SWAG CLIPATHON: WEIRD AL YANKOVIC

ARTICLES > ENTERTAINMENT/HUMOUR

SWAG CLIPATHON: WEIRD AL YANKOVIC

Tags: Music, Fun

By The Swag Team - July 16, 2014 Mens Swag Online Magazine Malta video

The American clown made a massive impact on the world of comedy way back in the pre-Internet days thanks to his parodies of songs by Michael Jackson, Madonna and other huge smashes. The Maltese generation that grew up in the 80s will remember with fondness seeing the wire-haired moustachioed nerd's videos turning up on Italia Uno's DeeJay Television in between bona-fide hits of the era.

Yankovic's star has faded somewhat as he was superseded by an avalanche of parody creators lampooning everything and anything, but the man's genius has never faltered, helping him win Grammy Awards and other plaudits over the years. Now he's back with a new album called Mandatory Fun.

To celebrate this event and to honour one of SWAG's childhood heros, we bring one of his latest parodies, Tacky (a spoof of Happy) and our choice of his other masterworks from hios career. If you've been living under a rock and have never seen Weird Al's work, you're in for a treat.

10. Weird Al's version of the most overplayed song of recent times: Pharrel Williams' 'Happy', starring Jack Black among other familiar faces.'

9. Weird Al tears Lady Gaga's pretentious nonsense apart - but all in a good natured way that's hard for even the artists themselves to dislike.

8. At the height of Madonna mania, Weird Al came up with this hilarious spoof of one of her most 'shocking' hits (at least at the time).

7. One of the comedian's finest moments. Even the rapper being lampooned acknowledged Yankovic's rapping ability and said the song helped to increase the popularity of the original.

6. Released around the same time of the Star Wars prequels, sci-fi nerds went crazy listing the wealth of detail this video went into to create a faithful 'cantina' atmosphere.

5. The parody video that started it all. The song even became a US Top 20 hit in its own right.

4. Weird Al's hilarious take on Gangsta's Paradise - the only parody that ever got the comedian into any trouble with the song's original artist, in this case, Coolio.

3. The presence of Dick van Patten of TV's 'Eight is Enough' fame as the happy-go-lucky old man with a burger is simply the cherry on top of the cake of this spot-on spoof of the grunge generation's anthem.