Prince Had No Patience for ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic
Most celebrity musicians are tickled to get the “Weird Al” Yankovic experience, watching their most popular songs become goofy parodies such as “Eat It” or “Like A Surgeon.” But as “Weird Al” (hey, Al, can we drop the “quotation marks” at this point?) told Jimmy Fallon last night, not every artist is down to be clowned.
“Was there ever a white whale of parody songs?” Fallon wondered. An artist whom Yankovic wanted to spoof who never gave him the chance?
“Prince is like the one guy that was never into it,” the comedian revealed.
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The weird thing, as it were, was that Prince was a fan of other “Weird Al” songs. “In fact, I heard a bootleg recording of him in the studio talking to some friends,” Yankovic said, ing Prince laughing at “Fat,” his parody of Michael Jackson’s “Bad.” “He makes fun of Michael Jackson. It's really funny.”
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“I’ve seen that,” added Fallon about a video that has 87 million views on YouTube.
For Prince, ridiculing Michael Jackson was totally fair game. “But when it came to, like, parodying one of his songs,” Yankovic said, “not so much.” In fact, the comedian claims to have pitched half a dozen ideas to Prince, with none of them getting the purple seal of approval.
The one that killed Yankovic because he “thought it was going to be really funny” was a parody of Prince’s “1999.”
Yankovic’s version of “1999” would have a similar sounding name, though the track would have shown up as “$19.99” — as in a price often pitched in late-night infomercials by huckster Ron Popeil. “You can get all this for $19.99! But wait — there’s more!”
Yankovic confirmed that, despite the potentially hilarious concept, Prince never responded to his pitches.
If you think it wasn’t personal, here’s another clue about Prince’s attitude toward “Weird Al.” Check out his video for “PartyMan” from the 1989 Batman soundtrack. At the 5:14 mark, Prince’s Joker character gives a “Weird Al” lookalike an exploding cigar that blows up in his face. Take a hint, Yankovic.
Even if Prince didn’t give his blessing, why not just make a parody anyway, wondered Fallon, an impressionist known to spoof a popular song or two as far back as his days on Saturday Night Live. There’s no law against it, after all.
Yankovic won’t do it. Despite the urging of others, he told Drew Barrymore in 2022, he won’t even ask Prince’s estate for permission to do a posthumous parody. “I try to respect the wishes of the artists,” he said. “And he made his wishes very, very clear while he was with us.”
