Famous for over 40 years as the parody song maestro,Weird Al Yankovicbrings the same sense of sensibility to his own life story. WithWeird: The Al Yankovic Story, Yankovic and co-writer/directorEric Appelset out to use Yankovic’s story to parody many of the conventions of the music biopic, including the disapproving parents, the addiction to drugs, turning on the band and other friends due to egomania, and, of course, the great comeback.
Naturally,the film also stretches the truth and completely makes up many of the details of Yankovic’s life, as the film itself a parody of musical biopics.Weirdcompletely fabricates an ongoing relationship withMadonna, an action movie-style takeover of a Columbian drug cartel, and Yankovic —played brilliantly byDaniel Radcliffe— being literally shot on stage at the end of the movie. However, despite its absurdity, some specifics inWeird: The Al Yankovic Storyare actually true. Woven in with the high-antic hysterics are genuine moments of truth to Yankovic’s story, and some may be more surprising than others.
Weird: The Al Yankovic Story
Explores every facet of Yankovic’s life, from his meteoric rise to fame with early hits like ‘Eat It’ and ‘Like a Surgeon’ to his torrid celebrity love affairs and famously depraved lifestyle.
Weird Al’s First Accordion Came From a Traveling Salesman
In one of the early scenes in the film, described by the narrator as “the day that changed his life,” a traveling salesman arrives, offering to sell Yankovic an accordion. The salesman gets beaten up by Yankovic’s father (Toby Huss) for pedaling such smut but sells the accordion when Yankovic’s mom (Julianne Nicholson) buys it in secret. While this may seem farfetched,Yankovic did indeed get his first accordionfrom a traveling salesman. Around the age of seven, the Yankovic family was visited by a salesman trying to drum up interest in the local music program. Far from being violently discouraging or secretive, Yankovic’s parents supported the endeavor, even choosing the accordion for him. As Yankovic remembers:
“Kids were offered a choice between guitar lessons and accordion lessons. Since Frankie Yankovic (no relation) was America’s Polka King, my parents opted for accordion lessons, perhaps because they figured there should be at least one more accordion-playing Yankovic in the world.”
He started taking lessons not long after and soon began to learn both pop and polka music, only to later have his mind warped by the Dr. Demento radio show (more on that below).
Dr. Demento Was a Key Figure in Weird Al’s Life Early On
Radio DJDr. Demento (Rainn Wilson), famed for playing comedy songs, serves as Al’s mentor in the film (and later the friend he doesn’t heed the advice of because he thinks he knows better). As it stands,Dr. Demento was crucial in Al’s early career. As Yankovic says, “If it hadn’t been for the Dr. Demento Show, my life would have taken a dramatically different course.” Like in the movie, Yankovic did strive to listen to Dr. Demento against his parents' approval, but he found ways. Later on, their relationship began whenYankovic gave Dr. Demento his demo tape of original songsand Demento decided to play one on his show. This started a regular pattern of Yankovic sending in songs and Dr. Demento playing them often to great success, and debuting songs like “Another One Rides the Bus” (Yankovic’s parody of Queen’s “Another One Bites the Dust”) live on Dr. Demento’s show. While there are quite a few exaggerations to their relationship on screen, it would be hard to argue Dr. Demento wasn’t a key figure for Yankovic.
That Breakthrough Hit “My Bologna” Was Recorded in a Bathroom
One of themore comedic set pieces in the filmis when Yankovic and his college cohorts record “My Bologna” in the bathroom. The characters state that the bathroom has great acoustics which would make the tape sound even better. While this may seem like a parody of a down-on-their-luck musician finding the only means they can to record their song, this actually happened. Yankovic knew the bathrooms at Cal Poly radio station had the right setup for acoustics, so he ran some equipment across the hall and recorded the song. The song was an immediate hit.
As Dr. Demento remembers it: “The response I got when I played it on the air dwarfed not only that for all his earlier tapes, but practically everything else I played that whole year.” The song’s success even made an impression on The Knack, the band behind “My Sharona” which Yankovic parodied for “My Bologna.” When Yankovic visited the band at a concert and introduced himself,the band praised his work and connected him to Capitol Records. Capitol then put out the song as a single, furthering Yankovic’s burgeoning career.
Many Musicians Did Get the “Yankovic Bump”
InWeird,: The Al Yankovic Storyit’s mentioned that thanks to the success of “Weird Al,” many of the original artists received a bump from listeners checking out the songs that the parody was based on. In the film, this even goes as far as Madonna tracking down Weird Al to produce a parody of her music (and forming the aforementioned relationship). WhileMadonna (Evan Rachel Wood)seducing Yankovic is definitely a creative liberty, it is undeniable many musicians received a bump from Yankovic’s parodies.In an interview, Yankovic mentions hearing from a number of artists that their sales did in fact boost when his parody was released. Specifically, he recalls when he parodied Nirvana:
“We heard from Nirvana’s label, profusely thanking me. They said, oh, we’ve sold, like, another million units of “Nevermind” after “Smells Like Nirvana” came out. You know, I don’t have all the data in front of me. But it’s sort of – it certainly happened more than once.”
While it’s not likely any artists ever seduced Yankovic to get a parody, very few have objected.In an interview with Wired from 2011, Yankovic posits that only about 2-3% of people have turned him down and that most musicians see his parodies as a badge of honor. While there are some notable exceptions, the funniest one is likelyPaulMcCartney, whorefused a parody of “Live and Let Die"due to the song being about Chicken Pot Pie, which conflicted with McCartney’s strict vegetarian beliefs.
Al Yankovic’s Stage Name Came From Being Weird Growing Up
Much ofWeirdis about embracing weirdness. In the film, Yankovic’s parents worry about him being weird, he himself worries about being weird in front of his friends, and he fears that his passion for parody songs is weird. While in real life his parents did support him, he still was a bit of an outcast. Yankovic has talked about skipping grades, solving algebra problems for fun, and getting labeled quickly as a nerd. When he started performing on his college radio station, he took the name “Weird Al,” a name people in his dorm had been calling him, and he made it his own. As the film states,Yankovic took what made him “weird,” embraced it, and made a career out of it for 40 years.
Does Honesty Matter in a Music Biopic?
Movie biographies centered around musicians have been around for decades, but have seen a resurgence in recent years. The success ofStraight Outta Compton(NWA) andBohemian Rhapsody(focused onFreddie Mercuryand Queen)has given way to a boom of followers including:Rocketman(Elton John),Respect(Aretha Franklin),Elvis,Priscilla,I Wanna Dance With Somebody(Whitney Huston),Bob Marley: One Love,Back to Black(Amy Winehouse), andthen some not worth mentioning. Similar toWeirdthese all take creative liberties with their subject’s true to life story. Usually, this is a means of preserving the image of the star as a result of people close to them (i.e. the ones that retain the rights to person’s life and music) notwanting to show the hard truth. This is famously whyit took years to getBohemian Rhapsodyto the screendespiteSacha Baron Cohen’sinterest in starring.What results is the often formulaic story of the rise, fall, and return to respectability seemingly all musicians go through(as perfectly parodied byWalk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story) or the same product with a different coat of paint. So if lying is part of the deal, why not go all out?
By all accounts, Yankovic never had drama with substance abuse or scandal (just a few musicians unhappy with being parodied) but he embraced the clichés to make a movie that was more fun, and isn’t that the better way to go? The movies mentioned above risk being at best increasingly similar and at worst total misrepresentations of whom the people are. Now it would probably be hard to get the rights holders on board with going as crazy asWeird, butthey can embrace some creative choices to make a better movie.The extravagant Elton John used the musical theater format, breaking the songs out of concerts and allowing the supporting cast to sing and make stunning and surreal sequences.Priscillalimited the focus of its timeline, being selective about what to portray of Priscilla’s relationship with Elvis, which provided more insight than a cradle to grave biopic that followed a standard formula.
‘UHF’ Is ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic’s Hilarious Time Capsule About A Now-Irrelevant Subject
Who knew that Weird Al’s timeless sense of humor translated into a 1989 feature film called UHF?
Weirdis a funny case of blending the truth of Yankovic’s journey with the absurdity, but perhaps that reveals something about the subject matter? It is only fitting thatWeird: The Al Yankovic Storyis more a parody of musician biopicsthan a traditional biopic itself. This allowed the movie to introduce a certain novelty to a very familiar and formulaic genre. However, it is worth noting thatWeirdhad a key element that is widely considered the make-or-break factor for every biopic (parody or not) – that is a brilliant performance at its center. Not afraid to embrace the absurdity that the script delivered, Daniel Radcliffe met the demands of the role head on, balancing the movie’s ridiculousness with a certain earnestness that ties it all together.
While Yankovic and the other makers of the film may be comfortable throwing real life out the window, there is still some tether to reality. Yankovic uses parody to tell his own story, and despite the flights of comedic fantasies, there is a fair amount of truth to Yankovic’s portrayal. Even when simply trying to parody other movies,Yankovic can’t help but parody real aspects of his own life.
Weird: The Al Yankovic Storyis available to stream on The Roku Channel in the U.S.
