For decades, "Weird Al" Yankovic has been delivering brilliant parodies of hit songs.
In fact, his career has lasted longer than most of the musicians he's spoofed.
And if you're wondering what he's been up to in recent years,
there's not doubt that "Weird Al" has been keeping busy.
While it's true that "Weird Al" never stepped
out of the spotlight — he just doesn't garner the consistent mainstream attention he once did.
His engaging and comedic videos were a staple of MTV and other networks in the 1980s and 1990s,
but when those channels largely dropped videos in favor of reality shows and scripted programming,
artists like Yankovic lost a major promotional outlet and pipeline to fame.
Nonetheless, Yankovic has continued to make music, releasing four albums since 2000,
including Poodle Hat, Straight Outta Lynwood, Alpocalypse, and Mandatory Fun.
All four charted in the top 20 of Billboard's Top 200 albums chart, while Straight Outta Lynwood
was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association for sales of half a million copies.
That album debuted at No. 10, giving Yankovic the first top 10 album of his career. Simultaneously,
the record's lead-off single, "White and Nerdy," hit No. 9 on the Hot 100 singles chart,
the highest placement ever for a Yankovic song. Mandatory Fun,
Yankovic's fourteenth studio album, brought the music industry veteran a long-awaited achievement:
It debuted at Number 1 and some very special people surprised him with the good news.
"My manager's there. My wife is there and my daughter is there. My in-laws are
there. And they've got big signs that say number one and a cake. It was very sweet."
On top of that, Mandatory Fun also earned Yankovic a Grammy Award for best comedy album.
"Weird Al" focused on being a song parody
artist for the first few years of his career. But a guy with such a distinctive personality,
appearance, and comedy style was ideally suited to television. Beginning in 1984,
he hosted 10 MTV takeover-style specials called Al TV, and in 1997 CBS gave him
his own Saturday morning variety program called The Weird Al Show.
In recent years, Yankovic has turned in a lot of TV appearances as a voiceover artist,
playing cartoon characters or cameoing as animated versions of himself. He's played
everything from a singing minstrel on Lilo & Stitch: The Series to Banana Man on Adventure
Time to Captain Peanutbutter on BoJack Horseman. Throughout his career, Weird Al has also played
himself on plenty of animated shows, including Scooby-Doo and Guess Who?, The Adventures of
Rocky and Bullwinkle, and, of course, he made a couple classic appearances on The Simpsons.
"He who's tired of Weird Al is tired of life."
The 2010s Los Angeles alternative comedy scene
welcomed "Weird Al" Yankovic into its community with open arms. Over the last decade or so,
Yankovic has popped up in projects written and co-starring hip and influential comedy figures.
He had a recurring role as Uncle Muscles on the bizarre Adult Swim sketch series
Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!. He played himself and a fictional character
on the spoof medical show Children's Hospital. He also appeared in Wet Hot American Summer:
First Day of Camp, and, in his most unexpected role, he portrayed Adolf Hitler on Drunk History.
Plus, music and comedy fans were overjoyed when Yankovic
became the co-host of Comedy Bang Bang on I.F.C.
While "Weird Al" Yankovic has released just four albums since 2000,
he still gets out on the road to play concerts for thousands of fans at a time,
performing hits and deep cuts from his catalog even if he doesn't have a current project to
promote. In the 21st century, Yankovic has embarked on eight concert tours,
usually heading out in the spring and summer to play clubs, playhouses, fairs, casinos, and
amphitheaters. According to The New York Times, Yankovic will perform for as long as two hours,
providing a show full of multimedia elements, big set pieces, props, and multiple costume changes.
All that touring, year in and year out, has actually helped to make Yankovic very wealthy.
As he notes on his website, he's "the biggest-selling comedy recording artist
of all time." The Recording Industry Association of America certified his sales of nine million
albums in the United States alone. According to Celebrity Net Worth,
Yankovic has an estimated fortune worth about 20 million dollars.
In 1989, Yankovic made his feature film debut, starring in and writing UHF, a comedy about a
guy who takes over a small TV station and fills it with wild and wacky shows. It was
a major flop at the box office but became a cult classic, particularly among Yankovic's fanbase.
That said, if the opportunity to make a sequel presented itself,
Yankovic is definitely not on board. He told Rolling Stone in 2014 that while he would like
to make another full-length movie, UHF 2 "wouldn't be my first choice, or even my 10th choice."
At one point, Yankovic shared on his blog that his long-awaited second feature was ready to go,
a made-for-Cartoon Network live-action movie based on a script he wrote. It was
set to start shooting around 2010. Yankovic planned to direct, but not appear in the film.
He told Rolling Stone...
"We had a deal and everything. We were getting ready to go into pre-production
and the whole thing fell apart."
Instead of movies, Yankovic has directed many shorter projects — 16 of his own music videos,
including the clips for classic tracks, such as "Amish Paradise,"
"It's All About the Pentiums," and "Perform This Way." He even makes videos for other acts.
He directed the video for River by Hanson and Wail by the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion.
The music of "Weird Al" has always appealed to kids — his song parodies are usually silly,
and tackle innocent, kid-accessible subjects like food and Star Wars.
And, of course, Yankovic's music never includes any serious profanity.
"What the Fudgsicle!"
So it's only logical that Yankovic would one day more directly address
his youngest fans by writing a couple of children's books.
In 2011, Yankovic published the rhyming storybook called When I Grow Up, which was illustrated
by Wes Hargis. It tells the tale of a little boy named Billy who fantasizes about his future career
prospects. Two years later, Yankovic and Hargis teamed up again for the sequel, My New Teacher and
Me! This time, Billy's new teacher has a problem with the kid's vivid and boisterous imagination.
Luckily, Yankovic has a lot in common with Billy,
and we're sure his overactive imagination will keep his many fans entertained for years to come.
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