Maybe this is how Mr. Yankovic remembers it.
For a certain guy at a certain age loving ‘Weird’ Al Yankovic comes with your dad card. When I was a wee lad Michael Jackson was the biggest pop star in the world.
And then one day I turned on MTV and there was Yankovic dressed as a perfect parody of the King of Pop and blowing up to immense proportions while singing, “I’m fat.”
When you are the right age a pitch-perfect parody of a pop song with lyrics about things like Rocky Road, Star Wars, and the Amish is the funniest thing in the world.
I got older and moved on the other musical pursuits and Yankovic kept on truckin’. Do the same thing long enough and well enough and you become an icon and an elder statesman.
I hadn’t thought about Al in years but I was meeting with a computer guy one day and his phone rang. The ringtone was White and Nerdy.
And I thought, “Here are my people.”
So now we have Weird: The Al Yankovic Story. It’s a feature film, that you can watch on the Roku channel for free.
Depending on your views on theatrical releases and the explosion of content in the streaming space this is either the best thing in the world (that someone actually made this) or the end of civilization (that it wasn’t released in theaters and also that someone actually made this).
Daniel Radcliffe plays Al, Rainn Wilson brings a dark edge to Dr. Demento (Al’s real-life mentor) and Evan Rachel Wood plays Madonna.
Every scene, no matter how ridiculous, is played perfectly straight.
It starts as a standard music biopic. Al’s parents hate his love of music. But a traveling salesman comes along and presents him with the opportunity to learn what the movie suggests is the most dangerous of all the musical instruments — the accordion.
After this, the flick seems content to roll along as a standard parody of a music biopic. It’s competing with the likes of Walk Hard The Dewey Cox Story. This is all solid work.
Al’s dad wants him to work with him at the factory. I laughed hard at Al, exasperated, screaming, “You won’t even tell me what you make there.”
Because it never matters what the horrible job is, whether it is farming or factory work, it’s just an excuse for a bad life the musician must escape.
You get that creation scene where the musician sees something and then immediately writes a massive hit song. This one involved bologna.
The movie also does a fine job being a showcase of some — though far from all — of the best Yankovic parody songs. I particularly enjoyed the accordion rendition of Beat on the Brat.
Then there is a Hollywood pool party that is a blast from start to finish, fun in that gold-plated mansion that every music star seems to buy, and a drug trip.
The movie has a lot of fun dreaming up a relationship between Al and Madonna.
And then, just as you start to get bored with it, the movie takes a hard right turn in a different direction.
There is so much joy there too. How often does a movie, even a comedy, decides that it can do whatever it wants. This throws off the shackles of the formula and basically dares the audience to complain. It is similar to when the cowboys in Blazing Saddles ended up in a musical.
Kudos to everyone involved. I was driving a day later and almost had to pull over. I was thinking about something in the movie again and it made me howl.
I will say that I do wish we could also have an actual Al Yankovic biography. I mean, I’m interested in peeking behind the curtain. I suspect all I would ever see is a funhouse mirror with accordions all the way down.
But, I suspect, an actual biopic will never happen.
Nothing can kill a joke like explaining it.
The true story behind Weird: The Al Yankovic Story — here’s what really happened
Here’s Everyone We Spotted At Dr. Demento’s Epic Pool Party In Weird: The Al Yankovic Story
Dark Highways 