MUSIC & NIGHTLIFE

27 reasons 'Weird Al' Yankovic is bigger in 2015 than he ever was

Jeff Vrabel
Star correspondent
"Weird Al" Yankovic had his 1st No. 1 album on the Billboard chart with last year's "Mandatory Fun."

In "Weird Al" Yankovic lore, the number 27 is a secret code, a running joke, a mystical talisman and a callback joke that's been going for decades. In "The Biggest Ball of Twine in Minnesota," the vacationing family sings "99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall" 27 times a day. In the video for "Foil," they're shooting take 27 of the fake moon-landing scene. The license plate on the cover of "Straight Outta Lynwood," reads 027NLY, and in that record's "Confessions Part III," Al claims, "I haven't changed my underwear in 27 days."

It goes on like this. Google it. The 27 thing, I mean, not Al's underwear. So to commemorate Weird Al's performance Thursday at Old National Centre — which sold out weeks in advance, sorry — here's an extremely condensed list of reasons why, at 55 and a brain-exploding five decades into his career, "Weird Al" Yankovic remains the once and future king of music parody.

Reasons why Weird Al rules:

1. In the fifth decade of his career — HIS FIFTH DECADE, PEOPLE — Weird Al hit No. 1 on the Billboard charts with "Mandatory Fun," his 11th album. The list of artists who have their first No. 1 albums in the fifth decade of their career is pretty short. Or, put another way, imagine if the No. 1 album right was by The Knack. Or Peaches and Herb. This is what we're talking about.

2. "Mandatory Fun" was the first comedy album to hit No. 1 since Allan Sherman's "My Son, the Nut," which came out in 1963. When Al was 4.

3. When he found out the news — on Tom Green's show, for some reason — he teared up a little. Seriously.

4. To promote the album — and to reclaim his throne in an age where basically any sophomore with a GoPro and iMovie can make a parody video — Al released videos for eight of the 11 songs on "Mandatory Fun."

"I wanted a video to go viral for an entire day and have people talking about that video, and then the next day they're talking about a new video," he told NPR.

5. It was less a guerrilla stunt than wise marketing. To do so he partnered with such Internet all-stars as Chris Hardwick's Nerdist, College Humor and Funny or Die.

6. Also, it worked. The first video, "Tacky," featured Jack Black, Kristen Schaal, Margaret Cho and Aisha Tyler and basically got so big the Internet had no choice but to check in on the other seven.

7. In March, Al appeared on Comedy Central's "Night of Too Many Stars," a biennial event that benefits autism research. He performed "Yoda" with Jodi DiPiazza, an 11-year-old on the spectrum (who stole the 2012 edition with her version of "Firework") and the Actionplay Chorus, an autistic children's choir. Short version: If you never thought you could tear up listening to "Yoda," this video will prove you wrong.

8. The "Mandatory World Tour" will hit 75 markets in the U.S. and Canada, before heading to Australia and New Zealand. Springsteen's played shorter tours, we're just saying.

9. Al has more than 3.3 million Twitter followers.

10. He's free of his contract obligations now, his label deal is up (the title "Mandatory Fun" is a winking reference), and while he hasn't officially said he's done with albums, the climate seems a lot friendlier to singles and one-off videos.

11. In 2006, stubbly sensitive dude James Blunt gave Al the OK to record "You're Pitiful," a parody of his "You're Beautiful," but at the last minute Blunt's label, Atlantic, nixed the idea because they were worried that Blunt was being pegged as a one-hit wonder. Crazy.

12. So what did Al do? Released the single for free online. And in the video for "White & Nerdy," Al is seen editing a Wikipedia entry for Atlantic Records that reads, "YOU SUCK."

13. Speaking of Wikipedia, you should probably just visit it for the dozens of inside jokes crammed into the "White & Nerdy" video.

14. … including an early appearance by Key and Peele as gangsters.

15. Real website Funny or Die produced a fake trailer for the fake biopic "Weird," starring — this is not made up — Aaron Paul of "Breaking Bad" as Al, Olivia Wilde as Madonna, Gary Cole and Mary Steenburgen as Al's parents and Al himself as an agent who wonders, "Why would people pay for a parody when they can get the real thing for the same price?"

16. Al doesn't have to get permission for his parodies, but he does, because he's a good dude.

17. He asked Kurt Cobain for his blessing to record "Smells Like Nirvana" by having Victoria Jackson sneak him a phone during Nirvana's "SNL" appearance.

18. Cobain later said he felt the band "made it" after Al recorded "Nirvana."

19. So did Chamillionaire, who leaked Al's parody of "Ridin'," "White and Nerdy," on his own MySpace page, back when that was a thing. "It's really an honor when he does that," Chamillionaire said. "Weird Al is not gonna do a parody of your song if you're not doing it big."

20. "White & Nerdy" sat atop the list of iTunes' top 10 videos for six months.

21. In a 2013 GQ article, the Lonely Island is pictured drinking Kool-Aid provided by Al. Andy Samberg has been quoted as saying there'd basically be no Lonely Island without Weird Al.

22. Paul McCartney refused Al's permission to record a "Live and Let Die" parody called "Chicken Pot Pie," because McCartney's a vegetarian. Al now is vegetarian himself.

23. He was valedictorian of his high school class.

24. "Yo, ding-dong man. Ding-dong, yo."

25. Has included two hidden backwards messages in his songs. In "Nature Trail To Hell," a voice intones, "Satan eats cheese whiz." And in "I Remember Larry," he says, "Wow, you must have an awful lot of free time on your hands."

26. Has directed videos for Jon Spencer, Hanson, the Black Crowes and Ben Folds.

27. We can't back this up with math, but we figure "Weird Al" has outlasted 97 percent of all his parody targets.

Ask Toni Basil, MC Hammer, the Crash Test Dummies, Huey Lewis, Gerardo, Men Without Hats and, um, Michael Jackson.