23 Funny Songs That Will Make You Laugh Out Loud
'Weird Al' Yankovic Pokes Fun At Madonna, Offers Hilarious Music Suggestions For Coronavirus Quarantine
The coronavirus pandemic has wreaked havoc on so many lives, including those within Hollywood. But one of the few good things to come out of this situation is the content put out there by our favorite celebrities. Some stars have used their self-quarantine time as an opportunity to advocate for social distancing or to share their political beliefs.
Others, on the other hand, have elected to keep fans entertained and connected. Whether they are performing impromptu raps or engaging with fans directly, many famous faces are seizing this moment to keep themselves and their fans sane. Then there's "Weird Al" Yankovic, who has dialed up his social media presence with some fun posts.
"Weird Al" Yankovic at the 'Between Two Ferns: The Movie' premierePhillip Faraone/FilmMagic 'Weird Al' has been finding the lighter side for decades Of course, Yankovic has been spreading joy and laughter for decades. In the early 1980s, he made waves with hit music parodies such as "My Bologna" and "Another One Rides the Bus." Then in 1983, his first album released, and before long, Yankovic was on his way to becoming a household name.
Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, his popularity continued to grow. Songs like "Eat It," "Fat," and "Amish Paradise" cemented his status as one of the most popular musical comedians ever. And in addition to his albums, Yankovic has become a multigenerational success with his frequent concert tours.
In 2014, his most recent album — Mandatory Fun — became Yankovic's first number one album. That milestone was boosted by a viral strategy that saw a new video released online each day during the album's first week of release. Considering how adept Yankovic is at online marketing, it's no surprise he is a social media master.
The iconic performer has been very active on social mediaThe legendary performer fully engaged his quirky sense of humor even before the coronavirus pandemic escalated. After medical officials advised citizens to avoid touching their faces, Yankovic envisioned the most exaggerated version of that possible. And as the pandemic has become a more serious concern, he has done everything he can to focus on the lighter side of this challenging time.
On his Twitter and Instagram pages, Yankovic has taken a variety of approaches to tackling the coronavirus pandemic. He suggested fans revisit songs like "Germs" and Imagine Dragons parody "Inactive." Yankovic even read his own children's book When I Grow Up for followers. Another common theme has been Yankovic's refusal to record an updated version of "My Bologna" titled "My Corona."
Following Madonna's recent post, 'Weird Al' gently poked funHowever, perhaps the most-talked-about post Yankovic has released lately involves another musical icon. Madonna fans were already concerned when she posted an ill-fated attempt at parodying her own classic song "Vogue." As she sang into her hairbrush, Madonna updated the tune to focus on fried fish.
And the next day, Yankovic retweeted Madonna's post with a playful jab at her parody skills. "See? Not so easy, is it?" he wrote. Notably, Yankovic already tackled Madonna's music in "Like a Surgeon" in 1985. Based on Madonna's "Like a Virgin," Yankovic's version gently jabs at a hospital environment. Ironically, Madonna is one of the only original artists to participate directly in one of Yankovic's parodies.
As of this writing, Madonna has yet to respond. But even if she doesn't, Yankovic's fans are sure to keep an eye on what he's going to post next. In these uncertain times, Yankovic's playful sense of humor provides a fun escape from all the serious news right now.
'Weird Al' Yankovic, Train To Perform At Ford Amphitheater
The Ford Amphitheater is set to kick off a star-studded September with a longtime musical satirist and a multiple Grammy Award-winning rock band.
'Weird Al' Yankovic"Weird Al" Yankovic, who has been honing his signature brand of musical parody for more than four decades, is coming to Colorado Springs.
Yankovic, whose 1979 parody song "My Bologna" launched a career that has featured more than 12 million albums sold, is bringing his "Bigger & Weirder 2025 Tour" to the amphitheater on Thursday, along with special guest Puddles Pity Party, a 7-foot singing clown.
Over his decades-long career, Yankovic has parodied dozens of artists across a broad spectrum of genres, including Michael Jackson, Madonna, Nirvana, Queen, Eminem, Coolio and Lady Gaga.
Puddles Pity Party (birth name: Michael Geier) has been performing since the late 1990s and has appeared on several television shows, including the 2017 season of "America's Got Talent" and a 2022 episode of "The Conners."
Train with Edwin McCainFeatured Local Savings
On Saturday, the Grammy-winning rock band Train will be performing with special guest Edwin McCain.
The San Francisco-based band is best known for "Drops of Jupiter (Tell Me)" and the multiplatinum hit "Hey Soul Sister." The band has undergone a number of lineup changes since forming in 1994; lead singer Pat Monahan is the only original member.
McCain, a singer-songwriter and guitarist from South Carolina, has released 11 albums, five of which have reached the Billboard 200. His songs "I'll Be" and "I Could Not Ask for More" were Top 40 radio hits.
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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