History Trivia / WeirdAlYankovic

** Good luck finding any extended copies of ''Off the Deep End'', where the JumpScare parody of Music/{{Nirvana}}'s "Endless, Nameless", "Bite Me" is tagged at the end.[[note]]How to tell? If the last track, "You Don't Love Me Anymore" says it's over 14 minutes long, instead of its original 4 minutes, then "Bite Me" will be there.[[/note]] The "song" itself can be found on [=YouTube=], but that's about it.

** Good luck finding any extended copies of ''Off the Deep End'', where the JumpScare parody of Music/{{Nirvana}}'s "Endless, Nameless", "Bite Me"[[note]]The "song" itself can be found on [=YouTube=], but that's about it. [[/note]] is tagged at the end. How to tell? If the last track, "You Don't Love Me Anymore" says it's over 14 minutes long, instead of its original 4 minutes, then "Bite Me" will be there.

** Good luck finding any extended copies of ''Off the Deep End'', where the JumpScare parody of Music/{{Nirvana}}'s "Endless, Nameless", "Bite Me"[[note]]The "song" itself can be found on [=YouTube=], but that's about it. [[/note]] is tagged at the end. How to tell? If the last track, "You Don't Love Me Anymore" says it's over 14 minutes long, instead of its original 4 minutes long, then "Bite Me" will be there.

* ExecutiveMeddling:
** Used in the more traditional sense with the song "You're Pitiful" which was supposed to be a parody of James Blunt's "You're Beautiful". James said yes, but the higher-ups said no, and the song was only released on Al's website for free.
** "Yoda" was originally supposed to be released on his first album, but copyright issues with Creator/{{Lucasfilm}} led to it being delayed until the ''Dare To Be Stupid'' album -- five years after [[Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack the movie it was spoofing]] had been released.

* MoneyDearBoy: His stated reason for recording "Eat It" and "Like a Surgeon". The former was his biggest chart hit until "White and Nerdy."
** His indifference towards "Like a Surgeon" was discussed on ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'', which had one of the main characters write the song in a fan-letter rather than actually making it himself.
** In-song reason for making “(This Song’s Just) Six Words Long”, which may be [[TakeThat a shot at]] the writers of the original, “Got My Mind Set on You.”
* NamesTheSame: In his ''Fat'' music video, one thug recalls that he hasn't seen the main character at Burger World lately; in ''Film/{{UHF}}'', "Burger World" is the name of the restaurant Al's character initially works at. Burger World is also the name of the fast food restaurant that [[{{WesternAnimation/BeavisAndButthead}} Beavis and Butthead]] work at.

** Nick and Mary Yankovic, Al's real-life parents, are seen in the video for "I Lost on Series/{{Jeopardy}}" at the point where announcer Don Pardo tells Al he's "brought shame and disgrace on [his] family name for generations to come!"
** Al's Aunt Dot is the jumping cave woman in "Bedrock Anthem".

* TechnologyMarchesOn:
** 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.
** On "White and Nerdy", Al says "My Website/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.
* ThrowItIn:
** The picture falling off the wall at the beginning of the video for "Eat It" wasn't intended but fit the mood well enough that they used that take.

** Had Music/{{Weezer}} frontman Rivers Cuomo not revoked permission at the last second, "The Alternative Polka" would have included [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXsbVQM8SP4 a snippet of "Buddy Holly."]]

** Al pitched "Bad Date" when he needed something to replace "You're Pitiful" on ''Straight Outta Lynwood''. Daniel Powter initially gave it a thumbs down, but he changed his mind ''the day before'' Al recorded "White and Nerdy". By that time, "the train had left the station" in Al's words.

* WriterRevolt:
** "Christmas at Ground Zero" was his response to the label forcing him to write a Christmas single.
** When his label decided to release the two compilation albums ''The Food Album'' and ''The TV Album'' for [[MoneyDearBoy a quick buck]], Al commissioned gruesome covers for both as a form of "[[TakeThat passive-aggressive protest]]" so that "...every time I look at this album that I hate, I'll laugh and I won't hate it": for ''Food'', an illustration of Al's skeleton having just been picked clean by a monster (drawn by famed Creator/{{Nickelodeon}} animator Creator/MrLawrence) to illustrate how the label had "[bled] his catalogue dry", and for ''TV'', a cartoon of Al sadistically blowing up a television set.

* AccidentallyCorrectWriting:
** "Yoda," originally written in 1980, correctly predicted that Mark Hamill would play the role of Luke Skywalker until he's "old and gray." Al also wasn't too far off when claiming "they'll be making [''Franchise/StarWars''] movies 'til the end of time."
** "The Saga Begins" was written entirely by searching for spoilers of ''Film/ThePhantomMenace'' online. After attending a costly pre-screening for charity, Al discovered most of it was right and his lyrics only needed minor changes!

* CreatorBacklash:
** After some time, Al admitted he wasn't fond of "Achy Breaky Song", feeling that it was a bit mean-spirited.
** As detailed below, he was ''not'' happy with his label rushing out ''The Food Album'' and ''The TV Album'' compilations just to [[MoneyDearBoy make a quick buck]].
** While "Amish Paradise" remains a concert staple, Al admitted that, had he known that Coolio would initially disapprove of it, he never would have recorded it.
** Al was understandably peeved when Creator/{{E}} asked him to write a theme for ''Talk Soup'' only for the network to balk at using his song for the show.

** Essentially the cause of Coolio's beef with Weird Al. Al usually got permission directly from celebrities for his parodies (even though he does not legally have to) but occasionally relied on the studio heads to do that for him. His producer got permission from Coolio's producer but not Coolio. After that incident, Al goes directly to the artist for permission.

* RealitySubtext:
** Al wrote "One More Minute" to get over an ex who dumped him. He even rips up her picture in the music video.

* SavedFromDevelopmentHell: Al had problems with ''Off The Deep End'' due to rejections from Michael Jackson and [[Music/PaulMcCartney Paul McCartney]] (though they were very respectful about it) and after his hiatus at the time wanted to come back strong with a parody of a major hit. Cue Smells Like Teen Spirit becoming huge and thus Smells Like Nirvana was born and the album got on the release track.

** "It's All About the Pentiums" almost squeaks by, because so many of the specs Al boasts about are either still a long way from becoming the norm (a flatscreen monitor 40 inches wide[[note]]recent gaming monitors have been getting bigger in order to make higher resolutions more noticeable, but even the biggest monitors rarely exceed 34 inches diagonal, a far cry from 40 inches ''horizontal''[[/note]]) or just absurd by any era's standards (a hundred gigabytes of RAM[[note]]8 gigabytes is sufficient for any gaming rig, and the max that most computers can even support is a wildly-impractical 64 gigabytes[[/note]])... the only line that's completely unsalvageable even with creative editing is... well, the title line. The Pentium brand was discontinued in 2006 before being retooled as a low-end budget processor, losing its top-of-the-line implications.

** The ''very'' off-key note that concludes "Albuquerque," as well as the chuckle that follows, was this.

** Creator/{{E}} approached Al to write a theme song for ''Talk Soup'' which he did for his ''Alapalooza'' album. Though E! liked the finished product, it was never used as the show's theme.

** "Girls Just Want to Have Lunch", widely considered his worst song by a wide margin, and deliberately so. The execs in charge of his third album ''Dare to Be Stupid'' [[ExecutiveMeddling literally forced him]] to include a parody of a Music/CyndiLauper song and one straight cover version or they wouldn't release it. So Al just shoddily composed, recorded and released a parody of "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" that -- judging from the lyrics and even Al's piercing, nasal singing -- clearly sounds like no effort went into making it good.[[note]]There's also the fact that the song had already been successfully parodied; A band called Exude had an underground hit in 1984 with "Boys Just Want to Have Sex"[[/note]] He met them half way with the cover by doing the ''WesternAnimation/GeorgeOfTheJungle'' theme song, which is impossible not to have fun singing.

* ImageSource:
** DudeNotIronic
** EvenTheSubtitlerIsStumped
** TinfoilHat
** WikiVandal

** Music/{{Eminem}} approved "Couch Potato" but revoked permission for Al to shoot a music video at the last minute. Al wound up hastily doing one for "Bob" instead.

** Al later regretted the line "'cause you write like a spastic" from "Word Crimes" and apologized for it on his Twitter account, saying he didn't realize the word was considered much more offensive in the UK than it was in the US.

* EnforcedMethodActing:
** Al recorded his vocals for "Headline News" as early in the morning as he could the day of so that his voice would be naturally low enough to emulate [[Music/CrashTestDummies Brad Roberts]]' BadassBaritone on "Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm." Likewise with "Truck Drivin' Song".
** Al had exactly [[OneTakeWonder one take]] to [[RockersSmashGuitars smash a $1,000 Ovation guitar]] at the end of the "You Don't Love Me Anymore" music video. His anger at it being harder to break than he thought, and the AsideGlance he gives to the camera after he does so are authentic.

** Happened with his parody of Lady Gaga's "Born This Way." Al thought Gaga had not given him permission to put his parody on his new record, when what actually happened was her manager hadn't given Gaga the song to listen to in the first place, just assuming she would hate it. Once Gaga finally heard the song, she loved it.
*** Not to mention the hoops that Gaga's manager made Al jump through. Normally, Al doesn't even write a parody until he's gotten permission, but Gaga's manager insisted that she needed to hear it first, so he wrote the lyrics and sent them. Her manager's reply? That she needed to actually HEAR the song. Al, obviously thought it was weird since it was just going to be his lyrics with her music, but, as he wanted to use the song regardless of whatever hoops he had to jump, he went ahead and recorded it. When he got the rejection, he was rather disappointed. As it turns out, however, Gaga's manager had never even sent her the lyrics, let alone the song itself, so she actually had no idea that the song existed, let alone was rejected.

* ExiledFromContinuity:
** One year after the death of Princess Diana, Al said in an interview that he stopped performing "Buckingham Blues".
** Al also stopped performing "Christmas at Ground Zero" out of respect for those who died in 9/11.
** After the documentary ''Leaving Neverland'' brought Music/MichaelJackson's controversial history of sexual abuse allegations back into the limelight, Al said that he would retire "Eat It" and "Fat" from his live set so as not to stir up more controversy.
* GenreAdultery: Due to his earlier songs being well-known about eating or related to it, when Al asked for permission to parody Music/{{Nirvana}}'s "Smells Like Teen Spirit", Kurt Cobain had this question:
-->'''Music/KurtCobain:''' It's not going to be about food, is it?\\
'''Al:''' No, it's going to be about how no one understands your lyrics.

** Al was understandably peeved when Creator/{{E}} asked him to write a theme for ''Talk Soup'' only for the network to balk at using his song for the show.

* QuoteSource:
** {{Anvilicious}}
** BadSanta
** BarnRaising
** BrokenBase
** CheekCopy
** DrivesLikeCrazy
** FormerlyFit
** Franks2000InchTV
** FunWithPalindromes
** HandyMan
** HowIWroteThisArticleArticle
** ItCameFromTheFridge
** JokerImmunity
** LongList
** MindScrew
** MinorFlawMajorBreakup
** MotorMouth
** RuleAbidingRebel
** SixDegreesOfKevinBacon
** TerrifiedOfGerms
** TrashOfTheTitans
** WhenIWasYourAge

* RealitySubtext

** When Al asked Patrick Hughes, life partner of the late Charles Nelson Reilly, permission to write "[=CNR=]," Hughes mentioned that Reilly didn't like how Creator/AlecBaldwin's impression of him on ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' made him out to be a "sissy." Hughes was unaware that the concept was to depict Reilly as a Chuck Norris-esque MemeticBadass, and Al reassured him that he had nothing to worry about.

** Similarly, "When I Was Your Age" references fax machines and "Nintendo" ([[BrandNameTakeover aka video games]]) as fancy new technology he didn't have growing up. To a lesser extent, water beds have fallen well out of popularity.

** In the video for "You Don't Love Me Anymore," bassist Steve Jay chipped one of his teeth biting into a piece of ham (watch carefully -- he noticeably winces as he does so). Since it fit with everything else, it was kept.

** Al considered doing a [[WesternAnimation/Frozen2013 "Let it Go"]] parody ([[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration "Make it So"]]) for ''Mandatory Fun'', before finding out there was a fanmade "Make it So" already online. Unable to come up with any other idea he liked as much, Al scrapped the "Let it Go" parody altogether.

** "The Saga Begins" doesn't outright mention that Qui-Gon Jinn died at the end of ''Film/ThePhantomMenace''. Rather, he "Met up with Darth Maul and now he's toast", and the next line mentions that "he's a ghost". Qui-Gon is later revealed to be a Force ghost who assists Obi-Wan and Yoda. In a sense, Al was correct in predicting that Qui-Gon wasn't really dead.

** Music/{{Devo}} frontman Music/MarkMothersbaugh has admitted that he was jealous of Al for writing "Dare to be Stupid" instead of Devo.

-->'''Cyborg''': This dude totally sounds like someone. I know—Weird Al Yankovic! ''[All the other Teen Titans agree.]''
-->'''Darkseid''': Aw, yes, the great singer of song parodies. If only I was half as evil! To earn a living making song writers look like fools! ''<<EvilLaugh>>'' Diabolical!
-->'''Cyborg''': I don’t know. I think it’s all in good fun.
-->'''Darkseid''': What’s fun abut undercutting musicians by subverting their words and compromising their artistic integrity?! Weird Al is a [[YouMonster true monster]]!
-->'''Cyborg''': You take that back! He is a national treasure!
-->'''Darkseid''': A monster I say!
-->'''Cyborg''': [[RageBreakingPoint That tears it!]] You’re going down, Darkseid!
* ChartDisplacement: Zig-zagged. "Dare to Be Stupid" never charted on its own (it was a double A-side with "The Touch" by Stan Bush), while other popular songs like "I Lost on Jeopardy" and "Fat" only reached the lower rungs of the charts. "King of Suede" got to #61, but didn't endure in the long run (it's his only Hot 100 entry not to have a page on Wiki/TheOtherWiki).
* ContractualObligationProject:
** In the early 90s, Scotti Bros. Records forced Al to rush-release several compilations and a single because ''Alapalooza'' and ''Bad Hair Day'' would not be released before the end of their respective fiscal quarters in 1993 and 1996. First, they wanted to release ''Al Unplugged'', but Al protested when he learned that they would just mix out the electric instruments and rerecord synthesized acoustic-sounding parts in their place. He begrudgingly agreed to ''The Food Album'' because he "hated it slightly less." Two years later, under the same circumstances, the label had to beg him to release ''The TV Album'' and then the single "Headline News," which wound up on ''two more'' compilations, ''Greatest Hits: Volume 2'' and the ''Permanent Record: Al in the Box'' boxed set, released that year because ''Bad Hair Day'' was almost finished, but wouldn't be released soon enough for a single.
** "Dare to Be Stupid" had two such examples. The record label made the following demands: one, a Music/CyndiLauper parody and two, a cover. For the former, he came up with the deliberately forced and obnoxious "Girls Just Want to Have Lunch," but met them halfway for the latter by covering the theme to ''WesternAnimation/GeorgeOfTheJungle'', a song that is entirely impossible not to enjoy singing.
** One album later, they wanted a Christmas song. The result, naturally, was "Christmas At Ground Zero".

** As mentioned above, "Christmas at Ground Zero" was his response to the label forcing him to write a Christmas single.

* ColbertBump: Shortly before ''Running with Scissors'' was released, 90s kids got their first exposure to Al on Radio/RadioDisney with songs such as "Eat It", "I Love Rocky Road" and "I Want a New Duck" being played in heavy rotation. "Yoda" peaked at #2 on the Top 30 Countdown, kept out of the #1 spot by "[[Music/CelineDion My Heart Will Go On]]".

* HitlessHitAlbum: Most of his albums qualify, with millions sold as opposed to having only four Top 40 hits. The most prominent example is ''Running With Scissors'' which is certified Platinum by the RIAA despite its singles not charting ("Pretty Fly for a Rabbi" peaked at #68 in Australia, however).

** In the early 90s, Scotti Bros. Records forced Al to rush-release several compilations and a single because ''Alapalooza'' and ''Bad Hair Day'' would not be released before the end of their respective fiscal quarters in 1993 and 1996. First, they wanted to release ''Al Unplugged'', but Al protested when he learned that they would just mix out the electric instruments and rerecord synthesized acoustic-sounding parts in their place. He begrudgingly agreed to ''The Food Album'' because he "hated it slightly less." Two years later, under the same circumstances, the label had to beg him to release ''The TV Album'' and then the single "Headline News," which wound up on ''two more'' compilations, ''Greatest Hits: Volume 2'' and the ''Al In A Box'' boxed set, released that year because ''Bad Hair Day'' was almost finished, but wouldn't be released soon enough for a single.

** And the Funny or Die video he did with Huey Lewis, with Lewis as a psychotic mass murderer and Al as his next victim, a debauched libertine.

** Chamillionaire told the Houston Chronicle: "It's one thing to go platinum. Where do you go from there? Then Weird Al calls." He would later end up with the WeirdAlEffect being inverted on him -- people in Asia thought that Al wrote the song first, and they really enjoyed his "parody" of "White & Nerdy".

** IPulledAWeirdAl, since renamed PersonAsVerb

** WeirdAlEffect, since renamed ParodyDisplacement

** While many of Weird Al's songs are still widely available, two are hard to find to own, outside of Website/YouTube music videos - "Spy Hard", the theme to [[Film/SpyHard the movie of the same name]] and Polkamon, from the soundtrack to ''Anime/{{Pokemon 2000}}''. The former appears on the rarities collection ''Medium Rarities'' and the 15-album box set ''Squeeze Box'', but the latter is still only available on its soundtrack album.

** He repeatedly approached Music/{{Prince}} asking for permission to do a parody of his work, which was always refused. The closest he got were the style parodies "Traffic Jam" and "Wanna B Ur Lover," the latter of which was performed as a tribute to Prince on his most recent tour (of course, he didn't outright say it, but the backdrop during the song was purple clouds, and Al wore a Prince-ly outfit). [[note]]Of course, Wiki/TheOtherWiki states that "...Lover" was meant to be a parody of ''Midnight Vultures''-era Music/{{Beck}}, which itself borrows from Prince's brand of hypersexual funk. The fact that the title spells "you" with "U" makes it seem like Al was trying kill two birds with one stone.[[/note]] After Prince's death and having never budged from this position, Al announced that he would respect those wishes and never do anything based on his songs.

** Had Music/{{Weezer}} not revoked permission at the last second, "The Alternative Polka" would have included [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXsbVQM8SP4 a snippet of "Buddy Holly."]]

** WeirdAlEffect

* UnintentionalPeriodPiece:
** Al parodies (or style parodies) artists from all across the musical spectrum, giving equal due to whoever is popular at the time. As a result, his albums end up becoming rather tidy time capsules for the sounds that were popular at the time of their release. Add in the many pop culture references from the era and it completes the portrait.
*** ''"Weird Al" Yankovic'' from 1983 is a case of EarlyInstallmentWeirdness but it still qualifies. The album is composed of power pop, bubblegum, heartland rock and early New Wave, also mentioning discotheques and 8-tracks which were fading at the time of its release.
*** ''In 3-D'', ''Dare to Be Stupid'' and ''Polka Party'' from 1984/85/86 are composed mostly of New Wave, over-the-top electropop and bar rock.
*** ''Even Worse'' and ''UHF: Official Motion Picture Soundtrack and Some Other Stuff'' from 1988/89 are composed of arena-oriented dance pop, hair metal, hip hop and teen pop.
*** ''Off the Deep End'' and ''Alapaoolza'' from 1992/93 are composed of heavy metal, hip hop, dance pop, jangle pop with single {{Music/Nirvana}} and Music/NewKidsOnTheBlock parodies symbolizing both the rise of grunge and 80's teen pop acts taking their dying gasp.
*** ''Bad Hair Day'' from 1996 is composed of hip hop, alternative rock, grunge, college rock and R&B.
*** ''Running With Scissors'' from 1999 is composed of hip hop, bubblegum pop, adult contemporary, alternative rock, country, and the "revival" genres like neo-swing ("Grapefruit Diet") and third-wave ska ("Your Horoscope For Today").
*** ''Poodle Hat'' and ''Straight Outta Lynwood'' from 2003 and 2006 are composed of hip-hop, ringtone rap, punk rock, emo rock and R&B, with some ribbing of popular ''Series/AmericanIdol'' launched acts thrown in.
*** 2011's ''Alpocalypse'' is composed of hip hop, dance pop and bubblegum teen pop. In addition, the album's title is in reference to the 2011 and 2012 doomsday predictions.
*** 2014's ''Mandatory Fun'' saw Al attempting to downplay this as much as possible: while the song parodies themselves are from contemporary R&B ("Word Crimes" and "Tacky"), indie pop ("Foil"), alternative rock ("Inactive") and TrapMusic ("Handy"), the style parodies that make up most of the album are from older or more timeless genres such as rock ("Lame Claim to Fame", "My Own Eyes", and "First World Problems"), folk ("Mission Statement" and "Jackson Park Express"), and {{football fight song}}s ("Sports Song").
** 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 song never appeared on a regular studio album possible because of how quickly Al knew it would feel dated. To wit:
*** The "Kid who took a trip to Singapore" is [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_P._Fay Michael P. Fay]].
*** The "Girl who swore that someday she would be a figure skating champion" is [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonya_harding#Attack_on_Nancy_Kerrigan Tonya Harding]].
*** The "Guy who made his wife so mad one night that she [[GroinAttack cut off his wiener]]" is about [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_and_Lorena_Bobbitt John and Lorena Bobbitt]].
** "Biggest Ball of Twine In Minnesota" could easily stand in for any time period for the whole song... until the single line "In our '53 Desoto". That car was aged but reasonable in the 1980's, but now you wonder why he'd be driving that ancient museum piece.
*** Similarly, the car that keeps getting impounded in "Stop Dragging My Car Around" is a '64 Plymouth. This was obviously Rule of Funny in 1983 but it applies now since they don't make Plymouths anymore.
** "I Lost on Jeopardy" parodied the original 1964-1974 Art Fleming version of [[Series/{{Jeopardy}} the show]], a mere three months before the current, Creator/AlexTrebek-hosted version began.
** The song "Tacky", with its references to [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instagram Instagram]], [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yelp Yelp]], selfies, the YOLO (You Only Live Once) motto, and twerking, could almost be seen as "Early 2010s Pop Culture: The Song".
** The whole conflict for half of the song Drive-Thru is because the fast food place doesn't take credit cards, which for a time was true. Pretty much every fast food chain in the US accepts them these days, and an increasing number of restaurants since TheNewTens don't even take cash anymore.
** The four file-sharing sites mentioned in "Don't Download This Song" do not exist anymore, with Kazaa being the last to go in 2012. Grokster was shut down after the song was recorded and before it was released.
** Two of the defendants mentioned in "I'll Sue Ya" have filed for bankruptcy: Toys 'R' Us and Neiman Marcus.
** The music video for "White and Nerdy" has a gag where Al's character buys a copy of ''Film/TheStarWarsHolidaySpecial'' from a shady character in a back alley, a reference to how hard it was to obtain at the time. Nowadays, it's fairly easy to watch the whole thing on the Internet.

* CelebrityVoiceActor: Al voiced [[Characters/NewGodsDarkseid Darkseid]] on some episodes of ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitansGo'' and used the occasion for some serious SelfDeprecation (though [[Characters/TeenTitansCyborg Cyborg]] comes to his reputational defense).

** "Dare to Be Stupid" had two such examples. The record label made the following demands: one, a Music/CyndiLauper parody and two, a cover. For the former, he came up with the deliberately forced and obnoxious "Girls Just Want To Have Lunch," but met them halfway for the latter by covering the theme to ''WesternAnimation/GeorgeOfTheJungle'', a song that is entirely impossible not to enjoy singing.

** "Girls Just Wanna Have Lunch", widely considered his worst song by a wide margin, and deliberately so. The execs in charge of his third album ''Dare to Be Stupid'' [[ExecutiveMeddling literally forced him]] to include a parody of a Music/CyndiLauper song and one straight cover version or they wouldn't release it. So Al just shoddily composed, recorded and released a parody of "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" that -- judging from the lyrics and even Al's piercing, nasal singing -- clearly sounds like no effort went into making it good.[[note]]There's also the fact that the song had already been successfully parodied; A band called Exude had an underground hit in 1984 with "Boys Just Want to Have Sex"[[/note]] He met them half way with the cover by doing the ''WesternAnimation/GeorgeOfTheJungle'' theme song, which is impossible not to have fun singing.

** "Dare to Be Stupid" was hit with this. The record label made two demands: one, a Music/CyndiLauper parody and two, a cover. For the former, he came up with the deliberately forced and obnoxious "Girls Just Want To Have Lunch," but met them halfway for the latter by covering the theme to ''WesternAnimation/GeorgeOfTheJungle'', a song that is entirely impossible not to enjoy singing.
** One album later, they wanted a Christmas song. The result, naturally, was "[[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor Christmas At Ground Zero]]".
** In the early 90s, Scotti Bros. Records forced Al to rush-release several compilations and a single because ''Alapalooza'' and ''Bad Hair Day'' would not be released before the end of their respective fiscal quarters in 1993 and 1996. First, they wanted to release ''Al Unplugged'', but Al protested when he learned that they would just mix out the electric instruments and rerecord synthesized acoustic-sounding parts in their place. He begrudgingly agreed to ''The Food Album'' because he "hated it slightly less." Two years later, under the same circumstances, the label had to beg him to release ''The TV Album'' and then the single "Headline News," which wound up on ''two more'' compilations, ''Greatest Hits: Volume 2'' and the ''Al In A Box'' boxed set, released that year because ''Bad Hair Day'' was almost finished, but wouldn't be released soon enough for a single.

* HitlessHitAlbum: Most of his albums qualify, with millions sold as opposed to having only four Top 40 hits. The most prominent example is ''Running With Scissors'' which is certified Platinum by the RIAA despite its singles not charting.

* CelebrityVoiceActor: Al voiced ComicBook/{{Darkseid}} on some episodes of ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitansGo'' and used the occasion for some serious SelfDeprecation (though ComicBook/{{Cyborg}} comes to his reputational defense).

** His recurring guest shots in ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitansGo'' most of the time? Freakin' '''ComicBook/{{Darkseid}}''' of all people!

** "Dare to Be Stupid" was hit with this. The record label made two demands: one, a CyndiLauper parody and two, a cover. For the former, he came up with the deliberately forced and obnoxious "Girls Just Want To Have Lunch," but met them halfway for the latter by covering the theme to ''WesternAnimation/GeorgeOfTheJungle'', a song that is entirely impossible not to enjoy singing.

** While "Amish Paradise" remains a concert staple, Al admitted that, had he known that Coolio would initially disprove of it, he never would have recorded it.

** Music/ImagineDragons drummer Daniel Platzman says that since he and his bandmates love Weird Al's music, they felt "honored" to hear that he parodied "Radioactive" as, "Inactive". They even directly helped with the production of the song to reproduce the sound of the original as much as possible.

** His guest appearance on [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTdgxhQwaVQ "Who's Gonna Stop Me"]] by Music/PortugalTheMan, a serious ProtestSong about the oppression of Native Americans - it makes some sense in context, as his scene in the music video uses imagery of a coyote, and the coyote is a TricksterGod in some Myth/NativeAmericanMythology.