The White and Nerdy Edition Part 2

Summary

Hit Parade: The White and Nerdy Edition, Part 2

Slate Podcasts | Host: Chris Molanphy | Release Date: August 29, 2025

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Overview

In the “White and Nerdy Edition Part 2,” Chris Molanphy unpacks the history and cultural significance of “novelty songs”—humorous, parodic, and often chart-topping singles—focusing on the genre’s most consistent modern success: Weird Al Yankovic. Picking up from Part 1—which chronicled novelty music before the 1980s—this episode traces Weird Al’s evolution, his interaction with pop trends, and how digital technology rekindled the power of novelty records in the 21st century. Using storytelling, song snippets, and trivia, Molanphy tracks the challenges and triumphs that have allowed Weird Al to transcend the novelty label and adapt to each era’s music business and media shifts.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Weird Al’s Beginnings: The Demento Years (01:04–06:11)

• Weird Al Yankovic found his footing on the Dr. Demento radio show, first parodying The Knack’s “My Sharona” with “My Bologna” (03:10).
  • "Demento claimed My Bologna was his most requested song of 1979." — Chris Molanphy [03:26]
• The acceptance of his parodies by original artists (Doug Feiger of The Knack, Queen) set a tone for future collaborations and smooth rights navigation.
• With support from Dr. Demento and interactive live performances (like “Another One Rides the Bus” on the Tomorrow Show), Al established his brand.

2. MTV, Music Videos, and Early Eighties Breakthroughs (06:11–11:12)

• The launch of MTV opened new doors: Al's parodies—“I Love Rocky Road” (Joan Jett), “Ricky” (Toni Basil)—gained traction with bold, often comedic videos designed for TV audiences.
  • "An homage to TV's I Love Lucy, with future Simpsons voice actress Tress McNeill playing the part of Lucille Ball..." — Chris Molanphy [09:02]
• Early chart performance was modest (Bubbling Under or lower Hot 100), highlighting Top 40 radio’s resistance to novelty tracks.

3. Chart Smash: “Eat It” and Mainstream Validation (11:12–15:30)

• Al parodied Michael Jackson’s “Beat It” with “Eat It” (12:27), securing MJ’s personal blessing and mimicking the original’s video.
  • "Weird Al not only parodied Eat It, the song for the first time, he parodied an original song's video. Shot for shot, the Eat It clip recreated Jackson's iconic Beat it video..." — Chris Molanphy [12:34]
• “Eat It” broke into the Top 20 (peaking at #12), went gold, and proved that, with the right target, even radio bias could be overcome.
• Subsequent singles (“King of Suede,” “I Lost on Jeopardy”) saw more muted chart results, but album sales benefited from dedicated fan support and MTV video hits.

4. The Album Era—Style Parodies and Polkas (15:30–19:11)

• As radio cooled, Weird Al built albums with at least one blockbuster parody, plus original style parodies (like “Dare to Be Stupid,” a Devo homage) and polka medleys of current hits.
  • "Generally, as long as a Weird Al album contained at least one parody of a chart topping song, the disc could be relied upon to go gold." — Chris Molanphy [18:00]
• This built a fanbase that valued albums as much as singles and cemented Al’s longevity even during periods without big radio hits.

5. Adapting to Changing Musical Trends (19:11–23:58)

• The rise of hip hop saw novelty-tinged hits (e.g., Doug E. Fresh’s “The Show,” Digital Underground’s “Humpty Dance”) but rappers themselves avoided outright novelty status.
• Weird Al’s own attempts at hip hop parody, and others’ such as Rodney Dangerfield’s and Eddie Murphy’s, yielded only niche successes.
• Parody opportunities in rock (hair metal) were limited; Green Jellÿ’s “Three Little Pigs” was a rare exception.

6. Nineties Comeback: Parodying Generation X (23:58–27:12)

• After a failed movie detour (“UHF”), Al parodied Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” with “Smells Like Nirvana” (26:21), returning to the Top 40 for the first time in 8 years.
  • "Smells Like Nirvana gave Weird Al a new lease on chart life and another wave of young fans." — Chris Molanphy [25:53]
• Navigated controversies in artist permissions—famously, Coolio nearly denied permission for “Amish Paradise,” later squashing the feud (26:41).

7. Digital Revolution: Downloads and Viral Videos (27:44–33:42)

• The rise of iTunes and YouTube changed the game for novelty artists.
• Andy Samberg & The Lonely Island’s “Lazy Sunday” (29:30) proved that viral, funny music videos could have massive audience reach.
• “White and Nerdy” (2006), a parody of Chamillionaire’s “Ridin’,” became Al’s highest charting single ever (#9) thanks to digital sales and viral video.
  • "White and Nerdy could be shared on YouTube and the song could be purchased digitally...The result? White and Nerdy exploded onto the Hot 100...becoming Al's first ever top 10 hit." — Chris Molanphy [32:13–33:42]

8. YouTube Era: Strategic Album Releases and a #1 Album (35:08–41:09)

• Al's approach evolved to dropping multiple singles and accompanying videos simultaneously (“Alpocalypse,” “Mandatory Fun”).
• Billboard’s Hot 100 starts factoring in YouTube views (2013).
• “Mandatory Fun” launches with a blitz of videos for every song, resulting in Al’s first-ever #1 album, and the first comedy album to top charts in 51 years.
  • "Mandatory Fun was also the first comedy album of any kind to top the chart in 51 years. Since Alan Sherman's LP My Son the Nut hit number one in 1963." — Chris Molanphy [41:09]

9. Legacy, Influence, and the Changing Definition of “Novelty” (41:09–44:30)

• Al’s “Hamilton Polka” (2018) topped digital sales; new novelty artists (The Lonely Island, Ilvis with “The Fox”) continue the tradition online.
• The boundaries between novelty and regular chart-toppers have blurred—virality, meme culture, and musical humor are now mainstream (“Old Town Road,” “Truth Hurts”).
• Al may focus on singles/video going forward, as albums become less central.

10. Conclusion: The Ongoing Value of Humor and Parody in Music (44:21–End)

• Al’s continued touring and pride in his career reflect the enduring appeal of musical parody.
• The future holds open possibilities for the next generation, or for Al himself, to further embrace digital platforms and viral success.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Getting Permission (Michael Jackson Parodies):
  • "Parodies are protected in US law as fair use, but Al insists on receiving the original act's blessing to ensure there are no misunderstandings..." — Chris Molanphy [11:25]
• On “White and Nerdy” Success:
  • "The meta brilliance of the song was that Weird Al wrapped it with legitimately dazzling flow, matching Chamillionaire's triple time beat for beat and packing literally dozens of jokes in rapid fire succession." — Chris Molanphy [32:04]
• On the Chart Impact of Digital Sales:
  • "White and Nerdy exploded onto the Hot 100 when it debuted...becoming Al's first ever top 10 hit. As had been true since the 80s, radio airplay of the song was limited, but its sales more than made up this deficit." — Chris Molanphy [33:42]
• On Shifting Definitions of “Novelty Songs”:
  • "The lines between novelty and normal hits have been unsettled at best. And when modern day songs become hits because of memes...it seems that there has never been a greater premium placed on recording artists who can bring the snarky, the goofy, the kitschy, the funny." — Chris Molanphy [43:34]
• On Al’s Place in Pop History:
  • "As Weird Al tours the country this summer, he looks happier and prouder of his unprecedented career than ever. For his fans, that's more than enough. But hey Al, if you wanted to record again and maybe make some tick tockable content, that chart topping career of yours just might enter its fifth decade." — Chris Molanphy [44:30]

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• Intro & Recap: 01:04–03:26
• Early Parodies (“My Bologna,” “Another One Rides the Bus”): 03:10–06:11
• MTV and Iconic Early Videos (“Ricky,” “I Love Rocky Road”): 06:11–09:34
• “Eat It” and Mainstream Breakthrough: 11:12–14:16
• Polka Medleys and the Album Model: 17:31–18:13
• Late 80s/Early 90s Parody Landscape; “Smells Like Nirvana”: 19:11–26:27
• Digital Revolution, “White and Nerdy”: 29:41–33:42
• “Mandatory Fun”/YouTube Era: 38:03–41:09
• Blurred Lines: Novelty vs. Meme Hits (“Old Town Road,” “Truth Hurts”): 41:09–44:30

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Tone

Chris Molanphy delivers with a lively, fact-rich, and slightly wry tone, balancing deep pop music scholarship with accessible anecdotes and humor. His admiration for Weird Al’s craft and legacy is palpable, yet he retains an analytical edge befitting his reputation as a chart analyst and pop critic.

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Summary

This episode of Hit Parade highlights Weird Al Yankovic as the throughline of novelty song history, celebrating his uncanny knack for parody, his adaptability across decades of changing music consumption, and the increasingly fuzzy lines between comedy, meme, and mainstream hit. From bathroom-recorded accordion parodies to platinum viral singles, Al’s career is cast as both an anomaly and a harbinger of digital-age musical humor—reminding us that chart-topping songs need not be serious to be significant. Whether or not he records another album, his legacy is secure in both the pop charts and pop culture.

Transcript

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[Chris Melanfi]

Welcome back to Hit Parade, a podcast of pop chart history from Slate Magazine about the hits from coast to coast. I'm Chris Melanfy, chart analyst, pop critic and writer of Slate's why Is this Song Number One? Series. On our last episode, we walked through the chart history of novelty songs. These comical ditties were hits even before the dawn of Rock and ROL. They enjoyed major success through the 1950s, 60s and 70s. But as radio playlists became more formatted, funny records were gradually sidelined. However, at the dawn of the 80s, a certain accordion playing weird guy is about to reinvent the business model for parody songs. In the summer of 1979, 19 year old Alfred Yankovic, a student at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, California, noticed that there was this punchy song dominating the radio. It was My Sharona, the top hit of 1979 recorded by New wave rock band the Knack. And one thing Al knew right away, this would be a funny song to parody. Al Yankovic had already spent years listening to the Dr. Demento show and home recording his own comical songs played on accordion. Al had even passed a tape of some of his songs to Demento. When the radio host visited Al's high school in 1976, Demento played a couple of Al's songs. On the show, now at Cal Poly, Yankovic took his accordion into a bathroom across from the college radio station and recorded his own version of the NAX.

[Weird Al Yankovic]

Hit Ooh my little hungry one, Hungry one, open up a package of my bologna. Ooh, I think the toast is done, the toast is done. Top it with a little of my bologna, My bologna.

[Chris Melanfi]

An homage to Lunchmeet would not only launch Al Yankovic's recording career, it typified several trends for him. For one thing, it was a smash on the Dr. Demento Show. Demento claimed My Bologna was his most requested song of 1979. For another thing, Al's parody charmed the artist behind the original song. Doug Feiger, lead singer of the Knack, found out about My Bellona, expressed his appreciation for the flattering homage and helped Al get it released on the Knack's own label, Capitol Records. And it was on that 45's actual label that Al formally debuted his full performing name, Weird Al Yankovic, a moniker given to him by fellow Cal Poly students a couple of years earlier. By 1980, Al was a star on the Dr. Demento show and when he appeared as a guest on the program late that year, he came ready to record a follow up to My Bellona and had even selected his next hit song to parody.

[Weird Al Yankovic]

Another One Bites the Dust and Another One Gone and Another One Gone. Another One Bites the Dust.

[Chris Melanfi]

Queen's Another One Bites the Dust was rising to number one on the Hot 100 in the fall of 1980. Just as Al appeared on the Demento show accompanied only by his accordion and the pounding of self styled drummer John Bermuda Schwartz on Al's accordion case, Yankovic recorded Another One Rides the bus live in Dr. Demento's studio. Released on former disco label TK Records, Another One Rides the Bus became Weird Al's first Billboard hit, reaching number 104 on the magazine's Bubbling under the Hot 100 chart in March of 1981. The song was popular enough that Al was invited by late night TV host Tom Snyder to perform Another One Rides the Bus on his NBC program the Tomorrow Show. Weird Al Yankovic, who first became known for his parodies of popular rock tunes in 1979 with his parody of a song done by the Next, which was called My Sharoma. And Weird Al rewrote it and called.

[Weird Al Yankovic]

It Another One Rides the Bus.

[Chris Melanfi]

Weird Al knew how to present himself on television with his shaggy hair and Frank Zappa like mustache and his rabid rock and roll attack on the accordion, an un rock instrument. Here was a performer who had seemingly learned from every novelty act that had come before from Spike Jonze and Alan Sherman, the wit of combining a familiar melody with unexpected lyrics from Shel Silverstein, how to build a whimsical song like a story from Tom Lehrer, how to make parody song lyrics not only funny but sharply phrased. All of these skills, including the visual, would come in handy very soon. It should be noted that Weird Al's initial breakthrough via the Demento show predated the 1981 launch of MTV but once that video channel took off and popularized the music video in America, the kinds of New Wave songs that became hits lent themselves to parody. And Al Yankovic had a great ear for hit songs with both comic and visual potential. Joan Jett and the Black Hearts cover of the Arrows, I Love Rock and Roll was a number one smash in the spring of 1982, and it lent itself to another Weird Al food related parody.

[Weird Al Yankovic]

Baby I love Rocky Road, so won't you go and buy half a gallon? Baby I love Rocky Road, so have another.

[Chris Melanfi]

I Love Rocky Road helped get Al a permanent signing to a label, Scotty Brothers Records, and it spawned one of his earliest music videos in which a leather clad Al, trying to look as badass as Joan Jett herself, makes a grand entrance in an ice cream parlor and demands his favorite flavor. Later, in 1982, another new wave chart topper would inspire another TV friendly parody.

[Weird Al Yankovic]

Hey Nicky, oh Mickey, you're so fine. You're so fine you blow my mind.

[Chris Melanfi]

Hey Nicky Nicki was a hit largely fueled by mtv. A song that singer, choreographer and video artist Tony Baszel wrote specifically to accompany her clip of a drill team of cheerleaders. It reached number one on the Hot 100 in late 1982. And in weird Al's hands.

[Weird Al Yankovic]

Hey Lucy, I'm home.

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Oh, Ricky, you're so fine. You're so fine you blow my mind. Hey Ricky, Hey Ricky.

[Chris Melanfi]

It became an homage to TV's I Love Lucy, with future Simpsons voice actress Tress McNeil playing the part of Lucille Ball and Weird Al doing his best Ricky Ricardo. The video, shot mostly in black and white, presented a madcap but letterpress perfect parody of the Lucy show and went into regular rotation on mtv.

[Advertisement Narrator]

Hey Ricky, you always play your conga drums.

[Chris Melanfi]

This exposure finally got Al onto the Hot 100 itself, not just the Bubbling under chart. Ricky reached number 63 in the spring of 1983, less than six months after Tony Basil's original Mickey had topped the chart. A follow up single release of I Love Rocky Road also charted in Billboard, but missed the Hot 100, bubbling under at number 106. This mixed chart performance reflected the specific challenge facing Weird Al in the early 80s. Al's skill was parodying songs that were very recent hits, trading on their familiarity and adding not only comical lyrics but hilarious MTV friendly videos. But even following up hits as big as Joan Jett's and Tony Basil's, in an era of regimented top 40 radio playlists, a Weird Al parody would have to be truly enormous to make the upper reaches of the Hot 100. Remember also that in the 70s, what got songs like the Streak and Convoy to number one was latching onto a major trend or fad. In short, Al would have to parody a positively massive cultural phenomenon to break into the top 40. And as 1983 turned to 84, that's exactly what he did.

[Weird Al Yankovic]

How come you're always such a fussy young man? Don't want no Captain Crush don't want no Raisin Bran well, don't you know that other kids are starving in Japan? So eat it, Just eat it.

[Chris Melanfi]

Weird Al targeted the biggest pop sensation on the planet with Eat It, a parody of Michael Jackson's Beat It, a number one hit in the spring of 1983. Taken from Jackson's all time best selling album Thriller, Eat it was recorded and released when Jackson mania was at its absolute apex. It should also be noted that as per his usual policy, Al reached out to Jackson himself to secure his approval. Parodies are protected in US law as fair use, but Al insists on receiving the original act's blessing to ensure there are no misunderstandings and to ease the process of apportioning royalties on songs Al did not originally write. Like Doug Feiger of the Knack, most artists are flattered by a Weird Al parody, but Michael Jackson's seal of approval in 1984 proved invaluable.

[Weird Al Yankovic]

Open up your mouth and feed it. Have some more yogurt. Have some more.

[Chris Melanfi]

That's because Weird Al not only parodied Eat it, the song for the first time, he parodied an original song's video. Shot for shot, the Eat it clip recreated Jackson's iconic Beat it video, including its warring west side story like Gangs, and even included some dancers from Jackson's original video. On mtv, it was a smash. And on the radio, a Weird Al hit was finally too big to ignore. Eat it reached number 12 on the Hot 100 and went gold. Because the Hot 100 averages both sales and airplay, those gold record sales helped overcome the handicap novelty songs have on the radio. But even on the airwaves, Eat it receipt received considerable rotations. At the height of Jackson mania, Eat it was the lead single on the album weird Al Yankovic in 3D, Al's first LP to crack the top 40. Like the single, it was certified gold the week in April 1984. That it reached its peak of number 17 on the album chart in 3D was one position higher than the Police's blockbuster 1983 album Synchronicity, which was ironic because Al's next single was a parody of the Police's hit from that album, King of Pain, transformed by Al into the sales pitch of a proprietor of cowhide.

[Weird Al Yankovic]

Our prices are low, my staff is under a bid. You can buy off the rat. Or has it come.

[Chris Melanfi]

King of Suede reached number 62 in May of 84, and it was immediately followed by another 3D hit that, like Al's earlier single Ricky, doubled as a throwback to the early television era. Al turned The Greg Kin Band's 198319 number two hit Jeopardy. Into I Lost on Jeopardy, an homage to the TV game show. Notably, Al recorded the song after the original NBC version of Jeopardy. Hosted by Art Fleming, was on a long hiatus, Al got the show's original announcer, Don Pardo, who also served as the announcer for Saturday Night Live, to record a hilarious spoken word interlude calling Al a complete loser.

[Weird Al Yankovic]

That's right, Al, you lost. And let me tell you what you didn't win. A 20 volume set of the Encyclopedia International, a case of Turtle Wax, and a year's supply of Rice a Roni.

[Chris Melanfi]

The San Francisco Tree.

[Weird Al Yankovic]

But that's not all.

[Chris Melanfi]

Don Pardo also appeared in the I Lost on Jeopardy. Music video, which featured additional cameos from Art Fleming, Dr. Demento and even original songwriter Greg Kin. The clip was a smash on MTV and other televised video shows, but the song only made it to number 81 on the Hot 100 in the summer of 1984. The single's release preceded the return of the game show in a new syndicated forum hosted by Alex Trebek by just a couple of months. In short, just months after the success of Eat It, Al was back to peaking in the lower half of the Hot 100. In fact, Eat it would be Al's last top 40 hit of the 1980s. In part, of course, the radio bias against novelty songs was to blame, but also weird. Al was benefiting in different ways. Increasingly, his fanbase was springing for his albums, not his singles. So even when he served up a parody of a dominant song like his 1985 reboot of Madonna's chart topper like a Virgin, the album did better than the single. Like a Surgeon just missed the top 40, peaking at number 47. But its album, Dare to Be Stupid was gold. Within six months, Al fans were coming to appreciate not only his parodies of big hit singles, but his deep cuts. These included his so called style parodies like Al's Devo homage Dare to Be Stupid, a track that doesn't evoke any specific Devo song.

[Weird Al Yankovic]

Stupid. It's so easy to do stupid we're all waiting for you. Let's go.

[Chris Melanfi]

As well as his albums Polka Medleys, in which Al ingeniously mashes up accordion covers of more than a dozen hit songs in three to five minutes with beer garden worthy arrangements Owner of a.

[Weird Al Yankovic]

Lonely Heart Owner of a Lonely Heart.

[Chris Melanfi]

Generally, as long as a Weird Al album contained at least one parody of a chart topping song, the disc could be relied upon to go gold. More in a moment.

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[Weird Al Yankovic]

It's on prime.

[Chris Melanfi]

In 1988, one year after Michael Jackson returned with the song Bad Al once again parodied both the song and the video with fat. The single only reached number 99, but Al's LP, even worse hit the top 30 and went gold. Weird Al's mixed chart success is in the late 80s had to be considered against the backdrop of novelty recording in general. Very few novelty singles besides Owls were hits at all, at least the ones labeled as such. The 80s rise of a new genre, Hip hop lent itself perfectly to parody. In fact, to digress for a moment, the history of rap, from Rapper's Delight to Baby Got Back, is littered with songs that skirt the line of novelty. Many of Rapp's formative tracks are built as de facto comedy records, including Doug E. Fresh and Slick Rick's seminal the Show.

[Weird Al Yankovic]

Have you ever seen a show with fellas on the mic with one minute rhymes that don't come out right? They bite, they never write. Am I lying? No, you're Quite right.

[Chris Melanfi]

Biz Markie's top 10 hit just a Friend and the deliberately wacky instructional dance single the Humpty Dance by Digital Underground, a group that by the way would later spawn the solo career of Tupac Shakur. None of the these rap classics was officially tagged as a novelty track. Joel Whitburn only tags the show as a novelty, and that status is debatable. Any actual rapper trying to get over would avoid being perceived as a joke. Meanwhile, numerous comedians tried to record deliberate rap parodies and none was a major chart success. From Rodney Dangerfield I played hide and.

[Weird Al Yankovic]

Seek when I was three. No respect, no respect. Why they wouldn't even look for me.

[Chris Melanfi]

To Eddie Murphy who issued a low charting rap parody before switching to straight faced pop music. To a John Way Wayne imitator who called himself the Rappin Duke. His self titled Minor hit in 1985 was legendary enough on hip hop radio to later be name checked by the Notorious B.I.G.

[Weird Al Yankovic]

So you think you're bad with your rap? Well, I'll tell you pilgrim, I started the crap. When you were in diapers and wetting the sheets, I was at the Ponderosa rapping to the beat.

[Chris Melanfi]

The rise of hair metal and hard rock in the late 80s and early 90s would also seem ripe for parody. Legitimate hits by the likes of Poison and Motley Crue flirted with comedy, but again, the need for these rockers to appear hardcore kept them from producing out and out novelty singles. Only one hard rock act really attempted a pure novelty single. The metal grunge hybrid band Green Jelly with their thrashy fairy tale Three Little Pigs, a top 20 single in early 1993 that got little radio airplay but sold a half million copies. By the early 90s, Weird Al was himself trying to regroup, and hard rock would be the ticket to his comeback. At the end of the 80s, he'd made a detour into Hollywood that proved momentarily fatal to his career. His 1989 film UHF, written by and starring Al, was hyped by Orion Pictures as a potential summer blockbuster, but it flopped at the box office. In a movie season dominated by smashes like Batman and Indiana Jones.

[Weird Al Yankovic]

You get to drink from the fire hose.

[Chris Melanfi]

So it had been nearly four years since Weird Al had issued a regular studio album, and the UHF soundtrack had underperformed on the charts. Al briefly considered again parodying Michael Jackson, who was back with a 1991 album, but he didn't want to deepen his reputation as primarily a Jackson parodist. But Jackson's new album was competing on the charts with a completely different kind of act, and it gave Weird Al a truly Inspired Super Meta idea. The breakthrough of Nirvana on the charts was a seminal moment in 90s rock. But what Weird Al keyed in on in their breakthrough hit, Smells Like Teen Spirit, was Kurt Cobain's elliptical, at times indecipherable lyrics. So after getting permission from a very flattered Cobain, Al proceeded to do a Nirvana parody about Nirvana. Released in the spring of 1992, just weeks after Smells Like Teen Spirit had peaked on the Hot 100, Smells Like Nirvana returned Weird Al to the top 40 for the first time since Eat it in 1984. In fact, Al's Nirvana parody climbed the charts so fast when it peaked at number 35, it leapt two spots over come as yous Are. Nirvana's own follow up hit. Smells Like Nirvana gave Weird Al a new lease on chart life and another wave of young fans. The decade of grunge and gangster rap would be creatively fruitful for Alex, who got a lot of mileage poking fun at the self seriousness of these genres, whether he was puncturing a new generation of glowering rock hits on his alternative polka.

[Weird Al Yankovic]

Despite all my rage I am still just a rat in a cage despite all my rage I am still just.

[Chris Melanfi]

A rat in a cage or rebooting Coolio's smash Gangsta's paradise as Amish paradise.

[Weird Al Yankovic]

Fool and I've been milking and plowing so long that even Ezekiel thinks that my mind is gone I'm a man.

[Chris Melanfi]

Of the land In a tale that could only be told in the 90s, Coolio was so protective of his reputation that Al had trouble getting the rapper's permission to remake the song. Coolio sounded genuinely pissed at Al for deflating his street cred.

[Weird Al Yankovic]

Have you heard Weird Al's Amish paradise yet? I ain't with that, no, no, I didn't give it any sanction, you know, I think that my song was too serious, you know, it ain't like it was beated. We're all crazy.

[Chris Melanfi]

A contrite Weird Al apologized to Coolio. Al recorded Amish paradise thinking Coolio's management had signed off and they had squashed the beef by 1996. By the end of the 90s, Weird Al's albums were selling as well as ever. 1999's Running with Scissors went gold and eventually platinum, fueled by Al's Star wars homage set to the tune of Don McLean's American Pie. It was called the Saga Begins.

[Weird Al Yankovic]

We started singing my my the tier Anakin guy maybe Vader someday Later. Now he's just a small fry and he left his home.

[Chris Melanfi]

But once again, Al Al found himself out of favor on the song charts. The saga Begins didn't even appear on the Hot 100. Entering the 21st century, between his sellout live shows and his strong album sales, Weird Al contented himself with what was already one of the longest lasting and strongest selling careers in novelty music history. But as we explained in our holiday episode of Hit Parade, chronicling the technological changes that that eventually gave Christmas songs a bigger profile on the charts, the digital evolution of the music business was about to give a major boost to Weird Al and all novelty musicians. All of this music with all of these rights you can buy for 99 cents per song with no subscription fee. The mid aughts launch of both legal commercial music downloading by Apple and video sharing by YouTube would change the possibilities for hit making. Download sales were added to the Hot 100 in 2005, making it possible for album cuts, holiday songs and other ephemera to score single sales and chart like they never had before. And the launch of YouTube that same year, even though it did not count for the charts back then, changed the possibilities for music promotion. And the first big beneficiary was a novelty song.

[Weird Al Yankovic]

Lazy Sunday Wake up in the late afternoon Call Parnell just to see how he's doing hello. What up pawns? Yo Samberg, what's cracking? You thinking what I'm thinking?

[Chris Melanfi]

Saturday Night Live cast member Andy Samberg, who was also part of a comedy music troupe called the Lonely island, made a name for himself in his very first season with a rap parody called Lazy Sunday. The video, recorded with fellow castmate Chris Parnell, was not only a buzz worthy hit on a December episode of snl, it happened to land just weeks after the launch of YouTube. Lazy Sunday became YouTube's first major hit. Reinforcing that the combination of music and comedy was potent viral content. Andy Samberg's unwitting proof of concept for YouTube was well timed for Weird Al, who was preparing to return with a new album. And and even more than on his 90s Coolio parody, Al was going to go hard after Hip Hop Ridin was a number one hit in the spring of 2006 for Houston rapper Chamillionaire. The track told a tale of urban policing as the rapper bemoaned overzealous state troopers pulling over his car looking to catch him riding dirty or finding illegal substances. If it sounds like your hit parade host is over explaining a street rap cut and taking the edge out of it in a rather Caucasian manner, well, Weird Al Yankovic went much further than I did.

[Weird Al Yankovic]

I know in my heart they think I'm white and nerdy.

[Chris Melanfi]

Weird Al turned Chamillionaire's Ride and Dirty into White and Nerdy, a different kind of street tale of a geek who wants to hang with the gangstas but unfortunately is too white and nerdy. The meta brilliance of the song was that Weird Al wrapped it with legitimately dazzling flow, matching Chamillionaire's triple time beat for beat and packing literally dozens of jokes in rapid fire succession.

[Weird Al Yankovic]

I got a business doing websites need some code who do they call? I do HTML for them all Even made a homepage for my dog Yo I got myself a fanny pack the.

[Chris Melanfi]

White and Nerdy video was also a tour de force. Like Edit, the video recreated the look and feel feel of the original clip with geeky Al standing in for the original star. But here was the difference between this single and every other video and song release in Weird Al's history. White and Nerdy could be shared on YouTube and the song could be purchased digitally. Again, YouTube did not yet count for the charts, but it didn't matter. Fans who were enthralled by the video piled into the iTunes Music Store to buy the song for 99 cents. The result? White and Nerdy exploded onto the Hot 100 when it debuted in mid October 2006 at number 28. It instantly became Weird Al Yankovic's highest charting hit since Edit in 1984. One week later, White and Nerdy pole vaulted to number 9, becoming Al's first ever top 10 hit. As had been true since the 80s, radio airplay of the song was limited, but its sales more than made up this deficit. White and Nerdy was eventually certified by the Recording Industry association of America as Weird Al's first ever platinum single.

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[Weird Al Yankovic]

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[Chris Melanfi]

Learn more@drink ag1.com had these technologies existed in earlier decades, Al might well have racked up multiple top 10 hits. We'll never know, but digital music changed the possibilities for comedy singles. Over at Saturday Night Live, videos by Andy Samberg and the Lonely island became the show's most viral content, including the Justin Timberlake collaboration Dick in a Box.

[Weird Al Yankovic]

Take a look inside, it's my dick in a Box, it's in a box not gonna get you a diamond ring.

[Chris Melanfi]

And the hip hop parody I'm on a Boat, which featured T Pain. The Lonely island made the track available as an itunes download, and it cracked the hot 100 too. As for Weird Al, the calculus for his career had changed fundamentally. YouTube and iTunes would allow him to release one off tracks whenever he felt inspired, and while video had always helped his singles, now it was more essential than ever. Weird Al began issuing tracks for his next album years before it was even complete. His 2006 album Straight Outta Linwood had been his first ever top 10 hit, driven by the video for White and Nerdy. When Al finally issued his follow up album Alpocalypse In 2011, he commissioned videos for every track, including his Lady Gaga parody Performed this Way.

[Weird Al Yankovic]

I'm sure my critics will say it's a grotesque display. Well, they can bite me baby I perform this way.

[Chris Melanfi]

The result? Alpocalypse debuted at number nine on the charts, a bit higher than Straight Outta Linwood. Weird Al's multi single multi video strategy had worked, and video players play still didn't count for the charts. But that was about to change too. As we discussed in prior episodes of hit parade, in 2013, Billboard rebooted the Hot 100 again to include YouTube views for the first time. Brooklyn DJ Bowers Electronic dance track Harlem Shake instantly debuted at number one, fueled by a viral fad that felt a lot like a novelty trend. Before 2013 was out an actual novelty song would benefit from this new chart Math.

[Weird Al Yankovic]

Now what the say?

[Chris Melanfi]

Bard and Vigard Ilvasacker, a pair of brothers from Norway and a comedy duo who called themselves Ilvis for short, recorded a parody of EDM for their Norwegian TV talk show. The oddly legitimate sounding dance pop song was called the Fox parentheses what does the Fox say? And they accompanied the it with a hilarious video of the brothers in fox costumes cavorting in a forest. Never intended for the US Market, the Fox became a viral sensation anyway, with both adult pop fans and kids, especially the video. And under Billboard's new Hot 100 rules, the Fox became an actual top 10 hit, peaking at number six. Observing all of these changes, Weird Al Yankovic decided to go all out for his 2014 album Mandatory Fun. As with Alpocalypse, he would produce multiple music videos, except this time he would deploy all of the videos in a single week, turning his album deployment into an event. Some of the videos, like his parody of Pharrell Williams smash Happy called Tacky, aped the look of the original clip. Others were animated or more conceptual. Al did not attempt to pick a lead single. He let the marketplace decide. Eventually, the most shared video, his parody of Robin Thicke's hit Blurred Lines, turned into a grammarian's lament called Word Crimes became the most shared video and it brought Weird Al back to the top 40. Word crimes hit number 39 in August of 2014. But the best, best Billboard news of all for Weird Al Yankovic was on the album chart. That week of YouTube blanketing videos spurred the best week of sales of his career. More than 100,000 copies of Mandatory Fun sold in its first week. The collection debuted on the Billboard 200 album chart at number one. The magazine reported that it was not only the first number one album in his three decade career. Weird Al A chart topping debutante at age 54, Mandatory Fun was also the first comedy album of any kind to top the chart in 51 years. Since Alan Sherman's LP My Son the Nut hit number one in 1963.

[Weird Al Yankovic]

Gee, that's better, Moda father, kindly disregard this letter.

[Chris Melanfi]

Six years after Weird Al's chart triumph, Mandatory Fun remains the last album he has issued. In interviews in the late 10s, Al has indicated he might not release albums anymore, focusing on individual singles and videos. Given his improbable success, you can understand why. Still happy to capitalize cleverly on a cultural phenomenon, in 2018, Al teamed up with Tony winning Broadway composer Lin Manuel Moran for the Broadway medley the Hamilton Polka.

[Weird Al Yankovic]

They placed him in charge of the trading charter. Alexander Hamilton My Name Is Alexander Hamilton.

[Chris Melanfi]

The Hamilton Polka topped the digital sales chart for one week, making it hilariously polka music's first ever digital chart topper. But at a time when downloads count less for the charts than they once did, as the music industry moves towards streaming music, the Hamilton Polka didn't make the Hot 100. So should weird Al retire from recording? He continues to tour, but now entering his 60s, it might be sensible to pass the torch to a new generation of parodists. On the other hand, in some ways it has never been a better time for funny music and certainly viral music. On the Billboard charts, the number one song of 2019 was not, strictly speaking, a comedy record, but Old Town Road by Lil Nas X featuring Billy Ray Cyrus was certainly funny. And as the song spent over four months on top of the Hot 100 and the music business debated what genre Old Town Road belongs in, pop or R and B or rap or country, many called it admiringly the biggest novelty hit of all time. Remember that since the birth of rock and roll and the rise of hip hop, the lines between novelty and normal hits have been unsettled at best. And when modern day songs become hits because of memes like Lizzo's truth hurts.

[Weird Al Yankovic]

I just took a DNA test. Turns out I'm 100% that bitch.

[Chris Melanfi]

Or even because of TikTok videos like Roddy Ricch's the Box.

[Weird Al Yankovic]

Had to put the steak in the box.

[Chris Melanfi]

It seems that there has never been a greater premium placed on recording artists who can bring the snarky, the goofy, the kitschy, the funny. In the 2000s, Billboard even started to count official YouTube videos for its album chart. If an artist like Weird Al ever pulled a multi video album launch again, well, who knows how big that album and its singles could be.

[Weird Al Yankovic]

And finally, Weird Al.

[Chris Melanfi]

And we all know who Weird Al is.

[Weird Al Yankovic]

White and nerdy for 1200.

[Chris Melanfi]

As Weird Al tours the country this summer, he looks happier and prouder of his unprecedented career than ever. For his fans, that's more than enough. But hey Al, if you wanted to record again and maybe make some tick tockable content, that chart topping career of yours just might enter its fifth decade. You could be rapping into your 70s. I hope you enjoyed this episode of Hit Parade. Our show was written, edited and narrated by Chris Melanfi. That's me. My producer for this episode was Justin D. Wright With 2025 updates from Kevin Bendis. Our supervising producer is Joel Meyer and the executive producer of of Slate podcasts is Mia Lobel. Check out Slate's roster of [e-mail] podcasts. You can subscribe to Hit Parade wherever you get your podcasts, in addition to finding it in the Slate Culture feed. If you're subscribing on Apple Podcasts, please rate and review us while you're there. It helps other listeners find the show. Thanks for listening and I look forward to leading the Hit Parade back your way. Until then, keep on marching on the one. I'm Chris Melanfi.

[Weird Al Yankovic]

New season, new chaos in college football. Big stage, big opportunity this Labor Day weekend. The wildness lives on ABC, ESPN and the all new ESPN app. What a way to start. Featuring top 10 teams like Clemson, Notre.

[Chris Melanfi]

Dame, Alabama and LSU.

[Weird Al Yankovic]

And Bill Belichick's debut at North Carolina. It's so special. These teams collide. Don't miss a lineup filled with electric matchups. Welcome back to Collins Football Kickoff Week presented by Modelo Labor Day Weekend on ESPN and abc.

[Chris Melanfi]

Also available to stream on the all new ESPN Apple.