Over the last quarter century, "Weird Al" Yankovic has emerged as a comic chronicler of pop culture, satirizing various
musical genres and trends and demonstrating mind-bending versatility. The singer-songwriter first exhibited this gift in 1979,
where as a college disc jockey he recorded "My Bologna," a spoof of The Knack's "My Sharona." A devoteé of musical satirists
Spike Jones, Tom Lehrer, Allan Sherman and Stan Freberg, Yankovic's budding career took off when the song became a sensation
on radio's nationally syndicated "Dr. Demento Show."
And thus the die was cast. Just a few years later, Al landed his first recording contract and has since created an extraordinary
legacy of music and ground-breaking videos, including parodies such as "Eat It," "Like A Surgeon," "Fat," "Smells Like Nirvana,"
"Bedrock Anthem," "Amish Paradise," "The Saga Begins" and many others. In addition to directing his own music videos, Al has
overseen clips for Ben Folds, The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Hanson and The Black Crowes. He also created the critically
acclaimed opening title sequence to the Leslie Nielsen film "Spy Hard."
As his career grew, Al made the triumphant transformation from pop music satirist to multimedia star, having done his own
television specials for MTV ("AL-TV"), Showtime and the Disney Channel, among others. In addition to his own network series
("The Weird Al Show" on CBS in 1997-98), Al also has been featured on many VH1 shows and specials including a profile on "Behind
the Music" that was one of the most popular installments in the history of the series. In 2002 Al's debut feature film, the
1989 cult classic "UHF" (which he co-wrote and starred in) became an instant Top Ten best-seller upon its release on DVD.
In 2003, Al and his band guest-starred as themselves on "The Simpsons."
In further testament to his enduring appeal, Al has amassed 25 Gold and Platinum album certifications in the U.S., Canada
and Australia, as well as four Gold-certified home videos and a four-CD boxed set retrospective. He has won three Grammys
(and nine nominations) and received an MTV Video Music Award nomination for "Smells Like Nirvana," which was named among the
"Top 100 Music Videos Of All Time" by Rolling Stone. Al's highest-charting, best-selling album to date, Bad Hair
Day (1996), stayed on the Billboard Top 200 for 56 weeks and sold nearly 2 million copies. His latest concert
tour brought him to 143 cities in the U.S. and Australia in support of the Grammy Award-winning album Poodle Hat.
In total, Al has sold more than 12 million albums, making him the biggest-selling comedy artist in history.
