Weird: The Al Yankovic Story

The music industry is no stranger to biopics, and I’ve even seen a few myself, but they tend to stretch or omit the truth in places for the sake of telling its own story (Bohemian Rhapsody comes to mind). Though I was not aware of the original Funny or Die sketch, the announcement of Weird: The Al Yankovic Story (Weird), based on parody artist “Weird Al” Yankovic and a parody of such biopics no less, got me excited as a fan of his work. This excitement, however, was dampened by its exclusivity to the Roku platform, which I personally had a hard time figuring out and I didn’t want to sign up for something just to watch a single film. This excitement came back in full swing when I saw that Shout! Factory had announced a physical release, meaning I didn’t have to sign up for Roku to watch it. After watching the film upon receiving it as a Christmas present, I found it to be one of Weird Al’s funniest projects yet and an amazingly funny parody in general.

As mentioned previously, the film (to paraphrase Yankovic himself) is a parody of biopics that play fast and loose with the truth, utilizing aspects of Weird Al’s early life and career to fit the biopic formula while still having some nuggets of truth mixed in. This is evident right out the gate, as while Yankovic did actually learn to play the accordion because of someone going door to door selling accordion lessons, his parents are depicted as being far less supportive of his creative endeavors than they were in real life, even straight-up telling him they want him to give up everything he loves. While such moments are laugh-out-loud funny on their own, having knowledge of what really happened only enhances the humor, especially when some real events are exaggerated (ex. Madonna going to great lengths to get the “Yankovic Bump”) or inverted (ex. “Eat It" being presented as the original and Michael Jackson’s “Beat It” as the more popular parody) for laughs. Accounting for the subjectivity of comedy, I also found Weird’s approach more consistently funny than The Compleat Al in this regard.

Daniel Radcliffe passes well for a younger Al Yankovic.

What really makes this work is the casting of Daniel Radcliffe (of Harry Potter fame) as Weird Al, thanks to his comedic timing and rather convincing American accent, though obviously with Yankovic providing the singing voice. This combination also lends the soundtrack to having newer recordings of a handful of Weird Al’s earlier songs, including his first parody, “My Bologna”, finally giving fans an idea of what those songs would sound like if they were made today. Made even funnier is how several pieces of dialogue masterfully and cleverly incorporate Weird Al’s lyrics as a demonstration of where he gets his inspiration from. Various celebrities are also brought in to play joke versions of other celebrities and other figures in Al’s life and career, including Yankovic himself playing one of the Scotti Bros.

In addition to the dialogue, Weird features a lot of physical comedy, with said gags being consistent with those featured in other Weird Al projects such as UHF. Keeping in line with this, some sequences throughout the film feature a hidden number 27, a recurring number in many of Yankovic’s songs, in the background, providing some rewatchability to try and find them all (I only found a couple on my initial viewing because I didn’t notice this until around the third act).

For any Weird Al fan, Weird: The Al Yankovic Story is a must-watch, though people looking for a solid music-based biopic parody will find some great entertainment value here.