In Atlanta, parody king ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic remains proudly ‘White and Nerdy’
“Weird Al” Yankovic has been such a one-of-a-kind force in pop music over the past 45 years that he really has no peer.
He did not invent parody songs. They’ve been around for decades and radio morning shows used to do them regularly. More recently, entertainers have lived off satirical music on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.
But Weird Al was able to lampoon music videos in their infancy and capture the imaginations of cynical Gen Xers. He eventually transcended novelty, building legendary pop icon status in his own right one silly song at a time.
The Los Angeles native has continued to build his fan base over multiple generations. Weird Al, whose first single came out in 1979 (“My Bologna,” a parody of the Knack song “My Sharona”), played his biggest headlining concert ever in metro Atlanta Sunday night at Ameris Bank Amphitheatre, drawing more than 10,000 people.
That is larger than previous stops he’s made at the Tabernacle, Atlanta Symphony Hall, Synovus Bank Amphitheater at Chastain Park and the Fox Theatre.
And producers of Atlanta’s annual Shaky Knees Festival thought Weird Al was cool enough to book him at Piedmont Park last September for a seven-song teaser set before a Gen Z/millennial crowd that had come to see the likes of the Deftones, My Chemical Romance and blink-182.
Watching Weird Al live reminds you that he is not just a studio creature. He is a bona fide entertainer. The man can emote and is the best (and possibly only) accordion player to ever grace the Ameris stage.
He opened the concert behind the stage performing “Tacky,” his takeoff on Pharrell Williams’ irritatingly chipper 2013 earworm “Happy.” He sang to security guards, smashed a pie in opener Puddles Pity Party’s face and swept by agog admirers in the pricey seats on his way to the stage without missing a beat. His signature curly locks aren’t quite as thick as they were in the ‘80s but he remains lanky and limber at age 66, an Energizer Bunny whose entire goal was to make the audience smile, giggle and guffaw.
Weird Al’s two-hour concert was notable for his incredible efforts to replicate his most memorable music videos for songs including “Amish Paradise,” (a riff on Coolio’s 1995 hit “Gangsta’s Paradise”) “White & Nerdy” (a parody of the 2005 Chamillionaire tune “Ridin”) and “Smells Like Nirvana” (a joke on the 1991 grunge classic “Smells Like Teen Spirit”). To make this work, he made multiple Cher-like costume changes.
During those gaps in time, he played a cavalcade of video clips, sometimes inserting himself into ancient junket interviews by the likes of Sting and Madonna. He also showcased how ubiquitous he has become by showing moments he is referenced or appears on screen in movies and shows like “Naked Gun,” “The Simpsons,” “The Goldbergs” and “Stranger Things.”
Sure, donning his 1988 fat suit from “Fat” to mock the Michael Jackson video “Bad” is hardly PC in 2026, but Weird Al made no apologies. And the lyrical content to many of his parodies are comically specific to the time period he wrote them, such as 1999’s “It’s All About the Pentiums” (to Puff Daddy’s “It’s All About the Benjamins”) or 2003’s “eBay” (to the tune of the Backstreet Boys’ “I Want It That Way”)
So it shouldn’t surprise anyone Weird Al rode around on stage on a vintage Segway (which were discontuned in 2020) for his 2006 classic “White & Nerdy.”
He has not released a studio album in 12 years, leaving parody of more recent songs to others. But he did play an amusing medley of polka-infused versions of big hits by the likes of Bruno Mars (“Uptown Funk”), Ed Sheeran (“Shape of You”), Adele (“Hello”), Miley Cyrus (“Flowers”), Olivia Rodrigo (“Vampire”) and, of course, Taylor Swift (“Shake It Off’).
While known for pure satire, he highlighted a sampling of his original fare. Midway through, he jumped back into the audience and serenaded individual fans to his pseudodramatic “kiss off” tune “One More Minute.” He and his talented band offered up a rousing rendition of his self-referential end-of-credits song for his Roku’s 2022 mockumentary biopic “Weird: The Al Yankovic Story” starring Daniel Radcliffe.
The audience also chuckled along to his ever-relatable song “Stop Forwarding That Crap to Me” with a helpful lyrical music video to follow along.
And if “White & Nerdy” creds weren’t already deeply embedded in his endearingly dorky soul, his encore was a joyful Star Wars fest featuring multiple Stormtroopers, Darth Vader, Chewbacca and R2D2. (Where was C3PO? Not explained.)
This also gave Yankovic an excuse to perform both of his Star Wars-themed parodies: “The Saga Begins” (think “American Pie”) and ‘Yoda” to the tune of the Kinks’ “Lola.” His hardcore fans, of course, knew every word to both songs.
And just for kicks, he and his band took a break from “Yoda” to do a frantic five-minute a cappella jam blending sound effects and bits of famous songs like “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” and “Hooked on a Feeling.”
Atlanta’s own Michael Geier opened the show as his alter ego Puddles Pity Party, a “sad clown” who earnestly sang a variety of covers by the likes of Tom Waits and Ozzy Osbourne in a powerful baritone.
A finalist on “America’s Got Talent” nearly a decade ago, Puddles brought a more absurdist style of humor to the stage, at one point bringing a volunteer to eat multiple pieces of cake while he sang a mashup of Queen and David Bowie’s “Under Pressure” and Idina Menzel’s “Let It Go.” (On screen, he was seen eating a pie over the line “Stressed is desserts spelled backward.”)
He also gave multiple shout-outs to Kevin Costner, showing scenes from films like “Field of Dreams” and “Dances With Wolves.” During a bravura rendition of “Stairway to Heaven” using the lyrics of “Gilligan’s Island,” Puddles played bits of Costner’s bloated “Waterworld” film instead of the sitcom itself, which would have been way too obvious.
About the Author
Rodney Ho writes about entertainment for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution including TV, radio, film, comedy and all things in between. A native New Yorker, he has covered education at The Virginian-Pilot, small business for The Wall Street Journal and a host of beats at the AJC over 20-plus years. He loves tennis, pop culture & seeing live events.
