Weird Al is back with a bang: The 5 must watch 'mandatory fun' videos

Weird Al Yankovic is back in style. His album Mandatory Fun which had a legendary YouTube reception is now the number 1 album on the US Billboard chart. And he’s had a week-long rollout of music videos to tickle everyone’s funny bone. Don’t remember Weird Al? Just Google Eat It and Amish Paradise, and then can come back here. Al’s album is the first comedy album to reach No 1 since 1963’s My Son, the Nut by Allan Sherman. “It’s still hard for me to wrap my head around that,” Yankovic said in an interview to Reuters. “It means a lot to me.” “I realised that the Internet was pretty much where my bread was buttered,” said the three-time Grammy winner, whose three-decade career has been due largely in part to the success of his humorous music videos and extremely clever lyrics that spoofed popular music. “I wanted to do something that would appeal to the online community and things on the Internet go viral quick,” he added. [caption id=“attachment_1634305” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Screenshot form foil.[/caption] Yankovic released eight new songs each day beginning on July 14 with Tacky, a celebrity-filled video of Pharrell’s international hit _Happ_y, which itself has spawned countless fan videos. Watch the video here. Yankovic was able to field cameos by actors Jack Black, Eric Stonestreet and Margaret Cho among others and partnered with websites such as Nerdist.com and Will Ferrell’s Funnyordie.com as a way to help with the launch of his videos. “I wish I had YouTube when I was starting out,” he said. “All it does really for me is, it means I need to step up my game, make sure that I can rise above the crowd and I won’t always go for the most obvious idea. I’ll have to make myself a little bit more unique.” Check out Weird Al’s Tweet below:So which are the must watch videos? Sure Tacky’s been getting a lot of attention since it’s mocking the oh-so-popular Happy, but honestly speaking we weren’t too impressed. There were others that were just way better. Here’s our list of top five videos that Weird AL has released and why we loved them so much. Word Crimes Word Crime was basically a parody of Robin Thicke’s popular and much-hated Blurred Lines. Weird Al just takes that very addictive Blurred Lines tune and produces an epic video that all grammar Nazis will surely love. We love the bits where he explains it’s vs its, and the difference between figurative and literal. More importantly, it follows the style of the original song rather accurately. This is definitely the top video from Weird Al. Watch the video below:

Foil This one is a parody of Lorde’s hit song Royals. In this videom which was released on the CollegeHumor website first, you have Weird Al singing about aluminium foil. The song quickly spirals out of control, and before you know it, it’s the plot of a Dan Brown thriller. Yup…Illuminati and conspiracy theories. Just brilliant stuff.

Handy Now Handy is a spoof of rapper Iggy Azalea’s hit song Fancy, made famous thanks to Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon’s epic lip sync. Handy is about well a contractor who’ll come and fix your home. From repairing busted windows to installing formica countertops to fixing your dishwasher, Weird Al’s Handyman promises to do everything. What really goes in this song’s favour is that sounds very close to Azalea’s actual Fancy. It’s bordering on the bizarre, but we think it’s rather fun.

Lame Claim to Fame Lame Claim to Fame takes a pot-shot all those who believe in name-dropping as well as boasting about Internet achievements, like “I posted ‘First!’ in the comments of a YouTube video.”. The song is inspired Camel Walk by Southern Culture on the Skids. Yancovic’s brags are hilarious, ranging from “I swear Jack Nicholson looked right at me during a Lakers game,” to getting an email from the “prince of Nigeria.” Perhaps you can even play it next time, a colleague does some name-dropping.

Mission Statement In this video, Weird Al follows the style of Crosby, Stills & Nash to mock corporate jargon. From phrases like “proven methodology” to “corporate synergy” to “operationalise our strategies” to “client-centric solutions”. The video has an animated whiteboard video which shows a live-action hand that is drawing illustrations to go with the words. Yankovic told WSJ by email, “I wanted to do a song about all the ridiculous double-speak and meaningless buzzwords that I’ve been hearing in office environments my entire life.” And he does a fantastic job. This song is sure to play in people’s head next time they are sitting in the middle of corporate presentation.

With inputs from Reuters