'Weird Al' Yankovic Gets First No. 1 Album On Billboard 200 with 'Mandatory Fun'

Billboard ^ | 07/24/2014 | By Keith Caulfield

[SeekAndFind]

[Sans-Culotte]

I will never be able to enjoy Weird Al’s parodies again, because I am 100% unfamiliar with the material he is satirizing. Unless he satirizes Sinatra, or Mozart, or Bach or Beethoven, I will no longer be able to get the joke.

[SeekAndFind]

WORD CRIMES (parody of Robin Thicke's Blurred Lines)

[Maceman]

A couple of comedy sets came close since then, including Steve Martin's No. 2-peaking "A Wild and Crazy Guy" back in 1978 and a pair of No. 2 Cheech & Chong titles in the early 1970s.

Gee. Now I feel guilty because I always meant to buy those Cheech & Chong albums back when I was in college in the early 1970s, but for some reason I kept forgetting to do it.

[SeekAndFind]

FOIL (Parody of Lorde's Royals)

[Mr. K]

I LOVE “Amish Paradise” - I can watch that over and over...

[SpinnerWebb]

Probably all that Labrador you were smokin’

[fatnotlazy]

Well deserved for a decent guy. Unlike many of the artists he parodies, Al doesn’t do drugs or drink to excess. You don’t hear about him cracking up his Porches or going to rehab. Family man too.

[FlipWilson]

Great album, very funny. Watch the video for “word crimes.” Even if you don’t know the song being sent up, watch it as it hits social media and its impact on the millennial’s writing skills right in then nose.

[Fiji Hill]

At football games, the USC Trojan Marching Band plays Weird Al's Another One Rides the Bus whenever the defense sacks the opposing team's quarterback.

[SeekAndFind]

People who know him actually say that he isn’t “Weird” in real life.

He actually gets the permission of the writers and the artists of the song he parodies.

Heck, the artists consider it an HONOR to be parodied by him.

The only two entertainers I know who refused to give him permission were Paul McCartney and Prince.

[Gefn]

I don’t have those Cheech and Chong albums, a bit before my time, but my parents had the Allan Sherman record, and I adored that as a kid.

I still have it. I wonder if it’s worth anything.

Hello mother? Hello father?

[skinkinthegrass]

*snickering*not Ninja approved, AL.

[dfwgator]

You’d have to be living under a rock to not at least be familiar with “Happy.”

[Company Man]

I thoroughly enjoyed his 'Word Crimes' video via you tube even though I have never heard the song it is parodying. The clip is outstanding in its own right.

Just for fun, I read the 800 plus you tube comments and there were dozens of comments stating that his version (about misuse of grammar)was completely superior to the original tune (mo pimps and hos) in every way!

[Slyfox]

Well deserved for a decent guy. Unlike many of the artists he parodies, Al doesn’t do drugs or drink to excess. You don’t hear about him cracking up his Porches or going to rehab. Family man too.

Al was offered a multi-million dollar contract to do some beer commercials. He turned it down because he said that most of his fans are under-aged and he didn't want influence them in that way.

[stormhill]

Way too easy...

[BuckeyeTexan]

Right on. Go Al!

[Slyfox]

Just for fun, I read the 800 plus you tube comments and there were dozens of comments stating that his version (about misuse of grammar)was completely superior to the original tune (mo pimps and hos) in every way!

I got to know Al through my kids. Most of the songs he parodies I had never heard the originals and when I did hear the originals I was amazed at how good his version really was.