Weird Al Yankovic, age 55, defies the rules of pop culture. His career in musical comedy now spans five decades; he's won three Grammys and sold more than 12 million records. He counts Lady Gaga and George Lucas among his fans, and he's feuded with Coolio. Last August his 14th studio album, Mandatory Fun, debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart, making it the first comedy album to top the list since 1963. It also had the best sales week for any comedy album since 1994 (the last to wear this particular crown was The Beavis and Butt-head Experience), in part due to a wildly popular video campaign in which the comedian released eight punchy, celebrity-laden music videos for the album over eight days. Nearly 40 years after his particular brand of wacked-out, subtly subversive parody first got radio airplay, Weird Al is on top of the world.
It is worth noting, of course, that the music industry had a relatively awful year, sales-wise — it's not like there was a ton of competition. Still: There's something sweetly reassuring about the way Weird Al parodies transcend pop culture's fickle phases. No matter how drastically the zeitgeist might seem to shift, there's always room for one (and only one: The culture can only support a single representative of arena-sized parody) gleefully irreverent guy with big curly hair and a larger-than-life persona changing the words in "Blurred Lines" to make a song about grammar and punctuation offenses. ("Word Crimes," by the way, debuted in the Billboard Top 40, putting Yankovic in a pretty exclusive club of people who have had Top 40 singles in each of the last four decades. Club membership: Weird Al, Michael Jackson, Madonna.)
It's fitting, then — one could even say overdue — that Weird Al will be getting the star treatment at this year's Sketchfest, with a "Tribute to Weird Al" night Feb. 6. Moderated by comedian/Nerdist CEO Chris Hardwick, the evening will include performances by the comedy/folk duo Garfunkel & Oates, comedian Jonah Ray, and Hard 'n Phirm, the musical comedy duo made up of Chris Hardwick and Mike Phirman, as well as, of course, the Weird one himself, who we talked to by phone from L.A. a few weeks ago.
SF Weekly: First, I should tell you that you are one of my first-ever concert memories. Age 10 or 11. And then I saw you again last year and it was even better than I remembered.
Weird Al: Wow, thank you! Where was that?
The first was at the San Mateo County Fair, and last year was at the Marin County Fair. Both times, I was really struck by how physical your show is — the costume changes between every song, running around the stage and into the audience. How do you do that night after night?
You know, it's exhausting. (Laughs). It's kind of a workout. When I'm on the road, I save up all my energy for the show. I do a lot of lying around, surfing the internet, watching satellite TV, trying to save my voice. Move my body as little as possible. It's all about trying not to exert any energy at all ... and right now, leading up to this big world tour for Mandatory Fun, I'm just being at home as much as I can, doing domestic things, taking baby steps toward getting ready.
The visual element of your show is so crucial. Has it always just been as important to you as the music?
I think it's always been an important element, but it's definitely developed over the years. When I first started there wasn't a whole lot going on in terms of a multimedia show — the only single I had out was "Ricky," [an I Love Lucy-themed parody of Toni Basil's "Mickey"] and we didn't even have any female singers in the band. So when it came time to showcase our big hit single, we had to reel out a 16-millimeter thing to show the video. Then when "Eat It" came out, we did the Michael Jackson jacket, and we started doing more costume changes; it started to be more of a real show. Now we have the LED screen. It's definitely only gotten bigger.
Since you mentioned Michael Jackson — he was a fan of yours, yeah? What does that even feel like?
Yeah, Michael Jackson, from all evidence, seemed to be a fan. I only ran into him two or three times, but he always made a point of saying how much he liked the parodies, how he loved the movie UHF. I think he would screen that in the movie theater at his ranch. He was a very sweet guy. It was always a little odd for me to talk to him; he definitely seemed sort of — oh, I probably shouldn't say alien, but truly larger than life, not of this world.
You've been working in music since the '70s, and you seem really adept at navigating the changes in the industry — the way you've used YouTube on this album, for example.
I guess. I mean, I don't think of myself as always being on the bleeding edge, but I am a fan of pop culture, and I try to roll with the times, or try not to get too hooked on doing things the way they've always been done. I understand that culture changes, you know? There's always going to be something new.
Do you have an opinion on streaming services?
You know, I'm still weighing that. Yes, Spotify does pay [artists], but the royalty rates are still pretty darn low. Any source of income is good, but it takes a whole lot of streams to make something out of it. The jury's still out on that one for me.
On the other hand, Mandatory Fun did sell a ton of records. Pretty much the only people who sold records last year were you and Taylor Swift. Do you have a handle on who's buying them? What is the Weird Al fan base in 2014?
(Laughs.) That's great. Well, you've been to the shows, you see how wide a range of people it is. There are older people who are nostalgic about earlier songs, but also, every album that I put out there's just a new crop of 12-year-old boys who discover it. In the '80s my audience was primarily teenage boys, but since then I think it's grown to a much wider demographic. At shows, I mean, that's one of the most demographically diverse audiences you're liable to find. There are kids, there are college-age kids, middle-aged people, grandparents. It can kind of become a family bonding thing.
I know you're actually a really talented multi-instrumentalist, as well. Do you ever imagine a kind of alternate universe where you're just, you know, in a regular band?
Not really. I don't think I'd tour as much. That said, I'm happy to work as a side musician whenever I can. My friend Jill Sobule had a recent gig here in town, and she invited me to sit in for a night and play accordion, which was fun. I actually played accordion on a Brian Wilson record at one point, but it never came out. It was kind of a dark period in his life, I think.
What kind of music do you listen to when you're just listening for pleasure, not for research or homework? I think people always try to glean clues from your "style" parodies; I remember being really happy when I heard "Everything You Know Is Wrong," realizing that you were obviously a They Might Be Giants fan.
Oh yeah, they're one of my favorite bands. I tend to gravitate toward some of the more quirky musical acts — not necessarily comedy, but bands that don't take themselves too seriously. I try to appreciate all music on a certain level. I've been a little bit unplugged the last few months — my family doesn't like to listen to music in the car that much, so I couldn't even tell you who's popular right now.
You have an 11-year-old daughter, yeah? Which is like prime Weird Al fandom age. Does she like your music?
She seems to enjoy it, but you know, we haven't really discussed it? Growing up she always enjoyed my stuff, and she's actually been out on stage in costume during a few of the Star Wars songs. I don't think she's gonna be one of those teenagers who all of a sudden thinks everything is stupid; she's pretty cool.
Do you have a white whale of a celebrity who's turned you down, parody permission-wise?
Well, my answer to that always used to be Prince. Out of everyone who's turned me down, it's probably still Prince. Back in the '80s there are several songs I would have loved to do, but I actually think the time has probably passed for that.
As a person with curly hair: Tell me about your hair-care routine.
My hair-care routine! I don't spend a lot of time thinking about my hair. I use whatever shampoo and conditioner are in the shower, which my wife buys. The past couple years I've been working with [hairdresser] Sean James if I have special appearances like the Emmys or important interviews, because it takes a while to actually comb through my hair. And if I don't for a while it turns into dreads pretty quickly. You know how it is.
I do. So what do we have in store at this Sketchfest show?
Oh, I think it's going to be lots of fun. Everyone's looking forward to it. I'll be doing an interview with Chris [Hardwick], who's just always been so supportive — he got me into the Rob Zombie movie [Halloween 2], all kinds of things. I think he's gotten me more work than my agent at this point.
We're certainly looking forward to it. Sorry that we won't be able to watch you perform at the Super Bowl halftime show; I know there was a campaign from fans gaining steam there for a while.
Ah, thank you. Yeah, it was amusing to me to see all that going on. It would have been something, but really I knew that the NFL would never put me out there for the halftime show. I mean ... the NFL is not known for its sense of humor!