“Weird Al” YankovicIf you go
› What: “Weird Al” Yankovic’s Mandatory World Tour.› When: 8 p.m. Saturday, July 9.› Where: Tivoli Theatre, 709 Broad St.› Admission: Only $39.50 seats remain; $59.50 and $79.50 are sold out.› Phone: 423-757-5580.› Website: www.tivoli chattanooga.com.
No one is off-limits for “Weird Al” Yankovic’s never-ending barrage of parodies. Not Pharrell; not Eminem; not even Michael Jackson. Any popular artist is up for parody, unless they explicitly object to it.
“My personal opinion of a song has very little to do with whether or not I’ll decide to parody it. That decision is based solely on the popularity of the song and whether or not I can manage to come up with a funny enough idea for it,” Yankovic told Spin magazine’s Dan Weiss in a 2014 interview.
“Having said that, I do tend to pick songs that I actually like, because I realize I may end up playing them onstage for years – possibly the rest of my life.”
All it took for “Weird Al” to begin experimenting with comedic music was an accordion and a cassette player. He mailed these demos to disc jockey Dr. Demento, who played them on his nationally syndicated radio show.