Mandatory Fun review

MANDATORY FUN / "Weird Al" Yankovic / RCA-Way Moby / 2014 / 88843 09375 2

"Weird Al" Yankovic is one of the greatest and longest-lasting comedians of the 20th and now 21st centuries. However, he didn't get that way overnight. Born in 1959, during what many call the golden age of rock and roll, his first real start was in High School, circa. 1976 (America's Bicentennial Year), as he was called "weird" by schoolmates; that term mercifully (in a good way) became a permanent part of his name. It was in that year that he wrote and sung a song about the Yankovic Family Car called "Belvedere Cruisin'," and showed it to Dr. Demento. It immediately hit huge on his Funny Five, and was so big, he followed it up with his first nationally released single, "My Bologna," which was released on Christmas Day 1979 on the legendary EMI-owned Capitol label, and reached No. 1 on Dr. Demento's "Funny Five," enough for it to be re-recorded for his debut album, which also housed a re-recording of his next single, the Queen spoof "Another One Rides The Bus." The original latter was released on the legendary disco empire that was Miami's TK Records, famed on the main label for KC and the Sunshine Band. As Both Sides Now Publications reported years after the original 45 RPM release of "Another One Rides The Bus":

By 1980, disco was winding down, and so was TK's chart success. [...] Ironically, if TK could have stayed in business longer, they had the all-time king of parody records under contract (who knew?). The last charting single for TK was "Weird Al" Yankovic's second single, "Another One Rides the Bus" [TK 1043, 3/81, #104 pop]. By the end of 1981, TK was out of business, as Henry Stone put the label into bankruptcy. Stone sold the TK masters to Rhino Records in 1990.

It was after TK got out of business (March 1982) that Yankovic put a whole lot more than just those two songs together, merging them all to create his debut album. It spawned minor hits "Ricky" and a food-themed song, "I Love Rocky Road." Although the LP [Rock & Roll/Scotti Bros. PZ/PZT 38679, 1983] also was a hit, making No. 139 on the LP charts, Yankovic got dismissed as a throw-away act, someone who could not overcome the stigma of a novelty record.

Yankovic proved them wrong in 1984 when he issued "In 3-D" [Rock & Roll/Scotti Bros. FZ/FZT 39221, 1984, US #17, OZ #61]. It spawned a landmark single which would become his biggest hit for 22 years, "Eat It." "Eat It" hit the jackpot as a spoof of "Beat It," a pre-White Michael Jackson hit recently covered by one of the veterans of a show for which Yankovic (as Cheese Sandwich) was a recent guest star. Jackson even considered the song "a funny idea" and bought 12 copies of Yankovic's next spoof of Jackson, 1988's "Fat", to give to friends and family.

Several more LPs later, we find that he hilariously spoofed many different artists and made fun pastaches out of several more. Other parodists, eat your hearts out. Yankovic's degree in hilarity is still very high. Use Mandatory Fun, his greatest work of late, as proof of evidence of that high hilarity degree.

- HANDY. A parody of Iggy Azalea. It's all right, I guess. TMZ reported that "Weird Al" "ambushed" Ms. Azalea by showing her the parody lyrics. It was described by "Weird Al" as actually being a "polite" meeting that TMZ "[blew] out of proportion" (aren't they known for doing this?); he joked that he didn't know that using good manners/proper etiquette when asking a question "was considered begging these days."
- LAME CLAIM TO FAME. A laugh riot about all the stupid reasons one might have for maintaining high popularity.
- FOIL. Advice to those looking to know what to do to preserve the food they want. Spoofs Lorde's "Royals."
- SPORTS SONG. A fine take on typical sports fan mentality.
- WORD CRIMES. Sorry guys. "Weird Al" would rather focus on your English/grammar in his take on Robin Thicke than on the parodied song "Blurred Lines"' supposed misogyny (but we're already tired of hearing about that misogyny anyway).
- MY OWN EYES. With my own ears, I can hear hilarity, and so, if you listened to the song, would your own ears.
- NOW THAT'S WHAT I CALL POLKA! Named after the compilation albums EMI loved to put out (which, in the US, were mostly bought through infomercials) in the day. Fun to hear the recent hit by the moron Miley Cyrus (WRECKING BALL), a recent Nile Rodgers (from Chic) production (Daft Punk's GET LUCKY), and even a hot Korean brand (PSY's GANGNAM STYLE) get the polka treatment.
- MISSION STATEMENT. Hilariously sounds like every corporate airhead we've come to know. Even more hilariously set against the background of one of the most anti-corporate acts of the 20th century (Crosby, Stills and Nash).
- INACTIVE. Imagine Dragons gets spoofed here, in a beautiful arrangement.
- FIRST WORLD PROBLEMS. Everyone who's ever treated small problems like big problems can relate to this song.
- TACKY. Pharrell's "Happy", which drained "Helping Twilight Sparkle Win The Crown" into a point where the latter became forgotten to even the Hub Network, is re-created here as a great detail of what constitutes for things that range from tacky (wearing stripes with plaid) to ridiculously unprofessional (printing a whole resume in Comic Sans). The video contains cameo appearances from some of today's best stars.
- JACKSON PARK EXPRESS. A style spoof of Cat Stevens (whose music I, confession-wise, happen to like a lot of, as did, confession-wise, my mum) details a romance that is really just a figment of the protagonist's imagination. A great note for which to end this great album, which, I'm glad to say, is "Weird Al"'s finest achievement since he changed his look around.