Even Worse is the fifth studio album by the American parody musician "Weird Al" Yankovic, released on April 12, 1988.

Half of the album is made up of parodies, featuring jabs at Michael Jackson, George Harrison, Tiffany, Los Lobos, and Billy Idol.

The other half is original material, featuring several "style parodies" or musical imitations that emulate existing artists.

These style parodies include imitations of specific artists such as Oingo Boingo, Beastie Boys, and James Taylor.

The album also produced one of Yankovic's hit singles, "Fat", a parody of Michael Jackson's "Bad", which peaked at No.

Although featuring parodies of hit songs like "Living in America" and "Addicted to Love", the album was a critical and commercial failure.

[2] Near the end of 1987, Yankovic returned to the studio to record the original songs that would eventually appear on Even Worse.

According to the liner notes of The Permanent Record, "It's about as close as [Yankovic has] ever come to writing a real love song.

"[1] On February 18, 1988, Yankovic began recording four of the album's five parodies: "I Think I'm a Clone Now", "Alimony", "(This Song's) Just Six Words Long", and "Fat".

After Yankovic first heard the lead single, "Bad", he immediately envisioned a parody entitled "Fat".

[12] When presented with the new potential parody, Jackson not only approved it, but let Yankovic use his own Moonwalker subway set for the music video.

"[13] The music video for the song features a leather-clad Yankovic "expanding to 800 pounds and bouncing around a subway set.

[13] Although only managing to peak at number 99 on the Billboard Hot 100, the song's music video got extensive play on MTV,[13] which helped the album attain platinum status.

[14] On February 19, 1988, Yankovic began recording the album's final parody: "Lasagna", a take on the traditional folk song "La Bamba".

[15] According to the Dallas Morning News, both Prince and George Michael turned down parody ideas that Yankovic asked permission to record for Even Worse.

[21] Reviewer Eugene Chadbourne said, "Trust Weird Al Yankovic to name an album Even Worse even as his recordings were getting better again.

Chadbourne wrote that "the arrogance of 'I'm Bad' [sic] was perfectly trumped by Yankovic's musical pile of lard, the appeal of the video's visuals clearly not the only ace in the hole.

[23] On July 18, 1988—less than three months after its release—the album was certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).