5 minute read
Mollywood BLVD
from SCENE July 2022
by Kate Noet
Phenomen-Al
As a Millennial mom, I’m always trying to set my kids up with the same pop culture knowledge I have. I’ve exposed them to all the classic ‘80s kids movies: Goonies, Karate Kid, Back to the Future etc... It’s hard for me to imagine not “getting” those cultural references as they play out in modern entertainment, and I like to think I am setting them up for pop-savvy success, so it was my extreme pleasure to learn that both of my kids — ages 15 & 17 — had independently discovered the cultural icon and comedic parodist, Weird Al.
They credit YouTube to their discovery. He hasn’t put out a new record since 2014 when he famously parodied Pharrell Williams’ “Happy” with his song “Tacky,” but somehow, he has made an impression on some of our youngest generations. And thank God, because I think that we can all agree that “Amish Paradise,” the parody of Coolio’s “Gangster’s Paradise, is a stone classic that deserves to span the ages.
The newest season of Netflix’s Stranger Things releases its second its crop of episodes for Season 4 on Netflix July 1. Already, with the return of the famed sci-fi nostalgia series, we are seeing pop culture staples of the ‘80s find new life in the new millennium.
Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill” has become the star’s first ever top 5 single in the U.S. on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, nearly 40 years after its original release. The latest season saluted the Weird Al phenomenon when they introduced a new character, named Eddie, who in the first episode mentioned the first time he met Dustin and Mike, stating, “You (Dustin) were wearing a Weird Al t-shirt, which I thought was brave.” Weird Al Yankovic responded to the name drop on Twitter, tweeting, “#Brave #Strangerthings” along with a clip of the scene. This is sure to peak even more of Gen Z’s curiosity.
Recently, my brothers and I started curating a playlist of songs that were in heavy rotation in the Penny Household when we first moved back to Minnesota from the D.C. metro in 1994. Songs like Des’ree, “You Gotta Be” and Cheryl Crow, “All I Wanna Do” came to mind. As we continued our musical trip down memory lane, I recalled owning the 1992 Weird Al CD, Off The Deep End.
The cover art parodied the infamous Nirvana Nevermind album cover but instead of a naked baby, a naked Weird Al Yankovic submerged in a pool, and instead of a dollar bill, bobbing for a donut on a fishing line. The album produced one of Yankovic’s most popular singles, “Smells Like Nirvana.” Lead singer Kurt Cobain was quoted as saying, “You haven’t really made it until there’s a Weird Al spoof.”
My brothers and I were no strangers to Weird Al. I share a birthday with him: October 23rd! Growing up, we loved the movie UHF (1989). If you’ve seen it, you know that, like his songs and records, the film parodied several other films. It was off-beat, obscure and perfectly weird. Yankovic is credited in over 40 films, but he wrote and starred in UHF, so you get to know a bit more about him through the film.
If you want a true inside look at what makes Yankovic tick, producer Tim Headington is releasing a Weird Al biographical comedy for Roku through Will Farrell’s production company, Funny Or Die, set to release in the fall. The film stars Harry Potter himself, Daniel Radcliffe, as Yankovic. Preliminary photos released of Radcliffe in the role are pretty spot-on.
Minnesota is always a popular stop for the polka parody extraordinaire. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that Minnesota born radio broadcaster, Barry Hansen, or, Dr. Demento, helped give Weird Al national exposure. He has graced the stage at the Minnesota State Fair in 2010 and again in 2019.
His 2019 show at the “Great Minnesota Get Together” delighted a sold-out crowd! Ahead of his last State Fair appearance, the town of Darwin Minnesota celebrated the parodist who helped turn their giant ball of twine into a national tourist attraction with his 1989 song, “The Biggest Ball of Twine in Minnesota” by officially changing “Twine Ball Lane” to “Weird Alley.” Yankovic took to Twitter to comment on this honor as well, tweeting a photo of the street sign with the caption, “Sure, the Grammy’s and platinum albums are nice and all, but now I’ve finally made it: they just re-named the alley next to the Darwin, MN Twine Ball.”
Not all Minnesotans love him, though. In the height of Weird Al’s success in the ‘80s, with parodies of Michael Jackson’s hits “Beat It” (“Eat It”) and Bad (“Fat”), our own superstar Prince, who was featured in Jackson’s “Bad” video as a rival gang leader, decided he markedly did not like Weird Al Yankovic. He reportedly turned down at least four parody ideas and, hilariously, Prince’s lawyers once gave Yankovic a letter stating that he may not make eye contact with Prince during an entire American Music Awards ceremony. If you watch his video for “Partyman” from the 1989 Batman soundtrack, there’s a point in the video where he blows up a Weird Al look-alike with an exploding cigar!
The bottom line is, it was a well-known fact that despite having never even met in person, Prince hated the guy. Yankovic himself addressed the “decades of weirdness” between him and the “purple one” during an interview after Prince’s death and said he regrets they never reconciled but admitted he has a treasure chest of unreleased parodies of Prince music that will never see the light of day.
Online greeting card company Blue Mountain has eCards, similar to Cameo, where Weird Al will sing a birthday song to your friends and family members. You just send the name and Weird Al will do the rest, creating a one-of-a-kind birthday song. You may not get a Prince parody, but if you know someone who loves him, it’s a great gift idea! Or just take them to a show. Weird Al is coming back to Minnesota this month for a couple of stops.
He will be at the Mayo Clinic Health System Event Center on Saturday, July 23 and then at the State Theatre in Minneapolis Sunday, July 24 . With a catalogue spanning decades of pop parodies, it will be a fun experience for all ages.