WHO IS WEIRD AL??
Alfred Matthew Yankovic was born in October of 1959 in California, and was an only child. He spent his childhood playing the accordion, reading MAD magazine, and listening to the bonkers music of the Dr. Demento radio show religiously. Al was actually able to get his accordion music on the Dr. D Show by sending in tapes, the earliest song being “Belvedere Crusin’”
Being abnormally smart for a kid his age, Al managed to graduate high school and go off to college for architecture at the age of 16. But being younger than everyone else made it pretty difficult to form relationships. LUCKILY his college had a radio station where he made many pals who had the same admiration for offbeat, humourous music. Al ended up hosting a show at his college radio station where he became known as “Weird Al”. After graduating, Al became more involved in the Dr. Demento Show and he created more music to be played on the radio which is what first initially started his professional music career.
From then on, Al became the frontman of a band (Al with vocals n accordion, Jim West with guitar n backing vocals, Steve Jay with Bass and backing vocals, Bermuda Schwartz with drums and webmastery, and Rubén Valtierra with keyboard and bullet bras), he created more parody songs which gained popularity, signed a 14-record deal, had music videos and a show (Al TV) which played on MTV, and made a movie (UHF).
Nowadays, Weird Al is a beloved icon in American culture and has dozens of songs that have brought the weirdos of the world together.
Getting Into Weird Al
I had known about Al’s music since I was a kid when my mom showed me his new music video for “Tacky”, which I remember finding really entertaining and catchy.
A few years later my friend and I became enamored with the song “Party in the CIA” because of how dark it was and we had all the lyrics memorized to sing over “Party in the USA” whenever it played. I also liked listening to “NOW That’s What I Call Polka!”, which I found through an Eddsworld fan animation. I have specific memories of watching "Virus Alert" a lot during the beginning of quarantine, too (I thought it was really """"""webcore""""").
UHF was my gateway into REALLY getting into Weird Al.
I found out that Joel Hodgson (THE GUY FROM MST3K!!) had the role of Philo, a mad scientist (ironic?) written for him in Al’s movie UHF which Joel refused because he was pretty sick of show business at the time, so the scientist role was replaced with Anthony Geary. Since I’m a fan of Joel’s old standup, I wanted to see what his role written for him looked like in the movie, so I went and watched UHF on Youtube and quickly fell in love with the aesthetic and visual gags. In the following weeks, I watched more and more Weird Al stuff, becoming more enamored with his music videos (particularly “Like a Surgeon” and “Germs“... because...y'know...).
Anyway I love this dude to death and all the media he’s in (except Comedy Bang Bang cause I just don’t really get it)
My Favorite Songs: I Remember Larry, Dog Eat Dog, Everything You Know is Wrong, My Bologna, I'll Be Mellow When I'm Dead, Mission Statement
Lastly
Weird Al and the media surrounding him are so special to me. Being a painfully shy only child myself, it’s uplifting to see some socially inept kid who spent a lot of time learning hobbies in his bedroom growing up to be a well-known musician and comedian. Al pretty much embodies the hope I have that things will get better, and maybe someday I can express myself more openly and unapologetically.
Weird Al Music Video Tier List 
