It seems like popular musicians who also have an acting career are more common than those who don’t, but every performer is different. Some are just as prominent on the big screen as they are in the music world, while others appear in a few fascinating scattered cameos.
Weird Al Yankovic probablydoesn’t get enough credit for the decades of stellar material and world-shaking influence he’s had on the comedy world. It’s hard to imagine what “enough credit” could possibly look like. Over forty years of transcendent fame and influence have left Weird Al in the sort of cult fandom that surrounds him with an army of fans and a long history of interesting accomplishments.
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Weird Al’s primary acting exposure comes from his many entertaining music videos, in which he often portrays a facsimile of the artists he’s parodying. The man has almost 200 credits on IMDb, but so few of them are film projects. Music videos make up the bulk, but he’s in a tremendous amount of TV series. In every medium, he appears as himself more often than as a character. He’s an accomplished voice actor in a wide variety of animated series, portraying the main character inMilo Murphy’s Lawand iconic villain Darkseid in multiple episodesofTeen Titans Go!.Though he is very prolific in a variety of fun roles, his film career is less substantial but just as interesting.
UHF
The biggest moment and first eraof Weird Al’s film careercame in the 1989 comedy he wrote and starred in.UHFis the story of George Newman, an unemployed weirdo who finds himself in a management position at a local broadcast TV station. Newman’s oddball sensibilities revolutionize the medium with bizarre game shows, unhinged kid’s shows, and constant wacky parodies. Despite being over thirty years old,UHFmostly holds up today, partially because most of the targets of its mockery remain popular. While the premise ofUltra-High Frequency broadcast television, or indeed locally produced entertainment in general, feels distant, the jokes still feel fresh and interesting.
Whatever fameUHFhas, it earned after its initial release. The film was a famous flop that may have put its studio under for decades. Over the years and thanks to the personal fame of Weird Al,UHFis a beloved cult comedy. While the narrative is fairly generic, it works as a frame to hang Al’s incisive comedic vision. The characters are all immediately identifiable and charming. Though some of the performers have fallen from grace over the years, most of the cast acquits themselves well.UHFprobably wasn’t ever going to be a hit, it’s an appropriately unusual comedy packed with performers who either hadn’t hit their big moment or would remain obscure, but its statusas a cult favoriteis well-earned.
A Long Line of Cameos
Weird Al in roles other than himself in cinema remains the vast minority. Al has a brief appearance in the 2000 comedyNothing Sacred. He has a cameo inPhineas and Ferb The Movie: Candace Against the Universeas a man who wields a T-shirt cannon. Eagle-eyed viewers can catch him playing his trademark accordion inBill & Ted Face the Music, but they won’t find him in the credits. He pops up in basically unknown children’s comedyA Witch’s Ball. The strangest through-line of his career is that he keeps appearing as DC Comics characters, often lesser-known fixtures. He reprises his role as Darkseid inTeen Titans Go! vs. Teen Titans, but he also appears as The Dollmaker inBatman vs. Robin. Off the big screen, he’s also portrayed Animal Man and The Riddler.
Weird Al as Weird Al
Al has appeared as himself all over the place. Comedians who grew up as longtime fans, friends in the industry, and a variety of other creators have brought Al into their projects. Easily the best cameo of the comedian’s career comes from theNaked Gunfranchise. The trilogy of absurdist parodies of classic police procedurals served as the perfect stomping ground for a comedianalready known for parody. Those films evidently took place in a reality in which Weird Al is the most heavily idolized celebrity on the planet. He appears in the first film emerging from a plane to rapturous applause, a flower bouquet, and an army of the press. In the third film, he emerges from a limousine at a massive social event alongsideWheel of Fortunestar Vanna White, and both are applauded with almost violent fervor. Bizarrely, Al also appears in the secondNaked Gunfilm, but not as himself. He’s a crazed gunman holding the police precinct hostage and most didn’t recognize him in the role.
There are tons of other fun roles fans can find Weird Al in, includingRob Zombie’sHalloween IIfor some reason. Al is best known for his music, but his on-screen work contains some fascinating and beloved performances across all of cinema history.
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