Picard.
Turn Your Head and Cough: In the song "Living With A Hernia," the narrator goes to see his physician, Dr. Jones, who we are told takes off the narrator's pants and tells him to cough.
Triple Nipple: "CNR" claims that Charles Nelson Reilly had a third nipple on the back of his neck.
I gotta tell ya, life without a head kinda makes me irritated What a bummer
Unintentional Period Piece: All of his parodies hark back to some (possibly forgotten) hit or the era it came from. "Headline News", however, is not only a parody but recounts a few of the big news stories of the early 1990's:
The "Kid who took a trip to Singapore" is Michael P. Fay
The "Girl who swore that someday she would be a figure skating champion" is Tonya Harding
The "Guy who made his wife so mad one night that she cut off his wiener" is about John and Lorena Bobbitt
Useless Spleen: "Pancreas" has the line "My spleen just doesn't matter."
Wacky Sound Effect: Present in a few songs, but noticeable in the beginning of the video for "Eat It".
What Could Have Been: Bassist Steve Jay almost got a chance to audition for Frank Zappa, but didn't quite make it. So then he answered a newspaper ad from some guy named Al...
Al's also had songs refused by the original artists for a variety of reasons. Among them are "Chicken Pot Pie" ("Live and Let Die", rejected because Paul thought it promoted eating meat) and "Snack All Night" (Black or White, rejected because Michael Jackson felt it undermined the anti-racism sentiment of the original)
Wiki Vandal: He pretends to replace the entire Atlantic Records Wikipedia entry with the phrase "YOU SUCK!" in 72-point letters during the video of "White And Nerdy."
As mentioned above, the real Wikipedia entry for Atlantic Records had to be locked because of legions of ticked-off Al fans doing the same thing.
Writer Revolt: Girls Just Wanna Have Lunch, widely considered his worst song by a wide margin, and deliberately so.
Yes Virginia: Now Santa's Doing Time. In a Federal prison, for his infamous crime.
Or... Yes, Virginia: Now Santa Claus Is Dead. Some guy from the SWAT team blew a hole through his head.
You Don't Look Like You: Al looks almost nothing like the above image nowadays, thanks to laser eye surgery and an image change. Some early videos ("Ricky", "UHF") foreshadowed his modern appearance.
Al himself has relayed a story of a television appearance he had soon after the surgery and shaving off his moustache (The Drew Carey Show, season 4 episode 4, "Drew Between the Rock and a Hard Place"). The people at the TV studio wanted him in his "classic" look, and got him prop eyeglasses and a fake moustache. Al described the experience as surreal, "like I was wearing a Weird Al Halloween costume". See it here.
Averted, however, with a recent appearance on How I Met Your Mother — the segment Al appears in takes place in 1985, and he looks almost exactly like he did in those days.
Your Head Asplode: Al's head explodes while holding out the last note to the opening theme of Spy Hard, a Shout Out to the rumor that Tom Jones passed out while holding the last note of the opening theme of Thunderball.
You Watch Too Much X: Al has described himself as watching too much television. Also the focus of a few songs, like "Cable TV".
Al has a song about television on nearly every album. Enough for his label to compile them into a full-length album of its own.
Hell, the song "Jerry Springer" is basically all about this trope.
was created to catalog these. A lot of these songs are raunchy, offensive, and the lead vocal vaguely sounds like Al, so since Al is the most-visible parody musician, his name gets attached to them, despite having subject matter and lyrics he would never touch. Even with the occasional subtext, he still aims to be (in his words) a "more or less family-friendly" performer.The best way to tell if a given parody song is his is to look for music videos of them on YouTube. Take your heart medication first. Wouldn't want to Die Laughing.Studio album discography:
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