Earlier this year, I saw Weird Al perform live at the Morton Amphitheater in Kansas City. This made me realize, I haven’t ever seen his biographical movie. I remembered seeing it on my Roku a few years ago, when they were really pushing it, because it was a Roku Channel original movie. I mean they changed the entire theme of your Roku to branding for the movie. Anyway, a few months after the concert, I finally decided to watch it.
I do have to say, it is amazing going into it completely blind, because trust me, it is simultaneously exactly what you expect from a Weird Al written movie, and not what you expect. The movie revolves around Weird Al (played by Daniel Radcliffe, literally Harry Potter) and his journey from a nobody into one of the most-known artists in the world.
Overall Plot (⚠️ spoilers for the rest of the article)
“Life is like a parody of your favorite song. Just when you think you know all the words, surprise, you don’t know anything.” – Narrator
The movie begins with a young Al at home, coming up with other lyrics to famous songs. His father condemns him for it, saying it’s stupid. Instead, Al’s father wants him to work at a factory with him. Later, an accordion salesman comes to his house, where his mom buys an accordion for Al behind his father’s back. Al practices the accordion a lot without his father knowing. One night, Al sneaks out to a party without his family knowing. He didn’t know this, but it was actually a polka party (polka music, I guess, I don’t know). Anyway, someone brings an accordion out, and the entire party dares Al to play it. Al, having practiced the accordion for a long time, plays it, and impresses everyone. Directly after he plays the accordion, the police show up, and take Al back to his house. His father is really mad. He finds Al’s accordion and smashes it. This, rightfully, destroys the relationship between the entire family.
“That’s the problem with being on the bleeding edge, you gotta wait for the rest of the world to catch up with you.” – One of Al’s Roommates (I don’t actually know which one)
Several years later, Al is auditioning to bands with his accordion. He gets rejected from a band, where he heads back to his apartment with his friends. After one of his friends asking him for a bologna sandwich, Al comes up with an idea for a song based around it. His friends really like the idea of it, so they go to a bathroom with, apparently, good acoustics to record it. Al eventually submits the tape to The Captain Buffoon Show, where it is instantly a hit. He goes to a record label, where they tell him his song is terrible. Funniest thing is, one of the record label guys (Tony Scotti) is literally played by Weird Al himself.
“The Wolfman goes where the Wolfman wants, baby.” – Wolfman Jack
Al, saddened by this, plays at a local bar, with a really tough crowd, who literally mauled the band that played before him (which happened to be the band Al got rejected from). Al, reluctantly, goes onto the stage, with encouragement of his friends. His friends join him on the stage, filling in other parts with him. Al gains the attention of Dr. Demento, a radio host. Dr. Demento tells Al he has something special, and takes Al under his wing. Demento gives Al the stage name “Weird Al Yankovic”. He invites Al to his house for a party, where Al is challenged to come up with a song parody on the spot by Wolfman Jack (literally Jack Black). Everyone expected Al to be a nobody that barely had musical skills. Al, naturally, blows them away, by playing Another One Rides the Bus, which he made on the spot. Al is invited by some guy named John Deacon, apparently the bass player in Queen, to play with him in a large concert. Al, completely declines.
“I don’t know what to say. That is the most beautiful thing I ever heard in my entire life. You truly have a rare gift, Weird Al.” – Wolfman Jack
Al continues making songs, sending him to the top of the charts, earning five platinums, and attracting the attention of Madonna. Al calls his family back, where his dad is still convinced he is a failure. Demento has a talk with Al, where he is given some guacamole laced with LSD. Al eventually comes up with another song idea with a technique used by many people of his time, by tripping hard on LSD. The song is called Eat It, and he goes back to the record label that declined him, where they sign him with open arms, because it is an original song. From this, Al decides he is done with parodies. Madonna shows up to Al’s huge house, and wants to date him. Madonna never leaves Al’s side, including in a meeting with Demento, where Al declines an invitation to play at Pablo Escobar’s 40th birthday party for three billion pesos (177 million dollars in today’s USD).
“You’re all just a bunch of normals. I am the Weird one! I am the weird one!” – Weird Al
Al goes to a restaurant with Madonna, where he gets a phone call. Apparently Michael Jackson parodied Eat It, with a song called Beat It (yes, it’s backwards in the real world), and everybody thinks Eat It is a parody of Beat It. Al is really mad at Michael Jackson for parodying his song (great irony). Madonna encourages Al to drink his problems away, however, he has a concert right after. Really drunk, at the concert venue, he gets mad at his band (his former roommates), and makes them question being with him. Demento accuses Madonna of only dating Al for the “Yankovic Bump,” which is a boost given to songs that Al parodies. Al, mad at everyone, goes for a drive, still drunk, where he gets into a car crash, and the car exploded and Al dies. Except he doesn’t, because the hospital saves him. Al, coming back to life, asks for a pen and paper, when he writes down a song parody. Al, still drunk and recovering from the hospital, performs at the concert, when he starts saying really bad things about his fans, essentially calling them sheep, and threatens to “whip his thing out”. Before he does that, he gets arrested by the police.
“Please sir! Whatever you do- kicks gun Don’t hurt me.” – Weird Al
Al goes back to a diner with Madonna, regretting everything, where all of a sudden, Madonna gets captured. As the kidnappers drive away, one of them shouts, “Pablo Escobar sends his regards!” Al is really mad about his, so he goes deep into a forest in Columbia, where Madonna and Pablo Escobar are. Al eventually shoots Pablo Escobar, and frees Madonna. However, Madonna, mad with power, realizes she can take over the cartel. Al doesn’t want to do this, so he walks out on her.
“Oh Nick, you know I’m fat. I’m fat, you know it.” – Mary
Al eventually goes back to the factory his dad works at, accidentally kills someone, and meets his dad again. Him and his dad go back to Al’s childhood house, where they talk, and make up. There, it is revealed that Al’s dad was Amish, and would come up with parodies of songs, where his parents thought it was stupid. He tried to make a living off of it, but failed. Al’s dad bought an accordion, and came back to his Amish community, when he was exiled from it. Al’s dad eventually went to the factory, where he worked for the rest of his life. Al’s dad was trying to stop Al from being upset with failure of his own dreams, because he failed with his.
“’Weird Al’ Yankovic was assassinated at the shrine Auditorium in 1985… but his music will live on forever. Madonna Ciccone is still at large.” – On-screen text
Directly after this, Al comes up with the song Amish Paradise. Al wins a Grammy because of this song, but is killed by one of Madonna’s henchman directly after.
Thoughts
I think this movie did really well at capturing Al’s life. But I just can’t believe that Michael Jackson would parody one of Al’s songs, and I absolutely can’t believe that Madonna killed Al. I think the world would be a lot better if Al was still alive today. Rest in peace, “Weird Al” Yankovic, you will be missed.
Jokes aside, I do really like how a movie about Weird Al’s life is a parody of his own life. I really liked the writing, and really liked how Madonna became a cartel leader. This movie was almost as good as the actual concert I went to, but I do have to say, it was pretty close. The only thing I didn’t like about it was the pacing. I feel like we just glossed over Al getting famous, and was thrown right into the whole Madonna plot. But everything else was really good.
Overall Score: 7/10
I really wish it had Albuquerque in it