Audience-Alienating Era: While he's retained a fervent fanbase throughout his career, his mainstream popularity noticeably dipped in the late 90s, starting with him drastically altering his appearance through laser eye surgery and his song parody schtick largely being seen as old hat. The critical and commercial failure of Poodle Hat in 2003 did not help matters either. It wouldn't be until 2006, when he released "White And Nerdy" (and at which his oldest fans were becoming nostalgic for him), that he'd bounce back and become more popular than ever.
His ‘Christmas’ songs, “The Night Santa Went Crazy” and “Christmas at Ground Zero”. These songs run on this trope.
During his "Ridiculously Self Indulgent, Ill Advised Vanity Tour", the day after the royal wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, he acknowledged that it was probably inappropriate, but chose to cover God Save the Queen.
His fake interview with Kevin Federline is atypically harsh for Al, but that's what makes it so great.
Al: I hear you're touring now. Kevin Federline: I am touring, yes. Al: Uh huh. (Beat) Why? Kevin Federline: Uhm... Al: I mean, after 9/11 and Katrina, hasn't this country suffered enough? [...] Al: I understand that you're trying to get custody of your kids. I mean the kids you had with Britney, not the "practice" ones. So if you get custody, how will you be raising them? Will you be teaching them to inseminate and freeload the Federline way? Kevin Federline: I don't think I'll allow my kids to do it until after they're adults. Al: That's probably a good idea. [...] Al: For the record, exactly how much do you suck? Kevin Federline: Um, a lot, you know. Al: Would it be accurate to say that you're the biggest douchebag ever? And that your album is a crime against humanity? Kevin Federline: Um, yeah, pretty much.
Epic Riff: Apart from parodying songs that are famous for Epic Riffs themselves ("Smells Like Nirvana," "Beverly Hillbillies/ Money for Nothing*"), a few of Al's originals fit this as well. "I'll Sue Ya," "Dare to be Stupid," "You Make Me," and The White Stripes flavored "CNR" all come to mind.
Face of the Band: Al has recorded with the same band (Jon "Bermuda" Schwartz, Jim West, and Steve Jay) for virtually his entire career, and they appear in all his videos.
Lampshaded by the band themselves in "Al's Band," a stand-alone single featuring Al solely on accordion. Sung by the guys themselves, it details their history with him.
Al doesn't often do straight covers. When he does, though, it's glorious.
White and Nerdy proved Al's rap skills aren't anything to scoff at. Chamillionaire, whose song Ridin' Dirty Al was parodying, was reportedly stunned that Weird Al of all people could rap like that.
Al's page on Wikipedia has an entire section devoted to the various parodies that he didn't do but are attributed to him, complete with a screen shot of Limewire.
Quirky Work: Certainly a Weird Humorous American Thing, as it's a guy playing song parodies about often banal themes such as food and television, mish-mashing various songs into a polka, and producing wacky music videos and television specials. Despite the absurdity of his work, he’s done all of it clean and sober. Al's friend and college note California Polytechnic State University, or "Cal Poly" for short classmate Joel Miller said in Al's Behind The Music episode that he thinks drugs would make Al normal. In spite of this, we have the mindfuck of "Everything You Know is Wrong" and the sheer garbled insanity of "Albuquerque."
Refrain from Assuming: Usually his parodies turn the original title phrase into something wacky and indicative of the parody's subject matter. If he can't manage that, this usually happens:
"Ricky" is sometimes known as "Hey Ricky", a misunderstanding similar to the source material.
"(This Song's Just) Six Words Long" is often referred to as "This Song Is Just Six Words Long", which makes sense considering those are the actual seven words sung in the chorus.
Because "Money for Nothing/Beverly Hillbillies*" (Yes, the asterisk is a legally-required part of the name) is such a unnatural mouthful, most people assume the song is just called "Beverly Hillbillies", which would likely be the title had the lawyers not gotten involved.
"The Plumbing Song" is mistaken for the title "Don't Forget My Plumber", which is the play on the title of the main song the parody is based on, Milli Vanilli's "Don't Forget My Number".
"Bedrock Anthem" is referred to in a million ways, perhaps the most common being "City of Bedrock" and "Yabba-Dabba-Doo Now".
"The Saga Begins" is sometimes referred to as "Soon I'm Gonna Be a Jedi".
"A Complicated Song" is more commonly referred to as "Constipated", based on the first chorus.
Likewise, "Ode to a Superhero" is far more commonly called "You're the Spider-Man" or just "Spider-Man".
An unusual retroactive case involves "White & Nerdy". While pretty much everyone knows the parody by its actual name, you can argue the name's length has made more people assume the original Chamillionaire song is called "Ridin' Dirty" when it's actually called "Ridin'". Unfortunately, "White &" is not nearly as indicative of a title, so there wasn't really a way around this.
"Seinfeld" Is Unfunny: In these days when anyone can put a parody song on YouTube, some people don't get what's so great about Al.
Signature Song: "Eat It", although "White and Nerdy" is a close second.
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 Early-Installment Weirdness but it still qualifies. The album is composed of power pop, bubblegum, heartland rock and early New Wave. Some songs mention discotheques and 8-tracks which were fading at the time of its release, and they weren't done so in a nostalgic context.
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.
1986's "Christmas at Ground Zero" captures the tail end of the Cold War fear of nuclear war, as exemplified by The Day After and Threads. Not long after, The U.S. and Soviet Union would start talks on arms control, and the latter would collapse outright in 1991.
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 Nirvana and New Kids on the Block 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 American Idol 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 Trap Music ("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 songs ("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, possibly because of how quickly Al knew it would feel dated. To wit:
The "Kid who took a trip to Singapore" is Michael P. Fay.
Vindicated by History: Al was not a critical darling and his work was largely relegated to niche appeal in the first two decades of his career. Once his cult fanbase became old enough to influence pop culture themselves, Al became one of the most well-respected comedy acts of the late 20th/early 21st century.
is atypically harsh for Al, but that's what makes it so great.Al: I hear you're touring now.
