Celebrities playing other celebrities. Parodies of parodies. And a send-up of
that drug scene from every music biopic. "Weird: The Al Yankovic Story" almost has
too many self-referential jokes, so these may have slipped by you.
Not only are most of the story beats, character arcs, and career steps in "Weird:
The Al Yankovic Story" patently false, but the film also takes place in a fictional world.
Specifically, the film's reality feels like the real world except for the fact that cool people,
celebrities, and rebellious teenagers are all really into accordions and polka music.
"What have we told you about listening to that garbage?"
"Weird" also includes a nod to how other musical biopics depict the future star clashing with their
parents over noisy, newfangled rock 'n' roll music. In the movie, Al's father is vehemently
opposed to his son playing the accordion. However, Al's mother nurses her son's deep-rooted desire
to play the forbidden instrument, giving him one as a gift. From then on, he practices in secret.
When he's a teenager, Al's friends encourage him to sneak out and attend a raucous "polka
party," where he impresses a gaggle of high schoolers with his accordion prowess, until
the police show up and shut it all down. Young Yankovic is otherwise forced to read "Accordion
World," apparently a very popular magazine in this universe, snuck inside a school textbook.
Radio DJ and mentor figure Dr. Demento declares that his new client is in need of a stage name,
because "Al Yankovic" just isn't going to cut it. Yankovic has just performed and
dazzled the crowd with "I Love Rocky Road," his parody of Joan Jett & the Blackhearts'
"I Love Rock 'n Roll." Right there, in the dressing room of a sketchy bar,
Demento gives Al one option and one option only, giving birth to the professional life
of the newly named "Weird Al" Yankovic. It's a simple trick, the addition of one
descriptive word to the musician's real name, but it's one rooted in reality.
"'Weird Al' Yankovic."
"I love it."
Dr. Demento tells Al that previous funny musicians "Nervous Norvus" and "Wild Man Fischer" never
would have made it big without their stage names. While those sound like set-up names
to frame the similar "Weird Al," they're both real people. Jimmy Drake, also known as Nervous Norvus,
scored a top 10-hit in 1956 with "Transfusion," a celebration of reckless driving. Meanwhile,
Fischer was a comical outsider musician and street performer in the 1960s. Both
played the kind of music that would've been heard on the real Dr. Demento's radio show.
"Weird Al" Yankovic finds himself on the verge of fame after being discovered by novelty song
disc jockey Dr. Demento, who offers to shepherd him into the upper echelons of fame and fortune.
The first stop is a pool party at Demento's palatial mansion, and young Al is dazzled
by all the big-time celebrities in attendance. The famous people, many of them played by other
famous people, pop up on-screen so quickly and for such a short period of time that it's easy
for viewers to miss at least a couple while their brains process who they just spotted.
The two guys in red flower pot hats sitting on deck chairs when Al arrives are supposed to be
members of Devo, who the real Yankovic would later parody with "Dare to Be Stupid." Then he sees
Elton John in the outfit he wore on the cover of his "Greatest Hits" collection talking with '70s
star John Denver. Other stars pop in silently, including David Bowie, Elvira, Frank Zappa, Kate
Pierson of the B-52's, and Alice Cooper, who is played by Akiva Schaffer of comedy music group The
Lonely Island. Al interacts with a few other star party guests, including Pee-wee Herman, Salvador
Dalí, Wolfman Jack, who is played by Jack Black, and Andy Warhol, portrayed by Conan O'Brien.
"Ah, I give him fifteen minutes."
"Weird: The Al Yankovic Story" boasts a lot of cameos. Yankovic is a modern comedy legend,
and many famous fans, colleagues, and comedy big-shots show up to pay homage. In the film's
very first scene, a flash-forward shows Al nearly dying in a hospital,
an experience that will inspire his Madonna parody "Like a Surgeon," and
features Lin-Manuel Miranda playing an exasperated and emotional ER surgeon.
The Miranda appearance also has roots in Weird Al's music. In 2018 Yankovic compiled one of
his signature polka medleys out of songs from Miranda's Broadway musical megahit, "Hamilton."
Al frequently butts heads with two record executives, Ben and Tony Scotti. Those are
the real names of the guys behind Yankovic's long-time label, Scotti Brothers Records,
but they're portrayed by Will Forte and Yankovic himself. In the climactic Grammy Awards scene,
Al waits in the audience for his category to be called out, and he's accompanied
by a woman. Yankovic's real wife, Suzanne Krajewski, portrays the fake Yankovic's date.
"Weird: The Al Yankovic Story" is a proudly and hilariously inaccurate, over-the-top
biopic about the rise and invented fall of "Weird Al." It also functions as a not-at-all-true story
of fellow emergent musical superstar Madonna. Portrayed by "Westworld" star Evan Rachel Wood,
Madonna romances Yankovic for personal gain, as she wants him to parody her songs to boost her
own album sales. Madonna ends up sending him on a road of boozing and self-destruction, and winds up
taking over Pablo Escobar's powerful international drug trafficking cartel after Al guns him down.
Finding herself surrounded by towers of cocaine bricks, Madonna realizes that the money she's made
as a pop star pales in comparison to the fortune she could earn controlling the global illicit
drug trade. Al turns down her offer to run the cartel with her, despite her persuasive argument.
"Why rule the music industry when you can rule the world?"
Of course, this is a sly reference to the real Madonna's extreme sense of purpose and
ambition. She became one of the biggest stars on the planet, and that's something she told
everyone she'd do, early in her career. After performing on "American Bandstand" in 1984,
host Dick Clark asked Madonna what her dreams were. She had a simple answer.
"To rule the world."
Madonna's plot in "Weird" is rooted in some truth, too. Yankovic said on "The Tonight Show Starring
Jimmy Fallon" that there's something called the "Yankovic bump." Yankovic told Fallon that his
Nirvana parody resulted in a phone call from the band's record label thanking Yankovic for
the parody, which resulted in the label selling another million units of Nirvana's "Nevermind."
Every rock music biopic seems to include a psychedelic scene that inspires an epiphany,
and "Weird" is no exception. Not only does it set up the untrue story of how
"Weird Al" Yankovic conceived one of his most popular songs,
but it establishes a subtle running gag at the expense of another pop superstar.
While fretting over his estrangement from his father, Al munches on chips and guacamole,
which unbeknownst to him, Dr. Demento has laced with LSD. Al goes on a trippy vision quest, during
which Dr. Demento casually offers him a bowl of Cap'n Crunch, and then a bowl of Raisin Bran.
Of course, those are references to Yankovic's 1984 hit "Eat It," which includes the lyrics,
"How come you're always such a fussy young man / Don't want no Cap'n Crunch,
don't want no Raisin Bran."
"Eat It" is a parody of Michael Jackson's 1983 single "Beat It,"
but in the fictionalized narrative of "Weird," "Eat It" actually came
first. Yankovic is extremely proud of his original single, and becomes angered by the
misconception that his version came second. This sends Yankovic into a rage, with his
closest allies wondering why he wouldn't want to be forever associated with the King of Pop.
"You're telling me Michael Jackson recorded a parody of my song?"
It's a reference to Yankovic's real-life tendency to parody Jackson's hits, backed up
by many more references to Jackson throughout the film. For instance, when Al hallucinates,
he imagines himself playing guitar inside of an egg, referencing the line in "Beat It,"
"Get yourself an egg and beat it."
Later in the movie, Al's mother points out that she's gained weight. Responding
to polite denials from her husband and son, she proclaims that she's fat and
they know it. This is a reference to the chorus of "Fat," Yankovic's parody of Jackson's "Bad."
Every famous musician biopic includes a moment when the fame gets too much.
Because "Weird" is a parody, it decides to send up the trope itself,
as well as one of its most memorable executions. Al reaches a point where he can't cope with fame,
its trappings, and his personal demons any longer. While on stage one night,
he stops performing his usual fare of funny songs and starts ranting and raving about how
he can't let his father push him around. While his band breaks into some generic psychedelic music,
he drinks whiskey from the bottle while clad in only leather pants, then asks the crowd,
"So, you wanna see it?"
This moment is based on a similar on-stage meltdown scene from Oliver Stone's 1991 movie "The
Doors," in which a drunk Jim Morrison antagonizes the audience and promises to expose himself
despite the threat of arrest. Morrison really did that, and he was arrested in 1969 in Miami's Dade
County for lewd behavior, the same place Al's breakdown and apprehension occurs in "Weird."
The big difference is that Morrison dropped his pants, whereas Al just produces his accordion.
Because "Weird Al" Yankovic obtains his long-stated goal in the movie,
he must die immediately. The film concludes at the 1985 Grammy Awards,
although the generic stage decorations and bespoke trophies suggest filmmakers didn't
secure the rights to use official Grammy imagery. Diana Ross and Hulk Hogan present the final,
and thus most important category, which is "Perhaps Not Technically the Best But
Arguably the Most Famous Accordion Player in an Extremely Specific Genre of Music." That is
exactly what young Al said he wanted to be, early in the film, before he found fame and fortune.
"Perhaps Not Technically the Best But Arguably the
Most Famous Accordion Player in an Extremely Specific Genre of Music."
Of course, "Weird Al" Yankovic wins, to the livid chagrin of the other nominee,
an unnamed figure who is almost certainly meant to be Prince. When Weird Al defeats him, he
angrily leaves the auditorium. This is probably an allusion to the history between Yankovic and the
late Prince. According to People, Yankovic came up with parodies of "Let's Go Crazy," "1999," "Kiss,"
and "When Doves Cry," and ran them all past Prince for his approval, who apparently always said no.
"Weird Al" Yankovic's parodies, original songs, and movies are all represented in "Weird:
The Al Yankovic Story" by way of discretely placed easter eggs. When Madonna and Al lay in bed
after making love for the first time, the camera catches a hanging mirror adorned with the quote,
"If money can't buy happiness, I guess I'll have to rent it."
It's attributed to "Weird Al" Yankovic, and is taken from his 1986 original, "This Is the
Life." Later on, after drug lord Pablo Escobar kidnaps Madonna as a way to lure Al to Colombia
to perform at his birthday party, Al stalks and battles through the jungle. This is likely
an allusion to the "Indiana Jones" intro and the "Rambo"-inspired sequence from Yankovic's movie,
"UHF." When Al meets Escobar, the latter gushes that he obtained every "Weird Al" Yankovic album
from the Columbia House Record Club, which is a reference to Yankovic's 1999 song "Albuquerque."
Finally, after Al is assassinated at the 1985 Grammy Awards, Madonna visits
the grave of her former lover. For a brief moment, the camera catches Al's tombstone,
which reveals that in 1985 the "Eat It" singer didn't so much die, but rather he "Ate it."