#weirdal

The inimitable “Weird Al” Yankovic released four of the six different takes of the music video for his song “Tacky” running together simultaneously. The song, a parody of “Happy” by Pharrell, was released in 2014 and played a big part in Yankovic’s Mandatory World Tour.

"Much like the big-name artists he once so expertly spoofed, Yankovic now inspires not just imitators but also competitors. He'll soon commence work on his 13th studio album, which will have to compete against his own singsongy progeny—the amateur satirists who can devise, record, and edit their own parodies in days, if not hours. To make matters more complicated, whereas Yankovic could once mine such inexhaustible icons as Jackson and Nirvana for laughs, he now has to contend with the likes of Jessica Simpson or Kevin Federline—celebrities who are more or less already self-parodies. Being a music satirist in 2008 is a bit like being a political cartoonist after the Harding administration: too many easy targets, too few sacred idols."

"This is extremely exciting for me. One of the hardest things I've had to deal with in my career is keeping my material topical even though I only release albums every 3 or 4 years. Now, with the advent and popularity of digital distribution, I don't have to wait around while my songs get old and dated – I can get them out on the Internet almost immediately. It kind of boggles my mind – I thought of the idea for this new song a week ago, and next week it's getting released! "

"To the millions of us flitting around the edges of hipness, he is our Geek Bard, our Troubadork. Unlike his prey—the rappers and the rockers, the folk-pop shamans and the techno wizards—Weird Al is, in the only meaningful sense of the phrase, keeping

"I hope we get to do more stuff with Al soon. Make him rich and buy his cd so he can afford to hire us again!"

Oh, Weird Al is *so* added to my friends.

"From Wierd Al's TV show a few years back. Pretty funny."

"So how, exactly, does a music label have a say in whether one of its artists can be parodied?"

"How would you like to download a brand new Weird Al song... for free? Yeah, we thought you might."

"A while back Weird Al Yankovic contacted my old boss John K., asking him if he'd be interested in doing an animated music video for one of his new songs."

"Speaking as a fan, you can only take music so seriously."