[17] Yankovic began kindergarten a year earlier than most children and skipped second grade, later saying, "My classmates seemed to think I was some kind of rocket scientist, so I was labeled a nerd early on.

[15] In 1978, he released his first recording (as Alfred Yankovic), "Take Me Down", on the LP Slo Grown, as a benefit for the Economic Opportunity Commission of San Luis Obispo County.

In mid-1979, shortly before his senior year, "My Sharona" by the Knack was on the charts, and Yankovic took his accordion into the restroom across the hall from the radio station to take advantage of the echo chamber acoustics and recorded a parody titled "My Bologna".

While the film has since become a cult title, its initial release was against mediocre reviews, and it was up against several other summer blockbusters, including Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Ghostbusters II, Batman, and Licence to Kill.

That same year, Yankovic told the Los Angeles Times that he was not writing many new parodies because it had become harder to tell which new songs would be big hits, due to what the newspaper described as popular music trending more towards "micro-niche[s]" than a "monoculture".

[92][93] Yankovic's continued success (including the top 10 single "White & Nerdy" and album Straight Outta Lynwood in 2006) has enabled him to escape the one-hit wonder stigma often associated with novelty music.

In Yankovic's early career, before recording his first album, he had performed such polka medleys in live shows in California, though then using songs from lesser-known bands like Bad Brains and the Plasmatics.

Other videos that draw directly from those of the original song include "Eat It", "Fat", "Money for Nothing/Beverly Hillbillies*", "Bedrock Anthem", "Headline News", "It's All About the Pentiums", "Amish Paradise", "Like a Surgeon", and "White & Nerdy".

[114] Yankovic himself was amazed with the response he got from the album and video releases, stating that "I've been doing the same thing for 30 years and all of a sudden I'm having the best week of my life"[114] and that he "kind of stumbled on my formula for the future".

[111] Under the "fair use" provision of U.S. copyright law, affirmed by the United States Supreme Court in the 1994 case Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music, Inc., artists such as Yankovic do not need permission to record a parody.

"[26] The communications are typically handled by his manager Jay Levey, but at times Yankovic has asked the artist directly, such as flying to Denver, Colorado, to attend an Iggy Azalea concert and speak to her personally about parodying her song "Fancy".

This created difficulties in recording his first medley "Polkas on 45" since it involved thirteen different royalty schemes, but since then he has established a relationship with most large music publishers to easily secure the license to use their songs.

[118] Though Jackson allowed "Eat It" and "Fat", he requested that Yankovic not record a parody of "Black or White", titled "Snack All Night", because he felt the message was too important.

[115] Though McCartney suggested possibly changing the parody to "Tofu Pot Pie", Yankovic, who is also a vegetarian, found this would not fit the lyrics he had written, which featured the sound of a chicken throughout the chorus.

[17] Television producer Michael Schur considered that Yankovic's music represented a "deep egalitarian spirit of our culture" that allowed his comedy writers to reflect on society within his shows.

[165] However, it was unsuccessful in theaters due to both poor critical reception and competition from other summer blockbusters at the time such as Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Lethal Weapon 2, Batman and Licence to Kill.

[178] In 2014, he performed at the 66th Primetime Emmy Awards, singing a comedic medley of songs based on the themes of several Emmy-nominated shows, including Mad Men and Game of Thrones.

Cyborg points out that Darkseid sounds like Yankovic, and the villain replies that he was "a true monster" for "undercutting musicians by subverting their words and compromising their artistic integrity".

[187] Yankovic guest voiced as Papa Kotassium in a 2016 episode of Cartoon Network's animated series, Mighty Magiswords, which was created by Weird Al fan, musician and accordionist Kyle Carrozza.

On November 10, 2009, Weird Al was a guest "internet scientist" on Rocketboom's "Know Your Meme" video series, in the installment on the topic of Auto-Tune, hosted by Jamie Wilkinson.

The first music video was released in October 2016, titled "Bad Hombres, Nasty Women," shortly after the third debate between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, with Yankovic singing between autotuned snippets from the candidates.

[199] He has also directed several videos for other artists, including Hanson (the Titanic sequences in "River"), The Black Crowes ("Only a Fool"), Ben Folds ("Rockin' the Suburbs"), Jeff Foxworthy ("Redneck Stomp" and "Party All Night"), Jon Spencer Blues Explosion ("Wail"), and The presidents of the United States of America ("Mixed Up S.O.B").

Whereas the comic book had the characters reflect on the absence of the Rolling Stones, showrunner Eliza Clark opted to update the references for the show, and used Yankovic as a more modern artist that had been considered a great loss.

The music video was directed by American actress Ayo Edebiri, marking Yankovic's first collaboration with either [221] Songs posted to file-sharing networks are often misattributed to him because of their humorous subject matter.

A young listener who had heard several of these offensive tracks by way of a file-sharing service confronted Yankovic online, threatening a boycott because of his supposedly explicit lyrics.

Their mission was to "solicit, collect, and raise the necessary money, and to compile the information needed for the application to nominate "Weird Al" Yankovic for a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame".

[228] The campaign raised the new target each time and applications continued to be submitted yearly, until The Hollywood Chamber of Commerce announced in June 2017 that Yankovic would receive a star on the Walk of Fame as one of the 2018 inductees.

[236][237] In addition to these efforts, an ongoing campaign is underway in which supporters of Yankovic's nomination are requested to send "sincere, thoughtful" letters to the Rock Hall Foundation's headquarters in New York.

[238] According to the museum's chairperson John Sykes, while Yankovic has come up in various discussions on nominees, "he's never made it close to the ballot" due to the artists that vote towards the inductees.

[241] Subsequent to the success of Mandatory Fun, another fan-driven campaign pushed for Yankovic to headline the then-upcoming Super Bowl XLIX at the highlight of the artist's career, which was noticed by many media outlets, including CNN and Wired, though the decision for this selection would reside within the management of the NFL (who instead chose Katy Perry for that position).