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Jul 19, 2024 Web Exclusive By Jake Uitti Photography by Sam Jones

For the past 40-plus years, the Downey, California-born “Weird Al” Yankovic has been bringing laughter to music listeners through his signature parody songs and polka medleys. From Michael Jackson riffs like “Eat It” and “Fat” to Madonna parodies such as “Like a Surgeon,” and the famous Coolio parody, “Amish Paradise,” “Weird Al” knows how to strike a nerve and perk an ear. In so doing, he’s earned a handful of Grammy Awards and sold more than 12 million albums.

Today (July 19), Yankovic has released his latest musical number, “Polkamania!,” a medley of the biggest pop songs of the 2020s, including “Old Town Road” by Lil Nas X, “Hello” by Adele, “Flowers” by Miley Cyrus, “Shake It Off” by Taylor Swift, “Vampire” by Olivia Rodrigo, and “Bad Guy” from Billie Eilish, among others. We caught up with the songwriter and performer to ask him about his longevity, sounds of the decades, his approach to making music, and what he loves about humor, itself.

Jake Uitti (Under the Radar): What do you like about humor?

“Weird Al” Yankovic: [Laughs] What do I like about humor? It’s funny! That’s such a broad question I don’t even know how to begin to answer it. You know, it’s one of my main joys in life. I like comedy. I tend to gravitate toward things that are funny. All my favorite movies are comedies. I enjoy all sorts of different movies and I certainly don’t dislike drama. But I always gravitate toward things that I think are amusing. I listen to all sorts of music but I have a special place in my heart for any band or artist that’s got a sense of humor. And isn’t afraid to be a little quirky or unusual. So, it’s just part of my personality. It’s hard for me to be serious a lot of times! Which has been a detriment in a lot of relationships [laughs] over the years. But my wife is used to it. So, we’re cool.

Not to blow smoke, but I always thought of humor as a sign of intelligence. You see a thing and then you can take it to the next level with a joke to see a different side of it.

I think to think so, yeah. Thank you.

In your career, you obviously have written a lot of parody songs, which I imagine necessitates you look at what’s new or next. But now that you’ve been doing that for a few decades, when you look back on your career, what comes to mind?

It’s a body of work. It’s hard to believe I’ve been doing it as long as I have. But when I look at the calendar, yeah, it’s been a while! My first single came out in the ’70s, which seems hard to believe! But yeah, it’s been nice that I’ve been able to acquire a body of work, most of which I’m proud of. Some of which, you know, didn’t age all that well. But it’s nice to have a legacy, to have a body of work, an oeuvre, if you will [laughs] that I can be proud of and that I can play live in concert, you know? I still continue to do new work but it’s nice to have everything that I’ve done before [available] for current generations and generations to come.

People always talk about these eras in music, how the 1960s have a sound or style, the 1970s have a sound or style. The 1980s, 1990s. But people also say that the 2000s and beyond, since the invention of the internet, don’t have that same distinct quality. As someone who has been documenting music over the years, what do you think about that idea?

Yeah, I mean, don’t take my word for it because I’ve kind of—I’m not as focused on pop music and the charts today as I was 10 years ago and prior to that. But yeah that’s my general sense, as well. And maybe this is just an old guy talking, but I mean the ’70s, the ’80s and the ’90s all seemed to have, you know, pretty definite kinds of sounds to them. It would be hard to say what that would be post-Y2K.

How about your approach to making music, has that changed? I’m sure the tools have to a degree, but how about your approach to doing it?

Yeah. For a number of reasons. The two biggest changes would be the move from analog to digital. Because I used to record everything on magnetic tape. And if you want to do—if there was one word that you got wrong, you couldn’t just tweak a wave form. You had to punch it in. And if the punch wasn’t perfect you might erase an entire line in the lyrics and it just became a headache. So, there’s some audiophiles that say, “Oh! I still record on analog tape because of the fidelity!” But it’s not worth it to me. I prefer to have more control when I’m recording. And the way it’s distributed certainly has changed as well in a major way. Most people get their music now from streaming services or from digital downloads. Albums are coming back but I think that physical product is certainly more of a novelty these days.

I imagine some people might think that you think that pop stars and their music are silly. But my sense is that’s not totally the case. Do you have an overarching sense of pop stars and the craft of making a pop song?

It’s a little of both. I do have a lot of respect for the artists. And my parodies come from a place of love. I generally parody artists that I’m a fan of. But overall pop music is kind of silly! Some people attach a lot of importance to it, which makes it even funnier when I do a parody because it lets a little of the air out of the balloon, so to speak, you know? But, no, I definitely have a lot of fondness for the music that I parody. I’ve seen some parody artists online that their whole thing is, “Oh! This artist sucks! And this song sucks! And isn’t this terrible and I’m so much smarter than them!” That’s not how I approach my comedy. I like the artists to be in on the joke.

There probably has to be a level of respect for it to work or else it’s just shitting on stuff.

Right.

To that end, do you have a favorite story from your career? I’m 41 so the story of “Amish Paradise” was right in my wheelhouse as a young person. Though I know that’s been told to death. How Coolio was angry about the song at first but then he came around. But is there another story from your career you’re fond of?

There’s a lot of stories that I could say. Yeah, I mean, the Coolio thing has kind of been beaten to death. And it was awkward for a few years after “Amish Paradise” came out but then he kind of came around. And we met up and hugged it out and he was totally fine with it. And that was a big exception because 99% of the artists that I’ve had my way with have approved and in fact really enjoyed the parodies. And I have a number of stories of artists showing their love and support and that’s always what I like to focus on. Because a lot of interviewers are like, “Who’s turned you down? Who’s said no?! Who has been offended?” And it’s been such a small, small percentage.

Has someone sent you, like, a handwritten letter of appreciation? Some sort of gift along the way, thanking you for having your way with them?

There’s so many! The very first one was back in 1983. I did a parody of Tony Basil’s “Mickey” called “Ricky” about Ricky Ricardo and Lucille Ball. And I got a lovely letter from Lucille Ball saying how much she loved the song, which, you know, I should have framed. But it’s definitely in my keepsake box. But that was my first really wonderful sign that people—icons—that I admired from childhood actually liked what I was doing.

Now you have a new song, “Polkamania!”, and music video out to commemorate 10 years of Mandatory Fun, the first comedy album in history to debut at No. 1 on Billboard. What made you want to release something now and why a medley of the decade’s biggest hits, including songs from artists like Miley Cyrus, Billie Eilish, Lil Nas X, Adele and Taylor Swift?

Well, I’ve done a polka medley on almost every album that I’ve put out. I think out of my 14 studio albums, I think there’s a polka medley on 12 of them. And I did “The Hamilton Polka” like six years ago. So, it’s something that fans have come to expect from me. And I haven’t really done, aside from “The Hamilton Polka,” a polka medley since Mandatory Fun. And there’s so many big acts and big hit songs that have kind of fallen by the wayside. Really ripe targets that I wasn’t in a place to poke fun at. So, I thought the 10-year anniversary of my last album seemed like a really natural point for me to catch up and do a lot of those songs in one medley. So, that was sort of the hook that I came up with the week of the 10-year anniversary, I wanted to do a medley of all the biggest songs of the last 10 years.

Is there anything that jumps out to you when you put all these songs together like that? Any pattern or anything about the songs’ structure, how they can and do fit together?

Well, I start by making a list of all the songs that I think would sound a little bit better done polka-style. And then once those songs get approved, then it becomes like a puzzle to fit them together in a way that works musically. So, I figure out, like, I should end the medley with this song and maybe I’ll begin the medley with this song and then it’s about figuring out how to get from point-A to point-B and to make the chord changes work out and make the keys seem natural. That’s part of the arranging, which is something that I really enjoy doing. But it is a lot of work to make it cohesive and then to write out all the horn charts and do all the heavy lifting.

Is there a pop song you’ve wanted to do but haven’t found the right angle? What happens when an idea doesn’t work out? I imagine you must have several drafts of ideas that might not have gotten off the ground?

I haven’t really focused on doing parodies in the last 10 years but even during my more productive decades, there have been a ton of songs that I thought would be a great candidate for parody and yet I wasn’t able to think of a good enough idea for them. I’ve got notebooks filled with bad ideas. For every song that I think, “I should do a parody of this,” I’ll come up with 100 different ideas and, you know, if I’m lucky there will be one good idea in the bunch. And that’s all you need! But sometimes that one idea doesn’t ever materialize.

I’m sure you must get people saying, “You should do this song or that song!” Does that ever get bothersome?

[Laughs] That’s kind of the bane of my existence. Or people even suggesting their own ideas. Early on I had a person going through my fan mail and weeding out the song suggestions because I don’t want anybody thinking, “Oh! Al stole that idea from me!” Because chances are, you know, somewhere along the line I would have the same idea independently of somebody else because there’s only so many hit songs and only so many variations on a theme, you know?

The radio personality Dr. Demento was important in helping to break you early in your career when you were just 16 years old. Today, he’s 83 years old. Do you two still talk often? If not, what might you want to say to him these days?

We still talk, we still email! We’re still close friends. I’m overdue for a visit. So, sometime in the near future I want to make my way out to—I don’t want to say where he lives—but make my way to his place and hang out. It’s been too long. So, it’s time for a visit with the doctor!

www.weirdal.com

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