Albums: "Weird Al" Yankovic (1983) | "Weird Al" Yankovic in 3-D | Dare to Be Stupid | Polka Party! | Even Worse | UHF - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack and Other Stuff | Off the Deep End | Alapalooza | Bad Hair Day | Running with Scissors | Poodle Hat | Straight Outta Lynwood | Alpocalypse | Mandatory Fun
Films: UHF | Weird: The Al Yankovic Story
- Americans Hate Tingle: Apparently Indians don't find the action-movie depiction of their former spiritual leader in the spoof trailer "Gandhi II" all that funny. Al dropped the segment from his rotation of clips to show during costume changes during his concerts by 2019 and replaced it with the firehose scene.
- Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: Any of the parodies George imagines qualify.
- So do the wacko commercials.
- Critical Dissonance: The movie was shredded by most critics at its release, but is beloved by fans and has since gone on to become a Cult Classic.
- Crosses the Line Twice
- Raul's cruelty towards the animals on his show would be disheartening if it weren't so cartoonishly absurd. Among other things, he throws a turtle at the ceiling to make it "stick" (which apparently works) and tosses poodles outside his apartment window to try and make them fly— with a visible pile of dead poodles outside the building.
- Speaking of hilarious animal abuse, earlier we have George holding his aunt and uncle's dog and trying to ladle punch from the punch bowl into its mouth, then absent-mindedly dumping the animal into the punch bowl when his aunt calls him over.
- Stanley letting a kid drink from a high-pressure firehose. So painful... yet so awesome.
- Gandhi 2 revels in Comically Missing the Point, depicting the title character as a violent, meat-eating playboy, and every second of it is wonderful.
- Bob getting whacked in the face with a frying pan shouldn't be funny. But George's overtly cheerful expression and the wince of the camera man make it quite hilarious.
- Ensemble Dark Horse: Kuni only appears in a few scenes but he's one of the most popular characters in the film, not only for having some of the most quotable lines, but also his and his students' Big Damn Heroes moment near the end. He's enough of a fan favorite that Gedde Watanabe even reprised the role in an episode of The Weird Al Show years later.
- Raul Hernandez as well. Although he only appears in two scenes, he manages to be hilarious.
- Fan Nickname: Known in some circles as simply "The Weird Al Movie," as it was Al's only major role in a motion picture. This became less used once Weird: The Al Yankovic Story was released, as there now exists two films that can unambiguously be called "The Weird Al Movie", even though Al doesn't play the starring role in the latter.
- Epileptic Trees: One theory concerning the head thug
(named "Frankie" in deleted scenes) played by David Proval, who would later play Richie Aprile in The Sopranos, posits Aprile and "Frankie" are in fact the same person; his prison stint was the direct result of his botched kidnapping of Stanley. (It should be noted that other deleted scenes had "Frankie" crashing his car and apparently killing him and the other thugs, but since those scenes never made it into the final cut you could ignore them, or simply say they survived the car crash.) - Ham and Cheese: Kevin McCarthy hadn't done many comic roles before, but he understood just how silly the movie is supposed to be and is clearly having every bit as much fun with it as everyone else. Weird Al says on the commentary that after nearly every take, McCarthy would instantly drop character and burst into laughter (and, presumably, start flossing bits of the scenery out of his teeth).
- Harsher in Hindsight:
- On the DVD, released in 2002, Al praises Michael Richards by saying "You could turn a camera on him and tell him to go nuts for two minutes." Four years later, Michael Richards had a (cell phone) camera turned on him during a standup show and went nuts on two black audience members by screaming every conceivable racist obscenity he could... for two minutes. Al even alluded the incident on his song "TMZ" nine years later: "It's getting to the point/Where a famous person can't/Even get a DUI/Or go on a racist rant."
- It's difficult to watch a movie in which Weird Al is best friends with Michael Richards and Victoria Jackson, as well as listen to their cameos on the DVD commentary, after he's admitted to cutting ties with both of them once their respective racist tendencies came out (Richards with his aforementioned on-stage meltdown at The Laugh Factory, Victoria Jackson's "Obama is a secret Muslim!" tirade).
- In the commentary, Al mentions a case of this where he mentions meeting a couple who loved the Spatula City promo so much they got "His and Her" spatula tattoos, then notes he found out they later broke up.
- Heartwarming in Hindsight: The scene where Bob reveals that U62 is number one in the ratings, thoroughly stunning George. 25 years, almost to the day, after this film was released, Weird Al's 2014 release Mandatory Fun would be his first number one album in Real Life.
- Heartwarming Moments
- When George introduces himself to Pam, she blows up in frustration that she's been working there for two years as a receptionist with the promise that she'd eventually be moved up to news anchor. George's first order of business as manager? Adding news segments to the lineup so she can do what she really wants to do there. And she's clearly in her element during these segments.
- George hires Stanley Spadowski as his new janitor, minutes after he was unfairly fired by RJ. Mind you, Channel 62 is facing bankruptcy and George may not have enough money to pay Stanley, but his small act of kindness would pay off for both Stanley and Channel 62.
- While the scene of Richard tripping Noodles, causing him to scrape his elbow, is quite sad, it's happily compounded by the scene immediately afterward of Pamela tending to his wounds back at the station.
- After unknowingly twisting the knife on R.J. Fletcher's Humiliation Conga and causing him to break down crying, the old bum hugs him in a "there, there" manner, despite obviously having no idea what Fletcher is so upset about.
- He Really Can Act: Subverted. Al knew he was not an especially good actor and asked that the studio hire him an acting coach so he'd "suck a little bit less." His stone-faced performing in the opening Indiana Jones parody prove that they were not wasted.
- Hilarious in Hindsight:
- Watch Raul's Wild Kingdom and tell me he's not eerily prescient of Cesar Milan.
- Kevin McCarthy played a studio owner similar to (but not as evil as) R.J. Fletcher in the Columbo episode "Requiem for a Falling Star".
- Gandhi 2 is an Actionized Sequel to a film about the life of a famous religious figure. This is before Family Guy did the same for Jesus. Or, for that matter, before AI-driven war freak Gandhi of Civilization was a thing.
- Grown adults becoming obsessed with a kid's show might have seemed ridiculous at the time, before shows like The Ren & Stimpy Show, The Powerpuff Girls (1998), SpongeBob SquarePants, Sailor Moon made adult fanbases for kid's shows far more common.
- The interiors for Channel 62 and Channel 8 were constructed in a failed Tulsa shopping mall, the Kensington Galleria. A few years after the movie, an actual TV network, the Prevue Channel (predecessor to Pop TV) turned much of the former mall into their headquarters (meaning mall shops were replaced with control rooms and the like).
- The main character's name being George Newman, given that Michael Richards soon starred on Seinfeld, which featured the characters George Costanza and Newman.
- Stanley Spadowski's gangling physical appearance, lovably goofy Cloud Cuckoolander personality, and tendency to chuckle idly to himself make him seem remarkably like a prototype of Ed from Ed, Edd n Eddy. What's more, the similarities between the two characters are apparently purely coincidental, since Stanley has never been acknowledged as an inspiration by the show's creator and executive producer, Danny Antonucci.
- Jerkass Woobie:
- Fletcher's son Richard. He may be an incompetent suck up, but when you see how badly his father treats him it's hard not to feel a little sorry for him.
- Probably the only reason R.J. Fletcher doesn't get arrested for kidnapping after his otherwise brutal Humiliation Conga. The old bum who reveals that he played a huge role in Fletcher's downfall even gives Fletcher a warm hug and offers a shoulder to cry on. Awwwww...
- Memetic Mutation:
- Nausea Fuel
- Emo Phillips getting his thumb cut off and casually spewing blood all over the place. The couple of deleted endings to the scenenote were somehow grosser!
- The Twinkie Weiner Sandwich. In case it wasn't obvious just from looking at it, anyone who's made them in real life can attest that hot dogs and cream-filled snack cakes do not mix, though just as many have said that it's not inedible, just weird-tasting. For what it's worth, though, it got put into the movie not for the sake of random wackiness, but because it really is a snack that "Weird" Al personally enjoys (albeit with veggie-weenies nowadays).
- Nightmare Fuel:
- George being chased by an unusually persistent boulder in the opening dream sequence. Bereft of context, the idea of a giant, sentient rock determined to hunt you down to the ends of the Earth and crush you can be quite frightening.
- Philo's true form. The effect was done by the same people behind Large Marge.
- Parody Displacement: In the Spatula City ad, one of the gags is Sy Greenbloom saying, "I liked their spatulas so much, I bought the company." To younger viewers, this is merely a nonsensical gag, but it's actually based on a famous ad campaign for Remington from 1979.
- Tear Jerker
- Richard tripping Noodles, who's running with a camera, then mocking him by saying "Awww, did I do that? Whoopsie!" When Noodles gets back up and reveals his scraped elbow, he looks like he's about to cry. This act of petty bullying is one of the only scenes in the movie that's not played for laughs at all and perfectly establishes just how cruel the Fletchers are capable of being. Thankfully, The Dog Bites Back at the end.
- George's look of utter defeat when he's told that U62 is going to be flat broke mere days after he's started managing it.George (defeated): I never should've taken this job.
Al (on the commentary): I'm remembering when my dog died!
- Token Romance: George and Teri. Teri could probably be cut from the movie entirely, really, as she feels wildly out of place in the film's absurdist World of Ham.
- Unintentional Period Piece:
- Younger viewers probably have no idea what the film's title even means, since things like VHF and UHF broadcasting are obsolete in this day and age. note Independent UHF stations were common in the 1980s in many American TV markets, especially in large metro areas. The closest equivalent in The New '10s would have the characters running a popular Youtube channel or similar.
- Also, a lot of gags, while still funny, would seem more random to people born after the '80s who don't know the references. Like the the Town Talk promo, which pokes fun at specific moments in Geraldo Rivera's career. Or why Crazy Ernie was threatening to club a baby seal.
- The "UHF" song/music video is modeled after those 2-to-3 minute long fall promo campaigns the Big 3/Big 4 networks used to make every year throughout the '80s and most of the '90s; these went out of fashion by the 2000s, and networks rarely even use a slogan, let along making gigantic promos where practically every actor, commentator, anchor, or cartoon character they have interact with each other. (Stanley going "Be there! Huh, yeah." at the end of the U-62 promo is specifically a parody of NBC's 1983 Be There promo campaign, where stars of their shows would tell you that at the end of promos; this carried on through 1985 as Let's All Be There and the promo style carried on through 1987.)
- Values Dissonance: At one point, Teri goes into her apartment and finds a whole bunch of stuff George left her in hopes of getting back together. This would probably be seen as rather stalker-ish these days, although in fairness he probably still had a key to her apartment; it's also noted he made a genuine mistake and desperately wants to make up for it, and isn't taking it to completely insane levels of creepery.
- Values Resonance:
- This incredibly heartfelt article from GamesRadar describes UHF as a precursor to all of the things that would eventually make YouTube and web-based content so great: U62 celebrates, even encourages, the exact kind of individual quirkiness that mainstream media is so (seemingly) opposed to, and can be seen as a safe haven for “otherness” where everyone shares a mutual respect for being themselves. Even the more questionable characters like Kuni and Noodles are treated with the utmost respect and are never used as the butt of a joke. George's solution to save the station by selling stock to the townspeople even reads as a primitive form of crowdfunding.
- The premise of a network that broadcasts series or movies that no other channel would broadcast sounds very similar to that of many streaming services such as Netflix, Hulu and others, which broadcast series or movies that no other channel would, albeit neither as insane as the movie does.
- U62's model of broadcasting is shockingly similar to how Canada's Citytv started back in the 70s and 80s, as a small, yet diverse, low-budget UHF station in Toronto (originally on channel 79, then beginning in 1983, channel 57) that filled their schedule with unique local shows, before it was homogenized into a corporate TV chain largely concerned with imports and infomercials; to further the connection, Al himself took over Citytv's ex-sister network MuchMusic several times for his "AlMusic" specials, once even wandering over into the CityPulse newsroom before segueing into the UHF music video.
- Stanley's kids show is popular enough to attract the attention of grown men. Nowadays, adult fandoms over kids properties is not nearly as frowned upon.
- This incredibly heartfelt article
- What Do You Mean, It's Not for Kids?: In-Universe example with Stanley Spadowski's Clubhouse. From cussing in his monologues to pulling a rubber lizard out of his pants, a lot of Stanley's antics seem to be aimed at his adult audience as much as they are at children.
- Woolseyism:
- For some reason, the Italian version omits the "Hey baldy!" exchange during the "Gandhi II" skit, making it look like Gandhi flips out for no reason at all.
- The same happens in the Latin American Spanish dub, except it was replaced with "Hey Gandhi!" instead. It should be noted, however, that the people addressing Gandhi does this in a very aggresive tone, implying that they were planning to kill him first, hence Ghandi's response.
