How 'Weird Al' Yankovic landed the first number one US comedy album in 50 years

These are high times for daft ditties. Yesterday, after almost four decades of releasing pop parodies, “Weird Al” Yankovic scored his first No 1 album, beating globally recognised music acts like Jason Mraz and Ed Sheeran.

Mandatory Fun rocketed to the top of the American charts thanks to a week of viral silliness, in which the comedian posted eight new songs online in eight days, then sat back and watched as the shares for “Word Crimes” - Robin Thicke’s “Blurred Lines” retooled as an attack on poor grammar - and “Tacky” - a daft cover of Pharrell’s “Happy” which makes fun of Crocs and Instagram among other naff modern evils – rolled in.
Yankovic, 54, is no stranger to mainstream success. His mumbly Nirvana spoof, “Smells like Nirvana” was nominated for an MTV Award in 1992 alongside the original, while his take on hip-hop anthem “Ridin’”, “White and Nerdy”, went platinum. read more