"Weird Al" Yankovic makes brilliant art—specifically, someone else's art, in the form of a catchy pop song made brilliant by his spoofing. And this year the artist was finally recognized for his, well, brilliantness. The imposter has become the master
Weird al has been with us for thirty-one years. THIRTY-ONE YEARS. (That’s his career’s age, by the way, not his.) His self-titled debut album was released in 1983. Do you know who else was big in 1983? Toto. Dexys Midnight Runners. Maybe you’ve seen those guys from time to time on a Best of the ’80s compilation. Weird Al, on the other hand, has outlived entire species of plants and animals. (R.I.P., Japanese river otter. You will be missed.) Actually, outlived isn’t even the right word—the dude’s downright thrived.
No decade since has passed without his albums on the charts; there’s even intergenerational discord over which Weird Al album is the best. He has a theory on this: "If you do a random survey and ask people, ’What’s your favorite Weird Al album?’ they always say whatever album happened to come out when they were 12 years old," he surmises. "A certain chemical gets secreted into your brain at that particular age that makes you appreciate me."
In that case, serious hat tip to all current 12-year-olds: This year’s album, Mandatory Fun, hit No. 1 on the Billboard 200 this summer. It had been five decades since a comedy album debuted in the top spot. He says with a big smile: "I know it’s just a number, but it’s a really good number."
