23 Funny Songs That Will Make You Laugh Out Loud

Weird -- And Loving It, After Nearly 50 Years Of Hit Parodies

"Weird Al" Yankovic is bigger and weirder this year.

And he's justifiably proud of that.

The self-described polka parodist from Lynwood, Calif., has been toting his accordion around for nearly 50 years, since his earliest songs began airing on "The Dr. Demento Radio Show" circa 1986. He's turned the Knack's "My Sharona" into "My Bologna," Queen's "Another One Bites the Dust" into "Another One Rides the Bus," Michael Jackson's "Beat It" and "Bad" into "Eat It" and "Fat"...You get the point. He's won five Grammy Awards and sold more than 12 million albums; his 2014 effort "Mandatory Fun" was the first comedy album ever to debut at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart, and 2022's "Weird: The Al Yankovic Story" starring Daniel Radcliffe as Yankovic, won an Emmy.

Yankovic, 65, has also earned a reputation as a music video director for acts such as Hanson, the Black Crowes, Ben Folds and others, and he's hosted a television series ("The Weird Al Show") and directed and starred in the 1989 film "UHF." And he's authored two children's books.

This year he's, in a way, celebrating all of the above with his Bigger & Weirder Tour, his first shows in arenas and amphitheaters in six years. He plays at 7:30 p.M. Saturday, Sept. 13 at Blossom Music Center. With an expanded band, some of whom dance, it's another meticulously staged extravaganza that blends elements of Broadway and vaudeville schtick with bona fide rock concert exuberance. It checks off a lot of boxes -- even those Jackson hits are back in the show after being excised during his legal turmoil years ago -- and it shows, like so many other things in Yankovic's career, what happens when you "Dare to Be Stupid"...

Bringing the shows back into these big venues, is it like riding the proverbial bike?

Yankovic: Well, there's part of it that feels like getting back to my main job. I've been trying all sorts of iterations of touring, and this particular iteration is similar to the big tours we've done in the past, the difference being that our band is twice as big. But it's back to the full production with props and costumes and the big LED video wall and all of that. So, yeah, part of it feels familiar and parts of it feel like we're trying something new.

Why a bigger band?

Yankovic: It was partly inspired by the Strings Attached Tour we did in 2019, where we did every show with a full symphony orchestra. I thought that was fun but I could probably get part of the same effect by not having a full orchestra but maybe just by having a few more additional members. We've always had one guitar player in our band and a lot of songs sound better with two guitars, a lot of songs sound better with more background singers or female background singers, a lot of songs sound better with actual horns. And I thought, "Well, if I can add four more players to the band that can not only sing but are multi-instrumentalists...For whatever the song requires, I think that would add immeasurably to the impact we make in a live situation. And it has.

You have at this point 14 studio albums, your movies and TV shows, some stand-alone singles. How do you determine what you're going to play from all of that?

Yankovic: It's certainly not high concept. The idea was, number one, to get back to the playing the hits. For all the people that come to the (Ridiculously Self-Indulgent, Ill-Advised) Vanity Tour, 99 percent of the people there were thrilled I was playing those deep cuts, but there'd always be a few people in the back going, "How come he's not playing 'Eat It?' So this tour is more of a big-tent show; it's not only for the hardcore fans, it's for all the fans, anybody that's even casually interested in what I do. So I made sure we're playing all the hits on this tour...And some semi-deep cuts and some songs that weren't necessarily huge hits but that I knew would sound good with an expanded band. So a few songs that we're playing on this tour are songs I always wanted to play but were too hard to pull off with a five-piece. That's the general idea; I call it the best of both worlds, 'cause there's all the big hits plus there's all these songs fans have wanted me to play for a long time but I was never able to.

Making a career out of parody songs is not a common ambition. What kind of perspective do you have on what you've achieved here?

Yankovic: It still boggles my mind that I have a career. First of all, when I wrote some of these songs in the early '80s, I never thought I'd be playing them 40 years later on a stage, and the audience would be bigger than it was back then. It's just hard for me to really piece that together in my head because I never thought I'd be lucky enough to do what I'm doing.

Dr. Demento, who was your patron and mentor, announced his retirement this year. That must resonate with you.

Yankovic: Well, y'know, he's been at it for a really, really long time. He obviously thought it was at the point where he wanted to take a break. He's been off terrestrial radio for a number of years; he's been doing the show out of his house, for the Internet -- drdemento.Com -- for awhile. At a certain point you have to know what's right for you, and apparently what's right for him is to hang up the top hat after all these years. I`m grateful to him; It's like a very silly cliche in a biopic where somebody makes it and they hear their song on the radio for the first time. I was a teenager at the time; I remember just running through the house screaming, "Mom, dad, I'm on the radio!," just losing my mind.

What's been the secret to picking the right songs to parody?

Yankovic: When I do song parodies I generally pick songs that are at the top of the charts. You never know how long a song is going to stay poplar, but I've had pretty good luck. I haven't always picked the best targets, but I think I generally have a pretty good sense of what that will be. I haven't always picked the best targets, but I think I generally have a good track record.

Did any particular songs surprised you with their success?

Yankovic: I mean, "White & Nerdy" (parodying Chamillionaire's "Ridin'" in 2006) is probably the best example of that. That's my biggest hit to date; that was my only Top 10 hit, my only platinum single. I thought it would do well, obviously, or I wouldn't have released it, but I thought conceptually it was a lot similar to "it's All About the Pentiums" on a previous album; it covers the same kind of material, conceptually, and I thought, "Well, this is another song like that. I'm sure it'll do well, but who knows..." So I was very happy to see that it far surpassed what ""It's All About the Pentiums" did. I think maybe 2006 was when nerd chic was cresting, maybe, when people universally decided that nerds were OK.

You've done some "Star Wars" parodies over the years ("Yoda," "The Saga Begins"). Has the plethora of sequels and prequels and spin-offs inspired any others?

Yankovic: Well, of course, I'm tempted, and certainly I've heard from fans saying, "When are you gonna do another 'Star Wars' song?" I haven' even thought about that for two reasons: one, if I do a 'Star Wars' song and it's a flop, it'll be a flop; and, two, if it's a hit then I'll have three "Star Wars" songs I have to play in concert, and then it becomes like a "Star Wars" show. The whole encore is already "Star Wars," so it feels like it would just make the show lopsided if I were to do anything else in that realm.

The music world is so different today, of course, and it's the rare song that has the kind of impact and shelf life that's made them ripe for parodies like yours. Does that make it more challenging to choose songs now?

Yankovic: I would think so. That's been the case for a while, and part of me...I'm sure I'll be writing parodies in the future, but I haven't really written a full-on song parody since "Mandatory Fun" came out 11 years ago. And sort of the longer I wait, the more pressure there is -- "Oh, this is his first new parody in so many years!" So it's hard to say what I'll do in the future. I'm certainly not drawing any lines in the sand.

Is there anything you're working on now?

Yankovic: Not that I can actually talk about. (laughs) There's several things in various stages of pre-production or development, which may or may not happen; It's stuff that I haven't done before, and a few opportunities I'm very excited about if they happen. That's about as vague as I ca possibly get. The only thing I'm really allowed to talk about is the tour. After that, fingers crossed and we'll see what happens.

"Weird Al" Yankovic performs at 7:30 p.M. Saturday, Sept. 13 at Blossom Music Center, 1145 W. Steels Corners Road, Cuyahoga Falls. 330-920-8040 or livenation.Com.

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Rapper Once Feuded With 'Weird Al' Yankovic Over Parody Of Hit Song Released 30 Years Ago

Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what's in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience.Generate Key Takeaways

Rapper Once Feuded with 'Weird Al' Yankovic Over Parody of Hit Song Released 30 Years Ago originally appeared on Parade.

With "Gangsta's Paradise," Coolio became a global superstar and icon of the 1990s—and known for having one of the weirdest beefs in music history. His career-defining song was first included on the Dangerous Minds soundtrack, and quickly went to No. 1 in over ten countries after it was released as a single on Aug. 1, 1995.

From there, it spent twelve weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100, ending up as the best-selling single of the year. At the following Grammy Awards, Coolio walked out with the Best Rap Solo Performance trophy, and, inexplicably, a public feud with "Weird Al" Yankovic over the comedian's parody, "Amish Paradise."

Yankovic's parody of Coolio's hit arrived on March 12, 1996, the same day that Al released his ninth studio album, Bad Hair Day. The cover features Yankovic sporting his version of Coolio's signature braids, an outfit he wore when he and Coolio presented Favorite Alternative Artist at the 1996 American Music Awards.

Though Yankovic and Coolio had chemistry onstage, as you can see here, their relationship seemingly soured months later. Backstage at the Grammys (Feb. 28, 1996), someone asked Coolio if he had heard "Amish Paradise" yet.

"I ain't with that," said Coolio, per Vulture. "I think that my song was too serious. I really…don't appreciate him desecrating the song like that… his record company asked for my permission, and I said no. But they did it anyway."

Yankovic famously secures permission from the artists before he releases parodies of their music (even though he doesn't have to, thanks to the 1st Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, as parodies are considered protected artistic expression).

Clearly, Coolio's comments bothered "Weird Al," and he shared his side of the story. "A couple months ago, I told my record company that I wanted to do a parody of Coolio's "Gangsta's Paradise," and they said that they would look into it," he wrote in a message posted online.

Weird Al Yankovic attending 23rd Annual American Music Awards on January 29, 1996 Photo by Ron Galella, Ltd./Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images

Yankovic said that "two separate people from my label" talked with Coolio at a party and got the green light. "Halfway into production, my record label told me that Coolio's management had a problem with the parody, even though Coolio personally was okay with it," he added. Al's label told him to keep working and that they would "Iron things out."

"As you all know, I pride myself on being sensitive to the original artists' feelings, so you can imagine how horrible I felt when I heard what Coolio said," added Yankovic.

Coolio referenced his feelings in "Throwdown 2000," a song from My Soul (the follow-up to his '95 album, Gangsta's Paradise). "Fools be in the bars unadvanced with a switch," rapped Coolio. "Uppercuts and fight kicks with Weird Al Yankovic."

Coolio attends the 23rd Annual American Music AwardsPhoto by Ron Galella, Ltd./Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images

In his original response to Coolio's feelings, Yankovic said he sent an apologetic letter to the rapper but hadn't heard back from him. But cooler heads prevailed.

In a Rolling Stonepost celebrating the 20th anniversary of "Gangsta's Paradise," Coolio admitted it was silly to get so upset.

"That was probably one of the least smart things I've done over the years," He said. "I should have embraced it like everybody else did. Michael Jackson never got mad at him….Who the [explicative] was I to take the position that I took?...But hey, you live and you learn. Me and Al, we've been good for a long time now."

Those feelings extended up until Coolio's death in 2022. After the rapper died from what would be discovered as an accidental overdose, "Weird Al" posted a photo of the two of them embracing, with big smiles on their faces as they hugged each other. "RIP Coolio," wrote Yankovic.

Related: Music Legend Thinks 'Weird Al's Parody Is 'Better' Than His Iconic Hit

Rapper Once Feuded with 'Weird Al' Yankovic Over Parody of Hit Song Released 30 Years Ago first appeared on Parade on Aug 4, 2025

This story was originally reported by Parade on Aug 4, 2025, where it first appeared.

'Weird Al' Yankovic Conquers Madison Square Garden At Historic New York City Concert

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'Weird Al' Yankovic - Credit: Sacha Lecca for Rolling Stone

It took 46 years, 14 albums, five Grammy Awards, well over 1,000 live renditions of "Fat," and way too many Hawaiian shirts to even contemplate counting, but "Weird Al" Yankovic finally took the stage at Madison Square Garden on Saturday evening as part of his biggest tour ever. It was an overwhelming moment for the song-parody icon who spent the vast majority of his career playing venues roughly a quarter the size of the famed New York City arena, and he took a break from the carefully choreographed show after just a few songs to soak it in.

"Oftentimes really big moments in your life come and go so quickly that you can't really enjoy them while you're in them," he said as he stared out at the capacity crowd, many of whom wore Hawaiian shirts or even curly-haired wigs and faux mustaches. "Just 149 more [shows], and I'll be all tied up with Billy Joel."

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When Joel played the first of those 150 MSG shows back in 1978, Yankovic was taking courses at California Polytechnic State University, spinning records on the campus radio station, and sending homemade parody songs to the Dr. Demento Radio Show. He made his professional debut the following year with the Knack parody "My Bologna."

Not a single person on the planet, Yankovic included, thought this would be the start of a half-century career that would take him to Madison Square Garden in 2025. It's one of the most wildly improbable sagas in the history of popular music. And even though there hasn't been a new "Weird Al" album or song parody since 2014's Mandatory Fun, his popularity has spiked thanks to the brilliant 2022 biopic spoof Weird: The Al Yankovic Story, and the simple fact that he's been at this so long his original fans now come to the shows with their kids or even their grandkids.

Throughout the past decade, Yankovic played around with the format of his concerts by either ignoring his famous song parodies completely in favor of deep cuts (the 2018 and 2022-23 Ridiculously Self-Indulgent, Ill-Advised Vanity Tours) or teaming up with local orchestras (the 2019 Strings Attached Tour). On the ongoing Bigger and Weirder Tour, he's gone back to the classic formula of beloved song parodies, costume changes, and video interludes. But he's turned it into an arena-ready bonanza by supplementing his longtime five-piece band with four musicians, including Probyn Gregory, a multi-instrumentalist who spent about 25 years in Brian Wilson's backing band.

The full potential of this expanded band was clear on opening numbers "Tacky," "Mission Statement," and "Polkamania!," where Yankovic raced through tunes by Adele, Bruno Mars, Miley Cyrus, Lil Nas X, and Taylor Swift in breakneck fashion. The show shifted into another gear when they re-created the "Smells Like Teen Spirit" video in "Smells Like Nirvana," complete with cheerleaders, and Gregory playing the part of the janitor. They followed it up by strapping on red energy domes and yellow hazmat suits for the Devo spoof "Dare to Be Stupid."

Yankovic has way too many song parodies to fit into a single show, so he created a super medley that stuffed together bits of "Bedrock Anthem," "I Love Rocky Road," "Party in the CIA," "It's All About the Pentiums," "My Bologna," "Ode to a Superhero," and "Eat It." That last one was a mild surprise since he's avoided his Michael Jackson parodies over the past few years due the revelations of Finding Neverland, and simple exhaustion after playing them every show going back to the Eighties.

Yankovic and the band cleared the stage after the parody medley, and the beginning of the "Fat" video played on the screen. (It was a beautiful sight watching 15,000 or so people screaming out "Ding Dong, man, Ding Dong.") Inevitably, Yankovic waddled back out in his famous "Fat" suit and bounced around the stage as he belted out the 1988 hit.

We should pause here and note that even though Yankovic has looked roughly 45 for the past quarter century, he's now 65 years old. But the strength of his voice is practically undiminished, and he showed not a hint of fatigue throughout the extended set even though he's hitting 67 cities on this tour, often playing three or four consecutive nights without break. It's a testament to a lifetime of clean living and his strict vegetarian diet that he's able to do this.

The only real missteps of the night were his baffling decision to play the theme songs to both the 2017 Captain Underpants movie and the 2016 Disney show Milo Murphy's Law. These may have been gestures to the many kids in the audience, but they came off like live trailers to two deeply forgettable animated projects. (They also took up space where we could have heard something like "The Night Santa Went Crazy," "Money for Nothing/Beverly Hillbillies," or "The Biggest Ball of Twine in Minnesota.")

On the Ill-Advised Vanity Tour, Yankovic always stuck in a random cover song that he delivered without any attempt at parody. He kept the tradition alive at MSG by playing Paul Simon's "You Can Call Me Al," complete with a re-creation of Chevy Chase's horn choreography from the video.

The main set ended with gleeful renditions of "White & Nerdy" and "Amish Paradise" that had much of the crowd on their feet. They remained there after the encore break as the stage filled up with members of the band and crew dressed as Storm Troopers, Darth Vader, Sith Lords, Jedis, and Princess Leah. This could have only meant "The Saga Begins" and "Yoda" to close out the night.

If anyone happened to stumble into Madison Square Garden at this moment, they would have thought this was the world's weirdest Star Wars fan convention. A mechanized R2D2 was even roving around the stage. But to the "Weird Al" fan community, this was a sacred encore ritual that goes back decades. It's been staged at innumerable casinos, state fairs, indoor theaters, and outdoor amphitheaters throughout Yankovic's live career. To finally witness it at the world's most prestigious arena was absolutely glorious.

It was just one stop on a tour that will help him on the road through late September. (We urge everyone to arrive early to see opening act Puddles Pity Party, a singing clown with a strong YouTube following. His hysterical set culminates with a performance of the Gilligan's Theme song set to the tune of "Stairway to Heaven" as images from the 1995 Kevin Costner box-office flop Waterworld flash on the screen.)

Yankovic hasn't announced any plans once the tour wraps, but let's hope he eventually starts releasing new song parodies. We'll never tire of hearing the oldies live in concert, but he's really going to cede the entire space to randos on YouTube? We just have to imagine his Chappell Roan, Billie Eilish, and Morgan Wallen spoofs in our heads?

It's a frustrating situation for longtime fans, but maybe it's a little greedy to want more from a man who has already given the pop culture world so much. And now that he's sold out Madison Square Garden, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame should consider finally placing his name on the ballot. It's time. He's earned it.

"Weird Al" Yankovic's July 12 show at Madison Square Garden Set List:

TackyMission StatementPolkamania!Everything You Know Is WrongOne More MinuteSmells Like NirvanaDare to Be StupidParty in the CIA / It's All About the Pentiums / Bedrock Anthem / My Bologna / Ricky / Ode to a Superhero / I Love Rocky Road / Eat It / Like a Surgeon / Word Crimes / Canadian IdiotFatCaptain Underpants Theme SongNow You KnowYou Can Call Me AlIt's My World (and We're All Living in It)Skipper DaneBayStop Forwarding That Crap to MeWhite & NerdyAmish ParadiseThe Saga BeginsYoda

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