Despite His Consistent Crazy Parodies, “Weird” Al Yankovic Still As Relevant As The Good Ol’ Days

Al Yankovic or as he is referred to as Weird Al is one of the oddities of the music industry that has managed to stay put over many years. As the man/icon is about to turn 55 this year, the internet fondly remembers the longest running comedy act.

“Iron Man” Al has undoubtedly enjoyed unheard-of longevity in the business of making ‘special’ songs. By special, it is quite apparent that man takes hits and turns them into nasty, biting, musical numbers that are full of sarcasm and insults. What started with “My Bologna” in 1979 a variation upon the theme of the Knack’s new wave one-hitter “My Sharona”, continued with Weird Al becoming a household name after he twisted Michael Jackson’s ‘Beat It’ with ‘Eat It’.

Interestingly, Weird Al established a presence in 2006 by making a skillfully composed parody of “White & Nerdy“. Quite recently The Inquisitr reported on his rather educational musical number in which he attempted to rave and rant on the ‘Word Crimes’ that today’s internet generation so nonchalantly commits. Despite risking being labeled as a Grammar Nazi, Weird Al has comically put forth the importance of using correct grammar and more importantly, the proper usage of punctuation marks.

His spoofs are readily lapped-up owing to their relevant and contemporary style. Weird Al almost always finely taps into raging issues and weaves them comically within his numbers. And the efforts have proven their worth. His parody of ‘Fancy’ by Iggy Azalea, titled ‘Handy’ has reigned for seven consecutive weeks on Billboard Hot 100. Weird Al reportedly asked the artist for her permission to spoof her work, but instead the whole song is surprisingly about a hard-working handy-man.

Weird Al recently spoofed ‘Royals’ by Lorde. At just two and a half minutes, it is by far his shortest composition, but interestingly, it is also the strangest. Who would want to hear about fungi and mold that grow on Weird Al’s food? However, his suggestion for alternative usage of Aluminum foils for conspiracy theorists is certainly hilarious.

The latest parody by Weird Al is about the most ‘happy’ song on the planet earth. The spoof of the wildly popular song sung by Pharrell Williams has already begun to go viral. The lyrics of the parody constantly remind us that Weird Al, despite his age, hasn’t mellowed and still has a lot of strength to continue taking pot-shots at popular songs.

[Image Credit | Grant Land]