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

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

[SeekAndFind]

After more than 30 years on the charts, comedian-singer "Weird Al" Yankovic earns his first No. 1 album on the Billboard 200, as "Mandatory Fun" debuts atop the list. The album is the first comedy set to top the chart since 1963, and logs the largest sales week for a comedy album since 1994.

"Mandatory Fun" was released July 15 through Way Moby and RCA Records, and sold 104,000 copies in the week ending July 20, according to Nielsen SoundScan. It was promoted by a well-receiveddaily viral video campaign that launched Monday, July 14. Starting with his parody of Pharrell's "Happy," Yankovic released eight music videos for the album through the week on various sites, like The Wall Street Journal, Yahoo, Nerdist, College Humor and YouTube.

"Mandatory" is the first comedy album to top the Billboard 200 since Allan Sherman's "My Son, the Nut" spent eight weeks at No. 1 beginning on the chart dated Aug. 31, 1963. 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.

[GraceG]

I don't know what a Kardashian looks like either.

Here is a Kardassian

[chaosagent]

I think my favorite Weird Al parody is his retelling of Star Wars Episode I to the tune of ‘American Pie’ called ‘The Saga Begins’.

Very well done.

[Utilizer]

Well deserved, I might add. I remember when quite a few of us adopted his "I Lost On Jeapordy" when AlBore lost his presidential bid and refused to accept it -the song has one bit that starts out:

"That's right, Al -YOU LOST!"

With a short list of things he didn't win; turtlewax, rice-a-roni, and more.

Plus "..brought shame and disgrace to the entire family for generations to come! You're a COMPLETE LOSER!"

Hilarious parody.

[zeugma]

bfl

[Utilizer]

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

Is that what that weight on My back has been all this time? And here I was thinking it was My ex-, all these years.

Guess I must be part Hobbit or something...

[SeekAndFind]

Here are the lyrics to WORD CRIMES ( Parody of Robin Thicke’s BLURRED LINES )

_________________________________________

[Intro]
Everybody shut up, WOO!
Everyone listen up!
Hey, hey, hey
Hey, hey, hey
Hey, hey, hey

[Verse 1]
If you can’t write in the proper way
If you don’t know how to conjugate
Maybe you flunked that class
And maybe now you find
That people mock you online

[Bridge]
Okay, now here’s the deal
I’ll try to educate ya
Gonna familiarize
You with the nomenclature
You’ll learn the definitions
Of nouns and prepositions
Literacy’s your mission

[Chorus]
And that’s why I think it’s a good time
To learn some grammar
Now, did I stammer
Work on that grammar
You should know when
It’s “less” or it’s “fewer”
Like people who were
Never raised in a sewer

I hate these word crimes
Like I could care less
That means you do care
At least a little
Don’t be a moron
You’d better slow down
And use the right pronoun
Show the world you’re no clown

[Verse 2]
Say you got a “It”
Followed by apostrophe, “s”
Now what does that mean?
You would not use “it’s” in this case
As a possessive
It’s a contraction
What’s a contraction?
Well, it’s the shortening of a word, or a group of words
By the omission of a sound or letter

[Bridge]
Okay, now here’s some notes
Syntax you’re always mangling
No X in “Espresso”
Your participle’s danglin’
But I don’t want your drama
If you really wanna
Leave out that Oxford comma

[Chorus]
Just keep in mind that
“be”, “see”, “are”, “you”
Are words, not letters
Get it together
Use your spellchecker
You should never
Write words using numbers
Unless you’re seven
Or your name is Prince

I hate these word crimes
You really need a
Full-time proofreader
You dumb mouthbreather
Well, you should hire
Some cunning linguist
To help you distinguish
What is proper English

[Verse 3]
One thing I ask of you
Time to learn your homophones is past due
Learn to diagram a sentence too
Always say to whom
Don’t ever say to who
And listen up when I tell you this
I hope you never use quotation marks for emphasis
You finished second grade
I hope you can tell
If you’re doing good or doing well
Figure out the difference
Irony is not coincidence
And, I thought that you’d gotten it through your skull
What’s figurative and what’s literal
Oh but, just now, you said
You “literally couldn’t get out of bed”
That really makes me want to literally
Smack a crowbar upside your stupid head

[Chorus]
I read your e-mail
It’s quite apparent
Your grammar’s errant
You’re incoherent
Saw your blog post
It’s really fantastic
That was sarcastic (Oh, psych!)
’Cause you write like a spastic

I hate these Word Crimes
Your prose is dopey
Think you should only
Write in emoji
Oh, you’re a lost cause
Go back to preschool
Get out of the gene pool
Try your best to not drool

[Outro]
Never mind, I give up
Really now, I give up
Hey, hey, hey
Hey, hey, hey
Go Away

[Borges]

Umm, the Rolling Stones are pop music. :) In the broad sense.

[Borges]

“Classical Music died with Mozart.”

Huh?

[BuckeyeTexan]

Fox News just said there’s a petition for Weird Al to play halftime at the Superbowl next year. Heh! Awesome.