Nooooo! Weird Al Might Never Release Another Parody Song Again
War still rages in Ukraine. Inflation has made avocados 7 bucks. Elon Musk is chief of Twitter. And if it couldn't get any worse, now we learn this: Weird Al Yankovic says he probably will not release another parody song, ever.
We learn this on a day of Weird Al hope and hype, as his biopic Weird: The Al Yankovic Story drops today (Nov. 4) on the Roku channel. Weird Al tells Rolling Stone , "I’m not so focused on (parody songs...) If a brilliant idea pops in my head, I guess I’d do it. But I’m leaving that to other people for the time being. I’m not retiring. I’m not saying I’m never gonna do another one. But it’s just not my focus right now.”
The undisputed king of parody songs, (Weird Al has done more than 150!,) with bangers like as "My Bologna," "Smells Like Nirvana" and "White and Nerdy," Weird Al has actually been silent on the new parody front since 2014. On that year's Mandatory Fun album, he took on Lorde's "Royals" and turned it into "Foil" (like aluminum), turned Pharrell's "Happy" into "Tacky" and Robin Thicke's "Blurred Lines" became "Word Crimes." Since then he's been the bandleader on Comedy Bang! Bang!, went on four tours, and co-wrote the Weird movie. But no new parody songs. What?!!! The world never got a "Jello" from Adele's worldwide smash "Hello"? Agghhhhhhh!!!!!!!
And we'll probably never get one. “I spent decades of my life obsessed with the Billboard charts, and living and breathing musical trends,” says Weird Al. “I’m just taking a little break from that and trying to do other things that I’m interested in. And again, if a great idea strikes me, then certainly I’ll do that. But I don’t want to try to force it just for the sake of feeding the pipeline.”
Weird: The Al Yankovic Story movie, starring Daniel Radcliffe of Harry Potter fame, does have a new original song in it called "Now You Know." Yahoo says it plays over the end credits, putting a bow on the biopic by explaining: "Now you know all my dirty secrets 'cause we spilled all the tea / There's nothing left to hide baby / How you like the real me?" The Weird soundtrack also includes "I Love Rocky Road," "Another One Rides the Bus" and "Like a Surgeon," all newly recorded for the movie.
And Weird Al says although unannounced, there are more live shows in store for 2023, and he has a few things on his plate that he can't talk about yet. But no "About Ham Time" ("About Damn Time" Lizzo) or "Bad Rabbits" ("Bad Habits" Ed Sheeran?) Criminal.
Watch the video for the new song "Now You Know" below, as well as the trailer for the new movie.